the best songs ever

[Eric the Green]

In this 4T era, some great songs have come along. Of course, if there were one or a few such songs each year since 2011, in the classic rock days there might have been a dozen or two. And you can take this into many more genres than today's pop, especially classical and new age music, as well as folk, the American songbook era, world music traditions, pop and folk outside the USA, and so on (but not rap, heavy metal, grunge; not much greatness there).

So I'll begin by going backwards with my pick for the best song of 2015; one per year back to 2011. Will there be a pick I can make for 2016? I don't know yet! There are other good songs from each year, but these are my #1 picks. Others of course are free to jump in and post junk, or goodies, or comments; it's up to you.

[Eric the Green]

The best song of 2015 is definitely What Do You Mean? by Justin Bieber. His first billboard #1 song; superceded apparently by "Sorry" from the same album, but still I like it better. I think the Sorry video is so popular because of the dancing and twerking girls. But What Do You Mean has the best vocal, the best melody, best instrumental arrangement that is like electronic dance techno combined with tropical calypso; intoxicating!

[Eric the Green]

This monster hit was released in late 2013 and dominated the pop charts in early 2014. It was originally from a movie. Pharrell Williams makes me "Happy" with this great tune, and its harmonies and rhythm. Vocal like Curtis Mayfield. Pharrell certainly left his 3T music in the dust, and then some! This is classic stuff, and inspiring!




Happy, happy, happy, happy!

[Ragnarök_62]

(06-03-2016, 07:50 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: In this 4T era, some great songs have come along. Of course, if there were one or a few such songs each year since 2011, in the classic rock days there might have been a dozen or two. And you can take this into many more genres than today's pop, especially classical and new age music, as well as folk, the American songbook era, world music traditions, pop and folk outside the USA, and so on (but not rap, heavy metal, grunge; not much greatness there).

So I'll begin by going backwards with my pick for the best song of 2015; one per year back to 2011. Will there be a pick I can make for 2016? I don't know yet! Others of course are free to jump in and post junk, or goodies, or comments; it's up to you.

Hmmm... Obvious bait thread.  OK, OK, I'm a lunker.

[Ragnarök_62]

Oh, and here's the lunker.

[Eric the Green]

The Best Song Ever!!!
(well, certainly the best song ever by One Direction, and the best song of 2013).

The fun (I think) parody of the music biz sets the stage for the music, which starts at about 2:00. Some people knocked this song because the opening was patterned after The Who's Baba O'Riley. I think it's a great tribute, and they made a song equally good based on it. The last 2 minutes are truly spectacular. I mean, if you like good sounds and great melodies and counterpoint, dancing, etc.! The atmosphere of this song is like early Beatles, and One Direction led the so-called new British invasion in the 2010s. The video's premiere on July 22, 2013 got the most views of any previous video in its first 24 hours. That record was soon superceded by Miley Cyrus, but it was a cool, exact correlation with the great grand trine of July 20, 2013; a truly communal experience among 1D fans. I got to know it a few weeks later. I'm always late to the party! The last few seconds are truly wistful and romantic. Such a great song!





Best cover ever by Megan Nicole:
https://youtu.be/Uhj0ymhgK9E

[Eric the Green]

It was a special moment when this song came out on the Summer Solstice of 2012. I at least got to hear it about a week after it was released, thanks to a reference to it by MillennialX here on this forum; and I first heard the song about a month before this official video, which I couldn't wait to come out. And I eagerly followed it on the surveys, something I hadn't done with a song since the sixties! Certainly this song became special for me; I even arranged and performed it myself a few times. Truly it signified a rebirth of pop after the schlock of the 3T! These 4T top pops are upbeat, as the authors predicted. None more than this one.

I don't know how much of this song reflects earlier pop tunes; the writers definitely did some borrowing. But I don't know of one just like it before. If that's true, then certainly this song has influenced pop culture far more than its level of popularity would suggest. Other pop songs, and loads of commercial jingles imitate it, and its chorus.
It's always a good time!

