This took me ages and ages to find. By the looks of things, this is the only single being released this week. I do not believe this, and there probably is more, but I've just spent a whole hour trying to find a song that was released this week and which has a music video. Shame Charlotte Church hasn't released a video for "Glitterbombed", would've reviewed that otherwise.
Gold1 is an artist I have never heard of. His real name is Dwaine and he used to release by that name. Now under a new name, he has released his first single. It features Bruno Mars, real name Peter Hernández, he's career is big, and it's only going to turn into a complete giant soon, if not already. He is what will make this song get the sales it gets. Jaeson Ma is a Chinese actor and musician, he has featured on a few singles, this is just another to add to the collection. I hope that we see more of Gold1 and Jaeson Ma, it will be interesting what the future brings.
The song is catchy, and it's one of those songs that makes me indecisive and unsure of whether I should buy it or not. The vocals of Bruno Mars is amazing, and definitely stands out. The song isn't on the iTunes top 1000 yet, and I doubt it will ever reach it due to no promotion and that hardly anyone knows of the song. I hope that in reviewing it, it may help.
The music video is surprisingly good. I was expecting some hip-hop/rap average music video, but it completely shocked me, and it's different to what I expected, and I wanted to watch it again and again because it's soft and gentle, which sides perfectly with the song.
There are various people holding up signs about what love is. I think this is very clever, as people's perceptions of love is not the same as others. It reminds me of The All-American Rejects' "Dirty Little Secret", because they too are holding up signs.
I like the short narrative that is involved, and I like how they magnify that with scenes of Gold1 performing on a road. It's subtle but it works and it just makes this video all the more better. What grabs my attention the most is the words as the whisp in the air. However they annoy me too as they don't link up with the words the singers are singing, although they are the lyrics of the song.
Overall, an okay song that will get stuck in my head soon. It's accompanying music video is great to watch, and it will be one I'll be watching again and again. I am prepared to overlook the whispy lyrics that don't match with the lyrics being sung at that moment in time. And so I have no choice but to give the video this rating. Look out for Gold1 and Jaeson Ma, they'll be well-known soon, just like Bruno Mars already is.
The Justice Collective is a group of celebrities and artists who have collaborated to create a charity single for the Hillsborough disaster, this has a similar link with Band Aid. The Justice Collective vocalists consists of Andy Brown, Gerry Marsden, Paul Heaton, Glenn Tilbrook, John Power, Robbie Williams, Melanie C, Rebecca Ferguson, Holly Johnson, Beverley Knight, Paloma Faith, Eliza Doolittle, Dave McCabe, Peter Hooton, Ren Harvieu, Jon McClure, Paul McCartney, Shane MacGowan, Bobby Elliott, Tony Hicks, Hollie Cook, Ian Prowse, Alan Hansen, Kenny Dalglish, John Bishop, Steve Rotheram, Peter Reid, Neil Fitzmaurice and LIPA Gospel Choir. Quite a collection of artists and celebrities. This will be the only single from The Justice Collective.
The song is a cover version of The Hollies' "He Ain't Heavy... He's My Brother", two of which sung part of the song in The Justice Collective's version. It was written by Bob Russell and Bobby Scott. This song definitely does remind me of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?". And guess what? The videos are quite similar too.
This music video isn't even a performance piece. It is a studio piece, with an extra scene at the end. And yes I do like seeing the artists and celebrities singing the song, but it is missing something to draw me in, the only shocking thing I see in this is the other celebrities that could sing, such as John Bishop, who knew...?
The ending scene is small but definitely significant. The whole idea is amazing, but it still fails to do anything but perk the video up a bit. There were 96 people who died thanks to the Hillsborough Disaster, and that is why the children have the numbers nine and six on the back of their football shirts.
What is missing from this video is images or footage from the Hillsborough Disaster. We've all seen the few images available, but why were they not in the music video? If you had just flipped this over onto the music channels you would have no idea what it is for or who it is for, and this is what has made my decision on the video rating.
Overall the song is great and of course it would get to number one, that was obvious. And if I were reviewing the song it would get full stars. However the video is what is important to me on this blog, and it is just a studio performance piece. No link with the song or the reason they're singing the song (except at the end), leaving me on having to give this rating.
Wham! was a band consisting of four members back in 1981. They were George Michael, Andrew Ridgeley, Pepsi Damacque and Shirlie Holliman. They gained a lot of success, but disbanded in 1986, however their reputation and their hit singles still live on.
"Last Christmas" was written by George Michael. It managed to chart at number two in the UK Singles Chart, being beaten by Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" However since 1984 it has charted during various other years. It charted in 1985, 1986, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 at positions of 6, 45, 14, 26, 34, 57 and 26. The song has been covered by a number of artists who have also been included in my blog, these are: Cascada's "Last Christmas" and Joe McElderry's "Last Christmas". I don't doubt that their will be more in the future.
