Season 132 - 21st Century Music

TheOnlyUkeThatMatters

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Welcome to the 132nd Season of the Ukulele: 21st century music.

PLAYLIST

I often hear people complain that today's music is not as good as the music of the past. I agree that it's easier to find great music from the past---largely because much not-so-great music of the past never made it to the present---but I'm also sure that there is plenty of great music being made today: hip hop, rock/indie/punk/metal/etc., dance music, jazz, country, folk, reggae and music from different cultures all over the world are all alive and well.

Challenge
Play a song written in the 21st century---that's any time after the year 2000---on your ukulele.

Rules
  1. Your entry must be a video produced this week for this contest. In your video, indicate that your performance is for the 132nd Season of the Ukulele.
  2. You must play ukulele in your video. Your friends and/or family are encouraged to join you (on whatever instruments they like).
  3. No video or audio editing this week---each entry must be a single, continuous take without any overdubbed audio. Minor video and audio effects are okay, but your performance should be the main attraction.
  4. Post your video entry in this thread no sooner than Sunday, August 24, at 12:00am (Hawaii time) and no later than the following Sunday, August 31, at 12:00am (Hawaii time).
  5. You may submit as many entries as you like.

Scoring
Your score will be the average of equally-weighted scores given for:
  • Playing ukulele
  • Singing (or melody for instrumental performances)
  • Song choice
  • "Je ne sais quois"
Judging
My wife, Jessica, and I will judge each entry as follows:

We'll judge both playing and singing by how much we enjoy your performance, not by your display of technical skill. If you play your uke with joy and if you sing from your heart, you'll get the best possible scores.

We'll judge song choice partly on how we like the song---that's pretty much random---and we'll be sure to give better scores to songs with lots of 21st-century appeal. So a 21st-century song performed by an established 20th-century songwriter won't earn as many points as a song by an artist that got her start in the 21st century. For example, Amy Winehouse beats the Rolling Stones this week.

Your 'je ne sais quoi' score will reflect the overall appeal of your performance and your video.

If you submit multiple entries, your score will be the average of all your entries' scores.

Prizes
To celebrate my new job teaching statistics at Portland Communicty College, the Seasonistas with the top three scores will each win a copy of Darryl Huff's classic (and funny) treatise, How to Lie with Statistics.

If you have any questions, ask away either here in the thread or via private message. Looking forward to learning about lots of great, new music this week will all y'all. Muchas gracias.
 
Last edited:
Hey Ra;f -

One quick one. So, you say the song has to be "written in the 21st century". Since we may not exactly know when a song was actually written, can we take that to mean "released as a new song in the 21st century"?

- greenie44
 
Nice idea Ralf. This will Be fun:)
 
Seasick Steve is not a young guy but all his albums came out this century.
I love his stuff. I recorded one of his today before the season was posted and put it over on the island so I just did another that I have been wanting to do.
It's a Long Long Way.
A lot can be said with 3 chords.
 
Pa's added a couple so it must be time.
A song from 2013 which had great success in Australia, some success in the UK, and a little in the USA.
Each year Triple J radio station, an Australian nationally networked radio station to appeal primarily to 18-30 year olds, conduct a poll of the most popular songs of the last 12 months, and play thru this top 100 on Australia Day (Jan26th). Many of the yoof (youth) of the country get together at friends places and drink their way thru the top100.
On Jan26th this year Riptide was voted in at Number 1. It is an interesting pop song because Vance Joy actually plays a ukulele right thru the song. If you want to check it out it is here.

I have now realised that I would have been able to do this one in Homecoming week, too, because Vance Joy has stated that the title, Riptide, actually refers to the name of a motel where his parents used to take the family for holidays when they were kids. The Riptide motel referred to is only a mile away from where I live.




I would love to have commented on more videos recently but have only been able to scratch the surface with my watching due to a shortage of data available this month. Loving them all anyway, as usual.
 
Be warned Ralf. Once I wrap my season up tomorrow you're getting bombarded with vids. My head's swimming with ideas.

Here's a quick one to get started though. A few months ago a chap called George Ezra released a song called Budapest and my girlfriend Louise and I instantly fell in love with it. So much so I just had to learn it, which I did a while ago. Been looking for an excuse to play it since. Here goes:

 
How will you deal with the conundrum of Adele singing a Bob Dylan song
Make you feel my love :)
A new version of a 20th-century song by a 21st-century artist is still a 20th-century song---so it's not for this Season. (But it's welcome on the Island of Misfit Seasonistas, naturally.)
 
Forgiveness

An original tune from 2013, written on guitar, translated to the ukulele.

 
Bad Things. Written and recorded by Jace Everett in 2005. Became the theme song to the HBO series True Blood.

 
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