Music and Me

    Intro: Hello everybody my name is Spenser Kirby. I have lived in Douglasville, Georgia my entire life and decided to come to Converse so I could get a degree, go somewhere different, and experience life away from home while also running track and field as well as cross country. A little heads up for my blog, I love music but I have zero musical talent and only really know what I hear. I also love albums a lot more than individual songs. Here is a picture I like of me at the beach over the summer that my girlfriend took when I caught a fish.

Music that I personally enjoy: Possibly my favorite genre of music is hip hop, but not in the traditional sense. I do love traditional hip hop, some of my favorite artists are Pusha T and Gucci Mane who both make pretty cut and dry rap songs. But I prefer the genre bending, experimental side of it. Even my favorite “old head” artists such as Outkast are pioneers in the game. Andre 3000 and Big Boi made the greatest southern rap album of all time (Aquemini) by using their skilled rapping and combining it with awesome fusion production to drill home their signature “funky” sound, plus the old and new Atlanta sound is everywhere in my music rotation. The hip hop I like most though is work that focuses on creating a unique sound and being original. If you only listen to the songs by this artist on the charts you won’t quite understand it, but one listen to the 2016 album Jeffery by Young Thug and it becomes clear that he isn’t just churning out hits, he has his own vision unlike anybody else’s. Thug uses really absurd lines, trap beats with weird sounds infused, and has even attempted to fuse country music with his sound on parts of his album Beautiful Thugger Girls. 

My favorite artist of all time is Kanye West. Fun fact despite repping Chicago his entire career, Ye was born in the same metro Atlanta town that I grew up in. From a purely musical standpoint, Ye is pretty genius. My favorite thing about his music is that none of it is really the same. He makes music based on how he feels and what he envisions for each album. The album Yeezus is actually what got me into the idea of experimental hip hop, because it was such a huge risk using those industrial beats and weird samples as one of if not the biggest artist in the world at the time, yet it came out sounding awesome and is still one of my favorite albums ever. The idea of a soundscape is key throughout Yeezus, resulting in an immersive experience for the listener that I really enjoy. In my opinion only one of Ye’s albums could be argued as having conformed to the industry. This album is Graduation because of its more radio and concert friendly hits, but even then I see it as a reflection of his career at the time, coming off two albums that shook the world he made a bombastic hit of an album. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy creates a world exploring the depths of his musical range and tells a story of its own that I do not have time to get into. I would say that most of my music taste, especially when it comes to hip hop, reflects an idea of refusing conformity. So much of today's rap/hip hop is the same trap beat with similar lyrics, that I can’t help but cling to the sound focused meaningless lyrics of Young Thug and Playboi Carti, and the deeply expressive production and sampling by Ye. I also enjoy a lot of older rock and country music, as that’s what my dad listened to anytime I rode in his truck.

Here is Outkast's song Rosa Parks from the aforementioned album Aquemini

This is Blood on the Leaves from Yeezus. The sample and experimental production encapsulates everything I love about the album. 

Meaningful Music: There is a lot of music that has deep meaning to me, but one piece of art I want to discuss specifically is Wish You Were Here, the 1975 album and song by Pink Floyd. The album as a whole holds a theme about the way that fame has ruined them and songs like Welcome to the Machine and Have a Cigar serve as a takedown of the music industry that led to the public demise and mental health issues of their dear friend and bandmate Syd Barrett. This leads me to the title track which is the most meaningful to me. In 2020 I lost two of my grandparents, who were my best friends and just as important in my life as my own parents, to COVID. The words of the song Wish You Were Here describe the feelings the band has of being unmotivated and disconnected while missing their friend. These are feelings that I felt frequently and still do on occasion, and the song’s targeting of the feeling of simply wishing somebody was with you and seeing everything you accomplish really connects with me. Plus the haunting vocals and instrumental make for an awesome sounding track.

      Here is Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd (easily one of my favorite songs)

Music I struggle to connect with: My least favorite types of music are very specific sub genres of music that I do like. Corny rap, specifically the guys who try to rap fast and say weirdly motivational words gives me secondhand embarrassment. Busta Rhymes, Twista and Eminem made it cool for a short period of time but now guys like NF (who is tied with Machine Gun Kelly as my least favorite artist ever) and Hopsin just come off as corny and make rap music as a whole look bad in my opinion. Then there is radio country music. I thoroughly enjoy well written storytelling or meaningful country songs, and even the less meaningful country songs from the 90’s are fun to listen to, but I will never intentionally listen to modern country radio. 95% of those songs are industry planted stereotypical girls and truck songs and as shown in literally all the music I’ve talked about so far, I really don’t like music that feels like forced conformity.

This is When I Grow Up by NF. He does just about everything that I don't like about his music in this one song.

This is one song that drove me crazy all summer, it's called She Had Me At Heads Carolina by Cole Swindell. It's a play on an older country hit called Heads Carolina, Tails California (I actually like the original song mostly for nostalgic purposes). This song to me is just obviously made to play on peoples love of the original song while bringing nothing interesting to the table.