cdr4321

I am doing some personal research on tracking the rise of musicians via the Twitter API. Right now I was looking at the artist Maggie Rogers. I believe I have the query, but I can't get results because I don't have Enterprise access to the Twitter API. I think the query would look something like this in Python.

tweets = tweepy.Cursor(api.search_tweets, q='maggie rogers', lang='en', since='2016-03-01', until='2020-12-31', tweet_mode='extended').items()

Could anybody try to grab this for me?

For decades, number ones were frequently in keys like C and G. This made sense. Those keys were convenient to use on both the guitar and piano, the most common compositional instruments at the time.

But then after 1990, things go haywire. Nearly all keys are used at the same frequency in number one hits. At the same time, songwriters stopped using key changes. In fact, the only number on hit to use a key change during the 2010s was Travis Scott's "SICKO MODE". The author of this piece connects the change to the rise of both hip-hop and digital audio production. The whole piece is worth checking out.

Do you think key selection matters in popular music? Do you like key changes? Do you wish songwriters would start using them more frequently again?

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There's a pretty famous video of Timbaland and Jay-Z working on Jay-Z's song "Dirt Off Your Shoulder". You can watch it here. Basically, Timbaland is showing Jay-Z a bunch of beats, but Jay isn't completely taken by any of them. Then he plays what would become "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" and Jay sort of freaks out and, then Jay-Z adds vocals. It's a cool way to see into the creative process. In this case, it seems like a true 50:50 collaboration between the two. Are you aware of any other videos that allow a peak into the creation of a song? What do you think it reveals about the song and the artists?

There's a million things to praise Prince for. He played nearly every instrument both tastefully and masterfully. He was a chameleon, easily moving between genres. His voice was literally once in a generation. Recently, I've started to appreciate him as a lyricist though. While I wouldn't put him in the same class as people like Dylan and Springsteen, I think he was a very precise lyricist and extremely gifted at evoking memorable images. Below I list some of my favorite lines and why I like them.

• "In France, a skinny man died of a big disease with a little name" - Sign O the Times - Not much to say here. Using skinny, big, and little to describe a single man creates quite the image. In fact, I think he often utilizes juxtaposition to great effect in many songs.

• "You don't have to be rich/To be my girl/You don't have to be cool/To rule my world/Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with/I just want your extra time and your" - Kiss - The word 'extra' makes this whole lyric. It clearly highlights the lustful quality of the relationship he is looking for.

• "It's been seven hours and thirteen days/Since you took your love away" - Nothing Compares 2 You - Using the very specific 'seven hours and thirteen days' really highlights the pain of lost love that he is trying to capture

• "I knew a girl named Nikki I guess you could say she was a sex fiend/I met her in a hotel lobby masturbating with a magazine" - Darling Nikki - Often obscene, the image here is hard to forget.

• "I was working part time in a five-and-dime/My boss was Mr. McGee/He told me several times that he didn't like my kind/Cause I was a bit too leisurely/Seems that I was busy doing something close to nothing/But different than the day before/That's when I saw her, ooh, I saw her/She walked in through the out door, out door" - Raspberry Beret - Prince again uses juxtaposition to create a memorable image (i.e. 'in through the out door' and 'something close to nothing'). Also, worth noting the internal rhymes within lines. The name 'Mr. McGee' also injects some humor.

I could go on. What are your favorite Prince lyrics and why? Do you think of him as a talented lyricist? Or do you find his music too preoccupied with sex?