[Eric the Green]

I always feel the need to laud and promote this song; I can't resist the impression that it's the best song, well, not ever, but truly the best since 1973. And still the best since Nov.2010 when it premiered at the American Music Awards, and then was released on Bieber's Christmas album in Dec. 2011. I didn't discover it until April 2012, when I started my "Do You Like Justin Bieber" thread (aka "the shrine"). I was truly shocked and amazed that a song like this could be made in these times. What a revelation! So much spring in his step and his sound, such passionate and technically-perfect vocals from a 16-year old! None of the many covers of this song ever matched the original. And what a fun personality. And amazing musical counterpoint; probably 4 melody lines at once at the passionate ending. I don't know another pop song of this era that has accomplished this feat. Almost like Mozart! Best arrangement of any pop song since the old days when they actually hired studio musicians, and when the fans enjoyed songs because they were "great sounds." This is one great sound. And also the best and most profound, relevant lyrics on top of that! And with a gospel overtone. No-one with a heart can dislike this song. No-one! Thank the Lord for Justin Bieber, who has made more and better songs in the 4T than any other artist by far.




More to come, in many genres. Later, guys!

It will certainly take time to get back to Bach. But maybe I'll skip over some to get there sooner!

[Eric the Green]

It's the best song! But people either get it (and thus are "inspired" and "unbored"), or they don't. I guess that makes them different!

Listen..... for those who have ears to hear, let them hear. (or don't; it's up to you) 

I like saying superlatives about the music that I experience as superlative.

I liked the unicorn song, btw...

[Eric the Green]

(06-03-2016, 08:16 PM)taramarie Wrote: much better! ac/dc!!!!

Much worse; ugh!

[Ragnarök_62]

(06-03-2016, 08:40 PM)taramarie Wrote: People can like the message but just not be interested in that sound which i find boring and uninspiring compared to other singers or bands like America or Disturbed or Berlin. Listen to people and believe them when they say they are different.

Yes to Disturbed, that's for sure.

[Eric the Green]

(06-04-2016, 11:06 PM)taramarie Wrote: Believe it or not Eric you are not an authority to what is good and what isn't. Only individuals can say what is and is not good for them PERSONALLY. To say you know what the best songs are is pure arrogance. Which is why for my thread I phrased it so people knew for me my list was my own personal one "music that gives ME goosebumps." Before you say I am name calling by calling you arrogant, realize that is the truth. To think your taste in music rates it as the best of a certain year. It is arrogant. Everyone else will have a different list. So your list is invalid and purely opinion based.....

I do not care if they listen to it. If they think it is great i am not worried. Yes, we are different. You just come across as someone who cannot believe that people have different tastes. Live and let live, Eric. You really should just call this thread Your favourite songs over the years as that is what it is. The unicorn song is beautiful. I think so anyway.

This thread is about my picks for the best songs ever; taking off from the title of one of them. Well, about anyone else's picks too, since others can chime in and name THEIR picks for the best songs ever. It's a presumptuous game, but an obvious cue from the title of the 1D song. Of course it is my opinion, and I stick by it. I didn't expect you to agree with my picks Tara, any more than you expected me to agree with your picks in the thread in which you said in the title that I wouldn't agree. This thread is based around MY picks, so I won't dwell on knocking others' picks here, whether I agree or not. Live and let live. Rather than name-calling and preaching about me, and knocking my picks, I invite you to get into the music, enjoy it, let it sink in to you, and you might discover a beauty that you didn't hear before. It's just something else to learn. I have a lifetime of knowledge and experience to share, in which I have learned a lot, discovered so much beauty, shared it with others as a DJ, and sometimes even played and arranged it, and changed my opinions at times too. So that's what I am doing, and you can reap the benefit if you choose to. It's just for fun.

So, in the period from 1985 and before 2010, the year of the landmark, epic, passionate, expertly-arranged, spiritual pop song "Pray" by Justin Bieber, co-arranged by another musician who has since also become famous (Atweh, the writer of "Rude"), I let others make picks about their best pop and rock songs for those years. There are some pretty good ones, but my picks for the "best songs ever" for this period are all in the new age, ambient, electronic realm. Here is one I've mentioned before: my all-time #2 pick in this genre, from the 3T period (1988). 

Elaborate sound and poignant feeling highlight this piece. It also reminds me of the epic pop song from 1968 by Dion about Abraham, Martin and John. In the video I made around this "song," I included pictures of the "dreamers" Martin and Bobby, assassinated that year. So it's poignant because of that association, in the similarity of the sound and the feeling between these two musical pieces, but it also represents for me feeling of personal bliss as well as sorrow. The second half of the piece is when it really takes off and can grab you if you are fortunate enough to be carried away by the music; a 3-minute journey into incredible heart-felt dreams at the center of the soul of our times.

