#melody thornton

[angelstills]

Beep (2006)

[memoriesofapinup]

[luckythings]

[oldinterneticons]

[tdineromami]

[music-catalogue]

[musicalthought]

album review; pussycat dolls' doll domination - the mini collection

♡ released in april 2009

♡ pop; r&b

♡ overall rating: 9.2/10

I have yet to listen to a PCD album that does not absolutely devour. Hush Hush will always bring a tear to my eye, and (dare I say) Jai Ho! Is my absolute favorite PCD song. Absolutely brilliant as always.

A song by song review can be found underneath the cut. My favorite tracks are Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny), I Hate This Part, and Hush Hush; Hush Hush. My least favorite track is When I Grow Up. 

Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny) -> 10/10

When I Grow Up -> 8/10

Whatcha Think About That -> 9.5/10

Painted Windows -> 7.5/10

I Hate This Part -> 10/10

Hush Hush; Hush Hush -> 10/10 

[jamieroxxartist]

Happy Birthday. Today, Sept 28, 1984 – #MelodyThornton, American singer-songwriter and dancer was born.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody_Thornton)

[martyn7985]

Review: The Bodyguard - Musical

The Bodyguard opened up at Venue Cymru on Monday night for it’s weeks long run giving people of North Wales a one moment in time show. The international, award-winning smash-hit musical The Bodyguard is back! Starring Pussycat Doll, and multi-platinum Grammy nominated Melody Thornton as Rachel Marron and Ayden Callaghan as Frank Farmer. From the moment the curtain opens theatre goers are greeted…

[ceaselesslyinlove]

It sobered him back into grave resolution that henceforth he would see as little of her as possible,—since the very sight of that face and form, the very sounds of that voice (like the soft winds of pure melody) had such power to move him from his balance. Well! He had known what love was—a sharp pang, a fierce experience, in the midst of whose flames he was struggling! but, through the furnace he would fight his way out into the serenity of middle age,—all the richer and more human for having known this great passion.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

[angelstills]

Stickwitu (2005)

[noisemachinedotcom]

[luckythings]

[desmon1995]

Derailed: The Anthem of Anxiety

Derailed this is more often than not held as at least one of the top five songs from the album and I wanted to make an ode to it to analyze I think why it's easily one of the best songs that shows that LMM and Eisa Davis are masters of their craft.

*Derailed* hits like a warped reflection of one of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s iconic madrigals—the kind where overlapping voices collide into a storm of sound and emotion. If it had a kindred spirit, it might be *Blackout* from *In the Heights*, but twisted into something darker, more unhinged, like anxiety given a melody.

What makes *Derailed* particularly striking is how it opens from Cleon’s first-person perspective, recounting the moment her life was literally and figuratively derailed at a train in Dekalb. If we assume the album takes place in the same gritty 1979 as the film, it’s tempting to link Cleon’s story to the infamous 1961 train derailment at Lincoln Highway and Fourth Street. The idea of her being a child caught in the chaos is a chilling one, though history complicates the narrative—this wasn’t a passenger train, and the only children involved were in cars nearby, not on board. Still, the imagery of that disaster looms large, adding an eerie layer of plausibility to Cleon’s backstory.

The crash out Cleon is having is understandable considering she saw one of her inspiration Cyrus gets shot in the head and she managed to actually witness Luther committing the murder.

(also note the Davis stated that she sprinkled some Hamilton references throughout this song and the world falls down is the first one).

I think this is where one of the more compelling parts happens because Luther and by extension his gang begin to rally everybody around the idea that the Warriors are the ones who diced Cyrus.

Musically, we can hear just how powerful Luther's voice is because this song shifts into being a Black Sabbath styled riff that has the honor of being the first time Rock being introduced into the album.

I wanted to hone in on this that Luther and by extension the cops are defined by rock and roll/metal is another really clever use of thematic storytelling.

For those who may not know, these genres WERE CREATED BY POC, primarily African Americans with Chuck Berry being the father of rock and roll along with big mama thornton, and heavy metal owing its creation to Jimi Hendrix.

Luther and his gang were given a seat at the cookout and metaphorically and literally used that opportunity to devastate said community with a full-blown hate crime while simultaneously appropriating something from that culture as if it's theirs.

Tangent asid, Luther takes advantage of all of the chaos and blames the Warriors which all of the predominant male gang members just follow because at the end of the day the loudest white voice in the room will always be a guiding voice unknowing or not in a very eurocentric country.

if you watch the movie, Cleon is literally being attacked by the Rouges and Griffs because she can't really see a place to escape and as she's being overpowered she yells for the Warriors to escape.

I do find an interesting that both Swan and Ajax are both the ones coordinating the girls through all the chaos with Ajax telling everybody to stay down and Swan trying to find an opening for them to escape.

