Music Monday: Blaugust Creator Week Edition

Somehow, in my ramblings about Youtube nonsense yesterday I forgot to mention the music-focused channels we watch, of which there are a few. Maybe my subconscious omitted them just so I’d have something to write about today since until I sat down and started putting my fingers to the keyboard nothing was coming to mind.

12tone: This YouTube channels takes a look at music from a fun visual perspective. You get this stream of consciousness via Sharpie markers on sheet music. They can get very granular in how they look at music, but at the same time, sometimes its just about how its hitting them. My favorite thing is that after watching so many videos I’ve gotten used to some of the “shorthand” that comes up again and again. It’s a bit like learning a new language, so I can sort of look back at the sheet music as we approach the bottom of the page and certain things pop out at me. It’s gotten me to change a bit of how I listen to certain songs. I also continue to find it fascinating that everything progresses from right to left across the page.

Todd in the Shadows: Todd looks at a lot of different angles when it comes to popular music. There’s the One Hit Wonderland series, that looks at bands with (usually) one big hit to their name, how they got there and how things went after their big songs. There’s also Trainwreckords that breaks down the albums some bands would prefer everyone forget they made, especially if they were the end of their careers. He also does reviews of new music, a lot of which I have to confess to being pretty unfamiliar to me. He tends to look at things outside of the songs, so there can be a lot of cultural context to them.

Howard Ho: As a nerd when it comes to musical theatre, this channel is one of my favorites. I like this channel because my start with piano lessons was with a teacher who put a pretty strong emphasis on theory, and so there are times when he uses vocabulary that rings this faint bell in my memory. It’s also interesting to look at how different composers and writers use callbacks in their music, and its given me a greater appreciation of broadway shows and Disney movies that I already enjoyed.

Sideways: There hasn’t been anything new from this channel in a couple years, but I enjoyed it for much the same reason I like Howard Ho’s channel. It’s more focused on film and television than the stage, but there’s been a lot of music in a lot of things in the last few years, and I like looking at that aspect of the things I watch.

Dreamsounds: I’m not exactly a huge fan of Disney music. I have my favorites, but Disney as an entity isn’t something I necessarily revere. That being said, this channel gave me a greater appreciation of some of the history of Disney’s music, especially through a queer and trans lens. I know that Marlene has decided to bring the channel to a conclusion of sorts, but there’s a lot of content to look back through, even if nothing new comes around.