Every day we listen to so many things and we take a lot of them for granted. Imagine never being able to hear the voice of your children. Imagine never hearing someone telling you that they love you. Imagine never hearing the sound of rain, or the other beautiful sounds of nature. Now imagine never being able to listen to music. I shudder at the thought.

I couldn’t even begin to think of all the songs that I’ve heard through my 30 years on this earth. A lot of music has gotten me through a lot of hard times; Songs that made me jump up and dance, heal my broken heart, and songs that inspired me. If it wasn’t for my sense of hearing, I don’t know if I would even be the same person I am today.

Some of my favorite things to hear:

• My son’s voice. There is nothing more sweet than the sound of your child’s voice. Hearing him cry for the first time rates as the highest sound on my list, because it has stayed with me forever.
• The sounds my husband makes while sleeping. Just hearing him breathe next to me makes me feel so good.
• A quiet night, when the sounds of crickets amidst the silence calm the soul.
• My own voice. I don’t mean that I like to hear myself talk, but I would have a hard time coping with not knowing what my voice sounds like.
• Birds. I love the sound of birds in my backyard chirping away in the morning. It’s as though they are singing a song just for me. I love that feeling.
• Jazz. No explanation needed.
• The rain. Not when it’s storming or sprinkling, but the sounds of a soft and subtle constant stream of rain. Hearing the thunder before the rain is like an appetizer for the main course.
• My friends. I love talking to people and hearing their voices, their accents, the tone their voice takes when expressing different emotions. It’s just beautiful.
• Laughter. Laughter is contagious, and there is something to be said for our ability to feel happy simply by listening to the sounds of laughter. “Snorting laughter” especially!
• The emotion you hear in a talented musician’s voice when they are actually feeling the emotion of the lyrics they are singing. Emotion in a singer’s voice is the whipped cream on a song.

These are just a few things that I appreciate hearing every day. A life without sound, for having been born with it, would be heart-wrenching to lose. If I had been born without the ability to hear, I could never have experienced any of these things. Perhaps I wouldn’t miss something I never had, but I would always wonder what everything sounded like.

I wanted to discuss my love of hearing because the Hear the World initiative is having a contest to bring awareness to the sense of hearing and hearing loss prevention. The c0ntest is a photography one, having entrants submitting pictures of themselves cupping their own ear. Many celebrites have already been photographed by musician Bryan Adams, each with their hand cupping one of their ears. Some of the celebrities who have participated in the Hear the World initiative are Amy Winehouse, Sting, Billy Idol, Peter Gabriel, Annie Lennox, and Harry Belafonte. You can see the whole list here.

Some information about entering the contest:

To further spread the message of hearing awareness and to give all Hear the World fans across the country a chance to show their support and commitment to the cause, Hear the World is launching the ‘Show Us Your Hearing’ photography competition, giving you the chance to win a new Polaroid 300 and to be featured in the award-winning Hear the World magazine!

To enter the contest, simply submit a photo of you, or a friend and family member, in the famed ‘Conscious Pose of Hearing.’ All entries will be posted to the Hear The World gallery for public voting, and the final winner and runner up will be selected by a panel of judges from the Hear the World initiative from the top five images that received the most votes. Voting begins on July 13th, 2010.

If you are interested in participating, you can click here to enter the contest. In the meantime, why don’t you share what your favorite sounds are in the comments and what hearing means to you? For me, it’s the whole world.

Also, for your “hearing” pleasure, here is one of my favorite songs from Ludwig van Beethoven. I chose a song from Beethoven because he loved music so much, he continued to compose even after he lost his own sense of hearing. The haunting Piano Sonata No. 14 in C♯ minor “Quasi una fantasia”, better known as Moonlight Sonata, was composed not long before he became completely deaf.

Image courtesy of Reavel via Flickr

As always, this mix was made via 8tracks.com and if you love making mixes, be sure to check them out. Now hit play and bask in some sexy indie pop tunage.

Track Listing:

Kiss That Grrrl – Kate Nash
Fallen Over – Rose Elinor Dougall
Sex – The Pipettes
Julia, We Don’t Live In The 60′s – The Indelicates
You Told A Lie – Camera Obscura
If You Were Alien – The Brunettes
Mowgli’s Road – Marina & The Diamonds
The Great Unwanted – Lucky Soul
Wish I Stayed – Ellie Goulding feat. Frankmusik
Here Comes The Serious Bit – The Long Blondes

If you like any of the songs listed above, support the artist by purchasing them.

