Quotes About Music

One time, just passing by, I happened to see Jack White from the White Stripes. I'm a huge White Stripes fan, and I did a whole 180. It was like my jaw hit the ground.

A lot of bands break through with their third record: the White Stripes, the Clash, the Replacements.

Unfortunately, the music programs are being stripped out of the schools these days. We have to change that.

Kanye is producing in the true sense of the word. 'Real Friends' was an idea started by me and Boi-1da. We passed it off to Kanye, and Kanye kind of stripped it down and had Havoc add some drums to it. Kanye had the vision. That's really true-school production.

The iPod Shuffle was something unique for Apple: a device stripped down to a single function.

I just always loved the storytelling aspect. Even with the production that's happening right now in music, I still think the core of country songs are very stripped down, and they tell a story in the most pure sense.

I always think the Sex Pistols and the Ramones as very, very important because they stripped things down.

I'm enjoying writing songs that are more stripped back.

I remember being obsessed with Christina Aguilera's 'Stripped.' That was her peak, and she is such an amazing singer. Plus, I was a little gay boy, and the music video for 'Beautiful' existed, so obviously I was affected.

One of the things I wanted to do with 'The Turn' was write a production of songs that could be stripped down to one or two instruments if you chose to do it.

I love the acoustic sets. Growing up, me and my dad would always watch those because we loved seeing the songs stripped back.

Sometimes things get too layered and compressed or there's too many effects and they turn into mush on record. I strive to keep it raw and live-sounding, like you are in the room watching the band play.

If you ever want to know why I'm not on a record label, look at 'The X Factor!' Honestly, of all the people that strive to break barriers in music and do good things and write great lyrics, not one of them would ever pass the first round on any of these competitions.

That's what I tell my students at California Institute of the Arts where I taught for 27 years. I taught them if you strive to be a good person, maybe you might become a great jazz musician.

Brazilian music has many of the ingredients that I strive for in my own music: Strong melodies and a disciplined but intense rhythmic concept, and interesting harmonies.

It's a really cool time for artists who want to strive for a little more depth in what they want to say to come forward. We live in a very fast world right now. We've got all this media and music which is so accessible to us, it's here one minute gone the next.

I think it's really cool how J. Lo's been able to balance an acting career and a music career. That's something I strive for.

I think the music I make is true to my life. A lot of people can relate to it. It is real. I'm just saying it how it is - I don't sugar-coat it. If you are an ambitious person, you want to strive for more. I want to do it all.

The reason I make music is so that I can influence people and inspire people, but I also want to make music that I feel happy about and that I feel is good. The challenge, which is why it's worth keeping going, is to constantly strive to figure out where the meeting place is.

Hearing Jimi Hendrix as a little kid and falling in love with everything that he did on guitar rewired my basic nature. To me, that was a normal thing that you should do: you should strive to be as innovative as Hendrix.

I'm heavily influenced by a lot of people like Dre, Pharrell, and Kanye. They're all big-time tastemakers and trendsetters, just for culture, period. So I strive to do that as well.

I am passionate about singing, and I strive to improve with every song and keep getting better.

I always strive to make my music unique.

If you want to strive toward something, just listen to John Bonham.