This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MySoundStyle #CollectiveBias

It's Monday morning, you're trying to wake up and get motivated for your day.  Sometimes it's incredibly hard to do.  I know you know what I'm talking about.  Today I'm going to share my fool-proof way to get you up and moving!

MUSIC

Science has proven that music affects our moods.  What better way to boost your mood by listening to an awesome playlist!  I have made a playlist for you of some of my favorite "good mood" songs.  These songs range from awesome, to silly, to motivational.  I find that sometimes the silly "guilty pleasure" songs are the BEST mood boosters!

If you've been a reader of this blog for awhile, you know that I love a very wide range of music.  This playlist is proof of that!  Music is a staple in my day.  I wake up at 6am and don't stop until after midnight [#entrepreneurproblems am I right?!].  If I didn't have music and copious amounts of coffee, I just wouldn't make it.  Since music is so important to me and my productivity, I have to have the most efficient way to enjoy it.  

I don't always work in my home office.  Sometimes I work in the living room.  Sometimes I'll run to the park.  I have to have a great set of headphones [no earbuds for this girl], and an awesome bluetooth portable speaker.

The Infinity One Portable Bluetooth speaker by Harman really caught my eye.  Harman is synonymous with quality audio.  I'm really loving this speaker!  It's portable, but sturdy and made well.  My laptop speakers are *crap* and I need loud music.  That's part of getting motivated with music... turn up!  I blast my playlist, dance around a little bit, make my coffee, and wake my body up.  It's THE BEST way to start your day, and the Infinity One speaker gives me that!

Infinity by Harman has an awesome fun little quiz to take on their website that tells you YOUR sound style.  It only takes a minute to complete, and if you're a music lover, you must to take it!  My Sound Style was: Sonic Sophisticate 

You're the driver - whenever your friends are headed somewhere you offer up your wheels.  And to be the perfect auto host you not only curate the hottest playlists, you make sure each song is digitally mastered.  It's also why you have the best sound system on four wheels.

My playlist paired with the Infinity One by Harman bluetooth speaker [and coffee... always coffee] has been a life saver!  I urge you to give it a try!  I guarantee your day will start out so much better and you'll be much more productive!  There's a giveaway right now that you can enter to WIN your very own Infinity One bluetooth speaker!

Harman Infinity One Portable Speaker - 5 winners!

Now you have my secret mood boosting playlist!  What's your favorite playlist to get motivated and started on your day?

a blog, a playlist [july 2015]

One of my favorite ways to listen to music is to find playlists on the Google Play Music service.  I like to find random mixes.  I found this one when finding playlists to listen to while on a road trip this month.  I'm a sucker for most 90s music anyway, but these 2 genres in one playlist is awesome.

HOWEVER, I was confused on why they called it 90s RnB because all of the RnB on this list were from all different decades.  AWESOME songs, but not 90s music.  It made it a pleasant surprise though when listening.  As a music lover, I had to verbally tell the radio that no "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye did not come out in the 90s ahah!

Here's a list of my favorite songs from the playlist:

||1} Hard Knock Life- Jay Z

||2} It's All About the Benjamins- Puff Daddy & The Family

||3} Ruff Ryders' Anthem- DMX

||4} Hypnotize- The Notorious B.I.G.

||5} No One- Alicia Keys

||6} Kiss- Prince

||7} Let's Stay Together- Al Green

||8} Waterfalls- TLC

||9} Superstition- Stevie Wonder

||10} Lost Ones- Lauryn Hill

So yeah... as you can see the RnB was all over the place as far as decades go, but it was all great music!  It was a nice mix of 90s rap and random awesome RnB music!

What did you most listen to in July?

a blog, a playlist [May & June 2015]

I debated on doing a playlist post this month because I've pretty much ONLY been listening to the new Tech N9ne album Special Effects.  However, since it's been 2 months since I've done a playlist post and I'm STILL listening to this album... I decided it deserved to be talked about.

I'm seriously obsessed with this album.  Holy Smokes.  This is some great music.  I'm incredibly impressed with it.  It almost plays like a concept album centering around a specific theme, the death of his mother.  It's by far my favorite music they've produced.  I tend to be a sucker for concept albums though.

This album mixes up Tech N9ne's hardcore rap with alternative rock, metal, and gospel.  It's fabulous.  One of my favorite songs from the album "Lacrimosa" [which is Latin for "weeping"] is a beautiful mix of rap and gospel.  Very powerful.  I have a soft spot for music written from pain of loss.

