Paper #1 Robert

One of my favorite musical artists is blues legend, Albert King. (Martin & Jacobus, 2019). Albert checks all the boxes for me with his fantastic guitar playing, unique voice, and singing style. Albert, The King of Blues Guitar, lived from 1923 to 1992, during which time he created masterpieces like “Born Under A Bad Sign” and “I’ll Play The Blues For You” (Albert King, n.d.). He was a self-taught, left-handed guitarist that never received the commercial success he deserved (Albert King, n.d.).

According to Arlov (2019), the blues genre takes its name from the blue notes found in its scale, not necessarily the emotional association with sadness or despair. Within these blue notes, Albert King made use of dynamics and contrast. Dynamics is the loudness and softness found in the music (Arlov, 2019). He used dynamics by transitioning between loud and soft tones throughout his songs. These changes in tone are a form of contrast (Arlov, 2019). King’s music is considered consonant, which means that his note selections are pleasant to hear (Arlov, 2019). If I were to attempt an Albert King guitar solo, the result would assuredly be dissonant or unpleasant to hear (Arlov, 2019).

Albert King’s music, to my untrained ear, seems to have a more modern flair than his contemporaries. Although I am no expert, I listen to a lot of blues using the Pandora music app. I hear a soulful funk and rock-like quality in his music that other bluesmen of the day did not seem to possess. That may not be how you like your blues, but it is how I like mine.

References

Albert King. (n.d.). In Mississippi Blues Trail. http://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/albert-king

Martin, F. D., & Jacobus, L. A. (2019). The humanities through the arts (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

Paper #2 Nelson

M

y all-time favorite artist is Michael Jackson. Even after his death, I still enjoy his songs, and sincerely speaking, no artist has filled his musical role in my life. I consider him the greatest multi-talent the world has ever had because his music makes my spirits lift when listening to them (Laghetto, 2019). I enjoy all his music, and watching him perform the songs is another happiness I find.

I consider Michael Jackson my favorite artist because his songs had a well-balanced pitch, right volume, and perfectly performed on stage. MJ had the right energy while performing his songs on stage, for his moves was smooth, innovative, energetic, and decent. The songs are pure, inspiring, and at the same time, timeless. Michael had a connection with his songs when performing them because when you watch him perform on stage, it was easy to realize that he felt the song's lines, and in his expression, he acted every line he sang. Apart from his songs, I loved the fact that Michael Jackson donated most of his earnings from music to charity. Being free-hearted is a virtue that lacks in most artists, but it was an order of the day to Michael. In connection with Michael Jackson’s songs with the course work, I consider the songs to have portrayed almost all the elements of good music (Martin & Jacobus, 2018). The songs have the perfect combination of harmony, melody, sound, rhythm, and structure. There is also evidence of good articulation in terms of expression.

The unique qualities that I find setting Michael Jackson and his work away from other artists and their works are that Michael had so many controversies in the media eye, but this did not deny him a fan base (Laghetto, 2019). The media run so many negative stories about him, but because of the good music he produced, the fan base did not decline but rather increased. His story is a justification that when talented and making good music, negative energy geared towards your work cannot make you fail as an artist. One should do so to stick to good music production by observing the elements of such artwork.

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