Cochise seems to be the primary muscle during this portion as well.

Something I didn't really noticed until I actually looked at the lyric video today was that in the background you can hear the other gang saying things like " Cyrus GOES DOWN and Sirens" which is really neat.

Derailed is also super important because it's the one that introduces all of the motifs of the various characters.

Ajax near the end laments that she hates running, Luther as I said, is in the background yelling that Cyrus went down which foreshadows his own song going down, and then there's Fox's character Arc.

Fox’s melody and lyrics here are both reprised in Reunion Square, where the words ‘we’ and ‘us’ are changed to ‘I’ as Fox fights the cop; interesting to note that the cop also sings this melody underneath Fox in Reunion Square, harmonising to show that he, too, has only one goal – survival – in that moment.

Pippa Soo is the phenomenal actress that plays both Eliza Hamilton and Fox, and in many ways these characters mirror one another since both of them want to keep their loved ones alive but Fox sort of pulls a Philip Hamilton because Fox starts off as being kind of the most haughty of the Warriors and as noted on the reddit, she even speaks in a much more sultry voice during her Cypher verse and to make yourself seem on the level as her older sisters (she seems to be trying to emulate Ajax).

Another thing that I want to comment on is the Griff's " WHO WILL SAVE US"

This cry could be said to draw a comparison between Cyrus and a messiah figure like Jesus.The vision she shared with the crews of the 5 boroughs promised them a city they could feel safe in if they trust in each other, similar to the promise Jesus makes to deliver the Israelites to a land of milk and honey if they trust in him (Exodus 3:8 KJV). She also encourages them to view each other as brothers and sisters under this new truce and to protect each other accordingly – also similar to how those who follow the will of God are viewed as brothers and sisters in the eyes of Jesus (Matthew 12:48-50). Overall, this vision promised some form of salavation for the crews of New York just as a messiah promises salvation to their people.The fact that the Riffs ask who will save them now suggests they viewed Cyrus as their messiah for a promised future and that without her, that future is lost.

Masai largely echoes the sentiment later on in " Still Breathing" were after he finishes beating up Cleon he ends up puking his emotions out.

It's been talked about the death, but I feel like at that point Cyrus and the fact that you was a woman did it register she ended up becoming something completely non-binary, a symbol.

While the way her game went about it was completely wrong, it shows that her spirit can metaphorically be embodied by anybody regardless of who they are but it seems like most of the gangs saw her as more than your average woman which mistakenly causes them to revert back to punching down on others like marginalize women.

The song ends with Luther chanting his iconic "Warriors come out and play" as the Warriors run away through the cemetery.

Although you can't see it, in the movie Cleon completely dismantle Luther which again foreshadows what's about to happen to him later on.

Luther for whatever reason has headcannoned the Warriors is being a bunch of weak little girls that are running away for their lives but in actuality they're a pride of lionesses the know how to maneuver their way through tough situations even when society is beating them throughout the night.

He finds out the hard way when he and Crosby ride into their den on Coney Island and Swan gives him a one-sided beatdown.

And that's the analysis.

Derailed is incredibly loaded in a good way and out of literally any musical number I've seen for a while does a great job of establishing everything without beating you over the head.

[gregorycddie]

hold up.... im watching a yt documentary on take that and i didn't know robbie williams was the melody thornton to gary barlow's nicole scherzinger for a minute there

[witch-craft-works]

My complicated feelings towards Glitter Force

(Remember this is all my opinion please don't attack me)

So I wanted to talk about Glitter force a bit because I have a bit of a love hate relationship with it. So now that Glitter Force has been removed from Netflix and with absolutely no plans of renewing it at least at the time of this post I thought it was a good time to talk about it.

So lets go back in time to 2016. It was a dark and stormy night I was fresh into middle school I had transferred out of my shitty Catholic Elementary School and started public middle school.

I was bullied relentlessly in elementary school so I wasn't in a good headspace at the time.

Anyways I was mindlessly scrolling through Netflix when I came across Glitter Force, during this time I had gotten into Sailor moon and it looked similar so I clicked on it and watched the first few episodes.

I thought it was pretty good at the time and binged the whole season. Anyways because of that I would watch glitter force related videos on YouTube and then I came across an AMV (yes I was that kid😂) of New Stage I recognized Happy and Peace on the thumbnail next to two other girls (Melody and I think Muse) and wondered who they were as the title of the video was in Japanese, so I clicked on it and oh my God my little 11 year old mind was blown. It was awesome! and I wanted more of that content and I wanted to know more about the other girls. The I came across Azen Zone's reviews and fell in love with the franchise.

Anyways I didn't actually get to watch a pretty cure season in subs until I think Huggto on one of those free streaming sites and came across the Smile sub and Dear God was it leagues above Glitter Force because the dub was dog water compared to the original. And I was surprised that they had left a good amount of episodes out of the dub as well.