Guest Appearances on the album by: Eminem, Yo Gotti [love ♥], TI, Hopsin, Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, and Slipknot.

||Favorite Tracks from Album||

♥ Lacrimosa

♥Shroud

♥Hood Go Crazy

♥Bass Ackwards

♥Speedom

♥A Certain Comfort

♥Burn it Down

♥Roadkill

In other "music news" with me, we're going to see The Smashing Pumpkins tomorrow!

a blog, a playlist [april 2015]

This month I've absolutely been relying on hip hop & rap to keep me moving.  April is kind of a bad month for me, and I tend to be in a funk.  My mother got sick in April of 2000 and passed away 4/22/00.  Not to go into too much here but my Aunt & Uncle were in a car wreck coming home from my mother's funeral and my Aunt was killed.  Every April since then, someone has died or something tragic has happened.  Including this year.  My 21yo cousin was diagnosed with cancer and has been in the hospital very sick.  We're all kind of on pins & needles each April... 

My motivation tends to be non-existent in April, so I turned to hip hop & rap.  It helps a lot to boost my energy and get me in the "groove" to get my sh*t done.  You can listen to the playlist with Google Play Music by clicking on the link below.

||APRIL PLAYLIST||

||1} Kendrick Lamar: Alright

||2} Kanye West: All Day

||3} A$AP Rocky: M'$

||4} Kevin Gates: #IDGT

||5} Empire OST: No Apologies

||6} Empire OST: Keep Your Money

||7} Empire OST: Walk Out On Me

||8} Empire OST: Power of the Empire

||9} Empire OST: Keep It Movin'

||10} Rick Ross: Hustlin'

I have still been loving the Soundtrack to Empire as you can see.  Great show && great music.  Love it.  Also music related: I purchased tickets to see Smashing Pumpkins in June do an acoustic show!  This 90s girl is super stoked!

What were your favorite go-to songs this month?

a blog, a playlist [january 2015]

I haven't done one of these since October, so it's definitely due.  If you're new here, this is a "monthly" series where I share what I listened to most each month.  I do most of my music listening while blogging.  I spend a lot of time in front of my computer while home alone.  I don't like the quiet, so I take this alone time to rock out to [usually very loud] music.

This month I've mostly listened to high powered motivating female music.  I've been having a really hard time getting in the groove post Christmas.  It's a full on struggle to not go back to bed each morning after everyone has left for school/work.  To help combat this lack of motivation, I crank up this playlist and get moving.  We chose Google Play Music over Spotify because we enjoyed the UI more.  I paid for both Google Play Music && Spotify for a few months to see which one we liked/used more.  Google Play Music won.  

I've created a playlist for you if you'd like to enjoy it yourself!  Or you can look up the songs on whatever music service you use.  Here's my playlist for the month of January 2015.

||1} Posse [brass knuckles remix], Kimbra

||2} New In Town, Little Boots

||3} Get Some, Lykke Li

||4} Believer, Goldfrapp

||5} Can't Get You Out of my Head, Kylie Minogue

||6} Ooh La La, Goldfrapp

||7} Lights [bassnectar remix], Ellie Goulding

||8} Bulletproof [tiborg remix], La Roux

||9} Army of Me, Bjork

||10} Paper Planes, M.I.A.

||11} Dimestore Diamond, Gossip

||12} Primadonna, Marina and the Diamonds

If you decide to check out my playlist and enjoy it, share a picture on instagram!  I'd love to see it, so be sure to tag me in it, @emilee_speaks.  What music have you been enjoying this month?  Share your playlist with me on instagram or in the comments below.

5 Fandom Friday: Songs That Changed My Life

Music lovers: grab a cup of coffee, this is going to be a long read!

I haven't participated in 5 Fandom Friday in awhile.  I feel like since my last one where I said I wanted to post 5 days a week, life has been nuts and hasn't let me...  Between deaths of friends & family this month, being sick, and getting in the post holiday routine, I've been a mess.  Anyway, I'm posting a 5 Fandom Friday today && it's a great one!

Music.  Music is everything.  One of my favorite quotes is from the movie "Across the Universe".  JoJo says "Music's the only thing that makes sense anymore.  Play it loud enough and it keeps the demons at bay".  I think that sums up music pretty perfectly.

Now I can sit here and drive myself absolutely bonkers analyzing && stressing to come up with the perfect list of 5 songs that changed my life.  I can't do that.  I just can't.  There are SO MANY songs that have changed my life from Buddy Holly, to The Beatles, to Pink Floyd, to Tori Amos, to Incubus, to even MCR...

I used to joke that I'd rather go blind than deaf because I can't imagine a world without music.  Now that I have eye problems and I AM going blind, that's not so funny anymore, but you get the point.  Music has been there for me since I was a little girl obsessed with Buddy Holly.  Seriously.  All my friends were listening to New Kids On The Block, and I was jamming out to a 1950s rock rebel from Lubbock, Texas.  I watched "The Buddy Holly Story" starring Gary Busey every single day of my childhood.  Before I could even read.  One day I told my mom that I was going to see Buddy when I was old enough to go to concerts.  She was speechless.  See... what I didn't know is that at the end of the movie, Buddy died in an airplane crash.  They don't show that in the movie.  They only tell you in text on the screen.  I couldn't read, and I didn't know.  It never occurred to mom that I missed that.  So she sadly explained to me the ending of the movie.  The ending to his life.  I was devastated.  I bawled for my first music love.  I cried for his pregnant wife, who unfortunately miscarried not long after the crash.  Mind you... this all happened about 23 years before I was born.  This is just a little example of how deep my passion for music runs.

