Blog Post 4 woohoo

Blog Post 4

Hello everyone and welcome back to week 4 of “I’ve Got You Covered”.

The past three weeks have been pretty cool, and I can’t wait to explore the genre of folk, specifically using the acoustic guitar.  This week I am mixing it up a little bit and instead of doing an album, l am going to make and review a spotify playlist that includes covers of songs originally produced by John Mayer, Cyndi Lauper, The Killers, and Outkast that I believe change the original intent of the song and makes it have a new feel. I am going to combine this playlist with the analysis of “The Guitar and the New World: A Fugitive History”.

The guitar has made more of a significant impact on our culture than any other instrument in history.  Joe Gioia agrees in his book “The Guitar and the New World: A Fugitive History” when he states “the modern guitar is a collection of many cultures; no instrument has evolved more rapidly, and spread more widely, in the last five centuries.”.  Since the invention of the guitar spans five centuries it can be difficult to pin point when it rose to fame.  The American style guitar was introduced, and it rose to fame when it was combined with fiddles and banjos in Chicago which started the folk revolution. The guitar over took the banjo in popularity around 1914 and it has stayed that way since then. Thank goodness because "no one likes the banjo!"

The guitar also had an important part in Jazz music in the 1920’s. The mixing of weepy guitar lines along side other blues instruments led to what we know today as modern blues. Both blues and Jazz have shaped the way our music is made today. In fact, in this book the author says that “ I saw that the forces that had created the guitar were the same which formed my family, the people who had, one way or another, forged my history in the first place.” What we consider now to be folk music was roots music back in the day.  Musicians combined the genres of blues and country in the first part of the 20^th century to pave the way for the first folk revival around the 1960’s. The guitar made a breakthrough in popular folk music around 1960 when the 6 six string nylon guitar was introduced into the mix with the violin to create the foundation for modern “folk” music today.  There have been several folk revivals since then, and the demand for this type of music has been increasingly popular with development of music festivals made specifically for folk music. Right now the popularity of folky sounding music, old and new, has risen an extreme amount amongst the young adult population.

Something that has become increasingly popular is for folk artists to cover songs of different genres during their concerts to give them some diversity. This is one of my favorite examples is from a performance by “The Civil Wars” where they covered Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”.

The way their voices mesh with the guitar makes the song have a beautiful, almost haunting, tone that wasn’t there before. This just goes to show that the feeling a song gives you is not just dependant on the lyrics, but it has almost more to do with the way a song is portrayed.

The versatility of the guitar mirrors that of the music it creates. The soft lull of an acoustic guitar can take a song that was once harsh can be turned into a more intimate and soft feeling tune.   I found this very prevalent while listening to the songs in this playlist. Here is a link if you are interested in checking it out : Blog Post 4 Playlist  This playlist includes 12 songs which the original genres of the songs include pop, alternative, and some classic favorites.  While making this post I listened to the original version of each song first, then I listened to the acoustic cover immediately after, and I discovered just how much an instrument could change things.  For example, the song “Mr.Brightside” by the Killers is often thought of as a party anthem filled with passion that gets everyone pumped and ready for a fun night. In the Run River North version they take the guitar and cello and  turn it into a lovely ballad of longing and hopeless love.  Another example of this is in the acoustic mashup “One Dance/ Needed Me/ Too Good”. With all of these clips being from songs made and performed by Drake one could assume that they would have an “R and B” hip hop feel to them. However, when the guitar replaces the synth track created by the computer causes it to change completely just like the Killer’s song. This is very evident in a lot of the songs on the playlist. This playlist as a whole would be really good to listen to if you were having a stressful day or if you were studying for a test and needed some chill music to focus to, but of course I could be considered a little bit biased because I listen to acoustic and folk music on a regular basis.  I do think that this playlist is very on point to the real theme of this blog which is to discover new ways of listening to your favorite songs.

The acoustic guitar had the opportunity to not only shape the music that we listen to, but also the culture surrounding the music. With folk music on the rise and events surrounding it popping up all over, there is no telling where it will go!

Well, that’s all I have for you this week “folks” (lol I thought I would try to be funny). I will see you again in 2 weeks! Stay safe and keep adventuring on.

