Little Star's popularity

[sound world]

Alex's 'Wittle Star' jogged my memory...

I was reading a thread about Stina on another messageboard recently, and, as ever, lots of the posters were saying 'Little Star' was their favourite Stina song.

I'm always puzzled by this. 'Little Star' is a good song, for sure, but it's never seemed to me to be especially better than plenty of other Stina songs. Why is it so popular?

is it the sentiment that people feel toward someone who has taken their own life? (particularly teens, feeling misunderstood etc)
or the fact that it's a 'little' (ie somehow cutesy/childlike) star who has died?
or is it something to do with the music, the lulling triple time with angelic choirboys etc?
or because it had the good luck to be included in the s/t for a popular film with heartthrob actors and thus gained a lot more exposure than other Stina songs?

[alx5962]

it's a simple song, simple but not stupid.

Everyone can grab it, there's no clever jazzy background or loud voice; whispering vocals makes it intimate also and soft music helps in that way too.

Some friends like it too and they don't understand a single word of it so I guess the voice+instruments mix it the main reason why this song is the most popular one (do I need to mention how cute was Stina at that time too ? ).

[RobB]

I think the popularity of 'Little Star' is more down to it being the most well known Stina song,thanks to its inclusion in the Romeo & Juliet film and its appearence on the accompanying soundtrack. More people would have heard the song on that soundtrack album than would have on the And She Closed Her Eyes album. So when posters say its their favourite Stina song, what they really mean is that its the only Stina song they know.

[sound world]

I think that's the conclusion I'd come to, RobB.

[RobB]

I think that's the conclusion I'd come to, RobB.

So you did.
Sorry, I must have dozed off before I got to the end of your post.

[paul-pgss]

If Little Star is one of the few songs you know of Stina, then it'll soon be the favourite. Personally, I really like Little Star. But she's made better tracks than this one.

[RobB]

Well, in case anyone is remotely interested.....which, admittedly is highly unlikely .....my favourite Stina song is still Circus, a song I never tire of hearing.

[christina44]

Hello everyone! I used to do a LOT of lurking! I'm coming back after a long time being gone. Whatever happened to seekyoudanger? It's still up but it seems frozen in time!

Anyway, I just wanted to give my two cents for this one. Little Star isn't my favorite but it will always hold a special place in my heart for being my gateway to all the other music she has created. I was a freshman in high school and I was sitting with a friend who had her disc man with her in the hallway. This was back in 2002. She let me listen for a while. It was a mix of all kinds of different songs from different sound tracks and I wasn't paying much attention. Then suddenly Little Star came on and everything changed. I'd never heard anything like this before. I can still remember sitting in the hall leaning against the wall and pressing both of my hands to the side of my head to increase the volume and drown out the other students. And the world stood still for those brief moments. I was 14. This was the first time any music ever made me feel anything. I had to know who created this! I asked my friend and she told me the name of the artist "Stina Nordenstam". I wrote it down and went to the only music store in town the next day. They didn't have any of her music except that song because it was on the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack. I lived in a small town in Texas and getting obscure music couldn't have been harder. I had to wait for my mom to drive me 45 minutes to the next big town to go to the mall. No luck there either but they told me that I could order it online maybe. MAYBE. The idea seems ludicrous today when you can search any song on youtube and get hits. Or download it instantly and start listening. I finally found it on amazon.com. It was an import and the cost was about 4 times higher than any cd in the store so my mom wouldn't buy it for me. I had to save up my allowance for 2 months to buy it myself. I think that made it even more special. I remember thinking briefly that maybe I was spending all this money and the rest of the music wouldn't be as good. When it came in the mail finally, I closed myself in my room to have my first listen and boy was I ever wrong! Every song was beautiful. Every song had a different feeling. A different mood. A quality that made you feel something. I was hooked ever since.

I've never heard a song of hers that I didn't like and to this day, 10 years and 6 albums later I can't say the same about ANY other artist I've taken an interest in. That made me feel something the way she does. That breaks my heart and makes me smile. And Little Star, started all that. So I will always treasure it like a dear old friend.

Sorry this post got way too long but I had a sudden burst of passion.

[kuhn]

Thanks for sharing, christina44!

It also made me nostalgic (how wonderful life was back then )

[sound world]

Great post, Christina, don't lurk so much, your posts are really valuable! It was worth starting the thread just for that!

A huge percentage of Stina's music has the same effect on me (and I'm over 50).

The first time I heard 'Under your command' , I was totally KOd...that was the beginning of the obsession, and there have been many others since from Stina that have stopped me in my tracks.

[RobB]

A huge percentage of Stina's music has the same effect on me (and I'm over 50).

well over. .......like me.

Nice post Christina. It was never revealed why seekyoudanger pulled the plug so suddenly but they keep renewing the domain name yearly,probably to stop anyone else having it rather than having any plans of relaunching the site.

[christina44]

Thanks guys! It's nice to spend some time discussing Stina's music with others who love her like I do! I don't live in a tiny little town anymore but its still hard to find anyone around here who's even heard of her, let alone listens to her often. It's sad that there hasn't been an album since 2004. I read the thread that's been put up regarding updates on Stina's Coming Soon album but it looks like there's been no real news which is sad. Maybe she will suprise us (Can you tell I'm a very optimistic person? haha)

[RobB]

I think its optimism that keeps us all here really.
Maybe Stina's been influenced by Kate Bush who notoriously went 12 years without issuing a new album?.....in which case we're only two thirds through the waiting game.