MOST STREAMED ARTISTS, SONGS AND ALBUMS IN 2021

 

Happy New Year, everyone! May 2022 be better than its predecessors (fingers crossed).  If 2020 was the year that turned the world on its head, 2021 was the year we got used to seeing things upside down. With "normal" thrown out the window, people all over the world have begun to embrace the unknown and, in doing so, have championed all the things that make each of us unique. Not so bad, then.

SABATON: THE LAST STAND OF METAL ROCK

Hello everybody I’m Francesco and today I will tell you about one of my favourite albums in the metal music world: “The last stand” by  Swedish band  Sabaton.

This album is about famous last stands in history; a last stand is for definition a battle where a small defensive force holds apposition against a much more powerful attacking force.

There are ten songs in this album, and I would like to talk about each one of them.

The first one is “Sparta”; it’s about the battle at the Hot Gates (“Thermopylae” in English and “Thermopylon” in ancient Greek). In this last stand there were about 5, 000 Greek hoplites led by king Leonidas of Sparta and his 300 Spartans against 500,000 Persians of Xerxes I. It took place in August 480 b.C. and lasted three days. The Greeks fought bravely but a traitor called Ephialtes showed to the Persians a way back to defenders. A lot of Greeks retreated covered by Leonidas and his 300 men, who fought until they were killed by the Persian horde.

HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT COLDPLAY? (PART ONE)

ARE COLDPLAY DIFFERENT FROM OTHER BANDS?

OF COURSE! Coldplay were a surprisingly new phenomenon when they started back in 1996. 20 years ago!!! Music journalists have written that the band doesn't quite fit in with the current popular-music landscape. Their soulful, haunting, intelligent songs have set them apart from bubblegum pop stars, aggressive rap artists. Also the lead singer, Chris, is far from the lifestyle of a stereotypical rock star: he doesn’tt take drugs, he doesn’t distaste alcohol, but he never had a bad lifestyle.

In an article in Maclean's magazine, Coldplay guitarist John Buckland said “ connecting to listeners on an emotional level is the most important thing in music for us. We're not really the cool, detached kind of people; we're really passionate about what we're doing." At Coldplay's official website, Chris Martin explained the band's choice: "We were trying to say that there is an alternative. That you can try to be catchy without being slick, poppy without being pop, and you can be uplifting without being pompous.... We wanted to be a reaction against soulless rubbish."

Here is a cool video featuring Chris Martin. Recently he has taken part in a funny show with James Corden which is very famous in the USA, the "Carpool Karaoke"!