Dec 27, 2011

My Artist of the Year

For the last blog post of 2011 I'm going to talk about why The Weeknd has my vote for artist of the year. If you have ever talked about music with me in 2011 this is absolutely no surprise at all, but if you haven't hear me out. Here are my 3 reasons why he has my vote:


1. He promised us 3 mixtapes this year and we got 3 mixtapes this year! He didn't just make 3 so-so projects he made 3 really solid projects. Fan or not you can't knock that hustle.

2. He's changing the sound of music. There is no deny his music sounds nothing like anything you are used to hearing it's a nice twist to how we usually think about R&B, I think I'm going to call his style sex, drugs, and R&B. If you don't know what I'm talking about give House of Balloons a spin and I guarantee you will completely understand what I am talking about. He's not just leaving his mark in R&B land, he is also influencing rap with some classic eerie Weeknd sounds. For those of you that don't know, The Weeknd had some major influence on the sound of Drake's latest album, Take Care. We all know after Drake does it the rest of the rap game will be close behind, so I'm sure we will hear plenty of similar sounds in 2012.

3. Finally, the music is just flat out great! I know everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I can't get enough of all 3 parts of the trilogy, House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence. Check out my favorite tracks from each mixtape

Wicked Games, House of Balloons


The Birds part 2, Thursday


Same Old Song, Echoes of Silence


For kicks I'm adding D.D., which is a cover of Michael Jackson's Dirty Diana, because I really appreciate how it was mixed. I think it is just another glimpse into how creative he really is, D.D. sounds some much like his other work and yet it still has the original feel from MJ's version.


So cheers to The Weeknd and here's to 2012! xoxo <3

4 comments:

  1. what do u think about the-dream as a key influence for the weeknd?? especially with the whole R&B as rap argument. I was thinking about how the majority of R&B is meant to serenade, but both the-dream and weeknd flip that into almost anger towards women, and swagger to coveR up their vulnerability from having their hearts broken. I'm saying he's a biter at all, but id put them in the same category as trailblazers for the genre and better than everyone else lol


    -Calvin


    Ps echoes of silence is reeally nice!!!

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  2. oh I definitely think The Dream had a HUGE influence on The Weeknd! The way that they approach not only writing but also singing shows how much influence the dream has on the way The Weeknd makes music. I'm sure we will start to see more people making similar music.

    Echoes of Silence is great now that it has grown on me some more I like it more than Thursday! What do you think about the Dirty Diana cover? I loveeee it! He did such a good job with it

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  3. dirty diana, i think he did a really good job with it ! that's sneakily one of the greatest MJ songs of all time, and it was also like "where did that come from?". nice surprise, plus i mean this dude's voice is crazy i think i can admit that very comfortably without care of judgment lol! like how else would he be able to get away with talking about almost forcing girls to have sex with him and his crew, kicking them out, etc. and still be appealing to primarily that demographic?!?!

    yeah i would definitely say it's 1. H.O.B. 2. Echoes 3. Thursday - this one is great, but H.O.B. definitely one of the best things that came out last year as a whole. i hope he continues on this path next year, and while i want him to be really successful, my feeling is that in order to do that he's going to need to avoid signing with a major label. they are the WORST and will probably just end up stifling him creatively, though he'd probably get a huge deal. for now, i''m sure you read that he's re-releasing the trilogy this year, at better bitrate and with some bonus tracks?

    lastly, i meant to say this the first time, i enjoyed your post !

    -Calvin

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  4. Thanks! I did hear he is re-releasing the trilogy this year which I hope will give him some time to figure out what his next move will be. I hope he doesn't sign with a major label either and the commercial success of Mac Miller's album hopefully will be a good example for him to follow. Regardless of which direction he takes I'm really excited to see what comes next.

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