Here we are, the first Monday of May! Hopefully those of you who have been impatiently waiting for true spring weather to arrive will have that now. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we’ve had lots of sunshine and no rain, so everything is springing forth in luscious beauty! I’ll need to get out there and take some pictures!

Meanwhile, it’s Monday, and Monday means music! This week is a freebie week, so grab your favorite tune(s) and dance along with us, won’t you? Let’s get this party started!

Let’s start with a new song from this favorite artist that I recently shared, but she released the official music video, and the song is so good, it’s definitely worth sharing again. Especially since this artist’s pre-concert routine includes some help from her 4-year-old daughter. The song was written for the upcoming animated movie “UglyDolls”, with this artist voicing the movie’s main character, Moxy, who learns to love her imperfections and discovers fitting in isn’t the answer to acceptance.

In the video, the artist’s daughter tries on a headband and does her mom’s makeup while she gets ready in her dressing room. The music video also shows the artist taking the stage with her animated counterpart as she offers a message of empowerment.

I know I’m superwoman / I know I’m strong / I know I’ve got this because I’ve had it all along / I’m phenomenal / I’m enough / I don’t need you to tell me who to be

Words to live by.

Here’s the inimitable Kelly Clarkson with “Broken & Beautiful”:

Next up is a song that finds this singer reminding himself and the listener not to look past all the good things in their lives, but to grab all the happiness while they can.

This mornin’ I got up at 6:01 / I walked out and saw the rising sun / And I drank it in like whiskey / I saw a tree I’ve seen a thousand times / A bird on a branch and I watched it fly away in the wind / And it hit me / It’s a beautiful world sometimes I don’t see so clear

The artist was quoted as saying:

“When you live on the road, there’s very few days you’re living. Most of your time you crash in the hotel room. It’s dark, it’s lonesome, you’re hungover. You’re tired. You’re missing stuff. We try to live every day. No matter what we do, we try to do something that makes us feel like we’re living. That’s how this song came about.”

“Whole days would go by where you never leave the bus and all you would see is the back parking lot of the arena. Going to Walgreens was a big deal! That is when the idea was born that there is a true difference between being alive and actually ‘living.'”

“It’s not about skydiving or bull riding. It’s about just, it could be just watching your kid play hockey and being focused on that and not watching your iPhone. It could be just appreciating that it’s sunny outside and taking a moment to recognize that.”

The song’s music clip features the video debut of the singer’s five-year-old son. We see the pair have a fun-packed day that includes karate, go-carts, going out for ice cream and a waterpark. He explained:

“Knox is at that age where he can still find the biggest joy in the smallest things. That childlike appreciation for life is the spirit I wanted to bring to this video to remind us of difference between just being alive and actually ‘living.'”

Get ready for some “Awwww!” moments – here’s Dierks Bentley with “Living”:

Next up, this married duo is taking fans inside their personal lives in their new video. They traveled to the husband’s hometown of Miami, Oklahoma, to shoot the new clip at the Coleman Theater. The video intersperses footage of the married singers singing the song alone on stage in the palatial theater with home movies to weave a very personal story.

Shakespeare sure knew how to write down / Words that will live throughout time / And that Eiffel Tower’s still standing / Was built to be one of a kind / Da Vinci’s got his Mona Lisa / And Beethoven’s got his symphonies / But you’re my masterpiece

The video draws on childhood home movies, film from their wedding and some videos of their own three-year-old son, Cooper, to create a timeline of their family across multiple generations. The husband of the duo spent a week going through reels of film that his father shot between 1973 and 1985 to choose the footage. He was quoted as saying:

“There’s nothing cooler to me than that old eight-millimeter look. We wanted to tell a story of a generational kind of thing with [this song]. About how Cooper is our masterpiece, and how I and my sister were my parents’ masterpiece and so on, and we thought it would be a really cool way to do it, by incorporating some of that eight-millimeter footage and shooting it in my hometown.”

Get ready to be entertained, here’s Thompson Square with “Masterpiece”:

Last, but definitely not least, is a brand new song this favorite artist released just over a week ago – I was so ecstatic that she finally released a new one, that’s for sure! It’s an empowering song about self-love and acceptance which resurrects the vibrant euphoria of this artist’s earlier pop hits. It is a stark turn from her 2017 album which featured much darker material.