So I'm going to get into the gripes I have with GF/Doki Doki. In no way am I blaming the dub cast as I'm sure they had to work with what they were given but looking at the cast. GF and Doki Doki was stacked with really good actors.

The Cast:

Glitter Force:

Laura Bailey who played Cure Happy/Glitter Lucky

Colleen O'Shaughnessey played Cure Sunny/Glitter Sunny

Alex Cazares played Cure Peace/Glitter Peace

Danielle Judovits played Cure March/Glitter Spring

Kate Higgens played Cure Beauty/Glitter Breeze

Debi Derryberry played Candy

Todd Haberkorn played Pop

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn played Royal Queen/Queen Euphoria and Majorina/Brooha

Keith Silverstein played Wolfurun/Ulric Akaoni/Brute and Joker/Rascal

Glitter Force Doki Doki

Debi Derryberry played Cure Heart/Glitter Heart

Cassandra Lee Morris played Cure Diamond/Glitter Diamond

Melissa Fahn played Cure Rosetta/Glitter Clover

Stephanie Sheh played Cure Sword/Glitter Sword and Raquel

Erica Lindbeck played Cure Ace/Glitter Ace and Dabyi/Davi

Tara Sands played Sharuru/Kippy

Bryce Papenbrook played Lance

Ray Chase played Bel

Benjamin Disqen Ira

Carrie Keranen played Marmo

Cherami Leigh played Regina

Grant George played Joe Okada

Kirk Thornton played Sebastian

So the acting I don't mind at times, the name changes, don't mind that either, Pokemon was known for doing this back then all the way up until Ash's exit from the anime. There were also times where the scene would darken the mostly happened when the girls used their attacks I can see them doing this because they didn't want to cause any health risks and cause seizures so it didn't bother me too much. So what's the issue then?

One of the biggest issues I had when it came to Glitter force after watching the original was how much they changed. They removed a lot of episodes. For example Smile had 48 episodes and Glitter force removed 8 while Doki Doki had 49 episodes and Glitter force removed 19 episodes and even combined some of the episodes which kind of made them clunky. The episodes removed were the ones focused on culture and I guess you can use the excuse it by saying that they removed it so that they wouldn't confused kids but thats still a pretty bad excuse they also changed it so that Glitter force took place in the United States and that just seems a bit silly to me.

They also removed the episode about Yayoi's dad and understanding why she was named Yayoi which is concidered one of the best episodes in the season and I've seen some people say that it's one of the best in the francise. Another thing that annoyed me was that they removed the episode where Brian a student exchange student from America transfered into their class, this episode was about a language barrier between him and Akane so I can see why they didn't want to dub it but they end up still mentioning him in a later episode so if they didn't want to confuse the audiance they failed. I mean what they could have done is have him speak in a diffrent language and say he came from i don't know Spain instead of America. They did this in the Tokyo Mew mew dub but I digress.

They also removed the episode where the girls go and visit Miyuki's grandma which I don't really understand why. Another thing I did not like was the fact they seemed to try and remove any scene where the Cures are sad or tone it down unless there was no way to cut it out they even tried to make those scenes comedic as well which is just, Why? (Minor spoilers for Smile Precure) For example in the final episode of the season the girls they have to say goodbye to Candy and Pop as they have to go back to Marchland. In the original once they saw that Candy had already disapeared thats when they broke down crying.

Another thing that kind of bothered me as well as alot of other people is that the acting felt, flat at times. One of the most brought up scenes is when Majorina almost killed Nao's siblings when you compare both scenes it's just really jarring to watch. They even added voice lines that weren't in the original. I think the people handling the dub just didn't want to upset/scare kids or make their parents upset so they tried to tone down/cut the darker moments out of the show. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing but kids can still enjoy a show even if theres darker moments.

I was also told that Glitter Force was homophobic but I never really understood where that came from. Maybe I just missed it? Idk

While Pretty Cure is about friendship and teamwork Smile was trying to show kids that you shouldn't give up and that sad things happen in life. This was because the year before japan suffered a really bad earthquake/tsunami which resulted in the deaths of Thousands of people. Smile Pretty Cure was made in order to comfort people who lost their homes or their loved ones. Glitter force while theres nothing wrong with this the producers seemed to be trying to push the message of friendship, teamwork while kind of neglecting the message of not giving up hope and I've seen alot of people think it's disrespectful concidering the circumstances and what led to Smile's creation

Anyways for as much as I criticize Glitter force and Glitter Force Doki Doki I have to admit that theres a chance without it I never would have discovered Pretty Cure as early as I did. And if you look at my blog you can tell I really love this franchise. And while it's kind of sad to see it go I think it's best that the trademark can finally rest after being in limbo for so long.

Would have been interesting to see what they did with the all stars movies tho