My third artist this week is Teena Marie, soul, R&B artist, songwriter and producer. I chose to research Teena Marie this week because I love her music. I don’t know much about her life but Square Biz has been one of my favorite songs since I was a child. I use to get my hair pressed or braided on Saturday and Sundays and they always had the radio on 104.7, a station which hosted a house party style show called blue lights in the basement. Square Biz and many of her other hits played in rotation with other party hits. Teena Marie recorded and released 13 albums over her lifetime and collaborated and worked with a variety of artists. With hits like “Square Biz,” “Behind the Groove,” “I Need Your Lovin’,” “Lovergirl” and “Ooo La La La,” it is understood why she is know as Lady Tee and the Ivory Queen of Soul. She pushed color barriers with her soulful wide ranged vocals. She could handle ballads, and R&B Dance songs with grace and emotion. Various artists in different genres have sampled her Songs. My favorite of her song’s sampled was Her song “Ooo La La La,” which was sampled by The Fugees on their The Score Album in 1995 and Trey Song’s Na Na single in 2014. Teen Marie continued to record and release right up until her death in December of 2010. Her final album Beautiful was released Posthumous in 2013.
Teena Marie- Ooo La La La
The Fugees – Fu-Gee-La
My forth artist this week is Cyndi Lauper an artist, songwriter, author, activist, and composer. I Chose Cyndi Lauper to compare because both ladies are powerhouses but Cyndi Lauper was more of a Pop/Rock Diva. With hits like “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, “Time After Time”, and True Colors” Cyndi Lauper is definitely a force to be reckoned with. She too had the ability to not only handle catchy tunes but also Ballads. A True MTV icon she had fun with her look playing with a variety of hair colors and looks. She cared less about what the status quo had to say about it. Weather its in her music or with in the Tony Award Winning score she wrote for the Broadway Musical Kinky Boots her emotional outbursts command your attention it not shocking that she’s been covered and sampled by a variety of artists. My favorite is her Song Time After Time, which has been covered four times by several artists. And sampled over 14. My favorite cover version is Inoj, which was recorded in 1998. Cyndi Lauper continues to release music with her latest being Funnel Of Love, which released on February 18th 2016.
Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time
INOJ – Time After Time
Works Cited
Cyndi Lauper. (2016). Bio. Retrieved 02 21, 201, from CyndiLauper.com: http://cyndilauper.com/bio
Teena Marie. (2016). Bio. Retrieved 02 21, 2016, from Teena Marie Official: http://www.teenamarieofficial.com/bio/
Who Sampled, Inc. . (2016). Cyndi Lauper-Time After Time. Retrieved 02 21, 2016, from WhoSampled.com: http://www.whosampled.com/Cyndi-Lauper/Time-After-Time/sampled/
Who Sampled, Inc. (2016). Teena Marie. Retrieved 02 21, 2016, from Who Sampled.com: http://www.whosampled.com/Teena-Marie/?sp=1
ShanaBurwell 
I thought your blog post of Teena Marie and Cindy Lauper was great. You do a great job connecting with your audience and creating a visual for everything you are writing about. The one thing I thought you could have done differently was writing more about the chosen songs. You gave a lot of information on the artists themselves, but not very much on the songs you chose to write about. Including the music videos and pictures was also a great addition. Visuals always help me as a reader understand better the topic being discussed.
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