Now the artist is feeling good about herself. You can’t spell “awesome” without “me.” The song finds her self-confident and in total control.

Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh / I’m the only one of me / Baby, that’s the fun of me

The artist is now older and more mature, and has come to the realization that it is her flaws that makes her unique. She said that the song is about “not feeling like you’re replaceable.”

“I feel like we’re sent so many messages every day that there’s a better version of yourself on a social media app with better abs in a better vacation spot. But you’re the only one of you. That’s it – there’s just you.”

“‘[This song]’ is a song about embracing your individuality and really celebrating it and owning it. I think that with a pop song, we have the ability to get a melody stuck in people’s heads, and I just want it to be one that makes them feel better about themselves.”

The song finds artist being accompanied by one of the members of a band that Princess Nagger and I both love. The artist said that the band member is one of her favorite performers and had hoped to find the right thing to collaborate on. When she wrote the chorus for this song, she knew she had found just the tune for the singer.

The colorful video starts off with a snake representing her Reputation album. Just as the reptile strikes to recoil, it bursts into butterflies, signifying the artist has let go of her grudges, and is ready to have fun again.

We then see the pop star and guest star as a French couple bickering about their “children” – the artist’s real-life cats. After the singer angrily storms out of the room, the clip turns into a pastel dream featuring the two in a series of song and dance sequences.

Without further ado, here’s Taylor Swift featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco with “ME!”:

That’s a wrap for this week – see you on the dance floor!

Now on to the particulars of Monday’s Music Move’s Me:   PhotobucketI have the supreme honor and privilege of being a co-host with the inimitable Xmas Dolly and our musical cohort, the awesome Cathy from Curious as a CAThy, and while our beloved Callie of JAmerican Spice is taking a break, our friend Michelle from Musings and Merriments with Michelle is helping out with hostess duties!

Want to join in the fun? It’s easy – just find a tune that rocks your boat, post it and link up – don’t forget to grab Xmas Dolly…er, um, I mean her button…over at her place here. Check out Xmas Dolly’s sidebar for the random themes we sport each week – and you can always ask for a specific theme of music you like, too. Check out the other music lovahs and let’s jam!



6 Comments

  1. Thanks for the concert and the write-ups for each video. It’s nice to have some background info. 🙂 An interesting, eclectic mix of genres. Kelly Clarkson is one of my favourites, too.

    Have a great week!

  2. Wow, wow, wow Stacy! I have definitely missed your always awesome 4M posts! This one is terrific and is introducing me to a few new-to-me songs. The Kelly Clarkson song & video I was familiar with: I so love her message. Wouldn’t it be nice if the whole world could see all people this way, with the imperfections being beautiful? I’m sure the movie is a very positive influence for the kids.

    My favorite for sure is Dierks Bentley’s “Living”. What a fabulous song and video. How lucky is his son, to have a Dad like Dierks?! What a fun father! And a great philosophy: we should all be taking stock of what’s in front of us every single day, all the beauty that we miss as the world passes us by while we’re so crazy busy. I’m yearning for the day when I can stop long enough to have time to appreciate it all.

    And I adore Taylor Swift! I so admire that girl. She is the gold standard of how to manage life and money as a pop star. I like her new song. The music video is fun and colorful and one that I would watch several times over (the same goes with Dierk’s video).

    It’s fun to be back. Your posts are always terrific. Have a great week,

    Michele at Angels Bark

  3. Your music always cheers or peps or challenges me, and i appreciate that!

  4. Stacy,

    Did you and Marie get together to boost Kelly’s song this week? lol It’s a new2me tune and I find it to have a rather catchy melody. I have not heard of the singing married couple Thompson Square. Taylor Swift’s mewsic videos are always fun to watch. ‘Me’ is a happy little ditty. Thanks for co-hosting this mewsic gig with me every week. Have a boogietastic week, my friend! 😉

  5. My favorite of all the videos was the Kelly Clarkson video. I love that message. The Dierks Bentley video – although I think it’s a great message I have mixed feelings about this. I wondered, with his Dad out on the road, how many days does the young 5 year old actually get to be with his Dad, and here as a day with him being followed by cameras? I just wonder. I also enjoyed the beginning of Taylor Swift’s video with the snake turning into butterflies. Thompson Square was new to me. Hope you had a great week!

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