So as you can see, to analyze and pick only 5 songs that changed my life would be impossible.  I'd feel like I was cheating on anyone that didn't make the top 5.  I'd make myself crazy...

Instead I picked 5 Songs that I listened to obsessively during pivotal moments in my life.  Songs that not necessarily changed my life, but helped me through events that changed my life.

||1} Tori Amos, God: Tori Amos was a HUGE part of my teenage years.  This red head siren was literally the first woman I ever loved [in a non-family way lol].  Her haunting voice, and the intimacy she has with her piano captivated me.  I was a pianist myself and she was my Goddess.  When my mother died I was in a dark place.  I was 17 when she died from a sudden illness [it only took 6 days].  Naturally I turned to Tori and this song in particular was what I listened to.  With lyrics like, "God sometimes you just don't come through..." it pretty much summed up how I was feeling.

||2} APC, Judith: I am and always will be in love with Maynard James Keenan.  That voice of his... hypnotizes me.  The song Judith is about Maynard's mother.  He had a hard time accepting her death [as I did with my mother].  I won't go into his story here, but I relate.  It's been almost 15 years since my mom died, so I'm obviously in a healthier state of grief.  I miss her every single day, but it doesn't consume me like it did.  However, every April 22nd, the anniversary of her death, I tend to hole up by myself and blast some Judith.

||3} Evans Blue, Over: We've all had that one breakup in our life that seriously [excuse my language] fucked us up.  You know what I'm talking about.  The breakup that turns you into this shell of a person.  The breakup that when you look back on, you say "why?" when you reflect on how much it effected you.  Because NOW you know that it obviously wasn't worth it, and your life is SO much better without that person in it.  I almost laugh when I look back on that relationship & breakup.  It's funny how love can make you blind to someone who's truly a sociopath and incredibly unhealthy for you to be around.  Well going through THAT breakup was hard on me at the time.  I think honestly the main reason it was so hard for me, was it was the first time I had been dumped.  I was always the "dumper".  Anyway, the ENTIRE Evans Blue album "The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume" got me through that breakup.  I chose "Over" because it was one of my favorites.  I still love this album and I recommend it to ANYONE going through a breakup.  Both the studio original release and the later released acoustic version of the album.  I've included both versions of the song for you because I couldn't pick between the two.

||4} Jem, Falling For You: Ahhh onto a HAPPIER time.  With every breakup comes the excitement of the next relationship.  However, fear always peeks in at this time as well.  Right after the above mentioned breakup, came the greatest love I've ever known.  I listened to this song A LOT at the start of this relationship.  We were friends that didn't live in the same city && it gradually turned into something REAL.  This song captured all the emotion of being scared to give someone your heart again.

||5} Sarah McLachlan, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy: This song embodies what immediately came from the previous song && feelings.  That moment when you decide you can't deny yourself possible true love out of fear.  You have to risk it all.  You can't "fear love".  To me not only is that what this is about, it's also about not stifling ANY emotion.  The relationship I spoke of in the last song, I'm happy to say is still going strong 7 years later.  This person has all of me.  Mind, body, and soul.  Everything is on the table.  It's a true love with no fear or reservation.  We are 100% ourselves with each other, and we're the best of ourselves together.  Best friends & lovers.

gift ideas for the audiophile in your family plus a giveaway

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone #GiftingAudio #CollectiveBias.

Christmas shopping for a teenage boy can be challenging.  My son is 16 and has grown out of toys, has all the video games that he could ever want, and owns more clothes than I do.  So what exactly do you buy a 16 year old boy for Christmas?

Christian [that's my son] has really grown to be a huge audiophile.  He's very into music.  Both listening and playing.  He plays saxophone, trombone, and trumpet.  I know he's going to end up being a band teacher.  Needless to say, music is his life.  He's incredibly talented and I'm so very proud of him.

This boy of mine has become so snobby about the technology that delivers his music to him.  He even chose which cellphone he wanted based on the speakers and audio quality.  It was a whole debacle of research!

So what do you get the audiophile in your family for Christmas?  We decided to get him a high quality portable speaker.  Something with Bluetooth connectivity and GREAT sound.  Thanks to my work with Collective Bias, I was able get exactly what we were looking for!

