Exploration 6 Alex Rager

Imagine Dragons on Stage

A music group that I like to listen to and has changed my life is Imagine Dragons.  With members Dan Reynolds, Wayne Sermon, Ben McKee, Daniel Platzman.  They first found fame in when they released the album Night Visions which contained hits Radioactive and Demons.   They are a band that writes songs about experiences and life that are relatable.  I think this group is capable of quite a lot.  Their songs are very popular, so they have a large audience that they appeal to this is because the songs contain relatable lyrics that people can experience deeper meaning from.  They write pop music that has a fast beat that is fun to listen to.  Their main audience consist of males and females around the ages of 16-25 but they also appeal to all age groups.  The reason they appeal to the younger generations is because of the songs they write are relatable issues for this age group. 

The impact they had on me was that I used to be more worried than I should have been about the smallest details and let small things bother me.  With their songs though I was able to overcome this and become a better person because of it.  In the song “Whatever it Takes” the band sings about how you have to do whatever it takes to achieve success.  The quote from the song show this “Falling too fast to prepare for this.  Tripping in the world could be dangerous.  Everybody circling is vulturous”.  This quote had an impact because it shows that if you fall in this world people are going to be waiting and watching, but not necessarily going to help you get back up.  It shows that you have to do what it takes to achieve success in life.  I think they have made an impact on my life because they have made me more confidante in myself and my surroundings.  They have also made me become more self aware about the world around me and how it might not always be such a happy place. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOsM-DYAEhY  Whatever it Takes by Imagine Dragons.

Exploration 6 by Preston Pertuset

An artist that has had an influence on me would be country singer Chris Stapleton. Chris Stapleton got his start by writing songs for other country artists. He has written or co-written successful songs for artists like Adele, Thomas Rhett, Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan, George Strait, Darius Rucker, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, Little Big Town, Tim McGraw and many more. After years of making other artists more successful, Stapleton decides that he wants to sing his own songs and practically has overnight success. His album titled “Traveler” really put him on the map and then followed that album with two more albums titled “From A Room, Volume 1” and “From A Room, Volume 2”. Stapleton is not your typical country singer, which is the biggest reason that I like him.

        Stapleton doesn’t combine country and pop like most country artists do know, which I am not a fan of. He plays what he would want to hear which has made him successful. He proves that you don’t have to be a sell-out to make it in the music industry. He has shown me that you don’t have to follow what everyone else is doing to be successful. Stapleton’s music has a more passionate meaning than many country artists who sing about beer and trucks and things of that nature. Most of his songs are blues related as they share the problems and what is making him sad in his life.  Chris Stapleton is often times compared to older country singers like Waylon Jennings or Hank Williams Jr. because many his songs tend to have an old time sound to them, like Jennings and Williams Jr. had. I’ve watched multiple interviews with Chris Stapleton and he seems like a genuinely nice and humble person. It appears that he is just being himself and it is working for him.


Chris Stapleton with his awards


Chris Stapleton’s song “Fire Away” is a great example of how he can impact an audience. The song brings attention to suicide prevention and mental illnesses that some suffer. If you click the link below, you’ll see music video made for the song. It is about a young married couple who are moving into a house and are happy together until the wife starts suffering from a mental illness and attempts to commit suicide multiple times. At the end, we see that the wife does commit suicide and the husband is left emotionally damaged and sitting at the bar still with his wife’s blood on his shirt. It is a very impactful video and song that can bring tears to a viewer with its sad message.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI-aPHeUDlk
Chris Stapleton- Fire Away

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Exploration 6 Gabe Haferman

Cover Photo for Max's single Ms. Anonymous

An artist that has had an influence on me is Max Schneider, although he just goes by MAX as a music artist. Max was born and raised in Woodstock, New York. Max is a singer, actor, songwriter, dancer and model. He has been performing for the majority of his life and has starred in many TV shows and movies. During his career as an actor he also performed and wrote songs with other artists to grow his music career. In 2015 he was able to sign with DCD2 record label. Since then he has made many hit songs on his own, many of you may know him for his song Lights Down Low. I would say his music style is a lot like that of Ed Sheeran, he has a lot of softer love songs and mainly focuses on pop music. However, like Ed he also works with different kinds of artists to make hip hop or even rap music.
I discovered Max when his was acting in a movie on TV, it is called Rags. A sort of  Cinderella story about a young and aspiring artist. I was intrigued by his performance and his voice in the movie so I looked into his backstory. I realized he is also a musician in real life so I have been following his career ever since. His music is very captivating to me, it tells a story and the melody and beats of his music stick with me. One of my favorites from him is called Still New York, it is a song talking about how no matter where he goes he will always have his hometown with him. This is an inspiring story to me, and the beat he has throughout the song makes it even better. Another song I like from him is one of his earlier songs, Ms. Anonymous. He sings about finding a girl and then not seeing her again but searching everywhere he can for her. I like the story behind the song as well as the vibe and beat of the song, which is why I like most of his songs.  

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Link to Still New York: Still New York

Exploration 6: Bhakti Patel

Shakti Mohan on the sets of Dance Plus where she is the mentor.

