#md5314

1996 saw 24 hit singles in the UK. The highest number since 1980! According to UK Charts Top Source Info (http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/top-100-1996.shtml), the Spice Girls got three songs into the top 100 two of which in the top 10. Wanna be, which was released on July the 7th 1996, had topped the charts in 22 nations by the end of that year. By 1997 it had hit America and topped the Billboard Hot 100.

1996 saw songs from artists like Peter Andre, Oasis, Michael Jackson, U2 and George Michael topping the charts. Although there are large differences between The Spice Girls and the above listed, it shows that Wanna Be really was riding the wave of what was normal at the time. More evidence of this in the two other songs from The Spice Girls reaching the top 100.

Looking at the music video for this song, it looks like a very clear comment on the upper classes. The majority of the video shows The Spice Girls wreaking havoc in an expensive hotel in London called St. Pancras Grand Hotel. They rush into the building, pushing past security and throwing away the guest list, dancing on the tables and generally causing trouble. While an attack on the upper classes is an easy meaning to read into this video, at the very start, the girls are seen dancing up to and then stealing the hat from a homeless man on the street. This is an act that is later repeated with a priest in the hotel. This is something that, to me, suggests that this is less a social comment video and more a statement that The Spice Girls are outside all classes and will not conform to the class system, social norms or even, in stealing from a homeless man, standard morality.

Something else that was released in 1996 was the book ‘Born to rebel: Birth order, family dynamics, and creative lives’. Written by Sulloway, Frank J, this book covers a few subjects including the affects that the order of sibling’s births, their gender and other outside influences can have on their development as people. In one online abstract, the American Psychotically Association say, “Frank J. Sulloway's most important finding is that the eldest children identify with parents and authority, and support the status quo, whereas younger children rebel against it.”. This finding, and The Spice girls flaunting a rebellious attitude in the music video, seems at odds as four out of the five Spice Girls have between one and three younger siblings. A possible conclusion that we can draw from this is that the Spice Girls, as with the majority of pop artists, were being influenced and directed by their label, manager, video director etc. Something that, in the last 21 years, does not seem to have changed.

Lyrically, Wannabe is about the girls wanting a partner that is committed, willing to contribute to the relationship and can get “Get along with my friends”.

In conclusion, this song does not seem to be doing anything new with technology, instrumentation or lyrics. While not innovative, this song reached number one for 1996, in my opinion, because it is catchy. Number one from last year (2016) was Sia’s Cheap Thrills ft. Sean Paul. Both Cheap Thrills and Wannabe have the sound of their time. This is something that shows in the more dance friendly electronic beat as well as the lyrics “Till I hit the dance floor, hit the dance floor”, something that is obviously going to encourage people to dance in a night club, places that it has become far more common for people to listen to music over the last 21 years.

Song Link: https://open.spotify.com/track/2W2XqpU22d6TL0PFn3tfzM 

Play Video

In this analysis I would like to focus on the lyrical aspect of the song White Noise by the band Bad flower. Release in 2016 on the E.P 'Temper'.

What sets White Noise apart from the numerous alt-rock saturating the market at the moment is its subject matter. While love, relationships and loss is a very strong theme to a lot of music, arguably with good reason, this song tackles the less discussed topic of bullying and it's mental and physical effects. The opening lines, “Hey, kid. You look much cooler on these drugs. Fight, kid. Some other fucker wants you blood”, is, to me, a very clear reference to peer pressuring and physical bullying. Carrying into the chorus, “I’m alive but I’ll kill myself”, it seems clear that Josh Katz (the lead singer of Bad Flower) is speaking, in very plane terminology, about the darker effects that bullying can have, namely, the self harm and even suicide of the victim.

Ed Sheeran

Ed has no musical education what so ever. Instead, he kicked off his musical career aged 14 by traveling from his home in Halifax to London to hit the capital’s music scene. Particularly in the early stages, social media seems to have played a large part in his success, leading to a rapper by the name of ‘Example’ taking him on as the opening act in his tour.

Rag ‘N’ Bone man

In a similar way to Ed Sheeran, Roy Graham (Rag ‘N’ Bone Man) taught himself to sing and write music. Specifically, by mimicking artists such as Muddy Watters. At 19, Graham took part in a blues open-mic night, after which he started to consider music as more than fun and view it as a sustainable career.

Shawn Mendes

Much like Sheeran, social media played a key role in the development of Shawn Mendes’ musical career. Despite no formal arts education, Mendes got his name in the light after posting a six second clip of himself performing a cover in 2013.

