Beloved Musicians

I have to say that I'm really excited about this weeks topic!  I could ramble on about my favorite music for days, but I'll condense my post to cover the music that has recently been in my most played songs.  As far as favorite musical genre goes, I like to listen to just about anything excluding anything that is synthesized or of the techno variety (just not my thing).  Also, anyone who knows me will tell you that I have an immense hatred for autotuning (despite the many possibilities it brings to the art of mixing, I personally think that it encourages singers to be lazy about vocal production.)  Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'll share a little about my favorite kinds of music.

Both of my parents are big country and bluegrass fans, so I grew up listening to artists like Allison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, and Suzy Bogguss.  For anyone not familiar with these artists, just look up music from the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? to get an idea of what the genre is like.  Today, I still think that Allison Krauss has one of the most beautiful and pleasant voices to listen to.  Some of my favorite musicians from this genre today, to name a few include Allison Krauss, Dolly Parton, and The Zac Brown Band.  I already mentioned Allison Krauss' voice, and I also included Dolly Parton on my favorite artists list, not because I think she has the most beautiful voice, but because she can sing a duet with just about any other artist and make their version of a particular performance sound incredible, no matter what the song is.  Not to mention, she is also a really outstanding songwriter.  Speaking of really great harmony, The Zac Brown Band is one of my favorite country groups right now, primarily because of the groups distinguishing harmonies.  Do their songs sometimes seem repetitive? Sure, but I have yet to tire of listening to the tracks from their latest album.  So as of right now, the harmonies are winning.

In addition to country music, I'm a huge showtunes fan.  I'm not really familiar with all of the music from shows that have recently come out, but I'd say about half of the top 20 playlist on my iPod is made up of music from musicals ranging from Rogers and Hammerstein to newer works, most of which have rock/ popular roots.  Right now, Leonard Bernstein of West Side Story fame is one of my favorite composers to listen to in the car or when I'm doing things around the house.  I definitely don't know enough about music to really evaluate his compositions, but there's something about his music that I really love listening to.  Speaking of West Side Story, I also really appreciate Stephen Sondheim, although his compositions aren't my favorite to listen to on a daily basis.  Two of my favorite composers from this genre who are actively working today are Shaiman and Wittman, who are known for writing the music and lyrics to Hairsray and the musical within the TV show Smash.  For the lack of a better word, they're just nifty!  One of my other top played albums is the soundtrack from Next to Normal by Kitt and Yorkey  I got to see this show with my high school chorus/ theater group a few years ago, and I thought that the music was really outstanding.  This soundtrack has a kind of rock feel combined with the way that traditional showtunes have been written, which makes it seem more modern and accessible.  I think it's really interesting how much this genre of music has evolved over time, but that's a discussion for another time.  And I'd better move off of this sub-topic before I spend the rest of the night writing about all of these super-gifted composers!

I also occasionally enjoy listening to classical music.  I could listen to just about anything Beethoven wrote all day long, but I'm also a big fan of Mozart.  In addition to Mozart and Beethoven, one of my other favorite composers from the Classical/ Romantic periods is the less well-known Luigi Cherubini, who wrote one of my favorite operas, Medea.  I can't really do anything to touch on these composers besides giving my proper respect and saying that they're great.


To prevent this post from becoming a short (or very long) novel, I'll finish off listing my favorite musicians and composers here.  For anyone who couldn't tell, I can get a tiny bit enthusiastic over the topic of music.  I look forward to seeing what everyone has to post this week, and I believe we're hearing from Kelsey tomorrow!