[Eric the Green]

From the same artist, "Jordy" Wallace, but in the 4T (2013), but as yet unrecognized and unheralded, this short piece captures the essence of remembrance and heroism, a 4T theme. Wallace is from Pennnsylvania near Gettysburg, so he went there and took some pictures of the "hallowed ground" on the 150th anniversary of the epic battle in which dedicated soldiers gave the "last full measure of devotion" so that a nation "conceived in liberty" might live. May we survive this 4T too, in which our nation faces a choice between past and future.

[Eric the Green]

(06-05-2016, 12:34 AM)taramarie Wrote: Good least now we have clarified it is only just your taste. I never said i do not agree with your taste. I think of everyone's differences of taste rather than my own personal taste. I never knocked your picks btw. I really do not care about what you choose. I knocked the assumption that they are "the best" of a certain year. Reason being for again, differences in taste for everyone. But if they are just your picks for your taste, have at it.

The only important thing for me is that people get the music. I know it's a rare thing here, for people to get the music that I post, but it's fun to try anyway.

Experience, I think, is a better word than "taste." There's so much communicated in music that it goes far beyond the surface.

[Eric the Green]

And the music ITSELF communicates something, from the composer and performer. What it might mean for each person (such as the memories it evokes, etc.) is something added on to that.

[Eric the Green]

This one from 2001 is an immersion in pure evocative feeling. Indescribable beauty.





My #3 all-time pick in the new age ambient genre.

[Eric the Green]

(06-05-2016, 02:25 AM)taramarie Wrote: Eric, this should interest you.

Music Preferences by Personality Type

When I can see that you get some of the music I post, then I might be interested in some theories that you post, but on some other thread. Meanwhile, I will continue to post the "best songs ever," and others will too. You probably will continue not to get the ones I post. I see no evidence that you do. That's OK; that's life. Live and let live

From 1989, my favorite among the best pieces of David Parsons, master of ambient, electronic and world music. Taramarie might be interested to know that he's from New Zealand. From the album Himalaya





The music of David Parsons is the most spiritual that I know. It is mystical music of the highest order, because it takes you into the experience of the mystics, rather than just talking about it. He brings it to life. Rishikesh is a town in India associated with religious devotees, and it's where The Beatles went to visit the Maharishi in the sixties. Some of the spirit of the sixties revival of oriental music and spirituality is invested in this music, and its traditions that go back millennia in India are heard in this music as well.

#4 on my list of picks of the best of the ambient/electronic genre.

[Eric the Green]

(06-05-2016, 02:57 AM)taramarie Wrote:

(06-05-2016, 02:47 AM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(06-05-2016, 02:25 AM)taramarie Wrote: Eric, this should interest you.

Music Preferences by Personality Type

When I can see that you get some of the music I post, then I might be interested in some theories that you post, but on some other thread. Meanwhile, I will continue to post the "best songs ever," and others will too. You probably will continue not to get the ones I post. I see no evidence that you do. That's OK; that's life. Live and let live

From 1989, my favorite among the best pieces of David Parsons, master of ambient, electronic and world music. Taramarie might be interested to know that he's from New Zealand. From the album Himalaya





The music of David Parsons is the most spiritual that I know. It is mystical music of the highest order, because it takes you into the experience of the mystics, rather than just talking about it. He brings it to life. Rishikesh is a town in India associated with religious devotees, and it's where The Beatles went to visit the Maharishi in the sixties. Some of the spirit of the sixties revival of oriental music and spirituality is invested in this music, and its traditions that go back millennia in India are heard in this music as well.

#4 on my list of picks of the best of the ambient/electronic genre.

Eric, it is not a theory. Personalizing art is just a fact. For evidence, i will let others chime in on if they think that is correct. One does not even have to go to an art school to know that. As for your music.....remember i liked some of your music on your website. Or have you forgotten that?

MBTI is a theory; one I give some creedence to, but certainly any application of any such theory to art is just speculation. The proof is ONLY in the listening. Either you hear what is being presented to you, or you don't. No, Tara; others chime in on their picks of the best songs ever, or about those songs; anything else is severely off-topic.

[Eric the Green]

(06-05-2016, 02:57 AM)taramarie Wrote: As for your music.....remember i liked some of your music on your website. Or have you forgotten that?

IF I remember correctly, you pointed out some songs you already knew. The point, however, is to discover some that you didn't know; just as I did with your unicorn song. Have you discovered or re-discovered anything on this thread yet?

[Eric the Green]

Good. I'll be posting that "Phantom of the Opera" piece in due course, which I learned to play myself too.