4 categories that are hard to fit myths into

The six myths that have been covered in class are so embedded into our culture, and even other cultures that it appears nearly impossible to find a media text that does not have any remnant whatsoever of any of these myths. What are the possibilities?

1. Blues music
2. Baroque Music
3. Instrumental Music
4. Commercials

1. What do Stevie Ray, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and John Mayer have to say about these myths? There doesn't seem to be any direct connection between these myths and blues, but if one were to look deeper, there are hints of them. Blues lyrics are usually about trying to get a girl that has been lost, or not being able to reach the woman you love. The closest one could get to applying the myths to this media text would be to say that the blues lyricist is trying to recover a type of feeling that used to be present between the lyricist and the girl. The lyricist could also be waiting for their personal female messiah to save them from their misery.

2. Some classical music was definitely based on stories. Both Mozart, and Beethoven made operas. And romantic music surely had themes based around many of these myths, which can be drawn from the titles of various pieces, but some Baroque music might be free from all these myths. Handel's Messiah surely isn't free of the myth of the Eternal Return, or The Coming of the Messiah, but Bach's Toccata's, Fugues, and Suites seem to be without any mythical elements. His book, The Well Tempered Clavier, was more or less a book of incredibly gorgeous exercises, but exercises none the less.

3. Instrumental Music- Does Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, or other guitarists that make instrumental music incorporate any of the myths that have been talked about into their work? On Joe Satriani's album, Strange Beautiful Music, there are 3 songs in a row with titles that might suggest such a myth. The first one is called "The Journey", the second "The Traveler", and the third "You Saved My Life". Now one would have to be stretching it to say that they know that Satch was thinking of the various myths we have covered when he wrote these songs, but it is surely a possibility. Many titles on instrumental albums have mythic ideas built into them because they not only give the listener somewhat of a story to imagine while their listening to a song, but they also give the artist inspiration while they write the song.

4. I think most commercials that come from a less creative standpoint don’t really have many myths attached to them, but a lot of commercials are fairily creative. We’ve all heard something like this before…”You’ve waited, and waited and waited for a vacuum that could pick up dirt, get rid of stains, and massage your back all at once…it’s finally here!” Though a bit ridiculous for a commercial the idea is very common, and is the myth of the coming of the messiah. The old Japanese guy on the “Yellow Book” commercials is also a good example of the Wisdom of the Rustic.

It is a bit of stretch to include these myths in some of the categories, but most of the time, some type of myth does fit into a category in one form or another. The music of Bach is probably the category where it hardest to apply myths to.