My Life Full Of Music

The music we have been focusing on class has been vastly different from one another. The psychedelic rock is vastly different from disco and the audiences are very different too. I know some people don't like disco, but I do! Which is one reason I love this song. It is honestly such a bop. I could find myself dancing to this even on the saddest of days. I definitely think that the audience of this song is dance clubs and for the youth/young adults, and possibly even to those who don't like disco/funk in order to convince them to like it. I definitely love the little random shouts from the main singer and the vibe of the entire song. I love the bass line and main focus being on that and the kick drum. I think that's a huge characteristic of funk music. My favorite lyric from the song is "Got to stop to feelin' so low, and I decided quickly (yes, I did) to disco down and check out the show". I just love disco already and this song is talking about someone who le...

 This week was super difficult to choose a song because I love them all! I love Joni Mitchell and Carole King and Elton John and Marvin Gaye, John Denver, Chicago, Stevie Wonder and well, you get the gist. But I absolutely love this song by Dolly Parton and wanted to talk about it this week! This song is so nice to listen to. Her voice and the melody is so pretty and upbeat, but not too upbeat. It's definitely country, but also gives some pop vibes. I love the soft background vocals throughout the chorus and the small guitar solos throughout it.  My favorite line is "Here you come again, lookin' better than a body has a right to and shakin' me up so that all I really know is here you come again and here I go." I really just love that line and I think it's funny, but also gives me an idea of what the guy she's singing about is like. I fell like the audience of the song is mainly for women 16 and up, but honestly I feel that anyone would listen to it, as lon...

 Okay so as soon as I played this song my mind was taken to TikTok, that may sounds funny (and to be honest it is), but it just goes to show how a song can get big in a different time and place. Just like how Claire de Lune by Debussy and the Swan (Saint-Saëns) are both very big on Tik Tok even though they were originally published a long time ago. This also has happened with lots of other songs like “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” by Paul Anka, which is definitely a 50s crooners kind of song. The song that’s used on TikTok is definitely a remix of the original, as the original doesn’t have as hard of a bass drum kick at the chorus.  This song is super fun though! I love the upbeat rhythm and the chord progressions. Also the simplicity of the chorus really helps people to recognize the song pretty easy and sing along to it without having to listen to the song all that much. My favorite line from the song would have to be: “your eyes, I say, your eyes may look like his, yeah, bu...

 Okay, I wont lie. It was really hard to choose a song for this because I love them all and could talk about them for forever!! But I went with “You Can’t Hurry Love” by the Supremes because I love their sound and I love their song! When I first heard this song, it was actually Phil Collins version. They’re pretty much the same, but they differ a little. First is in the Supremes’ version, there’s several voices and different background shouts going on (like during the chorus).  I love the tambourine in the back during the entire thing and at one point it even gets a solo! The drum is also really good in this because it’s different than most drums in a song. Instead of being played the entire time, the main percussion instrument holding the tempo is the tambourine. At one point the drum cuts out and comes back in to emphasize the singer coming in! My fav line is “how long must I wait, how much more can I take, before loneliness will cause my heart, heart to break?” because it w...

 This song is definitely what I think of when I think of good, classic 50s rock and roll. I think that the sound of rock n' roll is mostly attributed to the electric guitar and drums and the beat they make. The beat is a hard swing and super easy to groove and jive to. I would definitely listen to this song while driving on a road trip or while at a small diner. I also just really love Chuck Berry's voice. He has really good tone and even though he is mainly speak-singing, he still sounds super good and on pitch. It reminds me a little of Johnny Cash with the speak-singing. As for the lyrics, the chorus itself is pretty repetitious and easy to sing along with. It also is clear when the chorus comes, versus some of the other songs and blues we have previously listened to. I love that lots of the song talks about something completely of topic, Cadillacs and traveling, but then the chorus brings it back to the girl and the name of the song, Maybellene. I think that this song is de...

This song is so fun and upbeat! I loved the trumpets in the song and their little call and response to the singer (aka Louis Jordan). I think it also helps that this group performed a lot together, so the timing of the trumpets, and other instruments, and singing were perfectly lined up. I think this song definitely evokes good and positive feelings. I think that is also makes you want to dance. This is mainly because of the uptempo beat and the mainly major chords. The target audience would be young people who like to dance, in my mind, but I could also see if being geared to adults fo dinner parties. This would also be a song I would imagine that would come on the radio a lot during its time period (the 40s and postwar era). I like that this song is easy to dance to and I would listen to it with some of the other songs I listen to. My favorite part is right at the end when they al sing "take me right back to the track!" I like that they all join in together and the rhyming ...

 THIS SONG. I don't know why but I absolutely love the tune of this song and the beat and chord progression and just everything. It literally transports me into a movie from the 40s. It definitely would fit in the style of some of my favorite songs. The singers voice reminds me a lot of another singers voice that I really like. Her name is Margaret Whiting and she sounds a lot like Helen Frost in this piece. I also love the clarinet parts towards the beginning that gives a little flair to that particular instrument, which isn't really a big thing nowadays. I also like that there seems to be two different tracks, at least in the version I heard. One track is more muffled (maybe the original) and then the other instruments come in with a little more power and clearer tone. But I really love the contrast between the two.  I really admire the use of lyrics when Helen sings: " Here I slide again, about to take that ride again.  Starry-eyed again, takin' a chance on love....

 This week I listened to the phenomenal stylings of Bing Crosby and Irving Berlin. They have always been some of my favorites since growing up. I remember listening to all of Irving's songs in 'White Christmas' and 'Holiday Inn' and Bing would just croon away. I think they made a great duo (Irving writing and Bing singing).  This song definitely conveys one of my favorite genres of music. This particular song conveyed a beautiful and intimate emotion of love and despair if that love was lost. I think this is a definite shift from the past music we heard because the songs of this era and this song in particular is less about dancing and more about conveying someone's emotion for someone else. I think it would be a song you would play on your own or with a loved one. The lyrics are all questions but also answer themselves with each other, which sounds confusing, but it makes sense while listening to it. The music is slow and I would categorize it as a ballad for s...

For this weeks listening blog, I chose to listen to Stephen Foster's "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair". As I listened to the song, I was surprised that I heard only a melody on the piano/guitar and vocals without a solid beat. It was surprising in comparison to the past songs we had heard. The other songs had a lot of bass and rhythm involved, but this song doesn't have drums or pounding bass, it just has melody and light instrumental back track. The emotions I would think this song would envoke is love and peace. This is achieved with the poetic and loving lyrics, as well as in the pretty and light flute and guitar (or in other versions it's just the piano). The chord progression is also very positive and resolves pretty quick. This piece fits a lot into the genre of music I like. It reminds me of a lot of the singer/song-writer stuff that I listen to and like to write. It also contains just vocals and a few instruments and that falls into the kind of music I en...

 Hey Y'all! I'm Natalie, you can call me Nat! I love music more than anything! My whole family is pretty into music and we tend to sing at our house a LOT. Since I was 13, I really love to writing and performing songs. My favorite artists (at this moment-because it changes almost every day) are Maggie Rogers and Adele. I mostly listen to ballad-style music, but I'm not tied down to one genre and I generally like most music (except screamo, I haven't really been able to get into that). I love to hear other people's favorite songs/artists because it helps me broaden my current music library! I'm excited for this class and what I'm going to learn from it!       Here's a picture of Adele from a concert and the album cover of my favorite Maggie Rogers album                                                      ...