The other day I was contemplating, reflecting as we often do during this uncertain time of COVID-19… with no end in sight. I was contemplating as to why people have certain likes and dislikes, and why other people have others. I know, I know, it’s a strange topic to dwell upon. But bear with me for one second. See I love Chinese food, and most things Asian. Noodles, rice, laksa, curries, stir fry, satay, teriyaki, tom yum soup, wontons, dumplings… you name it, anything remotely Asian I will try, and I will most definitely like. I’m pretty much easy to please on that front. Food-wise I’ll give most things a go- and perhaps it’s because my mum’s Malaysian; that an innate part of me will always be drawn back to Asian food. On the other hand, though my dad is German, his cuisine has hardly grabbed a hold of me- not in the same way that Chinese food has. Sure, there’s Adendbrot, and Kassler, and Red Cabbage (maybe that’s a family tradition on Dad’s side rather than a German tradition!); but aside from that there isn’t much more that resonates with me. Though there are a lot of German dishes– some that probably Dad hasn’t heard of! Dad really loves liquorice, and Jon and myself do not. Dad loves Dominostein, and we don’t. Pfeffernüsse is ok-ish, but again- Dad loves it! And this got me thinking. That if our likes and dislikes in terms of food can be so contrastingly and vastly different, with only a few things in common… then does that translate into other areas and aspects of our own lives? And more specifically in terms of music (of course I’d go back to music… as I am in the midst of a blog series on artists and their burgeoning influence!), how do we all find one artist resonating and deeply impactful, and someone else find the same artist downright horrible and uninspiring?
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Momentous Mondays: Influential artists of the next 5-10 years – Week 39: Shawn Mendes
Have you ever listened to a song, an artist, maybe an entire discography, and have been totally amazed, flabbergasted, lost for words, full of pride and admiration, for the artist- even from the get-go? Have you ever listened to a song and been grateful that you are alive in this very moment while this particular artist is alive, to breathe the same air as them? On second thought…wow, that sounded creepy and hero-worship like, don’t you think? No, but seriously, have you heard a song by an artist, and have concluded from the outset that ‘this person gets it, he/she knows what the point of music is, and that that’s what music is all about!’? Have you ever heard a song and immediately concluded that this artist is ahead of their time and is bound to be an instant fan favourite and a future star? Perhaps it was an artist who was very young and they were writing music as accomplished and as resonating as veterans of 30 or 40 years. Or perhaps they were talked about as being a has-been, a fading star that has recently recaptured their spark and has also ‘made it’ with the younger crowd. Whatever the case, I am sure there has been one artist that has clicked with you, that has made you want to dive deeper into music as a whole and has challenged you with questions about life, love, death and everything else in between. For me there have been several- influential artists whom both Jon and I have written about, that have stood and are going to stand the test of time, and have indeed written about and sung about meaty issues and often taboo topics. Artists that have looked at a blank canvas and have declared “Yes, I will sing about this, this, and this, even if it doesn’t win me any awards”. Artists that have used a proverbial blank piece of paper and a proverbial paint brush and just painted for themselves, and not for others. Artists who aren’t afraid to shake the status quo, artists who in my mind are fearless. So for these artists, you can read about them in our blog series, and yes, I intend to briefly touch upon another artist right here and now- but let me first speak about the concept of walking fearlessly and what that mindset does for you.
