Category Archive Music I Like

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Music I Like: Indigenous Metal

Long ago, I wrote a post on Indigenous artists I like, and mysteriously, none of them were heavy metal. That’s just plain weird. There were hardly any Native students at my high school, but lots of them at the heavy metal concerts I went to as a teenager in Arizona. So metal is the musical style I most closely associate with Native Americans. And there are a lot of really great Indigenous metal bands here in the U.S. and around the world. Here are a few that I like.

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Cinematic Music I Like

I think it was the movie Undercover Brother that had a scene with the cool guy walking along, followed by a bunch of musicians. When someone asks who they are, he says, “That’s just my theme music.” I think a lot of us wish we had our own theme music. Sometimes I even find the right band.

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More Guitar Music I Like

I’ve written before about how guitar is the home base that my musical tastes always return to. So it stands to reason that one post wouldn’t fit all the divine guitar music I like.

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Music I Like – Japanese Soundtrack Composers

I know “Japanese soundtrack composers” sounds like a pretty niche interest, but hear me out. J-pop is even more manufactured and sterile than American Top 40. So instead of pursuing stardom, many of the most talented and interesting musicians in Japan end up getting a lot of soundtrack work. The music they make is far more intriguing and varied than what you might expect if you think of orchestral scores when you hear the word “soundtrack.” Not all of the music in this post is soundtrack music – but I found all of these artists on the soundtrack to an anime or movie.

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Ballet in Music Videos

A Venn diagram of music videos and ballet would have pretty small overlap. Music videos of the MTV-type often rely on dance, but it’s usually popular styles. Ballet film projects are rare outside of a pandemic, and usually rely on classical music. But where pop music, film, and ballet come together is a very happy place for me. So I’ve rounded up some ballet music videos for this post. Only after I put the list together I realized how Iceland-heavy the list is. That’s strange, because ballet is one of the few art forms I don’t particularly associate with Iceland.

PNB soloist Dylan Wald in The Calling. Photo © Angela Sterling c/o PNB
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