Tag Archives: newmusicmonday

Summer Playlist 2015

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summerplaylistHappy Summer!  Time to refresh those playlists with some fun summer tunes from the Billboard Top 40!  Here is a list of songs I’ve mixed into my classes to keep them feeling updated.

That’s How We Do – Teen Beach Movie 2:  Super fun and upbeat song – would be great for a tap or jazz combination – currently using it in my 7-10 year old tap class

Drop That – Jacob Plant:  A nice funky electronic beat – fun for tap or hip hop – totally instrumental

You Know You Like It – DJ Snake & AlunaGeorge – have been using this in teen tap

This Feeling – L’Tric: A fun feel-good song – great for warm-ups

I Don’t Like It, I Love It (feat. Robin Thicke & Verdine White) – Flo Rida: My other go-to warm-up song

Fire Under My Feet – Leona Lewis:  A nice moderate tempo for tap or jazz

Fun (feat. Chris Brown) – Pitbull:  Another moderate tempo

Lean On (Remixes) [feat. MØ & DJ Snake] – EP – Major Lazer:  Steady beat for across the floor combos for older students

Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix Radio Edit) – Omi:  This song.  I have a love-hate relationship with it.  The kids love it and it has a nice calypso-y feel to it that makes it fun for tap, so I had to include it.  Be warned – this will be the song that plays over and over in your head when you go home for the night.

Rude (Acoustic) – MAGIC!:  This is from last summer, but I have been loving using the acoustic version for tap.  Such a fun little groove.

Enjoy!

What songs have you been obsessed with this summer?

NMM: Promise Land – Hannah Miller

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You know how you start on YouTube looking up a ballet step and then you end up down a weird alley of YouTube and don’t know how you got there?  Or is that just me?  Anyway, this time I ended up at drone videos of Chernobyl (what?), but at least I got this haunting song out of it.  Happy Monday!

iTunes link to Promise Land by Hannah Miller

And here is the drone video of Chernobyl:

New Music Monday: Maps (Maroon5 cover) by Madilyn Bailey

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Loving this cover by Madilyn Bailey of the Maroon 5 song, Maps.  I’ve been using it with my advanced tappers for a little combination.  My tappers call this style “lyrical tap” – when you tap to a song that could traditionally be for contemporary or lyrical.   I like that this song has a lot of pauses in it which are fun to fill with tap!

Grab this song on iTunes

Enjoy – happy Monday!

 

Refreshing Pop Song Covers: Postmodern Jukebox

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IPostmodern Jukebox regularly troll YouTube looking for covers of pop music, however when you search “cover + song title”, you inevitably end up with 100 acoustic covers done by anyone with a piano, guitar and a voice. Generally nothing too exciting, usually a slower version of the pop song.

Side note – if you ARE looking for acoustic covers of pop songs done really well, check out Boyce Avenue, Madilyn Bailey, and Savannah Outen.

Anyway, when I stumbled onto Postmodern Jukebox, I knew I had struck gold.  Pop songs with a vintage twist, they are such a unique cover band.  Do you like Doo Wop?  Ragtime? Swing? Ever wonder what pop songs would sound like if they were sung in speak-easies?  Yeah, me neither, but now I can’t stop listening.

Here are my three favorites (although it was very difficult to choose – check out their album, aptly named “Twist Is The New Twerk” on iTunes for more!):

We Can’t Stop:

Their doo-wop cover of “Timber” is pretty amazing as well.

A little jazzy version of “Careless Whisper” with a little “Take 5” thrown in there for fun:


And this last one has to be my favorite, simply because it includes tap dancing (!!!):


Grab their album on iTunes and listen on repeat!

The Dance Buzz is an iTunes affiliate.

New Music Monday: Torn – Nathan Lanier

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Another great instrumental track (see “Let It Go / Winter” mash-up from last month if you want another instrumental), here is “Torn” by Nathan Lanier.  It’s very “epic soundtrack-y” – I’m using it this year for a modern class who requested a dance where half could be good and half could be evil.  It seems to be suiting them well.

I believe it was used on SYTYCD a few seasons back, but haven’t seen it hit the competition circuit too hard yet, so I figured I’d share!

The Dance Buzz is an iTunes affiliate.

New Music Monday: Ballet Goes Pop

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Ballet MimeRecently got turned on to this album by Adult Beginner’s ballet music post (side note: if you don’t already read Adult Beginners’s blog, you should because she is awesome and its about ballet and other fun stuff!).

If you’re looking for some new stuff for this year’s ballet class, check it out!

Ballet Goes Pop – Album open in iTunes

Don’t miss frappes to Single Ladies, and grande allegro to I Kissed A Girl, adagio to Someone Like You.  I hope they make another series soon!

TDB is an iTunes affiliate.

New Music: Feelin’ Good – Christina Grimmie

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This song came on my iPod this morning on my drive to work and I couldn’t help tapping along to the steering wheel.  I think I’ll be using this song to warm-up to in the fall…enjoy!

Open in iTunes:  Feelin’ Good – With Love

By the way, her whole album With Love – Christina Grimmie is worth a listen.

Full disclosure: The Dance Buzz is an iTunes affiliate 🙂