Lifehouse

As I listen to the new album of Lifehouse (Who we are) I think about what I have been doing with my life. I could have been anything I wanted, but I chose this, and it feels pretty good. "Feeling the life all over again" they sing as I think about the feeling of life and love. It's great to be in love again. It flows the right way. bringing me forward to a brighter future.

Track 3 is a really good one. It's called "Whatever it takes", and they continue "to turn it around", which just reminds me that it's what I can do. Whatever stops me from creating the future I want, I can always turn it around because I have great determination. "Keep us together, whatever it takes". It is what I want.

I've always loved Lifehouse. The vocalist has a great voice, it feels so good just listening to their easy going modern rock tracks. "We discover who we are" he sings on track 4, and it is what their new album are about. And isn't that what life is all about? Finding out who we really are. We think that we know everything, but we only know a very small percentage, if that. Go out, find yourself, you might be surprised.

I still remember when I discovered Lifehouse. It was in October of 2001. I was watching the pilot episode of Smallville and I heard my all time favorite song called "Everything" at the end of the episode. Ah, the memories. I think that song helped me change, because it was then I decided to leave the life I knew, my safe life. I went on to new things, and ever since then I have felt it all, the pain, the love, it all started back then. Thank you Lifehouse.

20.62% mainstream

That pretty much sums up my life really. Does that mean I'm 20.62% normal? Maybe... So how did I come up with this number? Well I went to this site and typed in my username at last.fm. It takes my 30 most listened artists and calulates mainstream based on popularity. So for example my nr.1 artist is Linkin Park. It has a mainstreamness of 63.04% and has the most impact on my final result. Brian Tyler my nr.2 artist has only 0.62% mainstreamness and so on. Quite interesting.

I think my life is actually 20.62% normal. I am not an A4 type of guy, I know that and my music seems to reflect that overall. I'm sure I'm considered strange by anyone who's ever met me. What's wrong with strange? Nothing really. In fact I love to be strange, different. The people who has achieved something in life has dared to be different. I still think people love me even though I'm not your average Joe.

Will I get weirder in time? I think I can. It's not a goal to be as weird as possible, but it doesn't hurt. I should find a site that checks my movies as well, that would be cool. I think I am more mainstream when it comes to movies, but you never know. I think I'll make a t-shirt for me that say: 20.62% mainstream.

How mainstream are you?

Kei and Jørn's Song

Here's a song I made for me and Kei. Hope you all enjoy it!

The LOVE charts

So I had nothing to do while I was waiting for important phone calls. Here’s what I did. I took the top 25 tracks in the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Country and Modern Rock for the years 1985, 1995 and 2005 and checked how many times the word “love” occurs in the lyrics during those years. What I found was interesting. Ok, enough talk, here’s the numbers

So we see here that in the normal mainstream chart Hot 100, it almost hasn’t changed at all! It’s weird though that it is so similar. Has nothing changed in music? Just for comparison, I did 1975 too and it got 64 (3 of the songs were instrumentals). Ok, let’s go to Country:

The same pattern is here as well; almost the same, but we see a slight decline. In 2015 it should be 41 times. I’ll post an update then to see if I was right :P. What is interesting though is that there is about 15% less love in countryland. Or maybe it is too much love there, so they sing about something else. Right, then how about the rockers?

Now here we see some real changes and might I add disturbing changes. By this rate there will soon be no love anymore. What will they be singing about? Well the tendency is scary. They sing about pain 13 times in 2005, so pain is apparently better than love when it comes to us music conscious buyers. Pain was only used once in 1995 and that was in the song “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” from “The Smashing Pumpkins”.

So to the grand finale. What about me? What about my top 25 songs for each year. Brace yourself ladies and gentlemen; you are in for a shock (as was I).

I was all lovin’ in 85, and look what happened? I was way above the charts; in fact I must have been the poster boy for love. I was 8 for crying out loud! I must have been a very disturbed kid back then running around with flowers in my hair looking like a cross between Freddy Fender and Mother Theresa which would be something like this: I can’t blame my sister either, because she used to blast hard rock in my ears. In 95 I was down to Hot 100 level, but in 2005 I was worse than the country charts. I’ll report back in 2015 when I have gotten married and my 5 kids Joe, Zoe, Lacey, Casey and Monty are selling drugs in the backyard with uncle Frank.

It’s looking good!

Here’s what I listened to in 1985 (Sorted alphabetically): A Ha - Take On Me, Alphaville - Forever Young, Autograph - Turn Up The Radio, Bon Jovi - In & Out Of Love, Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA, Bryan Adams – Somebody, Bryan Adams - Summer Of '69, Chicago - You're The Inspiration, Don Henley - The Boys Of Summer, Duran Duran - A View To A Kill, Foreigner - I Wanna Know What Love Is, Heart – Never, Heart - What About Love, Hooters - And We Danced, Huey Lewis & The News - The Power Of Love, John Parr - St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion), Kiss - Tears Are Falling, Limahl - Never Ending Story, Lionel Richie - Say You, Say Me, Madonna - Crazy For You, Paul Young - Everytime You Go Away, REO Speedwagon - Can't Fight This Feeling, Simple Minds - Alive And Kicking, Starship - We Built This City, USA For Africa - We Are The World

Here’s what I listened to in 1995 (Sorted alphabetically , I am embarrassed by a few songs here): 2 Unlimited - Get Ready For This, Alanis Morissette - Hand In My Pocket, Alison Krauss - When You Say Nothing At All, Annie Lennox - No More I Love You's, Blessid Union Of Souls - I Believe, Bon Jovi - Something For The Pain, Bruce Springsteen - Secret Garden, Corona - The Rhythm Of The Night, The Corrs – Runaway, Des'ree - You Gotta Be, Diana King - Shy Guy, Dr. Dre - Keep Their Heads Ringin', Edwyn Collins - A Girl Like You, Elton John – Blessed, Foreigner - Until The End Of Time, The Human League - Tell Me When, Jamie Walters - Hold On, Michael Jackson - You Are Not Alone, Pearl Jam – Jeremy, Rednex - Cotton Eye Joe, Shaggy – Boombastic, Sheryl Crow - Strong Enough, Skee-Lo - I Wish, Take That - Back For Good, Tina Turner – Goldeneye

Here’s what I listened to in 2005 (Sorted alphabetically): Avril Lavigne - Nobody's Home, Backstreet Boys – Incomplete, Coldplay - Fix You, Foo Fighters - Best Of You, Gavin Degraw - I Don't Want To Be, Goo Goo Dolls - Better Days, Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends, Gwen Stefani – Cool, Howie Day – Collide, Jason Mraz – Wordplay, Jay-Z & Linkin Park - Numb-Encore, Keane - Somewhere Only We Know, Kelly Clarkson - Behind These Hazel Eyes, Korn - Twisted Transistor, Lifehouse - You And Me, Mario - Let Me Love You, Missy Elliott Featuring Ciara & Fat Man Scoop - Lose Control, Nickelback – Photograph, Papa Roach – Scars, Rascal Flatts - Bless The Broken Road, Sara Evans - A Real Fine Place To Start, Simple Plan - Untitled (How Can This Happen To Me), Sugarland - Baby Girl, Tim McGraw - Live Like You Were Dying, Tommy Lee - Good Times

My next blog will probably be Sunday because I will be partying tomorrow celebrating my 30^th
birthday! It’s officially on Monday, but partying on Monday isn’t so cool. Enjoy the weekend everyone!