Always remember if you ever need anything, I’ve Got You Covered!

Mary Ashley Boykin

Quotes from: Gioia, Joe. The Guitar and the New World: a Fugitive History. Albany, NY, Excelsior Editions, 2013.

The Piano Guys are Pretty Wonderful "Revised"

Hey y'all! Today we are going to be talking about "Wonders" by The Piano Guys!

I actually really enjoy listening to this group. They put a lot of thought into their arrangements and their videos. The Piano Guys were started by 4 fathers from Utah who have a passion for music that they want to share with the rest of the world. Who they are is well showcased in this quote by the group "We’re just a bunch of ordinary “guys” playing classically influenced instrumental music in videos that showcase incredible locations." I think the thing that makes this group so well liked is the fact that the men in it are so approachable. All four of the men in The Piano Guys are dads, husbands, and are pretty normal people. For them it is always family first. For example, they turned down a Sony recording contract 5 times because it required them to tour away from their families.  These are just ordinary guys who have an extraordinary love for music.

These guys focus their music on reinventing classical music and bringing it together with the popular songs of today.  The Piano Guys rose to their fame after this YouTube video for their song "Game Day" went viral.

After going viral. The Piano Guys have gained over 5 million subscribers on youtube and done numerous collaborations with musicians such as Lindsey Stirling, famous violinist, and the Pentatonix.  The group has made 5 studio albums and are in the process of putting out their sixth album “Uncharted”, and today we are going to be diving in to the real wonders that is their album (so casually named) Wonders.

One thing I found particularly interesting about this album is the initiative it started with.  Like I have said before, the Piano Guys are always looking for something fresh and interesting to produce their songs and music videos with.  In the beginning of 2014, the group came up with the idea to travel the world and record a music video at each of the 7 wonders of the world: Taj Majal, Petra, Roman Coliseum, Chichen Itza, Machu Picchu, Christ the Redeemer, and The Great Wall of China. This is an updated list as most of the original wonders of the world are in ruins, so think of these as the wonders of today! In this album they were only able to tackle 3 of the 7 spots on that list, I still think that it says a lot about the spirit that they put into their music.

This album consists of 12 songs that range from a cover of One Direction’s hit song “ Story of my Life” to meticulously thought out arrangements of the “Let it Go” from the SUPER popular Disney movie Frozen. I think that the large range they put on their music is what makes them so diverse and well liked. Every song has a story that it tells, and together they make the magical tale which is “Wonders”. To me the name of the album could not have had a better fitting name.  It emphasizes the wonder of music itself as well as referring to the wonderful experiences they went through in order to make these videos.

The order of the songs were very important to this album. It starts with “Story of My Life” a heart warming ballad originally performed by One Direction, and then builds to the intense bumping of “Kung Fu Piano: Cello Ascends”, “Batman Evolution”, “Don’t You Worry Child”, and then eases back down to easy listening with “Pictures at an Exhibition”. The arrangements of the songs turned them into a story.  With each of the new songs a new part of the adventure began and left you wondering what was coming next.  As the album goes on the intensity builds, this is similar to the adrenaline rush that you would get from going on a thrilling quest. 

Another thing that was particularly cool about this is that in order to create the videos for some of the songs they had to take extreme measures.  For most of the videos the group spent countless hours hauling equipment and editing footage. For example, they had to create a contraption were they wrapped a baby grand piano in multiple moving blankets and then strapped on to a rolling platform and hand rolled it up hundreds of feet on the Great Wall of China in order to make the video “Kung Fu Piano: Cello Ascends” so freakin cool. I mean talk about adventure! The piano guys are dedicated to taking a place that is sacred and beautiful and making it into a sanctuary to share their art with people all over the globe.  The music or the environment are not the main focus of their videos. The two work synonymously to create a masterpiece of both sight and sound. 

Overall, I believe that this album is a work of art in itself.  The ebb and flow of the cello along with the soothing sounds of the piano makes for a whirlwind of tones that makes for an almost cathartic experience.  It is rare that something can so seamlessly meld together to create an album that gives us so much more than just some songs. It is truly a wonder to listen to an album like this.

That is all for today folks! Have a great day and I will see y’all next week!

Mary Ashley