Tag: Music

I Was There: The Influence of the Grunge Movement in Popular Media

Posted on by A.P. Miller in Blog

Recently, I was doom-scrolling TikTok (add me, @Millerverse), and the question was posed: “who is more influential, Taylor Swift? Or Kurt Cobain?” A lot of folks said Taylor Swift—and I’m not knocking them, at their age, Taylor Swift has been a point of influence—but I disagree. I started to film a response, but honestly, the diatribe was meant for my blog.

There are a few misconceptions the Pro-Cobain movement has incorrect:

  • Nirvana didn’t invent Grunge; they were certainly the mainstream catalyst of Grunge’s embrace, but they weren’t the first ones to don flannel & play through sub-par equipment.
  • “Influence,” in context of the question asked, isn’t necessarily the fact that people are still wearing their merchandise—I still see people wearing AC/DC, Ramones, Misfits, etc. I would agree that Kurt Cobain was more influential than Taylor Swift, just not for that reason.
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The Tao of Making a Mixtape (or Playlist)

Posted on by A.P. Miller in Blog

I have to be honest: I love that the younger generation is getting into older stuff. Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” topping the charts again because of Stranger Things is a prime example. My motives for loving this trend are completely egotistical—I feel like I’m not getting old as fast as I am. When I’m buying alcohol and the cashier only has to see the year I was born begins with a 1, it takes a toll on the youthful spirit.

With this resurgence of vintage tastes, like vinyl records becoming more popular than they ever were, it’s only going to be a matter of time before people start making mixtapes like they used to. For my purposes, mixtape shall be defined as a curation of music applied to a physical or digital medium for the sake of communicating feelings or in the hopes of discovering unifying musical tastes. A mixtape could be a cassette, a burned CD, or a Spotify playlist.

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A Season in Hell – A Summer Playlist

Posted on by A.P. Miller in Blog

By now, it’s universally agreed that 2020 was a leaking bag of crap. It would be tacky to go on a rant about it now. What I will do is declare that 2021 will not suck by any such metric. This year I am dedicated to getting my much more slender ass to the beaches of North Carolina. I’m going to get sunburnt, I am going to get water in my ears, and I am going to fall in love with the sound of the water hitting the sand again.

As a storyteller, I am all about setting a mood, good or bad. One of the easiest ways to pull at the heartstrings during a yarn is to use sounds or music. Being that I am so dedicated to such an emotional summer, I found it only fitting to put together a playlist I can listen to on the beach, while I’m just hanging out, or sitting pensively in my writing room, cranking out my latest opus.

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The Write Stuff: My Writing Playlist

Posted on by A.P. Miller in Blog

By now it’s no secret that I have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). While that is serious, it is manageable, I just have to put certain tools and process into place in order to maintain my levels of productivity. One of my favorite dopamine producing activities while I write is listening to music.

This is another divisive issue among writers — some have to listen to music while they write, others find it distracting. I am someone that has to listen to music, it helps me shift into my creative headspace. Here’s why my brain becomes the ever-loving pain in the ass that it has been: it just be any music I’m listening to, it has to be the right music. It has to be energetic and heavy, melodic and pleasing to the ear. It came to a point where I had to program a specific playlist that my brain could immediately snap to writing mode to.

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Garage Band Marketing For Independent Writers

Posted on by A.P. Miller in Blog

[DISCLAIMER]: This blog post might not be the most interesting to read, unless you have aspirations to be a writer (then AWESOME! Let me know if I can be helpful in any way), are a small business owner, or are really into business concepts. I apologize for it being so loooooooong, I am just really passionate about the idea. We will return to our regularly scheduled mayhem and chicanery next week!

As an independent and self-published author, I have found that there is a lot of benefit in being active in the writing communities across social media platforms. It may seem like an innocuous congregation of creative people communicating with kindred spirits, but it’s also a crucial business concept otherwise known as “networking.” Writers come together to discuss matters of style, mechanics of grammar, storytelling approaches, and how to get people to know about your work. Apply that description to a business application: people are coming together to talk about materializing an idea, the process of assembling the product, and marketing the product. Two seemingly different worlds, but identical concepts.

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