I’ve been wanting to do a good mixtape via 8tracks of rap and hip-hop for a while now. I like a lot of older rappers but I wanted to make sure I covered everything so I’ve included newer artists as well. This is a long mix, and it’s just the way I like it – dirty dirty. If you are easily offended, this won’t be the mix for you, but if you love some groovy goodness, roll a fattie, hit play, and chillax.

Track listing:

New York Shit (Remix) – Busta Rhymes feat. Swizz Beatz & KRS-One
It’s Me Bitches – Swizz Beatz
Ugly – Bubba Sparxxx
Get It Together – Beastie Boys feat. Q-Tip
Q-Tip and Peter Gunz Skit – Q-Tip, Peter Gunz, & Slick Rick
I Run This – Slick Rick
Ain’t No Fun (If The Homies Can’t Have None) – Snoop Dogg feat. Kurupt, Nate Dogg, & Warren G
How Do U Want It – Tupac Shakur feat. Kci & JoJo
Hootie Hoo – Outkast
In da Wind – Trick Daddy feat. Cee-Lo & Big Boi
Church – T-Pain feat. Teddy Verseti
That Shit – A Tribe Called Quest feat. JD of Slum Village
Back In The Day (Jeep Mix) – Ahmad
Damien – DMX
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop (Dirty) – Young Guns
Flava in Ya Ear – Craig Mack
I Got Five On It (Eminem & Luniz Mix) – Eminem
Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang – Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg
Shimmy Shimmy Ya - Ol’ Dirty Bastard
Lick Shots – Missy Elliott
Prime Time – Tha Alkaholiks feat. Xzibit
Ten Crack Commandments – The Notorious B.I.G.
Fuck The Police (DJ Shadow Remix) – NWA
Imma Be - Black Eyed Peas

If you like any of the songs listed above, support the artist by purchasing them.

How many times have you heard a song and thought of an epic movie scene? Have you ever fallen in love with a song that was written for a movie even if you hadn’t seen it? Do you find yourself discovering new music watching movies? If you answered yes to any of the above, then you know that music and movies go together like peanut butter and jelly, like peas and carrots, and like Batman and Robin, pun intended.

Whether it’s a song that takes you back into a memorable movie moment or just makes you want to dance around, movies have given us original songs as well as introduced older tunes to a younger crowd. Music in movies add another layer of depth to the characters, the plot, the mood… everything music should do in every day life. Without a soundtrack, what is a movie anyways? A boring story, that’s what! We want to be entertained, and without some of these songs, would we feel the same way about the same movie if it had no soundtrack? I think not.

I started this with the idea of doing a top 40 list but it quickly turned into a top 50, with bonus songs and 20 honorable mentions. I couldn’t leave some of these songs out because they are just legendary, and I couldn’t not include songs that may have not been specifically written for a soundtrack but may be the only thing that made the movie.

The songs I chose as the top 50 are all great on their own and rightfully deserve a spot on the list. I’ve included songs across multiple decades and I don’t feel that I should be the judge of which is the number one movie song of all time, so while there is a numbered top 50 list, these songs are in no particular order based on popularity or sales; they are on the list because they simply deserve to be.

Now let’s get on to the music! Grab some popcorn and relive some of the best movies moments or just enjoy listening to some of the best of the best songs the movies has to offer.

Top 50 Epic Movie Songs

• 1. Survivor – Eye Of The Tiger

Year: 1982

Movie: ‘Rocky III’

Download: [iTunes] [Amazon]

Who doesn’t know this song? Sylvester Stallone personally requested this song to be in Rocky III. Not only did Eye Of The Tiger win a Grammy, it was nominated for an Academy Award. (Yes, it was THAT good.)

• 2. Phil Collins – Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)

Year: 1984

Movie: ‘Against All Odds’

Download: [iTunes] [Amazon]

Against All Odds is one of the best ballads sung by Phil Collins. Grammy winning and Oscar nominated for the film of the same name. Any Genesis or Phil Collins fan would agree with me on this one. Classic.

• 3. Simple Minds – (Don’t You) Forget About Me

Year: 1985

Movie: ‘The Breakfast Club’

Download: [iTunes] [Amazon]

Arguably one of the best John Hughes movies ever made, this movie reached out to fans of young and old. We all found ourselves relating to one of the characters, and this song brings back memories of high school, friendship, and the great decade of the 1980′s. Don’t like it on my list? Eat my shorts.

• 4. Bryan Adams – Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?

Year: 1995

Movie: ‘Don Juan DeMarco’

Download: [iTunes] [Amazon]

An absolute beautiful song by Canadian singer Bryan Adams, considered one of the best modern ballads of all time. And with Johnny Depp starring “as the greatest lover of the world”, how can you go wrong? Double Win.

