A Memo

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the collection of works I’ve been writing during the summer of 2019. My name is Carly King, I am 22 years old and a recent graduate of the University of Denver. I consider myself a songwriter, a musician, a poet, an outdoor enthusiast but to encompass it all, a storyteller. In the following two works, An Evolution on Bahamas & Wherever She Goes, I offer insight into a playlist of one of my favorite bands through a track by track annotation and prove the importance and influence one album could potentially have if and when I’m stranded on an island. I chose to revisit these artists and their music for my final portfolio has a tribute to their common thread. Both artists are currently represented under the same record label Jack Johnsons,  Brushfire Records. 

My portfolio deeply reflects my personal experiences with music. In An Evolution on Bahamas , I speak to the loyalty I’ve had throughout the past 15 years listening to their music, regardless of my stage in life. However, it is in Wherever She Goes, where I truly let the audience in on the most intimate parts of my life, my father. Music for me is so attached to who I am that it is impossible to speak on it without connecting it to my own experiences.

Since I am so personally connected to music and also have a background in it, when approaching music writing I try to do so carefully. Finding the balance between connecting with the audience and telling them is what I’ve always found most difficult as a writer. It was actually Lester Bangs, prose on Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks that inspired me to dig deeper both personality and thematically. Rather than focusing on the balance between telling and connecting, Bangs taught me to focus on the subject, the music, regardless of my balance conviction. Works like his and many other music writers we read during this course will continue to inspire me in the future. 

In nearly every humanities-based class I’ve taken over the past four years at DU,  Professors toy and probe their students with the limits, notions, and questions behind one’s culture. However, although every culture is different and unique in its own way, there is one thing that always makes its way onto a week in the syllabus. Whether it be the Latinx class I took Junior year or the Globalization course Sophomore year, and even the People Places and Landscape class I recall stopping in every now and then as a Freshman, I’ve been taught that music has a place in every culture. Furthermore, in the past few weeks taking this ASEM I’ve come to the understanding that music is not only a part of every culture but is the essence of the culture itself.

The experience gained in this class was beyond useful both professionally, moving forward, and for the soul. It has been a pleasure exposing myself to the written world behind the music. Thank You.

XX

Carly King