KSU Staff Sounds: Matthew Crawford

BSR Staff Sounds feature different Kent State staff member’s original unique playlists! Get to know the KSU faculty you are around every day via their musical favorites!

This week’s playlist is by Matthew Crawford!

Matthew Crawford is a Kent State History Professor.

Check out his description of how his playlist came to be…

Most of the songs on my list are guitar heavy. And there’s a reason for that…playing guitar has been an integral part of my life. My dad was a guitar player and, at age seven, I started playing guitar. Since then, I have played in several bands including an original heavy metal band in high school that made two (self-produced) studio albums. I listened to a lot metal in those days but moved away from the genre when I was in college. Then, a little more than ten years ago, I got back into metal and thanks to services like Spotify, I was able to discover all kinds of new metal bands that were doing interesting things with the genre. So, much of this list represents many of the bands that I have come to love in the last decade or so (with a few oldies thrown in). While its mostly on the heavier side – with sludge metal, heavy metal, and punk well represented – there are also a few surprises from bands that are more prog rock or emo. But the unifying theme is great guitar playing and, to that end, I would suggest that the dueling guitar solos (3:48-4:55) in “Cosmic Crown” by Scale the Summit is some of the best guitar work in recent memory. Happy listening!

Are you a KSU staffer that wants to be featured on an upcoming KSU Staff Sounds? Reach out to BSR GM Brooke Forrest ([email protected]) to submit your very own playlist!