Blog Entry no 1. My musical Culture

    Hello, I'm Cameron McGahee, and I am a student in the Music of Diverse Cultures class. Honestly, up until this class, I have never put much thought into playing music, or the fact that I rely on it so much. I do remember as a kid, my parents got me a small drumset for the garage and I'd go in there and bang around on it, creating the most horrible noises known to man. Eventually, my parents would move it outside for me each day so they didn't have to suffer through the endless hours of my music-making. Since then, I've kinda known that I'm not the best at creating music but this has given me a greater respect for those who can make beautiful noises with their drum sets. 

    Since I am going to talk about my musical culture, I should give a brief understanding of my background/my life for you to relate everything to. I was born in Sandersville, Georgia, a small town that only a handful of people know. I lived there until I was about two, and then my family uprooted and moved to Greenwood, South Carolina. This is where I have spent most of my life, with frequent trips to Georiga to visit family. In Greenwood, I went to school kindergarten through senior year, found my love for soccer, as well as made a few good friends. 

---------

    With this being said, I am going to discuss the music that I have a connection with, a piece of music that I have relied on throughout quarantine as well as one song that I cannot for the life of me understand. 

1. An example of music that is important to me: Die From A Broken Heart - Maddie & Tae 

      

 Everyone "falls in love" as corny and unfortunate as it is for all of us (I'm kidding. It's not unfortunate). But picture this, I'm young and sooooo in love with this kid. We've dated for three years and think we have our lives figured out. We're gonna make long-distance for college work because we "want to get married" but I wake up one morning to a breakup text. I mean really? A breakup TEXT after three years. It was pitiful. I laid around for days, sobbing. I really thought that my life was coming to an end and then I heard this song. I'd healed over before I heard the song, but it really spoke to me. The song expressed my emotions. I'll never forget how me and my mom both shed a tear listening to this song together, on the way to the grocery store. I still listen to this song, because it reminds me of how far I've come. I don't rely on anyone for happiness anymore. I am my own person, with my own future and goals. 

2. An example of a song that helped me get through quarantine: Dan Bilzerian - T-Pain, Lil Yachty 

***Warning: This song contains explicit language***

    My birthday was March 19th and unfortunately this was during quarentine, but thankfully I got the best birthday present I could've asked for. A call from coach. This call opened up a lot of doors for me. My soccer season was canceled due to the corona but I had the oppertunity to be part of a team for another four years. Before this oppertunity I was very bummed out about everything, I'd stopped working out and I became a couch potato. This song amoung many others motivated me while I started running and working out again for soccer. It gets me hype, ready to fight, and it just wakes me up.  

3. An example of a song I will never understand: Yummy - Justin Bieber 

There are tons of people who appreciate this song, and his music. I quite like some of the other songs from this album but for some reason this song just does not sit right with me. It is overly repetitive but not in a good way that pulls me in. It's so repetitive that I change the radio station every single time it comes on. It also gets stuck in my head, which I guess is usually good marketing but in this case it almost repulses me from the song.