Momentous Mondays: Influential artists of the next 5-10 years – Week 38: Chris Stapleton
Have you ever had a dream where you thought it was simply that? Just a fanciful dream? An idea, probably not fully formed, a lofty vision that you thought was so very far off in the distance, a target you could never reach… but would be nice to dwell upon said idea anyway, maybe just to pass the time? Have you ever had thoughts about the future, and immediately dismissed them, simply because they were too big, or too grandiose, or too complicated; and you were too ‘fill in the blank’? Too young, old, fat, thin, short, tall, arrogant, calculative, shy, reserved… whatever you want to place in there… have you ever had a dream ‘die’ even before it was birthed; simply because you never got passed the first hurdle of starting, and you listened to the lies of the devil? If the answer to all of those is ‘yes’, then boy do I have good news for you! And this news is that you aren’t too ‘____’ to achieve your dreams. Because if you were, then all of us are too _____ in any particular aspect of our character. Just as we can’t please everybody one hundred percent of the time (because we know beyond the shadow of a doubt that someone will be ticked off and unimpressed by… I don’t know, our eye colour or hair colour or some other feature!), let us remember that all we need to do is our best, and better our previous efforts. As long as we’re running in our own race, and we don’t look to the left or look to the right (and hence we’ll fall down because our eyes won’t be straight ahead!); then I reckon we’ll be ok in life. As long as we ask for help from family, friends and acquaintances, and don’t even attempt to try to struggle to do life on our own; then I think we’ll be alright. And as long as we give everything our best shot, and leave nothing left in reserve, then I reckon we’ll be alright. As long as we know that God has our life in the palm of His hands, and as long as we know of and believe His love and faithfulness, then I’d say we’ll be alright.
Momentous Mondays: Influential artists of the next 5-10 years – Week 37: Lewis Capaldi
2020 and 2021 so far… has been a bit of a downer. COVID-19, the bushfires, the floods, the storming of Capitol Hill, Louie Giglio’s ‘white blessing’ gaffe, the accusations of rape by Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins… there’s plenty of things ‘wrong’ that this past year has been and will be remembered for. Yet for all of its shortcomings, this past period has nonetheless graced us with many opportunities. The opportunity to be still, to step back, to slow down, to dwell upon the past and our future, and to reconnect on a soul level with family, friends, acquaintances. The opportunity to reassess our priorities in life and the opportunity to immerse ourselves in media (movies, music, TV shows) that we would never have even considered prior to 2020, that God can and does speak through even if He may not on the surface. Throughout 2020 and into 2021, I myself have been blessed and inspired by music and movies that I would not have even considered watching or listening to even a couple of years ago- and I’m sure many of you all feel the same way as well. That’s not to negate the severity of everything that has occurred on a national and a global scale throughout this time, but as we all can attest and agree upon; God does indeed use a bad situation and turn around the effects and result for His glory and our good.
Momentous Mondays: Influential artists of the next 5-10 years – Week 36: Dua Lipa
Steve Jobs. Oprah Winfrey. Chris Gardner. Matthew West. Saroo Brierley. Michael Edwards. Michelle Payne. Mark Hall. Bill Gates. Steven Spielberg. Walt Disney. What do all of these people have in common? On the surface, you’d say nothing much. But then if you look a bit deeper, you’d find a common thread that binds these people together for all time. Can you figure out what it is?
Continue reading Momentous Mondays: Influential artists of the next 5-10 years – Week 36: Dua Lipa
Momentous Mondays: Influential artists of the next 5-10 years – Week 35: Julia Michaels
Momentous Mondays: Influential artists of the next 5-10 years – Week 34: Sabrina Carpenter
2021… …
A year most of us are extremely glad to see. For 2020 has put us through the ringer so, so many times… it’s not even funny. There’s the obvious- the COVID-19 pandemic that has forever shaped the way we all live and breathe at the moment, as well as the riots in the middle of the year in response to George Floyd’s death and the Black Lives Matter movement. Of course, you also have the historic U.S. election way back in November, won by Joe Biden, and not conceded at all by incumbent Donald Trump (until recently), that has had massive ramifications for the world- most notably the storming of Capitol Hill just this year. And to top it all off, who could forget the bushfires of Jan/Feb 2020 in Australia? Or how about Louie Giglio’s ‘white blessing’ gaffe? I think those are all the ‘big’ and ‘massive’ events of 2020- but that’s not saying that I wish there to be more and more events from 2020 that we all were affected by. These above aforementioned, were more than enough, don’t you reckon? Anyway, as a nation and as a people of the world- we all were overall glad to see the back of 2020, and we were hoping that the problems of 2020 didn’t follow us into 2021. Oh how wrong are we!
