Massive Attack - Teardrop

In the year 1998, long before anyone had even conceived of the television series House (which uses a portion of this song as its opening theme), the already-popular British band Massive Attack released the album Mezzanine. The song peaked at the #10 spot on the UK Singles Chart.

The popularity of Teardrop led to its usage in many shows and films, most notably that of House (as I mentioned before). The heartbeat-rhythm bass drum beat at the opening and closing of the song make it into the House opening theme, and the rest is history.

You can catch some vocals in the song from Elizabeth Fraser, who sang with the Cocteau Twins. Check it out below, and if you like it, then bookmark it. I did so myself so that I can listen to this while I'm studying for my college classes, but you can use it for just about anything!

Russia battles Britain back in Eurovision with some aged artists of their own

Less than a week ago, I posted about about how the studied country of U.K. chose Engelbert Humperdinck for the Eurovision contest to be held on May 26 in Baku, Azerbaijan. If you do not remember the post, here is a quick refresher on Humperdinck:

The Russian contestants, Buranovskiye Babushki

"The United Kingdom has made the choice of whom will attend the big Eurovision competition this year, and it is an older artist by the name of Arnold Dorsey, better known (if only somewhat) by his stage name, Engelbert Humperdinck. This guy is, believe it or not, seventy-five years old, and his big hit was back in 1967!"

While Great Britain may chide the contest and increasingly pay less attention to the usually high-grade competition, it seems Russia is taking it very seriously. Just days after the decision by the English to put ol' Humperdinck up for Eurovision, Russia responded with their selection of old stars.

UK chooses ol' Humperdinck as their Eurovision contestant

The United Kingdom has made the choice of whom will attend the big Eurovision competition this year, and it is an older artist by the name of Arnold Dorsey, better known (if only somewhat) by his stage name, Engelbert Humperdinck. This guy is, believe it or not, seventy-five years old, and his big hit was back in 1967!

Despite his age, the BBC, who pick the contestants for the U.K., have serious faith in good ol' Humperdinck to win the competition that many British people dismiss at a bit silly. However, it seems that Humperdinck and some other big voices are taking it quite seriously: they hope that Eurovision will shine a light on the political problems plaguing the hosting country, Azerbaijan.

"The competition takes place on May 26 in Baku, Azerbaijan, where it has generated considerable excitement but also seen the country's human rights record come under closer international scrutiny."

-Yahoo! News

Few music competitions in the entire world can compare to the huge, international contest that Eurovision is. It takes the European countries that participate in the European Broadcasting Union, and lets them all duke it out (musically, of course) against each other to see who will take home number one for the year.

So is Humperdinck their first win in fifteen years? We will just have to wait and see, on May 26!

Modestep - Sunlight

Time to move on back to the electronic category again! Rock, hip-hop, and even what some may consider rap has made its way onto this blog, so there is quite the variety -- but we can always return to our much loved genre of electronic music, starting it off with Sunlight by Modestep.

Modestep is a London-based British band, whose songs are in the dubstep (and general electronic) range. Though they are not profusely popular throughout the globe, they have definitely made a name for themselves in the UK scene, and even the American dubstep scene.

Check out the music video below, from the official UKFDubstep channel on YouTube:

Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground

Here is a song that you may have heard of sometime on the radio, or maybe even on some obscure cassette mix-tape. This song is actually a hit from way back in 1996, believe it or not, by the British trip-hop band Sneaker Pimps. Oh yeah, we are going back far here for this one! ;]

Believe it or not, this song was more popular a whole year after it was released than when it first reached the charts, and no lie, 6 Underground re-emerged on the charts in Britain after being in an American film. If that was not weird enough for you, it then proceeded to show up in films across the mainstream cinema scene for almost fifteen years, most recently making an appearance in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

Sneaker Pimps is not an exceedingly well known band, even if their song 6 Underground is. The members of the band proceeded to make side projects and a few other albums into the new millennium, but nothing quite reached the popularity of 6 Underground. To be fair, though, they did make it on the charts with each of their successive albums, but not much has been heard of the band since.

Check 'em out!