Spencer Griffin's New Music Mondays

 here they are: "Beautiful" by Linda Perry (4 Non Blondes):  In the early days of the new millennium, this song became famous from Christina Aguilera's rendition of it. This version of the song (which is technically the original version, even though it got released much later) is pretty much the same as Christina's version, but with Linda Perry's vocals. Some might know Linda as the "What's Up?" singer (or more accurately, the "HEEY-YEEHH-YEH-EEEY, I SAID HEY! WHAT'S GOING ON?!" singer, since the phrase "What's Up?" is not said in the song itself), but after her brief glory days in 4 Non Blondes, she went quietly behind the scenes and started composing songs for major pop stars like Christina Aguilera, Pink, Gwen Stefani, and many others. Although I'm not too big on pop music, I still know what a major impact "Beautiful" had on post-millennial pop culture. The song's vulnerable tone and honest, soul-barin...

 Green Day and blink-182 are BOTH back?! Say WHAT?! Not every day this happens (and I barely even like blink to begin with, but their latest song changes my opinion of them)!! The '90s are back, baby! Four other songs worth listening to here, too. Enjoy! "American Dream is Killing Me" by Green Day:  Green Day became the Clash of latter-day rock music with the release of American Idiot  in 2004, which expanded the formerly bratty punk-pop-rockers both lyrically and musically. "American Dream is Killing Me," the latest from the first '90s punk-pop group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, continues where American Idiot left off. In addition to having a similar title to that album, the song also has similar themes with its dissatisfaction of the American government and politics. The song has a similar riff and rhythm to their '04 song, "Holiday" (which itself seemed to borrow heavily from The Clash's "London Calling,"...