3 Beauties

Hello Friends,

I've recently come to realize that there's never a dull moment in music. There's no such thing as a bad time for music you simply need to listen more and listen in more places to keep it exciting. Scenes come and go - but it does not mean that there isn’t great music out there waiting for you. This past week threw me some hidden gems that I’m blown away by and thought I should share with you.

Here's a quick list of 3 tracks I would like to recommend you check out:

This song satisfies me. It has everything I want in a song for my journey to work each day. It’s big and atmospheric enough to make any subway journey fun. The band have always held a place in my heart and this may well be some of their best work yet.

• Belle and Sebastian - 'I Want the World to Stop'

I grew up in the suburbs and this video gave me some serious flash backs when I first watched it last week. From cookie cutter homes to ghost riding my bike – it’s perfect. Spike Jonze has done it again – what a great video to go along with an incredible track from an amazing album.

• Arcade Fire - 'The Suburbs'

I’ve heard jDiggz name a million times in my years working music – but until now I am not sure I could have picked him out of a line-up. He’s got presence and reminds me of a young Jay Z in this video. His flows and moves are slick and natural. This combo, on paper, doesn’t appeal to me – but it works and is one of my favourite songs and videos of the year thus far. The Scarborough Bluffs have never looked so good.

• jDiggz featuring NeverEnding White Lights 'This Time'

Good music is good music.

Enjoy!

Gregg

The Top 100 Music Videos of All Time

Hello Friends,

The Greatest Songs of all time vs. Greatest Videos of all time vs. Great Videos that defined an era. This list is about the almighty VIDEO and so it takes lots of conversations and screenings to narrow down a list. To narrow down to 100 is and even taller order.

I have the privlege of being able to do stuff like this regularly for work and love it. I don't take it lightly and nor do the people I work with throughout this process. It's indeed a process and took many hours of our team's time behind closed doors to come up with our final list.

The idea was to come up with Top 100 Music Videos of all time list. It started in my calendar as a 1 hour boardroom meeting in which we'd all come with a list and try to come to an agreement on how it would play out. 1 month, 5 boardrooms, 23 hours, many late night emails and at least 1,250 youtube videos later - we are complete. I for one am extremely happy with the outcome and welcome the feedback once it's unleashed.

Music is one of those things that people have such strong opinions about. I find myself and team forever getting into heated arguments about what's cool, relevant and worthy. It's truly special and so that's why this experience has been so amazing to me.

The toughest thing about compiling these lists is that you have to actually focus on the word VIDEO. There's been many great #1 songs and defining moments throughout music history - but lets face it - Bruce Springsteen, Oasis, ABBA, The Bee Gees, The Beatles, Bob Marley and many others never really created videos that could stand the test of time. This list is about amazing music videos that blow your mind.

I'm not going to disclose this list as you'll need to tune in on Christmas morning from 9am - 2pm to see the results. I can promise you there'll be beauties for everyone and that there was some serious blood sweat and tears put into it.

My hats off to the whole team that had input throughout this process - you taught me so much and I'm more in love with what we do than ever before.

Here's a few videos that I recommend you check out that may - or may have not made the list.

• The Bees - 'Listening Man' *My personal favourite video:)
• Foo Fighters - 'Long Road To Ruin' *one of the best at creating videos period.
• Travis - 'Turn' *this band makes some beautiful videos
• Richard Ashcroft - 'A Song for the Lovers' *the songs is actually background music
• Mr. Oizo - 'Flat Beat' *Unreal
• Grum - 'Through the Night' *funiest video ever set to a great track
• Kanye West - 'Flashing Lights' *Damn
• Arctic Monkeys - 'Crying Lightening' *stunning

Watch MuchMore Music's 'Holiday Wrap' starting December 20th at 4ET. Let the complaints, and feedback begin:)

Thanks for reading/listening.

Gregg Stewart

Language Barrier?

Hello Friends,

When you watch the MTV European Music Awards, like I did today, you see that there are some serious differences in music tastes and culture. For example Slash wore a T-shirt that said 'Cunt' on it and it was perfectly acceptable. The Europeans also love them some Tokio Hotel, Thirty Seconds to Mars and Linkin Park. Now we know these names - but over there they are the biggest names in music today.

On this show there are always some British acts that we may have never even heard of until now. Today's show saw a performance by a newer British act named Plan B. He released his debut album this year and it's wonderful. It's a combination of soul, rap, rock and knocks you on your ass. What's more is that he's a white guy. When singing he has the angelic voice of a Motown great - but when he's rapping he's got the thickest cockney accent going. He looks like he walked straight off a Guy Richie film set and as if he'd kill you as soon as look at you.

Plan B is simply one of many that have come before him and there will surely be many more. Here's a quick list of artists that may never see great success in North America based on their accents and lyrical content. They do however deserve a listen as their music is fantastic mate;)

• Plan B or check this Pendulum remix of the tune
• The Streets *beautiful track...he's got many more of these
• Pete Doherty *this track is epic rock n roll/punk
• Dizzie Rascall *Canada needs more of a rave scene comeback:)
• Tinie Tempah *hope he can give it a run over here

Thanks for reading/listening,

Gregg Stewart