You Belong on the Radio - German Music Charts (5)
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Mama, it's OK if you have Wild Thoughts when There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back and the Thunder is Unforgettable
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Comics Are for Everyone - Less Escapism, More Veganism
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Killer Shark likes kale shakes for his Rumi. Obviously.
Read MoreMusic Box: Gang of Four's "Entertainment!"
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After Marie Antoinette I couldn’t help but wonder, why I haven’t written anything about Gang of Four’s Entertainment! before. This is one of my most influential albums that is so bold in deconstructing our society and goes beyond the “everything sucks” ideology of many punk albums. This is post-punk, of course, and while there are other political albums in music’s history, at least for me nothing achieves what this album achieves. It’s angry without being loud, it’s intelligent and challenges the listener because it doesn’t provide easy answers. It’s simply brilliant, lyrically and musically. If I ever need inspiration for change, for doing something, I put this one on and get going.
Read MoreYou Belong on the Radio - 2012 Edition [2012 Week]
/![You Belong on the Radio - 2012 Edition [2012 Week]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54206d12e4b0e2c159748fd6/1413991730657-O3R8RVBS5J4WHNO4OEH8/image-asset.png)
Just like last theme week, I decided to look at the popular songs of this year to see what they’re telling us. I’m assuming the songs from two years ago don’t sound so different than the songs nowadays, but I’m still interested to see what we find in those songs. For this I’m using the lists of number one songs and top 10 songs from Germany, the US and UK, which again overlap a lot.
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American Psycho (2000)
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(spoilers ahead)
American Psycho is one of those impossible book adaptations that you wouldn’t anyone who knows the book expect to even consider. That book is insane! Mostly in a good way and in a very disturbing way for the rest of the time. But Bret Easton Ellis knows how to write. The movie is relatively harmless in comparison and while it might not be completely successful, it is a worthy attempt that captures some of the spirit of the book. The direction by Mary Harron (a woman!) is excellent and the use of excerpts from the book works well. And Christian Bale of course, he completely sells the movie by his extraordinary performance. But the movie drags for a while in the middle because it doesn’t know what to do after the main jokes are made but the mayhem is not about to start yet, which bored me. Still, the movie, like the book (which I admire but never want to read again) made some great points about society and capitalism we can look at here.
Read MoreYou Belong on the Radio - German Music Charts
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Inspired by someone‘s suggestion (you know who you are, constant reader) and following something I did many years ago, I decided to start a new series about music. Here’s the plan: I look at the music charts to see what the most popular songs are actually telling us. Most people can sing along the lyrics without ever thinking about them. If you do that, sometimes you discover interesting, disturbing or surprising issues. Today I look at the top 10 of the German single charts but only pick the songs where I find something worth writing about. Whatever I write about the songs does not necessarily say anything about whether I like them, so no one should feel offended. I don’t know what will happen, but that’s part of the appeal!
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