I like it when songs develop in some way. Four minutes usually isn't enough time for something to develop musically.
Hall & Oates is one of the few musical groups as satisfying now as it was back then. There's something incredibly musically satisfying about their songs. Nothing has diminished my love for them.
Somalis really are very musically sophisticated, and they're about their own thing.
Musically, I actually grew up listening to country music as a kid, like George Strait, Alan Jackson... all those guys. So it was kind of weird crossing over from that to pop and R&B, but you know, I love Michael Jackson, Ne-Yo, Usher, R. Kelly, Drake, Boyz II Men.
I'm always doing something musically - when I'm working or when I'm off.
To be in one band that changed the world musically is pretty good, but to be in two bands that changed the world musically, that's amazing.
I definitely respect the men and women who came before me and how much those people gave to me musically.
Opening for certain acts after so many years of headlining obviously made us resentful. It was kind of hard watching all these bands, who I really believed didn't deserve to be on top musically, going ahead and pushing us out.
After my second-to-last record, 'The Greatest', I had gone on tour for a while, and I didn't play an instrument for about five years. And I got kind of - it's not self-esteem or whatever, or anger toward myself - but disappointed in myself that I hadn't been challenging myself to learn musically.
Writing a song to be a single is hard, and I don't like to focus on that because you can get caught up in making something just terrible, which is really easy to do if you're focused on making it a single. It's more fun when you focus on what excites you musically.
The people who raised me musically are my mother, who is a classically trained pianist, and my stepfather.
I'm a mash-up of everyone. My influences would be Michael Jackson, Brandy, Aaliyah - those types of people. So if you can imagine them - and with me taking them, and then putting my own twist and the influence on it - that's musically what I would sound like.
Musically, I try not to box things in. I try to just play around this spectrum of influences: soul, jazz, and hip-hop.
Balanchine is the number one influence for me. His work was really musically driven. He and Jerome Robbins were the ones who really showed me that dance could be about the inner relation between movement and music. When I was a student first seeing their work, I was like, 'Oh, this is a thing?'
I don't listen to much rap, really. I can rarely listen to a whole record of it, because musically, it's very formulaic, and oftentimes it doesn't have the best hooks on every track.
I wake up each and every day with a smile on my face knowing I get to do something musically.
The thing about places like Trinidad and Jamaica is that they can be very musically insular. There isn't much space for kids making hip-hop, electronic music, or hybrid genres.
I've created, directed and choreographed for Lady Gaga since the beginning, so 'Born This Way,' this was musically such an amazing evolution and such a brilliant record. So when she played it for me, it took me a while to find out the visual interpretation that I could give back to her.
I have no idea where I want to go musically, but I'm fine that way. I don't need to be faithful to any concept, you know.
I don't think about what I can't do or what I shouldn't be doing. I just think there are endless possibilities musically, really. And I'm very, very open to experimenting with different people and trying to find different methods of writing and making music.
Justin Timberlake is the single most talented human being I've ever met in my life, and it sickens me. He is, like, 12 years old or something! He has 0 percent body fat, he is musically gifted, he has a great ear for accents, and he is hilarious.
Every demo I do has a mandolin or resonator on it - some element of the bluegrass or classic country world that I grew up listening to and that first drew me in. And then I always try to find somewhere for a bluesy guitar sound, because that's also what I love. Musically, I'm always finding my way home.
Even now, at 82 years old, if I don't learn something every day, you know what I think? It's a day lost. Now, I don't practice every day. I just take the guitar, swear at it. But I should be swearing at myself. But I fool with music. I'm doing something musically all the time. And my ears are wide open for anything I can hear.
Lately, I'm spending more and more time working with non-rock musicians and leaving the mainstream - almost dissolving into another world, musically.
What I really like doing is taking risks, musically.
Pushing the envelope, musically speaking, is what needs to be done to rise to the top.
Music runs through everything I do - I even think musically; even when I was acting, but, especially, when I am directing. Directing is very musical.
I did a lot of choral music in high school, and that was kind of my primary, stable outlet for music because I didn't feel comfortable being a soloist. It was a cool, safe space for me musically.
I listen to all sorts of music, but I'm not musically talented. Everyone expects me to be a good singer or musician, but I really am terrible. I'm a great dancer, though.
It's just a lot of fun to be able to see your ideas come into fruition. And to see people translate the things that come out of my mind vocally. And to be able to produce vocals and give people my point of view musically. And to be able to sit in the crowd and see people sing the song that I wrote, it's an amazing feeling.
Most of the time, particularly with this record, 'The Light of the Sun,' I really just been standing in front of a microphone and blacking out musically, you know. I'd come back a couple hours later and there's six songs from beginning to end, you know? I don't know what I'm going to say. I don't know how I'm going to say it.
I loved the guitar, and I had all of this music in my head. My passion for the guitar and the ideas for what I could create musically were equal. So that's where I was.
The fun for me musically is that you never quite know what works and why. So why pretend you do? Why not just put things together and discover, in the creative process, if and why they work? That approach has served me well.
Maybe the biggest thing that I've learned musically is that anything is possible. Things can work when maybe they don't seem like they can.
I'm very ambitious, musically - I want to create great things, not mediocre work.
I feel grateful for the Puerto Ricans who created this genre that has inspired me to have such a beautiful career. Reggaeton has allowed me to continue evolving and growing musically, and I have been able to make it mine as well.
