CallumsBlog: Crazy - Gnarls Barkley

Post 8
10/4/15

Crazy - Gnarls Barkley

Crazy was the debut single by American duo Gnarls Barkley. The band was formed by singer Cee-Lo Green and producer/keyboardist Danger Mouse (real name; Brian Burton). Crazy was released in 2006 and was featured heavily on Radio 1 especially by Zane Lowe who is famed for finding the newest and most exciting bands in the world. The song was used by the radio station as the background to one of there adverts.


Crazy managed to achieve a double platinum rating in the UK as it was featured at number 1 in the charts for 9 consecutive weeks, the first song to do this for 10 years. Rihanna was the first person after Gnarls Barkley to beat this record with her own debut single "Umbrella" which was released late in 2007. The song also managed to make it to the number two slot on the US Billboard 200 as well as this Crazy won a Grammy for "Best Alternative Performance" in 2006.

Crazy also managed make history in the UK by being the first single to make it too the number one spot in the charts on download sales alone. This was a monumental time in UK music as it was the first glimpse of what was to become of the music industry, moving away from physical album sales and into downloads. Crazy showed that people were beginning to look at easier and more efficient ways of obtaining music and that method was downloads.

Gnarls Barkley were worried about the song. They believed the song would become tiresome and they did not want this to be the case. The band and it's record label attempted to pull all of the physical copies from shops in an attempt to stop the song from becoming hated due to how overplayed it had become. In any case the attempt had mild success however people continued to play the song constantly due to the constant stream of download sales of the song.

The song has managed to maintain it's impact on the music industry however with it's near constant appearance on "Greatest Songs of All-Time" lists. It is featured on Rolling Stones list as well as well as Pitchfork Media and NME's lists.


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Callum

CallumsBlog: The Hoosiers - The News From Nowhere

Post 5

7/4/15

The Hoosiers - The News From Nowhere

The News From Nowhere was the 2014 release from the band "The Hoosiers". The band made a name for itself back in 2007 with the release of the album "The Trick To Life". The album was a commercial success due to the singles "Goodbye Mr A" and also "Worried About Ray" unfortunately for the band this is still the most successful album they've had. "The Trick To Life" was popular due to it being chock full of earworm style songs that after one listen were stuck in your head for days!

The band decided to separate from Sony (Their record label) after becoming frustrated at the lack of promotion their 2nd  album "The Illusion of Safety" received, as a result the band re-released the album under a new name and included a four extra different in the new re-released version. The unfortunate thing for the band was that neither release was particularly successful.

"The News from Nowhere" was released by the band without a record label which meant the band had some issues. Recording, manufacturing, promotion etc were usually all paid for by the record label however not having one means the band would have to find a way of financing the album. The Hoosiers decided the best method of doing this was by crowdfunding the various aspects of creating an album. The band used the fan email list to obtain the help of their loyal fans with financing the album. They used offers of being in videos, touring the studios, signed merchandise etc in order to entice the fans further. In 2014 after obtaining enough funding the band finally released the album "The News From Nowhere".

CallumsBlog: Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

Post 5

24/3/15

Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

This album was the first album I purchased. I was taken by the bright yellow cover art and immediately decided this was the album I was going to buy. Released in March of 2005 it was met with many mixed reviews from critics with most praising Johnson on his songwriting however the lack of experimentation from Johnson led to critics stating that it was just another played safe Jack Johnson album. The album never did anything outrageous to promote itself that wasn't the type of album it was, the music within the album made up for it's lack of promotion and it showed with the album taking #1 in the UK in its first week and reaching over 1.6 million sales. The album was released in 2005 under the Mango Tree record label. The album is my personal favourite as I feel like the album is relevant no matter what mood you are listening to it in.

The album is a very relaxed, acoustic guitar with easy listening melodies featured throughout.

Johnson shows throughout this album his talent for song-writing with songs such as "Better Together" & "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing" showing the depths he can go to when singing about heartbreak and then he manages to create songs such as "Banana Pancakes" "Do you Remember" in which he manages to switch the writing style from heartbreak to reflection, he does with a relaxed and similarly up-beat style.

The album plays to Johnson's strength of creating Laid-back, chilled music and his consistency throughout his numerous albums though not the worst thing in the world (if it's not broke, why fix it?) does lead to wondering if Johnson will ever be bold enough to step out of his comfort zone or if we can simply expect to continue hearing similar sounding albums with every release. The safety of Johnson's sound however has led to to him even managing to get a soundtrack he created for the movie "Curious George" to the number 1 spot in the US Billboard charts.

Thanks for Reading

Callum