Question1: The Podcast that I chose to listen to is “Heat Rocks episode 114: Phil Yu on Boyz II Men’s II (1994) redux”. I chose this episode to listen to because I know the band and a couple of their songs, however, I don’t know much about them. I wanted some familiarity when listening to people talk about a band, but also wanted to learn new things about them as well. I would say I am somewhat familiar with the band as far as knowing the name and their hit songs, but that’s about it. I found it really interesting that in their second album they covered the Beatles song “Yesterday”. To cover a Beatles song, let alone one of their biggest hits, shows how much Boyz II Men believed in their voices. What I found most interesting about this segment was how Morgan highlighted that they covered the song, but put their own twist on it which made it successful. “And I think if you’re going to cover them, you got to do it differently like Boyz II Men did it, which was rife with harmonies” (Heat Rocks, 2019). I also found it interesting how Boyz II Men was boy band, but most people do not put them into that category. Oliver brought up that the reason for this could be because of race, “I mean, we haven’t really talked about this, but I was thinking about this when Phil was mentioning that Boyz II Men was a boy band, but you don’t think of them being a boy band. I think partly because the term I think tends to get reserved for white groups” (Hear Rocks, 2019). This caught my attention because usually when people talk about Boyz II Men they talk about the group as a R&B group rather than a boy band. I have not noticed that until I listened to this Podcast. (Word Count: 318)
Question 2: If there was a catastrophic event that took place that only left me with twenty-four hours to live on Earth the two albums, I would listen to are All Eyez on Me by Tupac Shakur and Boston by Boston. The reason that I picked All Eyez on Me by Tupac Shakur is because this album has gotten me through many different times in my life. There is a variety of different styles of songs on this album, some have lyrics that allow me to think such as Life Goes On and I Aint Mad at Cha. There are also songs on this album that are party songs that remind me to enjoy life such as California Love and How Do You Want it featuring KC and Jojo. The variety of styles in this album is a big reason that I would choose Tupac’s album. Boston by Boston is a great album that I grew up listening to. The songs on this album are fast and fun to listen to, but the lyrics are great as well. The song Piece of Mind is one of the main reasons that I chose this album, the lyrics and message in this song is very powerful to me personally. These two albums are what I would listen to if the world was ending in two day because of their role they played when I was growing up and the messages the lyrics carry. (Word Count: 241)