This music video is another top music video, and reminds me a lot of Justin Bieber's "Mistletoe". It has a similar Christmas-esque to them both, which makes them similar.
This is narrative based, with a few performance bits. The story is that George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley meet up at a ski resort with their girlfriends. It becomes evident that Andrew's girlfriend used to be with George and this song is aimed at her.
I like the flashback, it's extremely inventive and shows what happened last Christmas. The backing singers Pepsi Damacque and Shirlie Holliman appear in this video alongside Martin Kemp (who was Shirlie's boyfriend and her future husband).
Overall this is one of my favourite songs. The video isn't my favourite, but I think that is due it being an old music video (older than me). On the other hand I have nothing to complain about and nothing against this video, and so I have no choice but give this top rating, because this video does deserve it.
Well... I was going to do The Waitresses "Christmas Wrapping" however there is no sign of the music video.After a few minutes research, I found outthere was a video released as people remember watching it back then, but there's no sign of it on the internet. Could this be a video that is now lost forever? Guess time will tell. So trying to have old and new Christmas songs, I went with this one.
Getting a hit Christmas song is not easy, and a big name like Justin Bieber, you would think he'll have a shot, but guess what, it didn't work either, and although this is more of a hit than what others have released, it's still not quite capable to become a hit Christmas song.
"Mistletoe" was written by Nasri Atweh, Adam Messinger and Justin Bieber. It sounds similar to Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours", and is definitely a catchy song, but it's missing something, and whatever that something is, is what made this song unable to become a Christmas hit.
The music video is extremely narrative based, with a perfect performance side to things. This is one of the best Christmas music videos I have ever seen, and what do I expect from this guy? Most of his videos are top-notch, and I doubt I'll be giving him less than 3 stars for any of his videos.
The song is about being with someone and kissing under the mistletoe. I like the storyline, and how the girl he is with feels threatened by this other girl who keeps coming up to him. But she needn't worry, as he is just being polite and he knew the girl.
The girl in the video reminds me a lot of Justin Bieber's girlfriend Selena Gomez, could it possibly be a message to her, saying all he wants is her and no one else?
The performance side of things is amazing, the inclusion of snow is a definite must in this video, and he performs the song well.
I especially like the ending with the mistletoe hanging above. A bit on the cheesy side, but definitely expected, if it were missed out, I would've been disappointed.
The song is great, and should've charted higher, but something is holding this song back, but I don't know what that is. It's accompanying music video is exactly what I want from a video like this, and I can't find anything wrong with this. As much as I want to find something negative to say, I just can't. Do I like Justin Bieber? Not really, but I can appreciate how big his fan base is, and his chart success with his songs. But I get blown away at how great his music videos are, so here is another top rating, for a top music video.
Slade was a 70s/80s band, and they had a few number ones and a few chart hits. They consisted of Noddy Holder, Dave Hill, Jim Lea and Don Powell. They are extremely well known, and forever will be, are they going to get back together? Highly unlikely, especially since they have already made a fortune. However never say never right? Their number ones were "Coz I Luv You", "Take Me Bak 'Ome", "Mama Weer All Crazee Now", "Cum On Feel The Noize", "Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me" and "Merry Xmas Everybody". I have heard a few but not many other songs. They stopped releasing before I was even born, and I rarely knew of them.
"Merry Xmas Everybody" was written by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea. The song is about having fun and having British Family Christmas. The lyrics are very good to look at and some of them, I can't help but laugh as it's true in a lot of families, and I can imagine that happening. It was written when a lot of workers were on strike and this song was created to pick them all up and cheer them up, and that's exactly what it does, even now. No wonder it got to number one. It has re-entered the UK chart in 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1998, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 at chart numbers 70, 32, 67, 20, 47, 48, 71, 99, 93, 30, 21, 20, 32, 41, 50 and 33 respectively. It is again, expected to chart in 2012.
The music video is a performance piece, that is rarely shown on TV Channels. Instead they usually take a Top Of The Pops performance or something else. This is just a recorded performance piece, but it also shows how much things have changed.
Back then a performance piece was in front of a small crowd of fans. If you compare that to a few most recent performance based videos such as Swedish House Mafia's "Don't You Worry Child" or Rita Ora's "Shine Ya Light", it shows how much things have changed, and if there were no performance-based videos back then, the youth of today (including me) would not realise how much things have changed.
There are performance videos that get 5 stars from me, and although this isn't one of them, they have a few good things. This video shows that the band produces a lot of energy when they perform. They're all smiling and having fun. There's shots of the crowd which shows how much people liked Slade back then. And of course there's snow on the ground, since it is a Christmas song.
Overall, a great song, that doesn't fit the title because I can never identify the song until someone sings it. It's accompanying music video is just as forgettable, however it has all the attributes I expect from a performance-based video. So I'm split between ratings for this video, but deciding to go through the middle, as it is kind of average, which is incredibly unlike the song, which is amazing.
