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Gavin Howard

Ms. Strehle

English 1201

January 29, 2021

Summary of “The British Singer-Songwriter Who Turned”

Homage into a Signature Style” by Jonah Weiner

Top 25 Songs That Matter Right Now was written by Nitsuh Abebe and was written in

2019 and published by The New York Times Magazine. James Blake, who is a Grammy winning

pop artist, often looked up to artists such as Art Tatum and Joni Mitchell. He believed imitating

the style that you are looking to achieve is the best route to success. Blake is originally from

England but moved to California with his girlfriend who was acting in Hollywood. Many

popular performers have elicited Blake’s help in the song writing process, such as Beyonce and

Jay-Z. Blake’s work has affected many others, though, most of which he hasn’t even met. The

author stated that she had previously interviewed Drake, and he was inspired by some of Blake’s

work and used that in his own music.

Blake admitted that about half a decade ago, he had been severely depressed. This

eventually led to thoughts of suicide for him. His album Assume Form was his self-proclaimed

escape from his reality and pulled him out of the low point in his life. Then he and his band

mates began rehearsing for a world-wide tour and finally named the album. Music runs in

Blake’s family, being that his dad was a musician as well as a singer/songwriter. This was an

early influence of his.

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As a teenager, he was incredibly embarrassed by his appearance, because he was the

victim of bad acne. He would often stay away from people and sat alone at lunch in high school.

His childhood scared him, and he held onto those bad memories up until his 20’s. This aided to

his music career, because these difficult times are often inspiration for creation. In 2007 he

entered the Popular Music program at Goldsmith’s University and started to really focus on

music. Eventually, he started releasing his own dubstep on the internet. He began experimenting

with other people’s vocals with his work but started singing himself. He worked on it enough

until he was comfortable enough to sing with his music.

He has released multiple albums, starting in 2011. He kept writing music, which he

claims to have a difficult time with. After entering another poor mental state, he was struggling,

He broke out of this with the help of Jamil. He and his band continue to make music. He is still

in love with electronic tunes allowing him to express himself.

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Works Cited

Abebe, Nitsuh. “Introduction.” 25 Songs that Matter Right Now. New York Times
Magazine. March 2019.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/08/magazine/25-songs-future-of-
music.html.
Accessed on 28 Jan 2021