Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Other musicians are basically personalities who want to make a name for themselves. All I do is sing old songs in the best way I can. What else is there to know? If you were a blacksmith, what would people need to know about you other than whether you can make a good horseshoe?
I grew up singing Mexican music, and that's based on indigenous Mexican rhythms. Mexican music also has an overlay of West African music, based on huapango drums, and it's kind of like a 6/8 time signature, but it really is a very syncopated 6/8. And that's how I attack vocals.
The number one thing I look for is personality. For me, the personality of someone makes them more and more attractive over time ... and for those with bad personalities, less and less attractive. I look for honesty, intelligence, kindness, and a good work ethic, to name a few.
My father identified as a black man. No one asked him because he was clearly black. But people always ask me. If we were together, people would look at us in a really strange way. It sucked. As a little girl I had blond hair and they'd look at me, look at him, and be disgusted.
I play Sun-Hi, a Korean-American girl who is a social media expert and dreams of becoming a worldwide star. Being on Make It Pop is so much fun because we get to sing dance and act all in one production which is a dream come true! Working with the cast and crew is also a blast!
When I was 16, I was watching '101 Dalmatians,' and my mom never let me bleach my hair, so I told her I was going to dye my hair like Cruella De Vil; she didn't believe me. I came home with my hair like this, and she didn't talk to me for, like, a week. It was really hilarious.
I think it is about individuality so I don't have a sense to tell someone they need a makeover. One example I would give is Mariah Carey. She has been the same for so long but I bet she is thinking, "If it ain't broke then don't fix it." She is dated but I love Mariah for that.
Duke is in extremely competitive environment. In my high school, I think I got one B my whole four years. I was used to being the smartest kid in every class I was in, and then I went to Duke and suddenly I was the dumbest kid in every class. Everybody there is up to something.
I would like to have people hear dissonance, but I don't want it to be so off-putting that they never get there to begin with. That's actually how I hear it; that's what's pleasant to me. I don't like dense, chaotic dissonance. My brain gets lost. I need something to hang onto.
George Jones is country soul. Once this kind of music sits in you and you take it all, it reaches down into your soul. George Jones to me was one of the most soulful singers of any genre. That drew me to his music. He knew how to present a song without really thinking about it.
To be a mother is a beautiful thing, but to be able to assume the role for a child in need is nothing less than amazing. I believe that any woman who takes on the role of a mother, whether it be naturally or through foster care or adoption, should be held in the highest regard.
It doesn't matter if you stick the name 'bluegrass' on it. I think people call things bluegrass that I wouldn't necessarily call bluegrass, but what they're calling country music today I'm not sure that I would call country music. But I love music and I try to encourage people.
If God watches over a little sparrow, you know, if he takes care of the birds, a little sparrow. Here I am, one of his children, you know, he got so many of us down here. Human beings that send our faith up and believe. And if he watch over a sparrow, I know he watches over me.
Given all that history has shown us of the consequences of technology - from the atlatl spear to the A-bomb - why have so few groups of human beings managed to resist the incursions of technology? Or be choosy about the extent to which they'll employ a technological innovation?
Jazz should be recognized as music of the people, based in a lot of accents and melodies. What is jazz but music that people danced to? Jazz has the dynamic thing. I don't think you have to be playing only Charlie Parker licks on your horn or whatever the new version of that is.
When you do a lyric for 'April in Paris,' those who have heard it before can hear it in a different way now. It can add perspective to a great piece of music that does not have a lyric and may be inaccessible to lot of ears because people don't deal with complex music very well.
I love Shakira - she is such a beautiful person. She does so many good things for the world on top of making good music. And she is an awesome mom. When you are Latina, it is all about family, and to see that she prioritizes family and her career at the same time is really nice.
Gay guys like a certain kind of woman. They like a flamboyant woman that's broken. They like a balls-to-the-wall woman, motherly but not; sexual but not. Gay guys are like this: they either love you or they don't even know you're on the planet. Once you have them, you have them.
[2010] was a rough year. Between my divorce and the other things I went through, a lot happened. It's hard for anyone to go through that in public. But when you're a celebrity and under a microscope, it's 58 million times harder. I grew an even thicker skin after that hard year.
It's frustrating always being compared to Britney because we are two very different artists... We both dance and sing but people have not yet had enough time to realise that there is a huge difference between us. If she wants to go and do something, I'll want to do the opposite.
A lot of things get made this way: someone imagines what they want to make, then very carefully plans every step of the process, then sets about making it. That's usually the efficient, reasonable way to get something done, but it limits you to ideas you can think of in advance.
I have always been far more interested in sound than technique, and how sounds work together, how they can be layered. I think electronic music, in its infancy anyway, allowed us to create music in a way that hadn't really been possible before. It created a new kind of musician.
Life is a musical influence in my experience. But as far as actual music and actual bands, uh, I'll just look at my little collection here. Let's see. Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, U2, The Talking Heads, Prince and the Revolution, Michael Jackson's Thriller was a huge one.
I've always said that I count myself as a classical crossover artist. To be so, you have to have the core classical training, which I did for many, many years, but also be interested in the pop side of things. You can fit in somewhere in the middle. I feel I do that really well.
Being single is about celebrating and appreciating your own space that you're in. I couldn't have lived alone before. I always needed someone to share my space but now I like being by myself. If I want to be with people then I see my friends; if I want a date then I'll have one.
I admire people's marriages, and I think it's a wonderful thing to have, but I don't think it's the only way to live. I think there are many ways to live and many ways to establish intimate support in your life that can be from family or friends or great roommates that you like.
