Category Archives: Features

Sentimental Saturdays and Message Mondays (How Fast do we Consume Music?)

Gone are the days when you can appreciate music for what it really is- a song to be savoured, a song to be listened to again and again, with every listen a new meaning is imparted to whomever listens. With the advent of Spotify, youtube, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora and every other musical service at your fingertips, skipping songs seems to be the norm nowadays. Listening to a song to death, until another track comes along, seems to be all the rage, when in fact sometimes we are called to just sit and mull over a song more than usual. Often, we may be so hasty to move onto the next new song, that we may skip over things that God may even want to say to us. We may be in fact rushing so fast from one thing to the next (music is a clear example) that we may miss what God may have in store entirely. Which is why this new post for Sentimental Saturdays is about lament, lamenting that how we have listened to music in the past (really listening to the tracks, because without the ease of access of music, we are forced to focus on what the lyrics really mean for us as people) is sadly how listeners of music don’t listen to music now. We live in a now-centred (and me-centred) society, that any hint of anything taking longer than expected is shafted, for the new, quick and convenient.

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TOP 10 ___: Top 10 Independent Artists That Ought to be Signed to a Christian Label Next Year

julie elias

Welcome to the latest instalment of our most recent blog series Top Tens, even though this blog series hasn’t been active for a while. But to kick this comeback post off, we will share with you 10 bands we reckon you all need to be on the lookout for in the upcoming months, and artists we think ought to be signed by a major Christian label in the upcoming weeks and months ahead. Without further adieu, read on to find out which indie artist will be your next artist to be your undiscovered favourite.

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Sentimental Saturdays and Message Mondays (Fight Song)

What has been your earliest memory of your life? It may be of when you were a baby, or maybe a bit older. Maybe you were playing with your siblings, or maybe it was of a traumatic event. Whatever your earliest memory is, what is important about memories and the necessity of us all having and keeping them is in fact that at the end of our lives, our experiences will be just that- memories. We cannot contain our experiences in a box, and relive them again and again if we want to feel a happy moment. Nor can we erase the memories we long to forget. What we remember is placed there, and whether it is good or bad, hurting or healing, whatever our memories about our childhood and adulthood is at this moment, one thing is true of our memories- that what we experience, or rather, what we remember about the events we live through, will deeply shape how we are today, and shape the relationships we have, with our friends, family and even God Himself. Whether our memories of events are way different than the events themselves, memory is a powerful thing. Here in this combined Sentimental Saturdays/Message Mondays post, we’ll delve into memory, and how it is always important to affirm that whatever memory and belief we have, about our past, ought not to hold us back in our future journey and discoveries we embark upon.

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Message Mondays (Stand By You)

Can a song released in the mainstream music market have just as much passion, heart, emotion, and maybe even a spiritual significance to those hearing it, as a song released solely in the CCM industry? Can a song like “I Can Only Imagine” (MercyMe) or “Cry Out to Jesus” (Third Day) be as impactful compared to songs like “Temporary Home” (Carrie Underwood), “Superman” (Chris Daughtry), “Love” (Jana Kramer) or even the more recent 2015 hit song “Fight Song” (Rachel Platten)? This is a quandary and a conundrum in and of itself. Sure there are some songs that are explicit in language and in what they express to the listener, and there are others that are just plain silly in a fun way, and then there are others the evoke emotions of hope, encouragement and empowerment, but have you ever stopped to wonder, that God inhabits these songs as much as he does when we hear the songs we know and love on our favourite Christian radio stations?

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BEST OF 2015- PART 3: Top 30 Songs of 2015

It’s been about a month since my favourite 15 music videos of the year was posted on the site. Now at the end of October, I figure it’s time to make my choices. Below are my favourite 30 songs of 2015. Obviously there are a whole lot more songs that sadly couldn’t be represented within my top 30, considering the amount of music that is released each week throughout the year. Yet hard choices were made. Feel free to comment below about what your favourite music of the year is. Below will be the song, as well as a lyric/audio slide/music video of it, so that you can listen along as well.

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Message Mondays (Steven Curtis Chapman’s ‘Take Another Step’)

There are times when I wonder what I would be like if I took a different path. If I studied ancient history instead of modern in high school. If I was more of a sportsperson and decided to something athletic with my life. If I continued pursuing classical music, would I pursue that avenue of piano playing? How would my life look like now if I chose differently? Not that it matters now, because I know we can’t change the past, but I often stop and wonder, and think. All the dreams, aspirations, longings, and hopes that I had way back when I was a child, would they still come into fruition now, regardless of the choices I’ve made along the way, or is it more reliant on the decisions I’ve made over the years, that once that opportunity door is shut tight, what I long for and hope to be is never going to see the light of day?

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BEST OF 2015- PART 2: TOP 15 MUSIC VIDEOS

Music Videos release every day of the week and every week of the year, so it’s naturally hard to shorten a list of many into that of only 15, that reflects a year in which so much happened in the world of Christian music. Yet here I am, posting about my favourite 15 music videos of the year so far (if my December time, my favourite music videos are different, I’ll post here in the comments). Enough pre-cursor. Here’s my favourite 15 music videos that have debuted in 2015. What are yours? Sound off in the comments.

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Top Ten Most Anticipated 2015 Fall And Midseason Shows!

broadcast-network-logos

Welcome to the latest instalment of our most recent blog series Top Tens. Last time, we unveiled 20 of my favourite songs of 2016.

This time, on the eve of the debut of the 2015 TV fall broadcast season, I will list 10 of my most anticipated new shows (fall and midseason), and provide links to the Wikipedia page and show the trailers as well.

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BEST OF 2015- Part 1: Top 10 EPs

I know it’s only September, but sooner or later, the year will be over and then I would’ve needed to at least have a list at the ready, to have 1- whatever of songs, EP’s and albums that were my standouts throughout the year. So I started to think, and compose a list. And Part 1 releases today! (don’t worry, the next part isn’t due for a few weeks…). In this special post, I will unveil my favourite 10 EP’s 2015 has to offer. While the year isn’t certainly over (3 months to go), most, if not all of these 10 EPs, are so great that even if another EP were to release that I was fond of, it probably wouldn’t even be in my 10 anyway…then again, who knows. Anyway, enough preamble. Here’s my top 10 EPs that have made a great impact on myself spiritually and in terms of enjoyableness.

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New Singles of 2015

Welcome to our new post of the week. While previously we as a site reviewed albums up til this point, this new post is a mini-review of sorts- picking 5 new singles of the year so far, of songs that haven’t been released on any album til now. Check out these 5 new songs of albums releasing in the remainder of 2015/16, and my thoughts on them. Which songs will you pick up when they become available on iTunes?

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