Ariana Grande

Ariana is the odd one out in this short list as she was into singing and acting from a young age and enrolled in a local theatre, undergoing formal arts education. While the other three artists on this list are, without doubt, some of the most famous in the world, Grande seems to have gone from nothing to everything after getting a part in a Broadway production of ‘13’. It is Grande was only 15 at the time, making it very probable that her part in ‘13’ was achieved through the contacts made in the theatre (Formal Arts Education).

Ed Sheehan: https://www.biography.com/people/ed-sheeran

Rag 'N' Bone Man: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/rag-n-bone-man-mn0003340178/biography

Shawn Mendes: https://www.aceshowbiz.com/celebrity/shawn_mendes/biography.html

Ariana Grande: https://www.biography.com/people/ariana-grande-02152015

Top 40: http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-official-top-40-biggest-albums-of-2017-so-far__18643/

A Discussion Proposal 

What percentage of chart artists went through formal musical education (Above A levels) vs the number that did not?

It may also be interesting to compare the percentage now to the percentage of a few decades ago. How has the music industry has changes in that regard?

Proposed Artist

·       Justin Bieber

·       Ed Sheeran

·       Miley Cyrus

·       Adel

·       Beyonce

·       Taylor Swift

·       Bruno Mars

·       Drake

Research proposal - expand on looking into the ratio of female & male artists being signed at the minute by looking at the ratio of female / male artists making pop music against authentic musicianship - are there more female pop stars, are there more male indie stars?

A popular sexism debate in popular music is whether there are more male or female artists being signed in the current industry. I propose to do a study that expands on this question by looking deeper into the world of music - it might be the case that there are more unsigned or indie female artists gaining popularity than there are female pop stars in the charts. The same could be said for male musicians.

MD5314 Thinking Out Loud

Content analysis

I am planning to analyse the regression of listening.

The study discusses the issues of distracted listeners and how music is now being ‘deliberately created to encourage distracted audience activity’. The study also goes on to explain that listeners revert back to consumption of music in a ‘child-like’ manner, identified by Adorno as ‘quotation listening’. ‘By this he meant that, instead of listening to music and attempting to grasp an entire piece of work as a whole, the regressive listener dwelt upon the most obvious fragments of melody’.

To support this I decided to look into how the music industry is now arranged and have discovered that Adorno’s study is very accurate. The music industry appears to push and support this style of listening by providing the listener with an ability to purchase songs within an album separately. This is also shown on the website ‘Youtube’, as the site allows listeners to access playlists of albums making it very easy for the listener to skip songs that they are ‘un-familiar’ with.

Thinking Out Loud MD5314 - Task 2

Huang’s (2015) object of study is the cultural impact of music on society. Her primary research is the way that popular music reflects the culture of the present day. She proves this with the example of the song #SELFIE by the Chainsmokers. She explains that during the song there is a ‘spot-on commentary about the youth and media culture of our day.’ She then goes on to explain that this was not always the case.

Huang’s secondary research begins with a quote from Selwyn Duke in Influential Beats: The Cultural Impact of Music. The quote is - “There were times and places — in the Europe of the Middle Ages, as an example — where music might remain largely the same for hundreds of years,” This then challenges her ideas that music reflects the culture of today. Huang also begins to look into music used at a Roman Catholic church and explains that there are medieval influences in their music but continues to be used in the present day.

Huang completes her section in the article with explaining that music and culture flow together and although some music does reflect only on the culture of today, we must ensure that we are intentional in the cultures that we create and cultivate with our music.

Thinking Out Loud MD5314 - Task 1

The text that I have chosen to analyse is Lover of the Light by Mumford and Sons.The video is about a blind man that makes the decision to leave his house by himself for the very first time.

I believe that the target audience is for people that enjoy cinematic music videos and those that are emotionally intelligent. The message of the video can only be discovered through what one observes through watching intently. Key parts of the story unfold at the beginning and can be missed easily. This means that the track ‘Lover of the Light’ stretches beyond only folk music fans and to a larger audience.

The song ‘Lover of the Light’ is based on traditional folk music, but by using modern day production techniques they increase the target audience and marketability. The track features a strong vocal line that appears to have been recorded closely to purposefully push the vocal forward and, in the beginning, be the main focus of the song. The track also uses elements of synthesiser in the beginning and mid-section to build tension. It appears that by evaluating the track, majority of the instrumentation is live bar the synthesisers. Overall the tack holds a very clean and polished sound and hits the modern day production criteria whilst still abiding to a traditional folk feel.