Mason Montgomery
History of Rock
Todd Campbell
5/9/2015
The Success of John Mayer
“People want to see musicians sing things that come from their own mind and own heart in real time, responding to the moment for them (BrainyQuote)”. John Mayer said this, referring to himself as a musician that sings about real things. Whether his quote his true or not, Mayer has always been a singer song writer that thinks highly of himself. He is obviously a great musician being awarded 7 Grammy’s, and nominated for even more (The GRAMMYs). Although he is very successful now, he started from somewhere like every other musician. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and this paper will cover when he first started playing guitar, going to college …show more content…
That’s what John Mayer thought after his first year at Berklee. He also thought that he no longer needed instructions on how to make music. He found his own sound and ended up dropping out his freshmen year. He made a very close friend at school, which was Clay Cook. Clay cook convinced Mayer to move to Atlanta because if the amazing music scene there. They co-wrote a lot of songs together which would end up being on Mayer’s first EP and first album, Room for Squares. (Rolling Stone) There is no known dispute, but the band they created, Lo-fi Masters, broke up and John Mayer went on his own. Clay ended up getting his own fame though. He went back to Georgia and toured for bands and finally join Zac Brown Band in 2008 (Clay Cook). In the documentary, Someday I’ll Fly, Mayer says that it was only 4 or 5 months of playing in Atlanta that he started to develop a fan base. He also talked about the use of Napster and how it helped tremendously in spreading his music. Napster, which is explained perfecting in the Textbook, Whats That Sound?, is “a peer-to-peer file-sharing program that allowed users to download files quickly and easily from other users (What's That Sound?:).” John Mayer refers to Napster as a dirty word, but he saw the potential in it, and since he wasn’t …show more content…
He was famous and unappreciative of it. he knew that he would appreciate it more and reflect on it more when he was older, but he was in his early 20’s and was a star. He had the money and the girls. In plenty of interviews, he kept saying that his career would be over after Your Body is a Wonderland and that was because he thought he wouldn’t write a song that was as likable as that song. He was completely wrong because he then hat a hit single which won him a Grammy which was Daughters. Daughter’s was off of his album Heavier Things. After this though, he formed the John Mayer Trio which took him back to his blues roots and him and his band just played soulful music. He then had his third album, continuum, which was essentially what he thought was his best work. His fourth album was battle studies which is when he finally touched into a similar sound to country for a couple songs. John hit his low point after he made arrogant comments about women, and race, which was something he had to deal with. He locked himself up and said no more dating, no more interviews, and he just made music and that is how he created his fifth album, Born and Raised. Right after finishing this album he had throat problems which he had to get surgery for. This ultimately stopped his tour for his latest album, and in-between recover he wrote his newest
History of Rock
Todd Campbell
5/9/2015
The Success of John Mayer
“People want to see musicians sing things that come from their own mind and own heart in real time, responding to the moment for them (BrainyQuote)”. John Mayer said this, referring to himself as a musician that sings about real things. Whether his quote his true or not, Mayer has always been a singer song writer that thinks highly of himself. He is obviously a great musician being awarded 7 Grammy’s, and nominated for even more (The GRAMMYs). Although he is very successful now, he started from somewhere like every other musician. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and this paper will cover when he first started playing guitar, going to college …show more content…
That’s what John Mayer thought after his first year at Berklee. He also thought that he no longer needed instructions on how to make music. He found his own sound and ended up dropping out his freshmen year. He made a very close friend at school, which was Clay Cook. Clay cook convinced Mayer to move to Atlanta because if the amazing music scene there. They co-wrote a lot of songs together which would end up being on Mayer’s first EP and first album, Room for Squares. (Rolling Stone) There is no known dispute, but the band they created, Lo-fi Masters, broke up and John Mayer went on his own. Clay ended up getting his own fame though. He went back to Georgia and toured for bands and finally join Zac Brown Band in 2008 (Clay Cook). In the documentary, Someday I’ll Fly, Mayer says that it was only 4 or 5 months of playing in Atlanta that he started to develop a fan base. He also talked about the use of Napster and how it helped tremendously in spreading his music. Napster, which is explained perfecting in the Textbook, Whats That Sound?, is “a peer-to-peer file-sharing program that allowed users to download files quickly and easily from other users (What's That Sound?:).” John Mayer refers to Napster as a dirty word, but he saw the potential in it, and since he wasn’t …show more content…
He was famous and unappreciative of it. he knew that he would appreciate it more and reflect on it more when he was older, but he was in his early 20’s and was a star. He had the money and the girls. In plenty of interviews, he kept saying that his career would be over after Your Body is a Wonderland and that was because he thought he wouldn’t write a song that was as likable as that song. He was completely wrong because he then hat a hit single which won him a Grammy which was Daughters. Daughter’s was off of his album Heavier Things. After this though, he formed the John Mayer Trio which took him back to his blues roots and him and his band just played soulful music. He then had his third album, continuum, which was essentially what he thought was his best work. His fourth album was battle studies which is when he finally touched into a similar sound to country for a couple songs. John hit his low point after he made arrogant comments about women, and race, which was something he had to deal with. He locked himself up and said no more dating, no more interviews, and he just made music and that is how he created his fifth album, Born and Raised. Right after finishing this album he had throat problems which he had to get surgery for. This ultimately stopped his tour for his latest album, and in-between recover he wrote his newest