John Mayer 

      John Clayton Mayer was born October 16, 1977. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and raised in Fairfield. Mayer first picked up a guitar after being stuck in a hospital room for a week due to a cardiac arrhythmia at the age of 13. For a college education, Mayer attended Berkley College of Music in Boston but that didn't last long. After only a year at Berkley he moved to Atlanta where he lived and played music with his friend Clay Cook, also known as LoFi Masters. Mayer later left the duo to record Inside Wants Out, which he marketed himself.  

    Mayer's rise to fame began in the 2000's, signing with Aware Records after the Southwest Music Festival in Texas. The leading single for his first album, Room for Squares, was titles "No Such Thing". This song was written with the help of Cook, in which they addressed high school counselors that told them to "stay within the lines". In this song they discuss that it is better to follow the beat of your own drum. This is an extremely personal song to Mayer because in many ways he didn't follow the path his counselors urged. In fact, instead of going straight to college after high school, he worked at a gas station to save money to buy a guitar.

      Room for Squares became a multi-platinum album because of the singles "No Such Thing" and "Your Body is A Wonderland". In 2003, he then released "Heavier Things" featuring the singles "Bigger Than My Body" and "Daughters". Shortly after that, in 2004, he recorded "As/Is" making it a largely successful year for Mayer and a turning point in his career. Mayer changed musical persona from sensitive to a smart, out spoken man. He made his new persona widely know through risky blog posts, columns in magazines, TV specials and interviews, even playing the a Harlem barbershop. Since the he has released "Room for Squares", "Heavier Things", "Continuum", "Battle Studies", "Born and Raised" and "Paradise Valley" which are his full albums although he has also a few live albums. Mayer writes all of his own music although has made a few covers of others artists.



Your Body Is A Wonderland: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N5EnGwXV_Pg

No Such Thing: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H1W2UddURXI

Source:
"John Mayer Biography." Rolling Stone. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

Williams, Evan Calder. "A Contribution to the Critique of John Mayer." N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.