First Blog!

Hello everyone! For those who do not know me, I am Caitlin Michelangelo and am a freshman here at Converse University. I grew up in somewhat of a small town just an hour south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now you may be asking what made me go 8 hours away from home? Well running did! I am a part of the cross country and track team. I have been running ever since the summer of 7th grade. I do not have much music experience other than the year of taking piano lessons when I was younger. Although I do not have much experience, I am pretty much listening to music anytime of the day no matter what I am doing. I have always wanted to play the violin growing up, but I have been in sports instead my whole life. I did dance for 10 years and once I hit high school, I stuck with running and joined the soccer team and swim team. I am the youngest with two older brothers and I am a huge cat lover, thrifter and love doing anything adventurous. 

(Picture of me☺)

       - Okay enough about me, let's talk about the first question... which is what my top choice of music is at the moment.

A few weeks ago (January 26 to be specific) I came across a song that I have not heard in a long time. On this day I was just listening to random playlist that Spotify had made. I ended up coming across the playlist named "R&B Mix" and knew a lot of the songs already that were in that playlist, so I kept it on. As the songs shuffle and shuffle that one song comes on that I just completely forgot it even existed. Once I heard this song again, I became obsessed with it all over again and put it on repeat for hours. I do want to put a little warning before you listen to this song that there is a part of the song that is a little too descriptive but nothing new that you probably have not heard before. So, the song that was recently my top choice is "Slow Jamz" by Kanye West. I am sure everyone here knows who Kanye West and if you do not, he is a very popular American rap artist. I do like a good bit of Kanye's (older) songs, but he is an artist I just personally do not vibe with his music. In his song "Slow Jamz" I personally feel like it's a bit different than his newer music. It is something about the way the music with the beats in the background and the sound of the voices in "Slow Jamz" that makes me just want to get up and move side to side. It is such a vibe and has a very catchy chorus which I feel like makes people like it more. It's a song I don't think I could ever get sick of listening to.

Overall, ever since I found the "R&B Mix" playlist that Spotify made for me it is also something I can't stop listening to. R&B (Rhythm & Blues) is a music genre that was developed by African Americans in the 1940s and was born from gospel, folk, blues and jazz and evolved into rock n' roll as well. Very similar to what I said about Kanye's song "Slow Jamz", the beats and background sound these songs have just make it very catchy and once again is a song genre I could never get sick of. Growing up my family constantly would listen to R&B. Like I said previously I already knew a good bit of the songs Spotify put into the playlist and it gives me some nostalgia and comfort of when I was younger. 

       - Speaking of nostalgia, the next question is a piece of music that is personally meaningful to me.

Now this all relates to the paragraph above, but R&B was something that stuck with me almost all my life. When I was younger, we would constantly have it playing in our house or in the car. For this question though I am going to focus on a group named "The Black Eyed Peas". Although this time frame was when I was around one to four years old not only was my family obsessed with them, but I was too as a little kid. My mom told me this story of when I was around one or two whenever I was upset and crying, she would turn on "Hey Mama" and it would automatically make me stop crying. She would keep it on repeat, and not a sound would come out of me. She even explained it as if I was in a trance watching it. Even when I was three, we went to their concert and since I was very young, I don't remember it too much, but boy do I wish I could.

 Here is the "Hey Mama" music video! 

Looking back and rewatching the video, they have so much stuff going on in it that it was probably the reason I was in such a "trance". 

Two other songs from The Black Eyed Peas that was super big to my family was "Let's Get It Stared" and "Where Is The Love". You can look "Let's Get It Started" on your own if you'd like but I am going to link "Where Is The Love" because this is a song that should definitely be listened to. I feel like it still stands today especially how the world is nowadays. 

    - Moving onto the last question which is, what is an example of music I don't really connect with?

For this question I sort of knew right away which type of genre I was going to be picking. A few years ago, an old friend of mine was obsessed with "Hobo Johnson". While hearing his songs and seeing his genre is "Spoken Word" I could tell it was a genre not for me. Whenever I listen to a song for the first time, I have a hard time of listening to the words and I pay more attention to the beat. So, in spoken word I honestly just can't connect to it when they are talking. In most of Hobo Johnson's songs he also is yelling and for some reason when I hear that it makes me feel uneasy and my chest feels tight. Although in Hobo Johnson's songs I am sure they have great meaning behind all of them! And if this is a genre of music you like I'd definitely check him out because of my old friends always telling me he is good. Down below is his most popular song on Spotify called "Peach Scone".