I've been told if you're an actress you can't sing, if you're a dancer you can't act, you can't do theatre and be respected if you've done a TV soap, you can't have a No. 1 record. All these different things they've told me I can't do, but I wanted to do them, so I've done them.
It's very hard to be an artist, on my first album, and I'm like asking for money for a music video for every song - it's so hard to do. You have to pick your battles for sure, but I definitely want - and I've always worked to make it all connect - for all of it to feel cohesive.
And when you start to think about death, you start to think about what's after it. And then you start hoping there is a God. For me, it's a frightening thought to go nowhere. I also can't believe that people like Stalin and Hitler are gonna go to the same place as Mother Teresa.
My appreciation for cooking and healthy living came from watching my best friend die from liver cancer in 2008. I realized that I needed to make some big changes if I wanted to be around for a long time, so now I'm more cautious of how much I eat, what I'm eating, and how often.
If you take care of yourself, 60 is nothing for women these days. In today's world you can be the kind of woman you want to be. Of course, I've aged a bit in the face, but not enough to worry about it. I've common sense enough to know that if I'm nearly 70 something has to give.
I had simply been inspired by Arthur Godfrey (40's) and Ukulele Ike and Cliff Edwards (20's). In there day, they were huge in this country. I bought Godfrey's book "You Too Can Learn To Play Ukulele" and taught myself. It's a very romantic instrument. You can take it on a canoe.
I used singing as a safety measure. I would pay attention to what songs the popular girls liked, learn those songs from the radio or library cassettes, and then "accidentally" sing or hum these songs in class. This would impress the girls, who would then defend me from the boys.
Singing is my form of expression; it's what I've always done and I hope that in some capacity I'll always have that outlet. In the next few weeks I'm getting together with many varied kinds of songwriters. I'd really like to explore a few things and see what I can come out with.
Mostly by [listening to] Green Day. I listened to music a little bit before I had heard of them, but after I'd heard of them, I knew music was my calling. I listened to it all day, and I loved it so much that I wanted to be a part of it, so I worked on being in a band from there.
It's an opportunity that's there for all of us, like a life raft or preserver to hang onto when there's nothing else or no one else around because man, we're human and no matter what, one way or another, everyone of us in our lives, at some point in time, are going to feel alone.
Kenny Goldsmith from Ubuweb describes himself as an amateur archivist, and people can download files from Ubuweb - it's not a streaming service. But it's a miracle that it's still online and they're able to make it work through the donations of server space and volunteer efforts.
In today's time, writing stuff that actually happened is touch-and-go, because you don't want to be too personal. If you are, then it probably won't relate to a mass audience. A lot of times you have to make it sound like it's about everybody else, but you really went through it.
Everyone who gave me food, who took away my hunger, inspired me to compose. They told me their stories, and I had no other way to console them than with a piece of music, and that is how I learned. I did not resolve their problems with my songs, but I created a moment of release.
I like to eat a whole lot. I have an inner chubby girl, and her name is Mabel, and I feed Mabel a lot. I give her what she wants. If Mabel wants a honey bun, she gets it. If Mabel wants Krispy Kreme, she gets it. If Mabel wants fried chicken or ham hocks, she gets what she wants.
I've been touching instruments since the day I was born. My mother is Brazilian, and she listens to Brazilian music. My father was a musician, and I've seen pictures of him when he was in a band playing guitar and piano. He loved country music, Frank Sinatra, and stuff like that.
I'm just trying to have fun, and maybe the way I hold myself kind of freaks people out. I don't feel like an outsider, and I think my friends feel the same way I do. Now that we're playing to larger audiences, maybe we're weird to some people. But I'm trying to express what I am.
I never sit and fill a journal with lyrics. Most of the time I'm trying to write a feeling, not a story. I'm not necessarily trying to describe the details of a place or event so much as the feeling of the thing. It is a kind of weird alchemy that is elusive until it feels right.
I was a bicycle messenger when Alkaline Trio was formed as a way to make ends meet before the band became a career, and I've just always been a cyclist - I BMX'd, and then I got really into - through messengering - I got really into road bikes and fixed gears, which I still have.
Try to overcome your doubt. Believe you are beautiful. Look at yourself through someone else's green eyes. Believe someone out there will find you and kiss your skin until you can feel it blister with the heat. Believe in something bigger than your problems and you will be saved.
For the kids out there that are worried about what the future holds, especially the LGBTQI+ kids, our brothers and sisters that came before us didn't fight for nothing. Trust me: we will only move forward, but you need to put your fear aside and find the strength to believe that.
Men need to be aware of the health of their bodies, as well - prostate cancer and breast cancer are almost on the same level. It's fascinating to me that the correlation between the two is almost the same - people don't talk about it so much, but they are almost equal in numbers.
I wrote 'She's a Lady' on the back of a TWA menu, flying back from London after doing Tom Jones's TV show. Jones's manager wanted me to write him a song. If I have an idea and I don't have a pad of paper, I'll write on whatever is available. What's the difference? Paper is paper.
Growing up, for years and years I had no idea what the plots of operas were, and that's part of what fascinated me - I could make them up and learn bits and pieces of what was going on over time. There's something about it being always a step away that makes it more fun to chase.
All true artists in the world from all countries and all genres are influenced by Michael Jackson. There were music videos before Michael Jackson, and there were music videos after Michael Jackson. He brought such a huge change in the marketing and positioning of the music video.