Greetings and salutations everyone! If you're reading this, then you already know what's coming. It is indeed time for Values Week 2024! It's a time of celebration for ourselves and everything we do here. One of the pillars of these values, and the main topic of this blog, is Inclusion. Music is a ubiquitous phenomenon, something etched within our collective psyche and the global nature of the Stars program encapsulates this. We represent the different vibrant cultures and different people from all over the world and together, we form a colourful tapestry of thoughts and emotions. To celebrate all of this, let's delve into this nice collection of tunes and explore the wide variety of music that inspires our lovely Stars and us.
The continuation of life hinges upon the efforts of the young generation and keeping the flame of music alive is no different. In light of this, let's hand over the spotlight to our newest members of the Star program first. Starting with @Anyk17:
"Baila Morena is a song I use to start my day. I love its energy, it's just what I need to get in a good mood and face any upcoming challenges.
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This is a Salsa group from Colombia I really love. My hometown, Cali, is known as a Salsa capital and I think sharing this song is a great way to share a bit about myself with you all
Disclaimer: I'm not a great salsa dancer despite my upbringing 😅 While my roots are usually associated to Salsa, my heart found its true rhythm in the tunes of Rock 🤘
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Thank you very much for the fiery tracks! Let's keep the party going with our next cadet, @susanglezs:
"This song immediately makes me think about kindness and compassion. I hope to spread that too!
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Spreading kindness is what we do, I'm sure this will help us towards that goal! The flame is burning bright so let's pass this over to @Jose_M:
"I'm from southern Spain, the region of Andalusia, so I had to bring some flamenco songs. Flamenco music originated here, with the influence of Arab, Jewish, Christian and Romany cultures.
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And more specifically, there is a music style typical in my city Seville, called Sevillanas. We sing and dance to them all the time during the Fair of April, one of the most important (if not the biggest) events of my city.
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What an awesome cultural selection, thank you! Our worldwide travels are far from over though, because here is @Bittencourt to enrich us on some more world cultures:
"I've been listening to a lot of African music lately, and I though it would be nice to add a couple of songs from this amazing continent, which unfortunately has been struggling with a wide range of social and economic problems in the past centuries. I guess inclusion can significantly benefit Africa in so many ways.
From Ghana:
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From Algeria (Zohra she is considered as a heroine in the Algerian War of Independence against French colonization)
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What a global palette you have, thank you! From transatlantic beats, let's go to something much closer to home, first courtesy of @osornios:
"Shakira recording not one, but two Regional Mexican tracks can only mean the genre is here to stay. I'm still surprised on how it has gone global so fast.
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The Warning are three mexican sisters that rock. They are living proof that when it comes to music, there are no boundaries.
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Muchas gracias for these fire tracks! Now let's go across the Atlantic and go even closer to the roots with @Luan:
"This song from Baco Exu do Blues is a huge criticism of racism in Brazil and the world. It was so successful that the official music clip got a Cannes Lions Festival prize in the music entertainment category aside from Childish Gambino with "This is America" back in 2018. Baco is a young rapper here from Bahia (my state).
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I chose this one, because "Alegria, Alegria" was an iconic song from Caetano Veloso released during the unfortunate military dictatorship that ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985. This song brings the geniality of Veloso because of many subliminal criticisms of the regime. This song was also part of an art movement in Brazil at that time called Tropicália, recognized around the world. Just for curiosity, Caetano Veloso is also from Bahia (my state here in Brazil).
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Very moving stuff, Luan. It's always important to stay in touch with your roots and support your own culture and people. Thank you for sharing these powerful stories with us. Life experience matters and sharing it is vital to our prosperity, with that, let's enjoy this in depth musical education from our favourite veteran @Soundofus:
''With this listening party, we are celebrating Inclusion. Here in the Spotify Community, I think that we can consider that Stars, across varying identities and whatever their age, are and feel valued, welcomed, respected, represented and included in full.
One of our common passions is Music. By our origin, we all have roots and Music also has roots. I used to say that without the past we wouldn't be who we are now. It's exactly the same for Music. The knowledge of the past is very important to understand the evolution of Music.
That's why, personally, I will never deny the past neither say : "it was better before...". There is good and bad in all generations. That's the reason why I am always looking for new bands and new sounds.
For illustrating what I said I have chosen 3 songs by the same band which have enlightened different periods of my life and that I always listen with the same pleasure. Yes, that's true, I am the oldest of the Community's Stars. But as a french proverb says : "it's in the old pot that we make the best soup..." 😃
When I was a teenager I started to plunge in what will follow me till the end... I was listening this 4 tracks vinyl 45 rpm.
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When I was a young adult ready to get married, my collection was growing. I could buy full albums and I was listening this particular song because I was in love with the guitar solo of Mick Taylor.
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And finally last year we had the chance to get a delightful surprise with a totally new album that we didn't expect anymore. As an eclectic fan of different genres and a lover of harmonies and Soul voices I enjoyed listening to it.
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Lastly, I would like that everyone keep in mind that they should... "Never Stop Listening To Music That Will Keep You Forever Young..." 🎶"
What an awesome musical journey that was, thank you so much! I also believe that proverb about the old pot hold a lot of merit. The Rolling Stones have a special place in my heart as well and I consider them among the greatest music artists in history. In fact let me add to the list of Stones songs with this incredible performance from their iconic concert in Cuba:
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With this, let's keep the classic flowing. @AdamDamon is here to take the wheel and steer us through some awesome musical landscapes:
"I’m sharing a couple of songs from my Spotify library for the listening party, each representing one of my two favorite genres of music these days: stoner rock and psychedelic rock. They’re both instrumental, perhaps not surprisingly as it seems that I increasingly prefer instrumental music over music with vocals; and each is also under 4 minutes, so as not to take up too much time during the listening party.
Kyuss were one of the very first and most influential stoner rock bands, so they seem to me like an obvious choice to represent this genre, and “Molten Universe” is one of my favorite songs of theirs. I think it features some amazing riffs, and I dig the song’s bass-heavy distorted sound as well.
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This is my favorite song by the UK-based psychedelic rock band Gryflet. I appreciate the upbeat and relatively simple yet effective electric guitar melodies, as well as how the bass and layers of different guitar tones harmonize together to create an atmosphere that I find to be pleasantly dreamlike and relaxing.
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Epic tracks as always, thanks a bunch! Here's some more bangers to keep the party going, courtesy of @MattSuda
"No real reason behind these songs. Couldn't decide so I just chose a few favorite songs from my library that have "Stars" in the title to celebrate Values Week
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Sometimes, you just feel it and it works, no description is needed. Thanks! Oh, and here's Moderator @Kiril to add one more epic dose of fuel to this fire of passion:
"Blessings fall from the sky and gratitude is must!
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What a wonderful celebration this was! Naturally, in the short moment we have available here, we can barely scratch the surface of what music is out there. But I believe that even then, we managed to showcase the vastness and richness of the music that inspires us and the different ways of thinking they birth within us all. Hope you enjoyed this musical odyssey. Here's to a great celebration for all of Values Week!
