Porter Baffrey's Blog

  One song from a movie/musical that stuck out to me was “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King,” from the Lion King. This is one of the movies that I watched a decent amount as a kid and it came to my mind as soon as I viewed this assignment. I believe that this song has a deeper meaning then some might believe and throughout this blog I will dive into the history, meaning and what this song symbolizes. This song was composed by Elton John and Tim Rice. It was sung by Jason Weaver as Simba, Laura Williams as Nala, and Rowan Atkinson as Zazu (Wikipedia, 2024). The Lion King came out before I was born in 1994 and stayed an iconic Disney movie still to this day. According to a website published by Forbes the movie the Lion King helped produce 11.6 billion dollars throughout its life. Forbes stated that “ Disney is celebrating more than 20 years of The Lion King by revealing numbers that confirm it as the top-earning franchise in box-office history.” This has made it one of the most successful...

       I will be conducting the topic of this week's discussion post on the singer Rhianna. Over the years Rhianna has become increasingly popular in making a name for herself in different aspects of music. Her pop songs which included faster beats paired with her beautiful voice made her songs increasingly popular throughout her career. I first started hearing her songs in middle school which makes sense because her highest-grossing song was “ We Fell In Love, ” which was released in 2015. I found a biography  that goes in-depth about Rhianna’s career and how she became so famous. According to the blog, Rhianna was born in 1988 and her first hit was in 2005 which was “ Pon De Replay ” which “ immediately captured an international audience. ” This skyrocketed her career and helped her reach new audiences that she had not been able to reach prior. After she continued to increase in popularity, she started slowly changing her songs to become more...

  The group that I will be doing my discussion post on will be the Athabascans. Over the years I have learned more and more about the native indigenous groups to where I grew up, whether it is from natives, work, or school. One thing that has stayed consistent is the love for music and how they incorporate it into their day to day lives.  The above video shows an example of the Athabascan Ida'ina K'eljeshna at an AFN convention. AFN is the Alaska Federation of Natives Conference that happens every year either in Fairbanks or Anchorage. They dance for a variety of reasons from celebration to mourning (Travel Alaska). Athabascans have three main groups of music that they have, washtub, stick dance, and mask dance. Stick dance is only performed at end-of-life things and if it is performed at other times it was said to bring bad luck. When they dance to mourn, it is a way for them to commit to live, and go on with their lives. That’s what the songs mean. The way they position thei...

  The two above are examples of electric guitar songs with distinct electric guitar solos. Overall I have decided on my blog post on the guitar and the transformation between the acoustic guitar into the electric guitar. I will be discussing the history and the reason that the electric guitar came to existence. Over the years electric guitars have gotten a lot more popular in day-to-day music. The acoustic or the traditional guitar was the most common guitar until the early 1900s when the electric guitar came out. This transition led to more genres of music and a more distinct sound. While it was originally introduced in the 1930’s the electric guitar did not get popular until the 1950s and 1960s. According to Wikipedia, the reason that bands used the electric guitar was because “ It uses one or mor e pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals , which ultimately are reproduced as sound by loudspeakers . The sound is sometimes shaped or electronically a...

  The song that I have chosen is Freight Train by Alan Jackson. This song is a fairly recent song and was released on March 30, 2010, in the United States. While the song itself was not written by Alan Jackson, but rather by Fred Eaglesmith, it was composed by Alan Jackson and produced by Keith Stegall. This is a very upbeat song that encourages people to dance and sing with its upbeat tempo and lyrics. Freight Train is 4:39 in length with 121 bpm. While this song is on Alan Jackson's album, it was originally written and released in 1998 by Fred Eaglesmith. The lyrics of this song hold a message that can be interpreted in many different ways. I personally believe that the song is about something that is much deeper than just an upbeat song. While the voice inflection sounds like a more upbeat song, the lyrics themselves talk about a devastating heartbreak and about how he falls behind in life, and sounds like he just wants to talk to someone about what he is going through. This ...

Unit 4: Loud and Heavy by Cody Jinks Music Analysis Song: Loud and Heavy by Cody Jinks   Lyrics- In Cody Jink's song Loud and Heavy , the lyrics helped carry the song. The lyrics added to this song help create a visual for the listeners to experience. While Cody Jinks has a lot of good music, he portrays a vivid image in the reader's mind, opening by talking about what he sees and hears. While he explains the views and objects in the story, he also describes different objects, such as cars, when he uses expressive details like "pistons pumping." While this has been a song that many have found entertaining, the inspiration of the song comes from his son. According to an interview between Bobby Bone Show hosts and Cody Jinks, the song was inspired by his son. When they were headed to tractor supply Jink's son " kept saying ' loud thunder, heavy rain!'" Knowing this adds more depth to the lyrics that this song offers. Beat- Throughout the song, Cody...

My name is Porter Baffrey and I am a 21-year-old currently taking classes through UAF. I was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska and my first time moving out of Anchorage was up to Fairbanks. I am currently taking my semester online while I am traveling throughout Canada and the rest of the US. I am currently in Vancouver, British Colombia.  I am one of 6 siblings and we all live in Alaska. Music has been a large part of my life ever since I was in elementary school. I played the trumpet from elementary school through high school before moving over to the guitar. I have also always enjoyed listening to music. I played in both the Wind Ensemble as well as the jazz band throughout high school. I enjoy going to concerts and listening to country music.  Cody Jinks Modern Talking Offiziell Frank Sinatra