No matter what genres are used to express an artistic intent, at its core, all music seems to appeal to the same emotions and experiences. Therefore, the artists that could seem barely comparable at first appear to have a lot in common at second glance, as the overview of music created by Sheryl Crow and Hootie and the Blowfish proves. Despite being seemingly very different, Sheryl Crow and Hootie and the Blowfish create art that renders similar emotions and focuses on similar genres and ideas, thus promoting the concept of intersectionality in music.
The genre in which Sheryl Crow and Hootie and the Blowfish perform are the first and the most evident point of difference to emphasize when comparing the two. Specifically, Sheryl Crow is known for covering a wide variety of music genres, yet being quite loyal to the pop music scene (Borthwick and Moy 6). In turn, Hoodie and the Blowfish, while also allowing themselves to experiment with the direction in which their music is going, appear to be focused mainly on the rock. Though Hootie and the Blowfish have dipped their toes in pop culture, they appear to be distancing themselves from the mainstream (Oramas et al. 7). Therefore, the formal differences and the stylistic inconsistencies between the group in question and the performer under analysis are the first items to address.
The willingness to experiment with genres and the attempt at merging several of them in a single work is another characteristic that allows distancing Crow’s songs from those of Hootie and the Blowfish. Indeed, as emphasized above, Crow does not shy away from combining the pop genre with that one of rock, simultaneously adding a tint of country and folk to her songs. Hootie and the Blowfish, in turn, seem to be more conservative in their allegiance to rock with its traditional sound.Arguably, the identified difference in the need to experiment may stem from the industry in which the artists under analysis operate. Namely, as a singer that belongs mostly to the popular culture, Sheryl Crow needs to create the music that appeals to as wide a demographic as possible. Therefore, the produced sound needs to be reminiscent of a variety of ideas to a very diverse audience, which can only be achieved by selecting the musical ideas that thread the traditional path (Cook et al. 146). As for Hootie and the Blowfish, the band does not feel obliged to pander to the general crowd but, instead, focuses on a rather narrow community, which helps them to make their music more genre-specific.
At the same time, the collaboration between Sheryl Crow and the band mentioned above indicates that the members of Hootie and the Blowfish are more willing to experiment with their style and the genre that they have selected as the focus of their career. The specified decision invites more opportunities for the band to grow, which is essential given an impressive number of years during which Hootie and the Blowfish has been active. Therefore, the attempt at merging several styles, primarily, rock, pop music, and country music, can be considered an important milestone in the development of the band.
When specifying the unique characteristic of the genre in which Hootie and the Blowfish function, one will realize that the band has explored many facets of rock, including the opportunities of merging it with other styles. However, in each case, rock and the related issues have always been the priority. For example, the presence of folk and blues in Hootie and the Blowfish’s work has been quite noticeable at some point, which indicated that the band was ready to venture into the exploration of the specified genre. Similarly, the inclusion of the elements of country and pop into their albums and overall artistic process have been rather evident.
In this regard, what brings the music of Hootie and the Blowfish and Sheryl Crow together is the allegiance to the presence of the pop sound. Despite their endeavor to maintain their focus on rock and the associated genres, the artists have still been including the elements that could be clearly identified as pop. The described decision needs to be viewed as the willingness to stay relevant and diversify the range of their followers, thus gaining greater traction in the music industry (Susino and Schubert 344). However, one could argue that the persistent presence of pop elements in the music of Hootie and the Blowfish is indicative of their attempt at expanding their audience.
In addition, the music formats that the performer and the band prefer are quite different from each other. The format that Sheryl Crow uses for her art bears slight resemblance to the one that Hoodie and the Blowfish utilize for their songs. For instance, she also tends to perform live whenever possible and spends a significant amount of her time participating in concerts. The described endeavor mirrors the one of Hoodie and the Blowfish, who also seek to perform live on stage as opposed to collecting their paycheck by re-releasing their songs and albums.
