Friday Video: Normani

Today's video is "Motivation" by Normani. While I'll get to the song momentarily, a few things about Normani. First, her name is Normani and not Normandy like the region in France which was also the site of the World War II D-Day Invasion. She was a member of the group Fifth Harmony and appeared on songs with Khalid and Sam Smith. "Motivation" is her first solo song, and she performed it a few months ago at the MTV's Video Music Awards. (Yes, I watched some of the show even though I'm definitely not the target audience.)

Before you watch the video, here's a fun(?) way to listen to the song. Instead of motivation or innovation, replace the last syllable with Sean. So motiva-Sean or innova-Sean. It's nice to see sound a talented young artist think of me and all of the other people named Sean out there!

Maroon 5's Sugar Sounds Like Michael Jackson's Beat It

I don't understand Maroon 5. I mean, I understand that they have a string of catchy pop hits, but they're as big as they are solely because of Adam Levine. Having a charismatic lead singer appear weekly on The Voice and get People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive does good things for a musical career. In my mind, Maroon 5 is Lifehouse without Adam Levine being Adam Levine. That's not a knock against Lifehouse either since I think their best songs are better than Maroon 5's best songs.

Anyway, I heard Maroon 5's latest song Sugar on the radio recently (yes, I still listen to the radio) and thought one part sounded a lot like Michael Jackson's Beat It. Apparently, Ben Schuller, as seen in this video below, agrees with me. Specifically, check out the part around the :23 second mark.



This isn't quite a Sam Smith-Tom Petty situation, and I'm not a lawyer or play one on the internet, but I think the Jackson family has a case to get some royalties here.