Momentous Mondays: Influential artists of the next 5-10 years – Week 33: NF
I have a confession to make. When I started this blog series, when I deemed it necessary, needed, essential and non-negotiable, for me to write about up and coming artists, and speaking in depth about their brimming influence and budding potential as songwriters, entertainers, performers, singers, instrumentalists and just general people who undoubtedly will have a mark in their industry today, tomorrow and into the future; I had a list of 10 or 20 (which has now blown out to 50!), and most of the preliminary artists I wrote about were first. Artists like Maren Morris, Lauren Daigle, Tori Kelly, Alessia Cara, Rachel Platten and Jess Glynne were all artists I wrote down on my list straight away back in April 2019 (in fact I reckon that these were the only artists that were both in my original list and my latest list!)- and these were artists I’d written about within my first 10 blogs. As my list kept refining and I kept adding and deleting new-ish artists, there was one such artist that I kept on prolonging talking about- even when I knew they were essential on my list, and an artist that we’d all be talking about for a long time yet.
Continue reading Momentous Mondays: Influential artists of the next 5-10 years – Week 33: NF
Momentous Mondays: Influential artists of the next 5-10 years – Week 32: Maddie & Tae
It’s been about 6 months since the start of COVID-19. So let’s just let that sink in for a little bit. No. No, that’s not right. Let me backtrack. COVID-19 has been around a whole lot longer than since March 2020. It’s just that that was when the effects of the virus and the impact it had on a global scale was much more significant, magnified, and prevalent. The past while till now has been a journey, albeit an unrelenting and a hard-hitting one, but nevertheless a journey. And in that journey- throughout the whole entire time that I have been at home, at work, talking to people at work, friends over Zoom, just generally to my family, and as I’ve been watching the news and checking out my social media; the one thing that is common that I have heard is the people want to get back to ‘normal’. As if it is something to aspire to be, to travel towards. Like ‘oh, hey we’ve caught the last of COVID-19, there’s none of it anymore’, then everyone rejoices and then life goes on like it did in 2019. I think that’s how some of us romanticise the end of COVID-19 (which may or may not eventuate that way!); yet I firmly believe that by hoping that the virus goes away (which theoretically can only happen when there is a working vaccine available to the general worldwide population at an affordable price!) we are in fact wishing away our life. in a blunt, crude term, that’s what we’re doing.
Momentous Mondays: Influential artists of the next 5-10 years – Week 31: Cassadee Pope
I have a confession to make. This blog, while the music and songs have been enjoyable and impacting and inspirational, has been one of the hardest I’ve ever had to write. Not because I don’t have anything to say. Not in the slightest. Because country singer Cassadee Pope has had an interesting road to stardom. The lead singer of her rock band Hey Monday, as well as competing on the Voice and winning in 2012, then becoming a solo artist (country/pop- way, way, different to what she was doing before!)- there is so much to write about and convey to you all. However, whether consciously or subconsciously, I’ve tried to come up with a ‘perfect’ introduction for this blog. I’m not sure why- the other blogs I’ve written about before, I’ve just typed, and out comes a story or an anecdote. Usually the brief short pearl or pearls of wisdom ties into the artist’s life or their belief or maybe a line in one of my favourite songs of said artists. Writing an introduction for many previous artists I’ve written about, wasn’t tedious, strenuous and tiresome. Yet for this blog about Cassadee Pope– maybe I has reached saturation point in terms of blogs. Perhaps I was just tired in terms of how I was feeling on the day. But this blog introduction, was something that I had been trying to figure out in my head for some time- I just couldn’t work out how to start this blog. You know how they say that first impressions is key. Well I feared that my first impression on Cassadee Pope wouldn’t be adequate and wouldn’t justify her inclusion on my list of ‘up-and-coming influential artists of the next 5-10 years’!