• 5. Berlin – Take My Breath Away

Year: 1986

Movie: ‘Top Gun’

Download: [iTunes] [Amazon]

Take My Breath Away is a beautiful song that is still on my playlist. Winning an Oscar and Golden Globe, this love song doesn’t make you feel like you are stuck in the 80′s. It has stood the test of time and is still one of my favorite movie songs.

Bonus song! Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone was also a huge success and was featured in Top Gun as well.

Download: [iTunes] [Amazon]

• 6. Simon & Garfunkel – Mrs. Robinson

Year: 1967

Movie: ‘The Graduate’

Download: [iTunes] [Amazon]

This classic movie has been referenced many times in other films, fittingly so, since the movie has been ranked #7 in the top 100 films of all time according to AFI. Mrs. Robinson was a number one hit for Simon & Garfunkel, and remains one of the most recognizable songs of the decade.

• 7. Ray Parker Jr. – Ghostbusters

Year: 1984

Movie: ‘Ghostbusters’

Download: [iTunes] [Amazon]

Something strange in your neighborhood? Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters! Just a great fun song from a fun movie. Did I mention it was nominated for an Academy Award? Yes it was. And for the record? I ain’t afraid of no ghost.

• 8. Kenny Loggins – Footloose

Year: 1984

Movie: ‘Footloose’

Download: [iTunes] [Amazon]

Whenever I hear this song, I just want to cut footloose! This song is a fun dance song and Footloose is great 80′s cheese. Featuring a young Kevin Bacon dancing around or throwing a tantrum through most of the movie is so funny to watch. The song was also nominated for an Oscar and comes in at #96 on the top 100 movie songs by AFI.

• 9. Aerosmith – I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing

Year: 1998

Movie: ‘Armageddon’

Download: [iTunes] [Amazon]

Written by Diane Warren, Aerosmith’s power ballad introduced the band to a whole new generation. Not one of my favorite Aerosmith songs, but it’s definitely one of their best more modern songs. Cool fact: I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing was originally written for Celine Dion. Yeah, I’m shuddering at the thought of that, too.

• 10. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody

Year: 1992

Movie: ‘Wayne’s World’

Download: [iTunes] [Amazon]

“Wayne’s World! Party Time! Excellent!” This song is on my list for the epic scene of Wayne and company lip synching the Queen classic in their car. Already a hit years before, Bohemian Rhapsody made a huge comeback thanks to the movie and it’s one of my favorite movie song scenes ever.

Continue reading….

Don’t get me wrong: each track can be listened on it’s own, but I just loved listening to the album in the background. It was interesting, relaxing, and just a comfortable listen. While this is their first album attempt, I would say it has it’s moments of greatness. Some tracks could have been longer and one I found some of the added elements were a little too much, but overall it’s a nice find among a lot of attempts in the same genre.

According to Innocent Bandits:

This album was about putting everything on the table. It was about not thinking about anything, but feeling. To get rid of a whole past that doesn’t suit the present anymore. It was about not judging any ideas that come through as good or bad, but to accept them and to go with the flow of creativity. To not worry about perfection in terms of music or life because the truth is that the only perfection is to fully accept that we are imperfect, and that in itself is the perfect way to be.

Ashley performs vocals and percussion, while her brother Jeremy does guitar, bass, editing, programming, recording, and mixing. Between the two of them, they can do it all and I would love to see what the next album has in store. Hopefully they can get their web presence together so they can get the music out there and gain some more fans. Innocent Bandits definitely has me as a fan and I’m hoping I can make one out of you as well.

Innocent Bandits have released their first album as a free download under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States license, and all the songs are listed in order below with links to download each individually or the entire album.

Ceremonies & Spells

Track 1 – Well Wishes [Download]

Track 2 – Entropia [Download]

Track 3 – Madmans Crackle [Download]

Track 4 – A 1000 Days Before [Download]

Track 5 – I Is This [Download]

Track 6 – When Another Sun Shines [Download]

Track 7 – Empty Hand [Download]

Track 8 – White Smoke [Download]

Track 9 – Seashores [Download]

Download entire album (ZIP format)

Ceremonies & Spells copyright Innocent Bandits / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

*Artist Links

Last.fm: Innocent Bandits

MySpace: Innocent Bandits

Headphonica: Innocent Bandits

*Most of these profiles are incomplete and would really benefit the artist if they had more information about the band.

Every band or musician needs a web presence. Nothing says professional like an official site and it will do wonders for getting your music noticed. If you are a band or musician and are thinking of or already using WordPress, these plugins are essential for your site. From SEO purposes to posting upcoming gigs and displaying galleries of images from recent concerts, these plugins will help you get on the right track… pun intended.

