Analytical Blog

Essential Question: What makes one like a certain type of music.

I am asking this question because every one of my friends likes a different type of music. Not to mention, those that like the same types of music as me, or another friend, like different artists and songs in that category. What is it that attracts one person to a certain song that another person may find completely uninteresting? I honestly was not sure, but I was hoping that I would be able to find out through reading these three books for this summer english class. Through the life experiences of Herbie, Mingus and Miles I figured out what makes someone like a certain music.

When looking at these three musicians, I saw that they had all played together before. The one thing that set them apart was that they all listened and played different styles of music. Miles grew up in a town that constantly had jazz floating all around. A lot of Miles' stories from his child hood and early adult hood life consist of a positive event and hard jazz being linked together. It was how he told the stories that made me start to make the connection. Each positive moment in his life was linked to his favorite style of music. Now, the positive event came first. What I mean by this is that his favorite music was defined by the event. If a bad event occurred and that favorite music was associated, then Miles would be turned off by that music. For example, Miles was a huge fan of Bebop before playing with and meeting Charlie Parker. Once Miles got in with Parker, he began to graduate away from this music. The reason for this is that he had a horrible time with Parkers group. This bad time he began to associate with the music and was then turned off. When looking at Mingus, something similar occurred. Growing up, Mingus listened and played a lot of classical music. This was also home of the worst parts of his life. Once he left home, he began to play jazz and never looked back at classical music. The reason for this is the association between the horrible events of his childhood and the classical music that he listened too.

I think this relates to me in a lot of ways. I have always been a huge fan of blues jazz and rock music. The spark for all of this love came through the music of John Mayer. Growing up, I lived in Connecticut. Some of my happiest memories are from living in Connecticut. Coincidentally, John Mayer was discovered in the early 2000s in Connecticut. So they played his music on all of the CT radio stations when I was growing up. All of these awesome events that happened to me were linked to the music of John Mayer. Now, when I listen to John Mayer, I begin to feel really happy and free as if I was back in CT. The same goes for jazz in general. I hated jazz up until the eighth grade when I made my first to the Berklee Jazz Festival. At this festival, I had an amazing time hanging out with the High School Jazz Combo and my friend Chris Bauer. After that I began to enjoy listening to a few of the songs that I heard at the festival because they reminded me of the great time that I had. Over time I began to listen to more jazz as the memory turned into raw emotions that I obtained from that event in my life.Here is the Combo and I at the Berklee Performance Center after we won the MAJE Jazz Festival, UNH Jazz Festival and Berklee Jazz Festival.