Music & Me

 Hi! I'm Mikal Gjerde and I am on the basketball team here at Converse University. I am from Norway and this is my fourth year of college. The main reason to why I am in the United States is because of basketball. I was fortunate to be recruited from Norway. I have been at the University of San Diego for two years, Rockhurst University (Located in Kansas City), and now Converse. My goal after college is to play basketball professionally, I want to be able to live off of doing something I love to do.

When it comes to music, I can listen to all types of music almost. I grew up with my dad listening a lot to AC/DC and anything in that category, my mom listening to Coldplay and anything in that category, and lastly my friends that would listen to trap or pop music. So I would say I have a very wide range of music that i can listen to and actually like, mainly because of the people I have been surrounded in my life listens to this type of music, therefore I do too. I listen to music all the time, whenever I can really. It helps me focus when I need to get school work done, or it helps me have a better workout, or I just enjoy listening to it in general.





My go-to song right now;


My current go-to now lately has actually been J Cole. I have always been a big fan of his music, especially his earlier releases. Even though I have always been a big fan, he has never really been my go-to. Now lately he has been, and the song that I listen to the most is one of his most popular songs "Wet Dreamz". What is sad about J Cole is that his music earlier on in his career was way better than his latest release, in my humble opinion. Wet Dreamz, is on of the earlier songs that were released early on in his career. His latest album, I can't really say I am a big fan unfortunately. But this specific song will always be one of his better songs in my opinion.





Song that has a meaning to me;

I have a lot of different music that has different values for me. I chose to pick this Norwegian song "Alene" by Norwegian rapper Arif. Reason to why I picked this specific song is mainly because it is Norwegian. I also love this song because it reminds me of home and good times with by buddies from home. I rarely get to go back home, I usually go home every summer, and when I do it's always a blast. This song reminds me of one of the summer of 2020 a while back, with a lot of fun and good memories. 






Song I can't connect with;
  1. So, I chose this specific song by Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Lommi, called "Degradation Rules". I haven't actually really listened to this song, but it is in the genre of Heavy Metal. This is a genre in general I just can't really connect with. Reason for this is because I feel like there is just too much noise all happening at once. No specific rhytm, and mostly chaos, and therefore is not a genre I would prefer to listen to. On the other hand though, light rock and music like that I can listen to easy. AC/DC is a great example of this I feel like. But overall Heavy Metal in my opinion is too much noice at the same time, which is just not my cup of tea.







Comments

  1. Binh-An Bui 𓆩♡𓆪February 18, 2023 at 2:04 PM

    Hi! I just wanted to start out with that I listen to a lot of music genres too :) I think it's great that you have picked up different songs that you like and have favorable memories with each of them (like picking up songs from friends from different times of your life.) I've heard songs from J. Cole, but for some reason I haven't listened to a lot of his music. However, I liked "Wet Dreamz", it was nice r&b to chill along with. Moving onto "Alene", I actually really liked it and will be adding it to my Spotify! :) It definitely has that summer vibe that feels upbeat and happy. It kind of reminds me of Calvin Harris' "Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1" album, which I love and have a lot of happy memories associated with. Just very up my alley, so thank you for putting me on :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eli PittsFebruary 18, 2023 at 11:37 PM

    J. Cole's song "Wet Dreamz" is a banger. I used to play this song like 20 times a day when I was a little younger. It makes you want to bop your head with the beat and listen to the music.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Music and Genders

Image
I will start off by telling a quick story of my mother, Astrid. When she was younger, in the beginning of her 20's, she was a member of a choir, where she would be one of the main singers. She used to tell me how there is a difference between boys and girls and how they are allowed to performed due to gender stereotypes. One have to think about what is "socially acceptable". The examples she told me was for example; what clothing the boys are allowed to wear, certain lyrics that boys cannot sing, and how they are viewed by the audience are all effected by these gender roles.  Outside of the choir, my mother would also tell me that it is normal and socially acceptable for women to wear skirts and dresses, but for men it is not. It is small but very essential details that separates gender stereotype roles of women and men.  Moving on, a very famous artist in the modern world today that "pushes" these music and gender stereotypes is Billie Eilish. A very successful...
Read more

Big Blog no. 2 - Norwegian Pop Music

Image
As I am from Norway, I figured why not write about a topic that I am a little more familiar with. Norwegian pop music has proven itself to become a very popular genre in Norway. I often get asked what we listen to in Norway, and we do listen to a lot of the music that originated from America and all these popular artists such as Drake, The Weeknd, Post Malone, etc... We listen to a lot of English music, but of course we listen to a lot of Norwegian music as well. Below is a little history of the pop genre in Norway before we dive deeper into the music... According to an article by Alex Cosper "The History of Norwegian Pop Music", the Oslo Philharmonic was founded in the year of 1919 and continued to serve Norway with diverse classical music. Eventually they signed a contract with the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, also called NRK, in 1923. Now, the orchestra started performing outside of the homeland in 1962 and was internationally known for their performance, and NRK we...
Read more