However, both the band and the singer also use digital formats as the means of selling their work. The described decision is quite natural in the music context since a significant number of people prefer to listen to the recording of their favorite bands and performers. Live concerts are a fascinating and memorable experience, yet they are likely to become too exhausting if repeated regularly. Moreover, the very sensation of joy and excitement will dull down after visiting a countless number of live shows is likely to be dulled to a significant extent, which justifies the use of digital formats as the means of sharing musicians’ art with their target audiences.
Lyrically, the art of Sheryl Crow and Hootie and the Blowfish is quite similar. Both types of songs attempt at appealing to the listeners’ emotions. The specified observation proves that, underneath all layers of genre-related experiments, differences in phrasing, and other specifics of songs, they all strive to purport a similar meaning and evoke the same emotional response in their listeners.
Namely, both Sheryl Crow and Hootie and the Blowfish strive to explore the ideas of personal relationships and personal introspect in their songs. Although the delivery of these ideas may differ based on whether it is offered by Sheryl Crow and Hootie and the Blowfish, the ideas that underlie each song are quite similar. For instance, the challenges of being in romantic relationships often become the central focus of Sheryl Crow and Hootie and the Blowfish’s songs, which indicates that the artists do share a significant aspect of their professional point of view. Even the sentiment that the songs in question convey appears to be similar in Sheryl Crow and Hootie and the Blowfish’s songs.
For example, the song titled “Hold My Hand” delivers the experience of romantic relationships in a unique way, leaving a distinctive impression of Hootie and the Blowfish approaching the issue form their specific perspective. However, in its nature and underlying message, it also rubs shoulders with several songs performed by Sheryl Crow, which share the same idea and sentiment. For example, “Always on Your Side” can be considered quite close to “Hold My Hand” in terms of the emotional response that it is supposed to entail. In fact, the idea of every song that has ever been written attempting at relaying the same message and appealing to the same emotions is not new. Articulated by Bannister (2020), the specified assumption suggests that art, in its essence, it expected to remain a reflection on the nature of art and an artistic intention.
However, as far as the artists in question are from each other in terms of their musical genre and the message that they purport in their songs, their recent collaboration indicates that there are certain similarities between the music created by Sheryl Crow and Hootie and the Blowfish. At the intersection of the environments in which these artists work, beautiful art pieces can be created, as the collaboration in question has proven. Therefore, supporting the specified endeavors and encouraging artists to explore different facets of their musical identity is strongly needed. With the focus on artistic discovery and the search for new forms of expression, both bands and individual artists will be able to locate new, unique and original, approaches toward conveying their message.
Despite being quite different at first glance, Sheryl Crow and Hootie and the Blowfish create the art that offers its target audience similar experiences. Being emotionally driven and creating multiple opportunities for introspection, the music and songs that Sheryl Crow and Hootie and the Blowfish write can be seen as important contributions to the pop and rock music industry. In addition, Sheryl Crow’s attempt at merging different genres can be compared to Hootie and the Blowfish’s willingness to experiment with the sound of rick music and introducing new elements of folk, country, and alternative into it.
Works Cited
Bannister, Scott. “A Survey into the Experience of Musically Induced Chills: Emotions, Situations and Music.” Psychology of Music, vol. 48, no. 2, 2020, pp. 297-314.
Borthwick, Stuart, and Ron Moy. Popular Music Genres: An Introduction. Routledge, 2020.
Cook, Terence, et al. “Music as an Emotion Regulation Strategy: An Examination of Genres of Music and Their Roles in Emotion Regulation.” Psychology of Music, vol. 47, no. 1, 2019, pp. 144-154.
Oramas, Sergio, et al. “Multimodal Deep Learning for Music Genre Classification.” Transactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval, vol. 1, no. 1, 2018, pp. 4-21.
Susino, Marco, and Emery Schubert. “Cultural Stereotyping of Emotional Responses to Music Genre.” Psychology of Music, vol. 47, no. 3, 2019, pp. 342-357.