John Legend Analysis

Get Lifted, John Legend’s first debut album, was released on December 28, 2004. Born in Springfield, Ohio in 1978 as John Stephens, John Legend became exposed to music at an early age. At the age of four, he began to learn how to play the piano from his grandmother, a church organist. He also took an active role playing and singing in his church where his father played the drums, and his mother sang and directed the church choir. While maintaining his musical interests, he also excelled academically in school, and at the age of 16, he entered University of Pennsylvania. While there he continued to pursue music by directing a co-ed acapella group, and after college, he began performing at night clubs in the New York with a bad while trying …show more content…
I have heard a few songs from this album before but not all of them and never at one time. My first impressions of it was how consistent the sound was. Legend has such a smooth and confident voice that I felt immediately at ease. While the moods of the songs differed based on the content, the rhythms and the tempos were fairly similar. It made me want to dance but in a relaxed way unlike most pop songs. I also noticed that it was free of electronic sounds like auto tune and that there were a lot of the same instruments used in most of the songs. The predominant one was piano with other jazz instruments like the saxophone and some strings included in some of the songs. A lot of choral background was also present as harmonization was present which was not surprising considering his gospel background. The album has 14 songs in total and can really be split into two based on its content. It seems to tell a story in that the first half is more upbeat and discusses how both genders play games when it comes to love. The sedon halp starting with “Ordinary People” sounds more sincere and genuinely emotional about his love for one girl and wanting to make things …show more content…
It is a back forth between the fact the couple loves each other but is at a point in their relationship where they are getting sick of each other. It describes that relationships are hard, and you never know how they’ll end up but in order for them to work both people need to compromise. According to Legend, the song was loosely based on the story of his parents who divorced and remarried twice. The ballad is relatively “simple” in that it lacks a lot of different sounds. I think having just Legend’s voice accompanied by the piano really emphasizes the emotion of the lyrics. It also represents a shift in the album which starts off more upbeat and then turns a little cynical with “Used to Love