By Nicholas Wynn, Claire Murray, and Mary-Kate Dowling
Almost weekly, the McNicholas Milestone staff receives new music releases from various artists from GoMoxie, a company dedicated to marketing new artists and music to high school students across the nation. As part of the agreement with GoMoxie, the staff releases the information to the student body.
The staff currently received press on new tracks from four different artists: Alessia Cara, Nathan Sykes, Maddie and Tae, and Selena Gomez.
In a recent survey to the student body, 91 respondents listened to four songs, one from each artist, and ranked them in order from their favorite to least favorite and included explanations for their rankings. Rockets revealed that they liked Alessia Cara’s “Here” the most (40%), followed by Selena Gomez’s “Same Old Love” at 24%. Maddie and Tae’s “Fly” came in third with 20% of the votes, and Nathan Sykes’s “Kiss Me Quick” was last with only a 14% favorite ranking. The students who participated were entered into a raffle for an iTunes gift card as well as a CD of Maddie and Tae’s “Start Here.” Freshman Ashley Walsh was the winner of the prize. The CD was provided by GoMoxie.
Alessia Cara, 18-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter, dropped her EP “FOUR PINK WALLS” on Aug. 28. It includes her current hit, “Here,” which had over 500,000 streams in its first week. “It’s a party song, but really it’s the complete opposite of a party song. It’s absolutely me,” Cara said. The song was co-written by Sebastian Kole. Cara also said that her music has been influence by Drake, Amy Winehouse, and Ed Sheeran.
“[‘Here’] has a slow yet powerful feeling about being an individual and not fearing being alone doing what you want to do,” sophomore Alyssa Taylor said.
Nathan Sykes, former member of The Wanted, is now trying to start a career as a solo artist. “It’s really cool to know that you can almost go through a complete reintroduction of yourself, and people who weren’t necessarily fans of the band can go, ‘Oh, I like what you’re doing,'” Sykes said. His album is due out later this year, but he has already released his debut single “Kiss Me Quick.” As a solo artist, Sykes wants to sound more soulful and R&B influenced than The Wanted’s pop tracks.
“[‘Kiss Me Quick’] was too repetitive and it had the same beat and theme throughout the entire song, it had no variety,” senior Salvatore Marino said.
Maddie & Tae, the country singer-songwriter duo known for their hit single “Girl In A Country Song,” came out with their debut album, “Start Here,” on Aug. 28 and their newest single, “Fly.” The duo didn’t plan on revolutionizing main-stream country music but just used inspiration from their daily lives to fight the stereotype of today’s “Bro Country.” “Honesty’s always the best policy,” Tae says. “We’re telling our stories and hope people can relate.” “To open up strangers, that’s the power of a song,” Maddie added. Their honest, powerful, harmonizing songs have landed them on Rolling Stone’s “10 New Artists You Need to Know” list.
“‘Fly’ had a tune that you could hum if you wanted to, and it encouraged someone else instead of focusing on the singer’s personal wants or ‘needs.’ It was the only song that seemed to have a positive message, and it had nothing to do with fake love or infatuation,” sophomore Isabella Daley said.
Selena Gomez has come a long way from her “Barney & Friends” days. On Oct. 9, she released her first Interscope album, “Revival.” The album, which features “Good For You” as the lead single, is about Gomez growing as an artist and declaring herself as an independent adult. “It’s all part of my story. I’m growing and changing… [and] I definitely remind myself that I’m in control.” She has also announced a World Tour for 2016 that goes with her new album. She will be coming to Cincinnati on June 5.
“I liked the upbeat tempo and just the swagger of the song,” freshman Matt Pryor said of Gomez’s new single.
The McNicholas Milestone 