Music / Jason Mraz

Some guy in a hat without his hat.

Open up your mind and see like me

Open up your plans and, damn, you're free

Look into your heart and you'll find

Love, love love love...

— Jason Mraz, I'm Yours

Jason Thomas Mraz (born June 23, 1977) is an American singer/songwriter who hailed originally from Mechanicsville, Virginia. After a brief stint in his youth at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, he wound his way to San Diego, California, where he played the coffee houses and focused on his songwriting. Influenced somewhat by the music of his youth (Stevie Wonder, New Kids on the Block, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin), Mraz's style is a blend of folk, pop, rock, reggae and hip-hop. He currently is a raw foodist (with occasional lapses) who owns an avocado farm in California. He also likes cats.

Mraz's major hits include "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)", "Geek in the Pink", "I'm Yours", "I Won't Give Up", and "Have It All."

Discography:

• Waiting For My Rocket To Come (2002)
• Mr. A-Z (2005)
• We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things. (2008)
• Love Is A Four Letter Word (2012)
• Yes! (2014)
• Know. (2018)
• Look for the Good (2020)
• Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride (2023)

Tropes for the artist include:

• Album Title Drop:
  • "I'm just a curbside prophet with my hand in my pocket, and I'm waiting for my rocket to come."
  • "Yeah the Mister A to Z, they say I'm all about the wordplay."
• Anti-Love Song: "Please Don't Tell Her." Jason himself even describes the song as one, verbatim.
• Audience Participation Song: Mraz, like most artists, played the local venues first, which were more intimate and had the most capacity for musician-artist conversation. Nowadays he uses this trope with "Dynamo of Volition", among others.
• Auto Erotica: In “Long Drive”

  You and the road have a generous shoulder

  We could pull over and say we took the long way

• Biting-the-Hand Humor: "Too Much Food" is a thinly-veiled rant at Elektra's A & R department.

  Stop telling me the way that I gotta play!
  Putting too much food on my plate.

• Call-Back: In "Wordplay":

  When it's time to get ill I got your remedy,

  For those who don't remember me,

  Well let me introduce you to my style.

• Cover Version: Yes! includes a cover of Boyz II Men's "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday." Some other Mraz covers include "Summer Breeze" by Seals & Croft (for Everwood), "I Melt With You" by Modern English (for 50 First Dates), and "Rainbow Connection."
• Digital Piracy Is Okay: In spades. Mraz generally supports bootlegs (and often prefers people experience his music live than studio), felt honored when people "couldn't wait until We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things was officially available that they downloaded the songs beforehand", and allows high-tech recording equipment (audio only) at his concerts. Fans making cell-phone videos are also a common sight at his shows.
• Fake-Out Fade-Out: Done to glorious effect at the end of "Song for a Friend".
• Follow Your Heart: See page quote.
• The Four Chords of Pop: "I'm Yours."
• Genre Roulette: Mr. A-Z.
• Hidden Track: At the end of Four Letter Word, "I'm Coming Over" plays after 20-ish seconds of silence.
• Improv: He improvises often in concert, and occasionally during recording, which resulted in the song "The Dynamo of Volition."
• Incredibly Long Note: In "Plane":

  You keep me high-iiiiiiiiigh....

• Intercourse with You: "Butterfly", "Tonight, Not Again"
  • "Clockwatching" seems to get right to it as well.
• Just Friends: The subject of "If It Kills Me".
• Last-Second Word Swap: He likes this trope a lot. To date:
  • Geek In The Pink: "Well I can save you from unoriginal dum-dums/ who wouldn't care if you come.../plete them or not."
  • Butterfly: "Bend your back and ask those hips if I can touch/ cause they're the perfect jumping off point/ gettin closer to your butt/erfly."
    • Perhaps, but perhaps not. "Butterfly" is also slang for a certain part of the female anatomy, possibly making this example an Unusual Euphemism instead.
• Lyrical Cold Open: "You and I Both", "The Freedom Song", "Look for the Good", and "The Dynamo of Volition" are examples.
• Motor Mouth: Lampshaded in "Wordplay".
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: From "Dynamo of Volition":

  My best friends are hittin' on my sister,

  Gotta tell em that they still wish-a,

  Cause she already got herself a mista

  And besides, that's gross, don't wanna diss her.

• Older Than They Look: Referenced in "What We Want":

  I'm older than I look I see

  The man staring at my ID...

• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Mraz is as Caucasian as they come, but takes a lot of cues from Black music.
• Raging Stiffie: Implied in "Butterfly."
  "You make my slacks a little tight
  You may unfasten them if you like
  That's if you crash and spend the night."
• Real Men Wear Pink: See "Geek in the Pink":

  I don't care what you may think about me

  You'll get by without me if you want

  Don't judge me by the color, confuse it for another

  You might regret what you let slip away

  Like the geek in the pink

• Scatting: Very often. Most notably in "I'm Yours".
• Shout-Out
  • The last stanza of "Dynamo of Violation" changes "You're the best definition of good intentions" to "You're the best! Around!"
  • "The Remedy" name-drops Dangerous Liaisons.

• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Far on the idealistic side.
• "Sesame Street" Cred: "Outdoors" (2009)
• Silly Love Songs: Know. is a collection of feel-good love songs, which Mraz has stated were mostly written for his wife.
• Studio Chatter: "Coyotes" ends with Mraz telling one of the kids in the chorus that he's "a little too close to the mic".
• Take That, Critics!: "Wordplay", in spades.
• Textless Album Cover: Love Is A Four Letter Word. Technically.
• Uncommon Time: "5/6", the title of which indicates the time signature of the song's verse... sort of. ("6" can never be the denominator of a time signature; it's alternating 5/8 and 6/8.)
• Word Salad Lyrics: Mraz uses this trope often — particularly in his earlier works — but in none so much as the mostly ad-libbed "The Dynamo of Volition."

  With a tiger spot on my back

  Living life of a cat

  I just wanna relax here and write another rap tune

  Driving off on your blind man's bike

  You can say just what you like

  Or nothing can stop you

  • Lampshaded with "Wordplay," which makes fun of the use of nonsense syllable refrains.

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