On the 11th episode of Current Events, Al explores the world of music and covers several articles about famous musicians.
Recently, there has been a lot of news in the music world with one of the big events being the Global Citizen Festival. The event featured several artists performing from around the world in an effort to raise awareness and end global poverty. Let’s take a look at one of the performances! Also, let’s dive deeper into the lives of two popular female artists and then we’ll end by covering the current Billboard Hot 100 chart!
Here are the key vocabulary:
Global Citizen Festival
to kick off
countless
star-studded
to join forces with
to drop
vegan
PETA
merch
Air Jordan’s
gender neutral
residency
Cirque du Soleil
conservatorship
a minor
to intensify
exploitive
to pull back the curtain
allegedly
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Articles used in this episode:
Billboard.com:
BTS Brings ‘Permission to Dance’ to Global Citizen, Joins Coldplay Virtually for ‘My Universe’ Performance
Fans Choose BTS & Coldplay’s ‘My Universe’ as This Week’s Favorite New Music
Billie Eilish Debuts Vegan Air Jordan Line: ‘You Can Be Whoever and Whatever You Want With These’
6 Most Revealing Moments From the ‘Controlling Britney Spears’ Documentary
The Billboard Hot 100 Chart from September 25, 2021
Here are the videos and photos from this episode:
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4 replies to "Current Events 11 | Music News"
First time listener and first time commenter. I liked your subject matter because music is our modern art form that is ahead of any other art form when it comes to establishing memes and trends that directly affect our language. Music is the riches source of new words.
Also, did you know these two related facts: Chris Martin invited Billie Eilish to sing with him on the stage at that Coldplay performance? The other is in the time it took you to read “not my cup of tea” news about Billie Eilish’s Air Jordan (AJ) designs, they were sold out. It took only 15 minutes. So we not only sing and eat our words, we also buy ’em.
Aloha Dave!
No! I didn’t know that Coldplay invited Billie Eilish on stage. Was it the same performance? I’ll have to check that out.
Her shoes sold out in 15 minutes?! Wow! Well I knew they would definitely be someone’s cup of tea, just not mine! Good for her and the shoes!
Thanks for listening and commenting. I have tried to cover a variety of topics and it was about time we talked about music! What kind of music are you into and who are your favorite artists?
Yes Billie played in the same global event on the same stage as Coldplay earlier that same night. Chris Martin came on later and invited Billie and her brother to join him on stage. That was a magical moment. There are several youtube videos of this joint performance.
I’m an architect who also teaches design forms. I use music and lyrics for comparing artistic expressions in different art forms. Architecture students love music and there’s no one more popular now than Billie. But I started following her since 2015 when I first encountered her song “Ocean Eyes” in which she compares flareup in one’s eyes to “napalm skies”. That caught my attention.
Now I’ve developed over 100 teachable phrases from her lyrics alone. When I first played her song “when the party’s over” in class, there was not a single dry eye. And this was in Japan, where not one student was fluent in English. Billie’s music transcends language and cultures.
Most recently I finished writing about the difference between “real” and “ideal” as Descartes meant through her recent song “Therefore I am.”
Thanks for sharing. It’s cool how her music has influenced you and inspired your teaching. To be honest, I am not a huge fan of her music but then again I’ve only heard the most popular songs they play on the radio. I’ll have to take a listen to the ones you’ve mentioned as I haven’t heard those yet.
Actually, with most of the major artists out there, I typically like their lesser known songs more than the popular ones. Take Coldplay for example. Most people love their hits like “Viva La Vida” or “Paradise” but my favorite song by them is “A Message” which casual music fans may not know about.