Friday, May 29, 2015
WEEK 1: Sam Hunt - Take Your Time
This was my familiar music. I hear it practically everyday, sometimes even multiple times a day. Sam Hunt is considered country music (I know this because I listen to the country station and its on... ALL THE TIME!) Something that irritates me about the song, I don't hear any country! Personally I like the new age country/pop that we have recently (I am a 90s kid, I have to like pop). But... this has no country feel to it at all. I am now ranting about how much I do not like this song. But I feel like the only reasons are the fact that it is always on and that its not in the proper genre! I think the melody is absolutely beautiful. I love pianos, they just make a song more romantic and meaningful for some reason. Mixed with the guitar just makes for a great sound. Song dynamics, Sam Hunt basically speaks the song except for the chorus.
https://youtu.be/O5ksJz0BMlM
Hank Williams Sr. - Tear in my beer
Recommended by my very country boyfriend because he knows the music I do not like and would never have listened to before. Gee golly he was right (don't tell him that)! This is the type of country music that I never listened to because I thought it was stupid and boring. Maybe it is something with the beat. I do not know how to explain it or word it properly but I feel like there is nothing to it, its the same notes over and over again. Plus, the song is depressing. Is your life really that bad Hank Williams Sr??? This song just makes me want to curl up in bed and cry. I guess maybe that works for some people. I could not connect.
Instruments used: guitar (pretty sure)
No change in pitch or dynamics (maybe that is why it was so boring for me).
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Ha I had to look up the song to see if I knew it. I didn't recognize it by the artist or name but yes they play it all the time!!! I agree it does not fit in with what most people would consider Country. I think today some County artists are making their own branch of County that is more likely to cross over to Pop music. For instance Luke Bryant using a hip hop beat at the beginning of "That's my kind of night". As for "Tear in my beer" try the Brad Paisley version on youtube, it is not quite as "twangy" and has more modern instruments and sound. Same song just done a little different. :) It looks like they use guitars, drums, xylophone?and piano. You are right, I didn't really notice many changes as far as a noticable change in pitch or dynamics.
ReplyDeleteI also looked up your familiar song. I am not much of a country person but I thought I would listen to it anyway. I have never heard of it and I was kind of interested when you said the artist spoke the lyrics instead of sang them. Some Skillet songs do that as well. Skillet has more of a faster tempo than this song. With this in mind speaking the lyrics during a slow tempo sounds conflicted, no offense of course! It sounds like he is trying to cram all of his words into the verse. To me it does not grab my attention, maybe if the artist would have sang the chorus it would have appealed to me more. The contrast between singing and then speaking also breaks the continuity of the song and to me continuity makes a piece sound like it belongs rather than just thrown together. Thanks for this experience!
ReplyDeleteHi Jacolynn! I listened to your familiar song as well. That is funny that Sam Hunt is considered as country music. His voice does sound like a country singer's voice should sound but I agree with you that this does not sound country. The song has an interesting beginning. It sounds like he is doing like a slower rap kind of thing. I can't decide if I like it or not, maybe on the next few listens. :) However, I do like the percussion use of the drums and piano, and the guitar in there. I also like the melody in the song, it has a nice ring to it and his voice fits perfectly well with this type of music (although it isn't country, I don't know what it should be considered). He also does start of relatively soft and does use dynamics when he crescendos and decrescendos in the song. Natasha does bring up a good point. I agree that the speaking parts do cause discontinuity throughout the song. This song has me going in two different ways. Some aspects of the song I like while other parts are not my favorite. The piano, drums, and guitar really do add to the song to make it come together nicely. The instruments make the song flow more smoothly but the speaking the lyrics just doesn't make the overall sound of the song smooth. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWeek 1 Response ~
ReplyDeleteHi Jacolynn,
Modern country versus traditional country I see as your "theme" for this week.
I have not heard the Sam Hunt song, but it immediately made me think of Jason Aldean's Dirt Road Anthem, which clearly incorporates spoken lyrics/"rap" in the song. Doing this ("rapping" - using that term loosely) is not that unusual in music, but it's viewed as more of a modern adaptation in country music as of recent years. Like you, I don't really hear this as "country," but country music - as a genre as a whole - is learning more toward a pop sound. This "transition" began back in the 90s (thank you Shania Twain), and it's been evolving ever since. I personally don't hear much piano (there are moments when its sound is more "present"), so your commentary about it makes me wonder if it's my computer. . .? The piano (and piano pieces) were HUGE during the Romantic period, so to hear you say that you ". . .love pianos, they just make a song more romantic and meaningful for some reason" makes me smile, because the piano was "used" as a device to evoke those exact emotions during the time. :o)
Tear in My Beer is a (very!) traditional country song, back when country was called Country and Western. The early years of C&W music was pretty straight forward - simple. Back in "those days" it really was all about the words and meaning, and not so much the music ("instrumental") itself. Most songs at that time only used guitar, a slide guitar (the "twang" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2M_J16z9sk), and maybe a drumset. Popular music (and C&W) was in its infancy, so the structure of all music (dare I say!) was very simple. Quite literally, we hadn't discovered those "complex" sounds - and we certainly didn't have computers to add to the mix. I'm not a big fan of Wikipedia, but thought this might give you a little insight into Hank Sr.'s style and sound of music: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Williams. The song is sad, so in a way, I have to smile at your reaction(s), simply because you state the song is depressing - and it is - so it must have done its job! :o)
Nice work on Week 1!
~JM