Here is a list of the top 10 plugins I think every WordPress music site needs.

• All In One SEO Pack

This plugin is one of the most important for a musician or band website. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. What this does is increase your site’s ranking among the top search engines so your fans can easily find you. You can use this plugin right out of the box or customize it to make it work how you want it. This is a popular plugin among professional bloggers and trust me: you need this one!

• Last.fm For Artists

Every artist who knows their way around the internet knows that Last.fm is one of the best sites to upload their music to. This plugin allows you to add a widget to your sidebar displaying your top tracks and recent or upcoming gigs. If you have a Last.fm presence, this one will jazz up your site.

• GigPress

GigPress is an awesome plugin that allows you to display past and upcoming shows, with the ability to link an event to an article. You can embed the shortcode to display the a gig within a post or even as a sidebar widget. Great even for multi-artist sites. This plugin can almost do it all.

• Audio Player

Audio player is a simple and highly customizable plugin that let’s you embed a track with a post using shortcode. You can style it to any color to match your custom theme and lets your fans listen to a track on the fly within a post. Highly recommended.

• NextGen Gallery

NextGen Gallery is a super powerful plugin that lets you post images anywhere you want on your site. With a built-in lightbox feature, you can post galleries within posts, the sidebar, a page, anywhere! Show your fans your photos from your shows and get them excited to come out and see you.

• Chords And Lyrics

This plugin is for the artist who wants to share not only their music with their fans, but also the chords and lyrics. Simple to use and highly customizable. Recommended for artists who want to share it all with everyone.

• BluBrry PowerPress Podcast

Are you a podcaster or a DJ who wants to share their mixes with fans? This is the plugin for you! With PowerPress, you get the power of podcasting with full iTunes support. PowerPress can handle almost every type of media file you have. You can even get full stats right from your WordPress dashboard.

• ShareThis

The ShareThis plugin allows you to let your readers and fans share your content across the web. Whether submitting something to Digg, saving to del.icio.us, posting to Twitter or Facebook, and even emailing to friends, this plugin is a must have for any blog. Word of mouth can be a musician’s best friend.

• Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is a plugin that allows your fans, labels, and promoters to contact you using an easy form embedded right into your site. No need to give out your email address and it shows a little more professionalism when wanting to go that extra mile. This plugin will also let people send you music or photos, if you choose to allow it. You can create all different kinds of forms so if you want to have one on a contact page and another embedded within a post for a promotion or contest, this makes everything easy as cake.

• Wibiya Toolbar

The Wibiya Toolbar is a nifty plugin for easy navigation for your site. Highly customizable and it allows your visitors to translate your site, search, visit your YouTube station, connect with you on FaceBook, Tweet, search through random posts, see a special message or announcement from you, as well as subscribing to your site. Visit Wibiya to customize how you want it to look and what options you want added.

Now that you have a list of plugins to start with, spruce up that site that you’ve been putting off and get your tunes heard!

Image source: fycg

I decided to make a mixtape via 8tracks with some of the top songs I remember sweating my ass off to in clubs across South Florida and still enjoy today. Coming in at 20 tracks, this is a mix that not only delivers classic rave songs, but takes me back to a place where I have some of the best memories as well as some of the worst. With that being said, it’s a time in my life that I will never forget and these songs are just as memorable.

For all you reformed ravers, this mix will bring you back. If you never were a raver but enjoyed electronic music from the 90′s and early 2000′s, this mixtape will hopefully give you something to jam to.

Track listing:

Time’s Up (The Bomb Remix) – Trip Theory
Busy Child – Crystal Method
Rock The Funky Beat - Natural Born Chillers
Renegade Master (Fatboy Slim Old Skool Edit) – Wildchild
Sugar Is Sweeter – CJ Bolland
The Freaks – Überzone
City Of Groove - DJ Icey
Smack My Bitch Up (DJ Hype Remix) – The Prodigy
You’re Not Alone (Ganga Kru Remix) – Olive
O.B.E. – Rabbit In The Moon
Fever – George Acosta
Beachball (DJ Icey Remix) – Nalin & Kane
Miracle Whip (Breakbeat Mix) – Fragma
I’ll Hide You (Acapella Intro) – Kosheen
Stay In Love (12 Inch Hot House) – MON a Q
Rollin’ With The Chillers – Natural Born Chillers
Bad Ass – Micky Finn & Aphrodite
Pepper Spray – DJ Baby Anne
Feels So Good – Sonique
Fine Night - DJ R Fresh

If you like any of the songs listed above, support the artist by purchasing them.

