My Musical Culture

 Michaela's Musical Culture 

Hello beautiful humans! My name is Michaela Lineberry and I'm a music therapy major. Even though I'm the only musician in my family, music has always been a big part of my life. Music was always playing in my house when I was growing up.  Whether we were driving to my grandma's house, cooking dinner, or working my family and I were always engaging with music.  

Since my parents exposed me to so much music, I became curious about what kind of sounds I could make. My earliest memories of music are sitting in the back seat of my mom's car trying to immitate Mariah Carey. Since my car seat-karaoke days, I've explored a plethora of different music mediums. I have a love for singing musical theatre, classical. and even contemporary music. Not only have I nurtured my love for singing, I have also nurtured my love for music as a whole by learning to play guitar, recording demos, and writing my own contemporary music. 

Music has been a wonderful medium for self-exploration. When I write music, I explore who I am. When I listen to music, I explore how I relate to the world around me. In this week's blog post, I'm going to share some music with you and talk about how it relates to my life. Hope you enjoy! 

A song that I like right now is In Too Deep (Acoustic) By Jacob Collier Featuring Kiana Lede. I ran across this song on accident at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. My work and personal life was stressful at the time because my family and I were taking care of a sick family member. To cope with my stress and anxiety, I started going on walks in the morning before work and evening before dinner. The previous night had been particularly difficult, so my morning walk lasted longer than normal. The playlist that I was listening too ran out of songs and began playing music at random then BOOM Jacob Collier's In Too Deep started playing. I was drawn to the song because Jacob Collier produces music in a unique way. Jacob Collier is exceptionally good at creating a soundscape that is full but still allows you to hear everything that's going on instrumentally. The lyrics are vulnerable, and his bass tone combined with guest artist Kiana Lede's melismatic vocals caught my attention instantly. Click the link below to give it a listen! 

In Too Deep (Acoustic)

A song that is meaningful to me is "Baby, Baby, Baby" by Joss Stone. Each week when I was a kid, my mom would take my brother and I to my grandma's house. Half-way through the 45-minute drive, Mom would stop at Mcdonald's to get Jeffrey and I happy meals.
I'd always get orange high-c to drink. These childhood memories may seem obsolete but, every week Mom would listen to the same CD on the way to my grandma's. Joss Stone's song, "Baby, Baby, Baby" was one of the songs on that CD. Every time I hear any of Joss Stone's music, I'm taken back to my childhood summers. When I listen to this song, I can taste the orange high-c in my mouth. The video below is a mash-up of two songs from her self-titled album, but this video encapsulates Joss's energy perfectly.  

When I listen to music, I like to search for ideas that I've never heard before. Listening to music that is different from what I usually listen to inspires me and keeps my ideas fresh. No matter how hard I have tried, a song that I don't connect with is Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb. I recognize that Pink Floyd is well known and loved by tons of people. I'll admit, Pink Floyd is a phenomenal band and there is much to be appreciated about their music. While I can see how the lyrics could be meaningful to many people, the very beginning of this song is difficult for me to connect with. For whatever reason, the speak-singy introduction doesn't catch my attention. The rest of the song is good, and David Gilmour did an excellent job writing the guitar solos. While I have learned a lot by listening to Pink Floyd, they are not my favorite band to listen to. 

Lastly, I would like to include a song that I wrote with my mom. Yup, you read that correctly. I wrote this song with my mom. I was playing around with a chord progression and a melody on my guitar. I had written the first half of the lyrics and I realized I was absolutely stumped. A couple of months later I found some of my mom's old poetry journals from high school. While reading through all her poetry, I came across an excerpt from one of her poems that fit the theme of my song perfectly. I ran downstairs and asked my mom if I could use her poem in one of my songs and she was ecstatic that I wanted to use her poetry in my music. This song is titled "Gooey" and is about my personal healing journey and path to self-love. 

Gooey-Michaela Faye

Thank you so much for joining me and reading about my musical culture! I look forward to learning with all of you! 

Love and light always, 

-Michaela