The Charge 2 portable bluetooth speaker by JBL is THE perfect gift for any audiophile.  It has Bluetooth connectivity for wireless ease of use.  Since you're more than likely to be using this speaker with your smart phone, it has a built in microphone for spearkerphone calls!  This speaker really packs a punch of bass with passive radiators that you can see trembling.  Another awesome feature is the social mode which allows up to 3 people to take turns playing from their own playlists!  All of this with 12 hours of battery life.

JBL makes your holiday shopping a breeze with their Holiday Gift Guide.  They have some fantastic options for anyone on your shopping list.  Various items and various price ranges.  With FREE shipping, 30 day returns, and lifetime support you can't go wrong.  Plus, you can skip the crowds and shop from the comfort of your own home.

We decided to let Christian have his Bluetooth speaker early so that we could enjoy it as a family while putting up the Christmas tree and other decorations.  Yes that bizarre contraption on the left is my Christmas Tree.  I proposed a design idea to my Father who is a jack of all trades, and he made it for me!  I love my eclectic Christmas tree!

We each had a list of our favorite Christmas songs in varying genres and styles!  Utilizing the social mode on the Charge 2 Bluetooth speaker, we took turns with our playlists!  The picture above is a sampling of some of the songs on our playlists.  I told you... varying! Ahah!

Decorating our tree and home for Christmas with the Charge 2 Bluetooth speaker thumping our favorites is a memory we'll never forget.  Definitely the perfect Christmas gift for my not so little audiophile teenager.

||Giveaway||

JBL.com #GiftingAudio Sweepstakes

a blog, a playlist [october 2014]

Through most of October I listened to several stations on Google Play Music.  Also, a veryyy guilty pleasure artist of mine put out a new album in October so I listened to that A LOT.  Last month I embedded several videos into my post, but I noticed that made the post slow to load for some people.  So this month I'll just tell you what I listened to ;-)

|90s|

I've been listening to a lot of 90s music this month.  Not sure if it's a nostalgia thing or what. I truly do enjoy 90s grunge && alternative music.  I found a great 90s station on Google Play Music called "90s Rock Relaxation" ahah.  I dunno if they're exactly relaxing buuuut... it's a good mix of music!  

Some of my favorites from the playlist include:

Goo Goo Dolls~ Iris

Third Eye Blind~ Thanks a Lot

The Wallflowers~ One Headlight

Ben Harper~ Show Me a Little Shame

Matchbox 20~ 3am

|Hip-Hop/Rap|

One of my favorite genres to listen to while blogging is hip-hop/rap/r&b.  I think it's the beat that I enjoy while in deep thought while editing photos.  This playlist had a good mix of newer songs && older songs.

My favorites from that playlist include:

Three Six Mafia~ Poppin' My Collar

Fat Joe~ Lean Back

Jay Z~ Big Pimpin

ScHoolboyQ~ Collard Greens

A$AP Rocky~ Purple Swag

|Gerard Way: Hesitant Alien|

I loved My Chemical Romance... I won't go into my emo phase here, ahah buuut I definitely had one.  I still listen to their albums though.  I really truly loved MCR.  I was supah excited when I learned that Gerard was coming out with a solo album.  It's really good && I've been really enjoying it.  I love Gerard's voice.  I could listen to him sing for hours and hours.

a blog, a playlist [september 2014]

I pretty much listen to music 24/7.  If I'm blogging, there is most definitely music playing.  Whether I have headphones on, or music booming from the living room speakers, it's always on.  I thought it would be fun to do a monthly series sharing what my most played music while blogging was.  

I subscribe to Google Play Music [it's like Spotify Premium, but Google] && it's primarily what I use to listen to music.  I'm going to pick my 5 most played artists and/or songs of the month [I wanted to do 10, but since I'm embedding video I decided to keep it shorter].

My music taste is ALL OVER the place, so I'll warn you now aha.  I listen to old, new, rap, musicals..... It's veryyy diverse.  You never know what I'll be listening to from day to day.

[potential explicit lyrics warning]

||1} Banks- You Should Know Where I'm Coming From

||2} Amy Winehouse- You Know I'm No Good

||3} Fiona Apple- Not About Love

||4} Lana Del Rey- Young and Beautiful [Gatsby Soundtrack]

||5} Cyndi Lauper- Try A Little Tenderness

Okay so clearly I was channeling some "girl power" this month!  I absolutely adore Cyndi && was lucky enough to have the chance to see her live this summer with Cher.  I've been listening to a lot of Cyndi this month, focusing on her newer "bluesy" stuff.  Fiona is my spirit animal.  I'm not a huge Lana Del Rey fan, but I love that song.  My son introduced me to Banks && I've been listening to a lot of her lately.  Amy Winehouse's voice soothes me and I've loved that song since it was the theme song to...

Secret Diary of a Call Girl

[Staring Billie Piper... Rose Tyler from Doctor Who]

I was obsessed with this show.  Loved it.

What did you listen to this month?