Tag Archives: the prayer

MOMENTOUS MONDAYS: ICONIC & IDENTITY-BUILDING ARTISTS OF ALL TIME – WEEK 1: CELINE DION

Sometimes I lay awake at night and wonder to myself, how did I get myself into this predicament. Embarking on a 3+ year project (or shall I more accurately say ‘musical social experiment’) at the time of its inception felt like something so lofty and unattainable, meant that me starting such a feat at the time, seemed a little too ‘expected’ of me to do, because, ‘sure you can start it, but you’re never going to actually finish this blog series, so it’s never really going to be material, or even matter, whether or not you become heavily invested into listening to different types of music or not’. I started off this blog series (which has since turned into 3 blog series, but I digress) with a simple task in mind- for 1 whole year (see where it has taken me now!), I were to discuss impactful and influential artists that have contributed to music, society, culture, and to me personally, and discuss what I think makes them great. I hesitantly started off with the post about Michael W. Smith, then Switchfoot and Avril Lavigne, and then the rest was history, and now in 2022, what I initially thought the blog was going to be, actually turned out to be so much more- what I thought was just a mere 55 posts, has turned into a blog series that has forever changed my outlook to music, and reminded me that God Himself can use whatever and whomever (in terms of music) to bring people closer to Himself (myself included), even if it means through the way of pop, country, rock or even rap music.

Continue reading MOMENTOUS MONDAYS: ICONIC & IDENTITY-BUILDING ARTISTS OF ALL TIME – WEEK 1: CELINE DION

MOMENTOUS MONDAYS: INFLUENTIAL ARTISTS OF ALL TIME – WEEK 6: JOSH GROBAN

To say that I am 100% prepared to write about this artist would be a lie. Because I’m not. Frankly, with everything that has been happening this week, from work to what has been suddenly portrayed on the news, the research for this artist has been minimal, to say the least. Nevertheless, what I have heard (and what I will continue to hear) has blown my own expectation of the genre of classical opera/pop that this artist is famous for, right out of the water. When I was younger, I used to have an aversion to anything of that musical variety. Not really sure why, but if I’m going to be completely honest, I’d say that I was too much in my CCM bubble not to notice the great quality music that exists (and continues to do so) outside the confines of whatever is to be sung on Sunday mornings at church service…I’m sure you get the picture, right? Music is a gift from the Lord, and it is up to us as stewards of this gift to bring hope and encouragement into the light, and to bring to listeners a sense of camaraderie and unity in times of difficulty, to ask questions that may not have been asked if it had not been for the music. There are many genres of music, and many people stand tall within their own genres. As I’ve discussed in these blog posts in previous weeks, artists like Michael W. Smith places a firm stamp on the CCM/Christian pop ‘genre’, while bands like Switchfoot and Lifehouse influence heavily on the rock music scene. Avril Lavigne’s music imprints a mark on pop/punk while Delta Goodrem is very prominent in Australian music. And so which artist stands out amongst the opera/pop genre? Well, Josh Groban, of course!

Continue reading MOMENTOUS MONDAYS: INFLUENTIAL ARTISTS OF ALL TIME – WEEK 6: JOSH GROBAN