Ellie's New Spotify Playlist

So I assume most people have heard this fantastic piece by the very famous Aretha Franklin, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, but not everyone, including myself before this, knows that this piece is actually  soul music . And what exactly is soul music? Well, let me tell you a little something (maybe more than a little something) about it! The origins of soul music began in the United States around the late 1950s, however, as an actual genre, soul music really emerged in the early 1960s due to the recruiting and support of Black artists from influential record labels. Roots of soul music lead back to traditional blues and gospel music of the Black church. African American musicians had been using the word "soul" to emphasize the feeling of being an African American in the United States.  Characteristics of gospel music in the soul genre include song structure, a heavy backbeat, chord changes, and call-and-response vocals between a lead singer and a chorus. Sam Cook...

Yay Concerts!! So I'm a pretty big fan of concerts, and I notice that they can be an important aspect of musical artists' careers. I'm no expert or analyst of them but I like to watch clips of concerts on TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram, and I sometimes come across videos or comments that compare the concerts of female and male artists. One particular point that often reoccurs is the difference in stage presence.   In general, women have a more diverse range of fashion and tend to change their looks (generally based on what's in trend) more frequently than men do. When at a fancy event, women are rarely seen wearing the exact same style and color of dress while men usually wear very similar-looking or the same design of suits. And to clarify, there's nothing bad about this difference, it's just what's normalized and preferred for both males and females. This is also often seen in concerts, especially with very popular artists, where female artists tend to have...