100 Artists... Continued!

Well, hopefully any who read last week’s post enjoyed it; I know I enjoyed writing it. Anybody just starting now may be a little lost as to what I’m doing, and they may want to go back and read the previous post first. Also, I decided that taking 20 weeks to write this silly thing wasn’t really what I wanted to do. So I think I will change it to 10 artists per post to get it over with sooner.

Before I continue the countdown, there is one thing. I have heard some complaints that no one had ever even heard of those artists from last week, so they felt a little indifferent about my analysis. And maybe that’s why there were no comments (or maybe people just don’t want to waste their time with my trivial blog, which is understandable). Well, this week should have some more familiar names, and also, I will try to describe any obscure artists a little better so you may see if they would be of interest to you. That was one of the reasons I started this--to introduce people to new music. And of course, the main reason was to appease myself (reference to last post), so whatever...

*Now all of these next 5 artists are similar in that they may not be some of my current favorites, but they made this list because of where I would have had them in the past. So please, don’t be quick to judge my taste in music off these next picks… let me explain myself.

95. Kanye West & 94 Taylor Swift
In this fued, I guess I side with Taylor since she’s got Kanye by a mere one spot on my list. It’s a very difficult choice though; I’m glad to see they’ve since made up… kind of.

Let’s start with Mr. West. He seems to be hit or miss with me. He’s made/said/done some really childish things, and then he’s made/done (I purposefully left out the “said”; there’s a reason he has an album called ‘College Dropout’) some really brilliant things in his career. There was actually a time I would have gotten anything he touched (around the time of American Boy and 808’s…). Now I may check it out, but he doesn’t get me as excited.
–-Song: Jesus Walks – still one of my all time faves

As for Swifty, I usually won’t even check out her new stuff, but she still has a special place in my music memory. When she first broke out was right when I was returning from my mission in 2007. I hadn’t really got back into the music scene yet, and here was this modest, young girl who wrote her own music and actually semi-knew how to play an instrument. Of course, she quickly became one of my favorites. But the modesty (although she is still extremely humble for how big of star she is) and originality soon wore off. Her songs are catchy and she has some talent, but for her to make ‘some odd’ 50 songs now that all sound awfully similar just doesn’t seem to grab my attention anymore.
--Song: Stay Beautiful

93. The old Kenny Chesney
*This will be another long explanation, but I will try to keep the rest short, I promise.
Country music was the first music I remember listening to as a young boy, but I abandoned it for almost all of elementary and middle school. It wasn’t until I discovered Kenny Chesney that I got back into it. He was cool and good looking, and he sang really good songs. I realized country wasn’t all that bad. I thank him for that.
Now, I love country music, but one thing I hate about it is that the business doesn’t give its artists very much freedom. However, the worst thing that ever happened to Kenny was that they let him do what he wanted to do. Once he got a say in his music, there were no more songs like “The Good Stuff”, “I lost It”, “What I Need to Do”, “You Had Me From Hello”, “There Goes My Life”, and “That’s Why I’m Here”. There were new songs that showed the real Kenny: the beach, booze, laziness, and no real life commitments. Well, the old Kenny makes my list, and I try to tell myself the new one doesn’t exist.
--Song: any I just listed

92. Matt Wertz
I haven’t listened to a lot of his stuff lately, and he’s not an artist you will hear me talk about much, but I secretly like him. He was originally in the Christian music scene, but switched over to popular music. He has a nice voice and some catchy, chill tunes.
--Song: The Way I Feel or 5:19, both good

91. Coldplay
There’s not much to say about them. They are very talented and very well-known, which doesn’t happen a lot these days. I’m not a huge fan of their style, but they have some good songs. I still remember when I first heard “yellow” early in high school. I loved it; that was my favorite color back then.
--Song: Fix You (If you already know that one, then try “The Hardest Part”)

90. Ingrid Michaelson & 89 Regina Spektor
Their genre seems to be a new trend in music; kind of this Indie girl pop thing with lots of piano and songs about love and break-ups. There seem to be tons of bands and solo acts with this similar sound. Some more on the Indie side (Tegan & Sara, Imogen Heap, Kate Nash, KT Tunstall, etc), and some more on the pop side (Sara Bareilles, Missy Higgins, A Fine Frenzy, Christina Perry, etc). I could go on and on with artists, in fact, I bet you can name at least a couple aspiring musician friends that are girls and probably fit this genre. Most of them are decent, but these 2 ladies seem to be some of the originators of the style, have a good balance of both the indie and the pop feel, and have prettier voices and more creativity than the rest. Regina beats Ingrid in those last 2 qualities so she gets the nod at 89.
--Ingrid song: The Chain
--Regina song: Eet

88. She & Him
She and Him could fit right in with that Indie girl pop genre, but the “Him” helps separate them a little bit. For those of you who don’t know, this is a duo of Zooey Deschanel (the girl from Elf, Yes-man, and 500 Days of Summer) and M. Ward (a folk artist and talented guitarist). I don’t personally like Ward’s solo stuff much, but with his electric guitar (and background vocals) and Deschanel’s unique lead voice, it comes together near perfect. When their songs come on in the car, even Angela usually says, “I really like her voice.” And to think Zooey started out as an actress and model.
--Song: Lingering Still

87. Marc Broussard
I found his stuff before and wasn’t that impressed, but then I rediscovered him recently and for some reason this time, I am really digging it. He has an unordinary mix of country, soul, and jazz in his voice and music. If this were a billboard chart or Joe Lunardi bracketology, then Chesney and Swift would have an “on the way down” arrow next to their names, and Broussard would definitely have a “on the rise” arrow.
--Song: I discovered this one today actually – Come In from the Cold ... He also does a great version of Al Green's "Love and Happiness"

86. Ray Charles
I’ve always liked Stevie Wonder and some of those other old soulful brothers, but I really didn’t start appreciating Ray until the movie of the same name came out. It was one of those rare films where I actually disliked it while watching it, and then once it was over decided it was a very good movie. The man had some skills and made some timeless music.
--Song: Since we started this post with Kanye, we’ll give you an original that Kanye later remixed – I Got a Woman