The Weeknd - An amazing artist

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across an artist called 'The Weeknd'. I was watching many of Amy Gaertner's amazing dance videos and one in specific was choreography to a song called Next. So I looked up this song to get a cleaner version to listen to properly. I thought this artist was super talented and wondered why I'd never heard of him before. It turned out he is featured on some of Drake's tracks. Still I don't know why non of his own music has been entered into any of the charts. My musical taste is quite broad, but the music which I'd say I'm 'into' is generally Hip Hop and RnB. From the age of 11 when I first properly got into music, it was all about Hip Hop for me, specifically Eminem. Now even though I'd still state Hip Hop as being my favourite genre of music, as I grew older and also became fond of and quite good at street dancing my music taste shifted towards the likes of RnB, a genre of music which I would class as a type based on Hip Hop but with more flow that you can dance to. So through my University years, I was listening to a lot more RnB than Hip Hop. Now I'm at a stage in my life where this sort of music is still my favoured, but I am now very keen on artists with pure talent and possessing a good strong, deep soulful voice. The Weeknd fits this description perfectly. Darren Hayes of the pop/rock band Savage Garden I can safely say has a lot of talent, from his song writing to the perfect sound his voice makes, being both beautiful and soulful. The Weeknd is the perfect combination of RnB and a voice like Darren Hayes. 

The Weeknd has a number of amazing tracks with clever meaningful lyrics. The music is slow paced but with so much power, mainly from the punchy bass which gives it the RnB vibe. I could listen to the Weeknd all day and not get bored. His albums Kiss Land and the Trilogy (3 CD album) have an endless amount of listening. I don't know why it has taken me this long to find him, but I'm glad I finally have. His top 5 tracks are as follows:

1. The Morning
2. Next
3. Wicked Games
4. Montreal
5. Pretty

So listen to them to be intoduced. Then if you like it, I urge you to go out and buy or download his album and have hours of listening pleasure. Whether it be driving music or just music to chill to. I guarantee it to be both pleasurable and relaxing.

Sound Hound, an incredible app

Being a huge fan of music and having a good sense of rhythm. I'm always looking for new tunes that have a good beat that makes me wanna dance or something that has deep and meaningful lyrics or if possible both these attributes. Since my mid teens I've always had my ears open to new tunes and old tunes that I haven't heard before, or even found myself in situations where I know of a song but know not of the artist nor the name of the song. As a teen this was quite annoying as sometimes I would hope that if heard on the radio they would state the artist and song name at the end of the track - this rarely happened. Or I would recite the memorable lyrics and jot them down as a text message and save to drafts. If I had no paper or phone to hand, it was a matter of trying to keep the tune in my head and reciting lyrics over in my head - this was easily forgotten. So back in the day as you can probably gather, this was quite stressful or I could no longer have the enjoyment of hearing the track again through not knowing what it was or who it was by. If I was lucky to recite lyrics, it was straight onto google when I got home and finding the song through typing the lyrics into the search bar. Then over to YouTube to then have unlimited access to the song.

Now since the introduction of smartphones there has been for a while now an app called Sound Hound. This app is probably one of the best apps out there for music lovers. when you hear a song being played in a bar, in the hairdressers or wherever you are, you simply pull out your phone, start Sound House and press 'click to listen'. The app will then listen to the song and then search a huge database for that song and if it finds a match, relays the artist and track name for you. It even offers you the option to go straight to iTunes to purchase the track. Incredible right? Better still, if you find yourself in an area with no network signal, or you're not well off enough to have mobile internet included in your pay monthly tariff, you can even record the track and find out what it is when you get home and connect to the WiFi. So no more lyric jotting for me. I simply 'click to listen' and I am notified of the name of an epic song withing seconds.

A further advantage of Sound Hound, I believe, is something some artists should thank the app for. The other day I heard a really nice RnB/Soul tune on the radio, so I initiated Sound Hound and it found the song to be 'Mr. Probz - Waves'. Now I urge anyone who is into RnB, HipHop or Soul to get on YouTube and have a listen to that tune, it is really good, the smooth slow sound and his deep soulful voice!... But going back to that discovery, the name, Mr. Probz - he has the stage name you'd associate with some crappy one hit wonder pop artist that chavvy teenagers would most likely listen to. But in fact he is an artist with an incredible voice with songs produced with some very good music. It is just the name that lets him down. So if someone said to me, 'you should really listen to Mr. Probz, he's awesome' I probably wouldn't of, due to how I perceive his stage name. But because first I heard the song, for then Sound Hound to identify him, I actually have more respect for the artist. So Sound Hound, hats off to your mobile app!