“Judas” by Lady Gaga (2011)

Song as controversial as fallen apostle Judas

Never was a Lady Gaga fan, but I love four of her songs: “Paparazzi”, “Alejandro”, “Bad Romance”, and “Judas”. Controversial, the music video for “Judas” was for its use of religious imagery and its irreverent and highly sexualized portrayal of Jesus Christ, which angered Christians.

Mary Magdalene (Lady Gaga) riding at the back of Jesus Christ (Rick Gonzalez)

"Judas" was one of the most anticipated singles of 2011, the same year that gave us Rebecca Black's “Friday”, Nicki Minaj's “Super Bass”, Demi Lovato's “Skyscraper”, and Girls Generation's “Mr. Taxi”. The song turned five last month, and writing this blog piece is my way of (post)celebration.

Blasphemous, the video may be in the eyes of Christians, but cool for me. It was mayhem meeting faith, prayer inspiring dance (or the other way round). The character Jesus was just being Jesus, meeting people and healing the sick. The character Judas was way badass, having good time with the crowd and picking fights while his Master was doing God's business.

Judas (Norman Reedus) kissing Jesus Christ (Rick Gonzalez)

Judas, a cool song anyway

"Judas" makes a good movie adaption, a relevant and modern retelling of the Passion of the Christ, but without the lipstick coming out of a gold-plated gun. That's way too silly.

"Judas" was released around the time when I was slowly gravitating towards Jpop. If I am not wrong, this could be the only song in English and from the West that I like in current times. I already loved it when it was released, and when I heard it full. It played more on my mind than Beyonce's “Best Thing I Never Had”, Carly Rae Jepsen's “Call Me Maybe”, and Eminem and Rihanna's “The Monster”.

I just discovered on the Internet some hits by Western artists but they were old songs and coming from artists I have not heard of before. And there was this one modern soundtrack, a remake of a rock classic by a singer of a genre that I rarely listen to. About that singer, it was 10 years since I first heard her.

"Summer Sunshine" by The Corrs (2004)

Memory of a great Irish folk rock band

I miss summer vacation, and I miss the songs that popped out many summers ago. I'm not talking about the singles of lady gaga or demi lovato.

I'm talking out this one, "Summer Sunshine" by the Irish band The Corrs. One talented lad plus three beautiful and equally talented ladies equal one great band, and they were gone. They make Irish / Celtic music sound cool. Like many artists of the yesteryears, they made good music...real music.

They are great musicians, them Corr siblings: Multi-talented, multi-instrumentalists, and good-looking too. They are one of the best music acts to come out of Ireland. The others include U2, Boyzone, Westlife and to some degree, B*Witched and Bellefire.

Back in high school, we played one of their popular songs for the prom dance. In the summer of 2004, "Summer Sunshine" came out, and a midnight music show played their songs almost every midnight for the whole summer. While going through this classic, I recalled a number of past songs. (They will be featured later in this blog.)

Too bad I hear less of The Corrs on the radio today. People now care about justin bieber, one direction, taylor swift, kanye west, nicky minaj, ariana grande, iggy azalea, etc. Even if these things combine, they would still end up less talented than The Corrs. Music is so relaxing back in the days, and it was all about music. But now... never mind.

Sorry, it's just another bout of generation gap. I have no right to criticize today's youth's choice of music. Blame it on the FM stations, blame it on the record shops and blame it on us elders who fail in our mission to spread good music.

But let today's youth know, music is all about music back in the days, not striptease and good looks.