Image courtesy of Astro Marus

Every Monday on Twitter, you will see “#musicmonday” as a trending topic. This meme is a popular one, which makes me happy because you know how I love music! Everyone who participates in “#musicmonday” shares music within a tweet using different services that allow you to share music on Twitter. The tweet is then appended with the #musicmonday hashtag so you can see what everyone is listening to and hopefully find new music that you never existed. Every Monday I share as well as find something new.

Today I sharing my music within this post, and guess what the theme is? Why Monday, of course! All the songs I’m sharing have the word Monday in the title. I’ve included some classics, some covers, and even managed to fit in a mashup.

Whether you love or hate Mondays, my hope is that this Monday your day (or any day) is more fulfilling by listening to at least one of these great songs. I’ve included something for everyone and I know some of you are struggling with the Monday morning blues, so let’s just get to it, shall we?

• Three Monday classics

Monday, Monday – The Mamas and The Papas

Come Monday – Jimmy Buffett

I Don’t Like Mondays – The Boomtown Rats

• A couple extra Monday tunes

Monday Morning Blues – The Riverwinds

Come Monday Night - God Help The Girl

Next let’s get to two of the most famous “Monday” songs ever made, with some fawesome covers of each.

• First up? Blue Monday by New Order.

Blue Monday – New Order (original)

Blue Monday - Orgy (cover)

Blue Monday – Nouvelle Vague (cover)

Blue Monday – Flunk (cover)

Can’t Get Blue Monday Out Of My Head – Kylie Minogue (mashup)

• The second? Manic Monday by The Bangles

Manic Monday – The Bangles (original)

Manic Monday – Bonnie Pink (cover)

Manic Monday – Reliant K (cover)

• Want some more Monday songs? Okay!

Monday Monday Monday – Tegan and Sara

Monday Monday Monday – Ryan Adams (cover)

• Speaking of Ryan Adams, how about this one?

Monday Night – Ryan Adams

That’s it! Have a fabulous Monday everyone!

Image courtesy of Alvin Lamucho

The electronic/trip-hop/dubstep duo Micoland & Holly Bretton are siblings who have released their first album together titled Traverse. Currently signed with Dead Channel, this duo knows how to crank out the tunes and is worthy of being on any electronica playlist. If you like Massive Attack, Portishead, or Lamb, you will love Micoland & Holly.

Even though their debut album is a free download, it doesn’t sound cheap at all. Listening to the haunting voice of Holly singing over the soothing sounds of the thumping background beat, I would have assumed that the duo was signed to a major label and was someone I hadn’t heard of yet. While there is a lot of trip-hop & electronica groups out there, I’m always pleased to find one that is really good, stands out, and I can just replay over and over again. Micoland & Holly Bretton fit in this category comfortably.

Micoland and Holly Bretton both hail from Leeds, UK. Micoland is well known for his producing efforts in the IDM/dubstep genre and is releasing a new album soon. I’ve included the recent video of his new track called Static, with sister Holly performing vocals. I know I’ll be keeping an eye out for Micoland’s album release. Look out for the video at the end of the post.

Now let’s get to the goods. Below are the 7 tracks from the album Traverse. You can listen to each and download them for free for personal use. All songs are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England License. To download the tracks, right click and choose save.

Traverse

Track 1 – Expect It To Go [Download]

Track 2 – Dead Letter [Download]

Track 3 – Theorise [Download]

Track 4 – Unseen Forces [Download]

Track 5 – Debris [Download]

Track 6 – Traverse [Download]

Track 7 – Simple Needs [Download]

Download entire album (ZIP format)

Here is the music video for Micoland’s latest track Static.

Traverse copyright Micoland & Holly Bretton / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Artist Links

Last.fm: Micoland & Holly Bretton

MySpace: Micoland & Holly Bretton

Last.fm: Micoland

MySpace: Micoland

All the songs on this mixtape are by female singer-songwriters, but that is about all they have in common. Between Laura Marling and The Blow to Mirah and Julie Doiron, this mix is a great showcase of female singers who break the mold and stand out in their own genres. Kick back, relax, and get ready to think about falling in love or out; it all depends on where the song goes.

Track listing:

Swan Pond – Julie Doiron
Love Affair – Regina Spektor
Ghosts - Laura Marling
Fuck Was I – Jenny Owens Young
Gestation Of The Sacred Beetle – Mirah and The Spectratone International
Tore My Heart – Oona
The Garden – Mirah
True Affection – The Blow
Sunday – Sia
My Party Is Better Than Yours – Emmy The Great

If you like any 0f the songs listed above, support the artist by purchasing them.

Image courtesy of manganite via Flickr