We haven’t done a list on hip-hop for years. In 2015: Adam Vida, Anderson .Paak & Goldlink were our hope to revive hip-hop. As much as our love for them have grown more than many, our focus has still been with dance & soul music.
We did collect fifty songs with emcees that got talent. More for their cadence and flow than lyrical depth, but with one usually comes the other (not always). These emcees more than ever before come from different backgrounds with all types of styles and sounds. We’ve even got some from the UK.
I bet the next one in two years will have even more countries.
Hottest Nu-Disco in the Funkin World, our first disco list from back in 2012, had Disco Stu as its mascot. I remember someone complained about how Stu was a shining example of our culture’s lack of respect for disco. As subtle and culturally ingrained as it may be.
Back in 1979, a protest dubbed Disco Demolition Night went on at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Most of us see it on the surface level as people disliking disco and its overt sexual acceptance. But a less apparent hate against homosexual and interracial relationships had stained its legacy even further.
Today is a point in time that’s going to stir up a lot more shit against minorities and the LGBT community, and destroy a lot of good things. But when disco died back in the early 80’s, something greater rose up. I wonder what will come after house music.
For the last seven years we’ve been just about the music, and its spread online, but slowly our focus has shifted towards the live scene, as well. In 2015 we started to cover more festivals & shows, but it took until 2016 for that culture to greatly affect what music we’ll remember most.
I first set up Silence Nogood to share my favorite music, but I’ve learned there’s much more surrounding it that needs exposure. Hopefully in the next seven years we do.
As much as our most relaxing playlists get more attention online, I’m sure our dance ones do better off. Plus they’re much more fun to make (it’s involves a lot of dancing). And if you’re not dancing too, it’s not worth listening to (as much).
Make sure to check out our best of 2015: Loose Control and 2014: Dance Party as well.
Beats Music, previously MOG, now Apple Music, played a huge role in getting us switched from posting singles to primarily playlists. Trent Reznor, head of creative at the time, created a video in 2014 introducing Beats Music and its promise to find the best song to come next.
I’m still not sure if Beats ever fulfilled that promise, or if Apple does now, but I’ve been trying to do it for myself ever since. And hopefully sometimes for you too.
If you’re into jazzy, hip hop beats more uplifting than our Late Night Beats & Late Night Jazz, this is for you. All the way through.
So the title. I was listening to some standup on SoundCloud talking about how sexism sounds too close to “sex is mmm,” and how confusing that can be. May not sound that funny, I know, but like a singer that can make cheesy lyrics sound good, so can a comic. Unfortunately I can’t find the bit again. If you have any idea of what I’m talking about, let me know.
And that’s how I come up with these important, but clearly not that thought out titles. Musicians learn from my failues, the package [artist – title, album art] is everything when it comes to introducing your song.
A few days ago I had the bright idea of making this list to hold us over until Frank Ocean dropped his album. That day it did.
The reason I love Frank so much, and why I’m overshadowing all these other artists for him, is because there’s a difference between him and them, for me. All of these singers have at least one good song, but it’s the song, not their singing, that I love. With Frank it’s different. I just love hearing his voice. On anything. Few other singers do that for me.
Not to discredit any of these artists. All of them have that potential, especially Breezy Lovejoy. Now known as Anderson .Paak. It took me two years to come out with another list of favorite male singers. Still got a lot of catching up to do compared to my favorite females.
The first playlists on Silence for the first few years were all best of year. In 2014, it turned into focusing on best of genres. Over the past year, I’ve tried to be more creative about it.
This list is really just remixes of famous songs in a groovy house kind of way. But not titling it so specifically allowed me to broaden the song selection, which made room for more fun things to dance to.
Odesza’s Above the Middle was my first love of theirs and even though it starts off rocky, as I originally pointed out, once the vocals kick in it’s the sound that inspired this list. Especially hearing it live at Outside Lands in 2015. Ever since hearing it first back in 2013, I’ve found a set of songs just as inspiring.
The whole thing reminds me of a dream I had at least 10 years ago. It’s probably the most vivid dream I’ve ever had. It started off with me falling from the sky, but I wasn’t frightened of falling. More fascinated by how enormous the sky and ocean were around me. I remember there was a castle in the distance. It was like I was falling to get there. It’s the most beautiful dream I can remember.
Up until a few days ago, I knew starRo for his relaxing tunes, California & Seduction. I did like House Party when it came out, but the SoundCloud ad in front ruined it for me – and I annoyed the shit out of starRo about it.
Going through his entire SoundCloud catalogue and explore.fm, I see where he’s taking his sound and I love it, every which way. I don’t see many (hardly any) producers do as well with one sound as starRo has done with a few of his […]