My creativity is hard to explain. I find that I enjoy my creativity the most when it is focused towards songwriting, playing instruments, and creating music. However, I don’t like to limit myself to just one creative process. I also express creativity through drawing, what I wear each day, coming up with new ideas in my professional business fraternity, figuring out the best way to study for a certain subject, and through many other ways in my daily life. In this blog post though, I’m going to focus on music. My early influences were: The Beatles, Dixie Chicks, The Eagles, Garth Brooks, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Over the Rhine, Paul Simon, and Pink Floyd. My recent influences are: Adele, Ben Harper, The Black Keys, Feist, Jack Johnson, Jay-Z, Nickel Creek, and Taylor Swift. Below I will discuss the two artists who have influenced and inspired my creativity the most.
1. The Eagles have been a huge influence on my musical creativity. I began listening to them as a young girl when my family took road trips. I was drawn to the harmonies and the differences between each of the members’ voices. I have always loved Joe Walsh’s voice the best because the way he sings is very relatable—it’s not amazing, it’s real. He tends to drag out words with a bit of a croon. My favorite album is “Desperado” because they use the theme of the “Old West” and draw comparisons between that lifestyle and the lifestyles of rock stars. Some of their songs have mysterious lyrics, and as a kid I was always trying to figure out what they meant. Though they started out as a Southern rock group, they moved towards what was considered a mix of pop and hard rock, and are now “classic rock.” The Eagles relate to our media class through Contrast/Affinity. Their harmonies are often important parts of their songs. By highlighting the differences between their voices (contrast,) they create unique sounds that ultimately fit together to make a homogeneous (affinity,) melody. The Eagles lyrics also correlate to class through Conscious/Subconscious. In many Eagles songs, there are the themes of love and life choices. In a song like “Desperado,” the lyrics take a subconscious stand. The narrator/singer is saying that this person, the subject, needs to let love in. Within the song, it is inferred that the subject wasn’t aware that his actions were preventing him from love. In another song, “Lyin’ Eyes,” the narrator/singer comments upon a young girl who married an older man for his money. It follows the story of her looking back at her choices and realizing that they got her to where she is now--an unhappy and loveless marriage. This is an example of conscious.
Links: Contrast/Affinity—Seven Bridges Road
Conscious—Lyin’ Eyes
2. Taylor Swift inspires me because of her songwriting style. Love and relationships are her main topics, and that is what I tend to focus on in my songwriting. Taylor relates to our media class because in her songs she often uses Active/Didactic language. In some songs she’ll flat out tell you what her feelings or opinions are on love/a relationship/a boy (didactic). In others, she’ll give you some hints and clues, but she’ll let you decide for yourself (active). I like both of these approaches. A didactic approach is more direct, straightforward, and “in your face.” Active tends to be more vague and open-ended, and leaves the decision on what to think “up in the air,” so to speak. I believe using an active approach allows the audience to be more involved because they have to think harder about the lyrics in order to discover their meaning.
Link: Didactic—Jump Then Fall
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