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Stories in Beat that you’ll love, handpicked by our team.

Seventy Years of Soundtrack
As I rock ‘n’ roll toward my seventieth birthday, I can’t help but reflect upon all the music I listened to, that helped get me through these past seven decades on the planet. I have lived through the 1950s where Elvis and Buddy Holly changed the face of popular music forever. I spent the 1960s in grade school and welcomed the sights and sounds of the Beatles and the Stones and the Supremes in the lower grades and felt the (flower) power of the Haight-Ashbury scene and Dylan, Eric Burdon and the Spoonful as I reached my last year in Grade 12. In the first half of the 1970s, I attended university and met new friends who introduced me to new music from the Dead and Zappa. I was around when the icons of rock music died – Hendrix and Morrison and Joplin – and I remember how their music moved me and how it changed the way I looked at the world. In the second half of the 1970s, I became a farmer and Cash and Owens and Haggard and Kristofferson became my minstrels of choice. Eventually, they gave way to the sounds from Elton John and Purple Sagers, Prairie Leaguers, Daredevils and Eagles. In the 1980s, I started my work life as a teacher and, out of necessity, or convenience – I’m not sure which – I began listening to Steve Earle and Hank Williams Jr. The Boss and Billy Joel and Elton John, Van Halen, Police and Duran Duran. By the time the 1990s were well into swing, my music collection had transformed mysteriously into a Country & Western collection with contributions from Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Martina, Reba and so many others. At the turn of the century, I began to cultivate my once-long-ago attraction to Canadian artists. Gordon Lightfoot and Neil Young, The Hip and Blue Rodeo along with Joni Mitchell and Bruce Cockburn became my ‘musique de jour’. In 2011, I remarried and moved to China. While in Asia, my wife's performance background in music, helped me to become reacquainted with all of the music I had listened to for the first 60 years of my life. It was then, I came up with the idea of listing 30 songs and/or albums that were most meaningful to my life to that point. The list I came up with is featured below. The songs are not listed chronologically as far as their release dates are concerned but rather in the order of my life when I used them to help explain and narrate my day-to-day world. Neither are the songs listed in order of importance or personal popularity. No song on the list is any more or less important than any other song – just like no friend or family member is any more or less important than any other – they all contributed to who I have become, and they should all be included in the soundtrack of "ME". I have also included one short personal blurb with each entry on the list, to tell a little about my life and to demystify why the song was important to me.
John Oliver Smith
Published 4 days ago in Beat
20 Songs That Totally Prove the 1970s Really Did Rock
As a proud member of Generation X, my teen years were heavily influenced by the punk and New Wave of the early 1980s. But the music that forms the core of who we are and what we like usually happens well before those teen years (my Springsteen epiphany occurred at nine years old with the 1975 release of “Born to Run”). So while I have previously written about great ‘80s bands like the Smiths and 10,000 Maniacs as well as more Bruce articles than any one person should, I have not given nearly enough attention to the fabulous decade that was the 1970s, my decade of discovery.
Paul Combs
Published 10 days ago in Beat
Songs About Youthfulness
There is a Youtube Playlist of all the songs in this list at the end of the article. What is youthfulness? Pedants may say it is the quality of being young and tie it in with a particular stage of our life. We start as infants, go through childhood, teenage years, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, middle age, and so on. One’s youth might range from adolescence through young adulthood, those years pivotal in laying out the path into mature adulthood.
Marco den Ouden
Published 12 days ago in Beat
Lasers at Dawn: As Good as Therapy
You've probably heard a lot of different things about rave culture— eccentric people wearing wild outfits dancing in darkened rooms filled with booming bass, lasers, and ardent drug-fueled energy... as much as there is to be said about stereotypes in how the scene is depicted by mainstream culture, that's not the story I'm here to share today. I'm here to share the story of how the admittedly eccentric but often misrepresented scene made a lasting impact on my life journey.
Federica Brandi
Published 17 days ago in Beat
The Art of Feeling Alive With Medicinal Music
Ecstatic Dance is a movement. It’s where a community of spiritually enlightened individuals come together to express themselves through the art of dance. The therapeutic sounds of Ecstatic Dance have intentions of empowering people from all walks of life to surrender, quiet the mind, and become in tune with their soul connection.
Susie Pinon
Published 18 days ago in Beat
It’s Time to Celebrate: Britney’s Finally Free!
This has been the news that Britney’s fans all over the world have been dying to hear for years. I’ve been following the story well before the Free Britney movement caugh the full attention of mainstream media. Ever since Britney was young, she had been made to work hard for other people. Even those who did not like her music, could not deny her talents and how hard he worked to accomplish what she had achieved.
Chloe Gilholy
Published 19 days ago in Beat
Why Taylor Swifts Short Film "All Too Well" Is A Masterpiece
You waited for it. It's finally here. And admit it...you bawled your eyes out. This is me listening to the extended version of one of my all time favorite Taylor Swift songs for the first time and somehow, as a gift from the universe, there is a short film written and directed by the musical goddess herself to accompany my first listen.
Lizzy Gabrick
Published 19 days ago in Beat
A Hell on Earth
*TRIGGER WARNING: Disturbing images, traumatic content* It's 4:02 a.m., and I can't sleep. I've spent the past seven hours glued to my phone, alternating between TikTok, Twitter, CNN, and Instagram. My social media feeds are all filled with the same content: Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival, where eight people are confirmed to have died and over 300 were injured on Friday evening.
S. Frazer
Published 27 days ago in Beat

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