Unique Musical Finds

Elijah Wood and Bushmills

I haven't met every fangirl out there, but I still feel I can confidently say that I have more of a celebrity crush on actor Elijah Wood than any other female on this planet. Not only is he an incredibly attractive and great actor, he's a brilliant person and, to my exuberance, an obsessive collector and lover of music. Check out this video of a vinyl album he's putting together and bask in the glow of his love of music - and his explanation of what music means to him. 

Hawaiian music special

My dad is really into traditional Hawaiian and ukelele music, so I decided to do a little bit of exploring on YouTube to find some Hawaiian music. I immediately stumbled across a girl playing a beautiful Hawaiian hymn, and just knew I had to include it on this page. That made me think of one of my favorite films, Disney's "Lilo & Stitch," and an endearing scene from the movie where the older sister character sings a song of goodbye to her little sister, whom she is about to lose custody of. I also stumbled across the song "Ali'ipoe," played by a girl with an enchanting voice. The videos are unfortunately not placed below in the order here that I've mentioned them, since technology despises me, as do all inanimate objects, but I hope you will enjoy this beautiful form of music! 

African woman plays a guitar in a very unique way

African people have been the best innovators in music, ever. This video shows an African woman taking something as simple and Western as a six-string guitar and giving it her own new, intricate twist. Beautiful!

Radiohead's "Creep" played on a theremin

Being a dedicated Radiohead fan, I was overjoyed when I stumbled across this video. A theremin is a hands-free electrical instrument that is played by manipulating frequencies in the air around an antenna. It was invented by Russian inventor, Leon Theremin in the 1920s. Its sound was used in horror and sci-fi films and a Beach Boys' song, "Good Vibrations." I bought my dad a mini-theremin for Christmas, and was searching YouTube for videos demonstrating the playing of a theremin. When I found this iconic Radiohead song being played on the theremin, I was ecstatic! It truly is a unique thing to see and hear.

"Unite" by Vose

"Unite" is categorized by YouTubers as being within the genre of 'chillstep,' which is like the modern electronic music style, dubstep, but is meant to be more somber and relaxing than dubstep. I really love this song because it combines good music with a terrific speech of Charlie Chaplin's from the film "The Great Dictator." The instrumentation itself is nice, and the speech itself is good, but both are exponentially more emotionally effective when combined with one another. It's also a bit crazy to combine such a modern style of music -that kind that makes adults of previous generations, clutching their rock 'n roll records, believe that the world of music is going down the drain- with such a 'vintage' personality as Chaplin. "Unite" truly is a unique and moving piece of music that causes this blogger to look at the Earth from outer space and think...