Shakti Mohan is an Indian dancer. She is the winner of Zee TV's dance reality show Dance India Dance Season 2 and has been a captain in Dance Plus since 2015.  She was also once a contestant and finalist on Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa in 2014. Her first song as a choreographer in Bollywood is Nainowale Ne in the movie Padmaavat. She owns her own dance brand called Nritya Shakti under which she has launched three calendars and has also initiated international dance workshops successfully. Following her victory in the second season of Dance India Dance, Shakti produced dance-themed calendars for 2012 and 2013. In 2012 she collaborated with composer Mohammed Fairouz on a BBC-sponsored dance project in New York. She also produced a dance music video together with her sisters. In 2013 Mohan launched a YouTube channel with dance instruction videos. Parineeti Chopra who came as a guest on Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa confessed that she was a fan of Shakti Mohan. She is also an actor and has worked in one of the show “Dil Dosti Dance”. She has made special appearances in movies as a dancer. Her family is very motivational. She has three more sisters and two of them are famous as she is. One of them is a singer and the other one is a dancer as her.

She is an inspiration to a lot of people in India. She motivated me to keep dancing even if I’m not the best dancer. Her hard work and dedication inspires me to keep on working harder and harder. She has her own dance studio now; where she coaches other students. She has been a judge in dance show “Dance Singapore Dance”. 

Her dance performance in the show touched me. I think it’s was her best performance at that time. 

https://youtu.be/tQkbuSbmWXI

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Exploration 6: Alan Schnees

One artist that has influenced me is Kane Brown. Kane Brown is a country music artist.  He grew up in the rural northwest part of Georgia. He was raised by his single mother and by the support of some of his family. He was even homeless a couple times and moved around a lot. But he was always singing through the hard times in life. He finally rose to any sort of fame by social media. He would post covers of popular songs by Alan Jackson and Brantley Gilbert. He released his first single “closer” in June 2015. Then in 2016 he finally signed with RCA Nashville. In October of 2017 Kane Browne became the first artist to have a number ones on all five top country music charts.

Kane Brown is also a genuine down to earth guy who still holds onto his roots. He is now married to Katelyn Jae. Which is has been his girlfriend for awhile. In many of Kane’s songs he talks about love and the meaning of being happy with the person you love and the moments you two spend together. So his music is for anyone who really loves someone and that is in a relationship. Those people will get a lot more from his songs but he also has songs for people who are not in a relationship. I have listened to Kane Brown since late 2016. I have enjoyed listening to him for the last couple years and he has become one of my favorite all time artists. His song “Heaven” describes that when you are with the person you love that that moment is like heaven on earth. This was the song that came on when me and my girlfriend first ever road together and it has stuck with us because we love every second that we are together.

I would mostly compare Kane Brown to like Josh Turner because they sing a lot about love and what it is like to have your heart broken and to finally find a person that you want to spend your life with. They also are not scared to put god and religion into their music which is a huge part of my life and means so much that they incorporate it into their music. 

Link to Heaven by Kane Brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRX0wDNK6S4

• Kane Brown and his Katelyn Jae at their wedding

Exploration 6 - Tyler Nerone

An artist that I listened to starting at a young age and continuing to this current day is Eminem. By his stage name Eminem, Marshall Mathers is a highly influential rapper along with controversial. Eminem transports messages through his music to his fans about what it was like for him growing up from absolutely nothing, with an abusive step dad and unstable mom. He raps about his drug problem that he was struggling without throughout his life; we see this in his album Relapse. His drug problem almost killed him multiple times, and he always speaks about how he is blessed to be alive and still be apart of his daughters lives. Following the album relapse, Eminem released another album named recovery, which is his story about him getting clean and off drugs; in this album he states that “Encore i was on drugs and relapse i was flushing them out”. Encore is another one if his albums that he released prior to relapse, and he’s saying he was on drugs while creating that album but now he is clean. He talks about the struggles he’s faced throughout his life, and stands up for what he believes in which i think is motivational and one of the reasons that i enjoy listening to Eminem. In Eminem’s song Not Afraid he talks about how he’s not afraid to stand up for what he beleives in and that he is going to do everything in his power to stay true to that. Eminem targets the youth because he raps about things that we all can relate to, which catchy lines and styles of rapping that you want to listen to again and again. I believe that Eminem is a very motivational rapper simply because he made it from absolutely nothing to being extremely successful and somebody that we can look up to. 

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Eminem 

Exploration 6 - Saket Nekkanti

Iconic Photo of Eminem

An artist that has had a major influence on me is Eminem. This an American rapper, record producer and actor Marshall Bruce Mathers III (aka Eminem). He known for many of his raps but, presently he is known for his beef with MGK, his new album Kamikaze. With one of his songs being the title song for the movie “Venom”. Other than these achievements many of whom know Eminem are from the current generation. Eminem caters to the younger audience regardless of what generation it is. Whether you listened to him back in 2000 to hits like “Without me” or his current work like “Killshot” (a disstrack at MGK(Machine gun Kelly another prominent rapper in the music industry)). The thing that makes him stick out and make his songs a hit more than other artists like Ace Hood, is the fact that you can listen to his wide range of music and albums from his first album in 1999 to his newest album, and regardless of your age its relatable in some way, they’re timeless. His music often gives a point of view on current day problems and often raps about younger people’s problems anywhere from 13-21-year old’s. While I don’t agree with everything Eminem raps hating women or rebelling against my parents his music is a sense of nostalgic and relatable music, considering all the hits and songs that were on the radio growing up. One song I would recommend and his biggest hit that made it onto the top 100 billboard songs is “Lose Yourself” ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yhyp-_hX2s) (2002) Eminem’s biggest hit and rise to fandom right around the same time that his movie “8 mile” came out. It stayed steady at No.1 on the billboard for 12 consecutive weeks and was also the first rap song to ever win an Oscar for Best Original Song of that doesn’t make it worth a listen I don’t know what will.

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