The song that I chose for this blog is called “Liar” by a Korean girl group, (G)I-DLE. This song is a b-side track from their latest album “I Never Die” written and composed by the member Yuqi and it has this rock vibe to it. I chose this song was because this song has a strong meaning behind it being to not care on what others think and live the way you want. The rhythm to this song has a fast beat where the tempo is around 174 BPM and the scale is a G Major. The texture of this song is more homophonic where there is the singer and accompanied by many chords since there are more that 3 pitches being played. The form is more of a Verse-chorus form and the instruments has more electric guitar and drums. Here is the song.

One piece of music that I’m familiar with and enjoy is Prelude by Twoset Violin from their Fantasia album earlier this year. It’s actually the same piece of music that I linked in my welcome post. The artist is comedic YouTube violin duo Eddy Chen, and Brett Yang. Together they make up the YouTube channel Twoset Violin. I started watching their channel during quarantine, and prior to that I was mostly interested in popular music ( pop, R&B, rap, EDM, etc.). However in their videos, as two professional classical Violinists, their channel was all about classical music. This really opened up my curiosity to music, how it functions, who it works, and how people express themselves through an instrument. It’s been almost two years now, and they inspired me to play guitar for the last 10 months. And it’s because of the context they create and music they produce that really inspired me to make music of my own, and to really learn more about music in general. 

Two musical elements that are interesting to me in this piece is how the piece harmonized with its polyphony texture. One of the many reasons I really live and enjoy this piece is how peaceful and calming it sounds. The consonant harmony playing in the piece is reminiscent of Debussy, and Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi. The polyphony texture of the piece also reminds me of walking in a meadow or just being lost in thought staring into the clouds. I also really love how the melody is trading in between the two violins, sometimes they play together, and other times one takes the wheel, and yet both melodic lines stay independent. 

Here is the link to the Music: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjI6sviwpr6AhVjEFkFHYCaBvMQwqsBegQIGBAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DBxMxgeygEbQ&usg=AOvVaw0DDUHYfPP6kBqucBjeWe0H 

One of my favorite songs to listen to is “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears. Tears for Fears is an English pop rock group, started by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith in Bath, England in 1981. The song came out on March 22, 1985, in the “Songs from the Big Chair” album. They were immensely popular in the 80’s all over the world and are still active and well loved by many today. The “pop rock” genre, that this song is placed in, is a genre of rock music that does not focus on attitude, but more on professional songwriting and recording craft. The song’s rhythm is set at an easy medium pace, where you can tap your toe to the beat while walking down the street. The homophonic texture of the song is beautifully arranged with the song starting with a simple two-layer harmony that leads to the percussion and the lyrics of the song. “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” has such an easily discernible sound, mostly due to its popularity, that I can recognize the second the song starts. A part of the song that sticks out to me is a little passed the halfway mark in the song at around 2:30. They put an echoing effect on the guitar solo that pared well with the changing dynamics and consonant harmony to the song.  

For this blog I chose ‘Good Vibrations’ by the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys consisted of 5 men: Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine. They started as a garage and their distinctive style was influenced by the music of pop vocal groups, R&B, and rock and roll from the 1950s. Murray Gage Wilson was their manager as well as the father of Brian, Dennis, and Carl but he was very abusive towards the boys, especially when the boys were successful. Because their father terrified them, they were scared to creating successful hits and they did whatever they could to achieve that, including drugs. They went through a lot of different stages in their career but ultimately, they were successful in having an impact on America that their music is still played today.  

When I first heard this song, I was 10 and it was played by my father. He loves playing older songs and showing me “the good music” as he likes to call it. I then heard it again in 2019 while watching hotel Transylvania 3 with my niece.  

The music elements I chose are harmony and texture. I chose to focus on the chorus in ‘Good Vibrations’. In the chorus, the texture is Polyphonic. At first, I was between monophonic and polyphonic but because each background contributes to the full piece of the music, it was clear that those were independent melodic lines. In this song, the Beach Boys used Electro-Theremin, jaw harp, string bass, and cello and you can hear all of these in the chorus. I never heard of an Electro-Theremin, but it turns out it was the little high pitched “wooooo“ during the chorus. That was just interesting to me. The harmony is consonant in the chorus. Because there are so many different instruments, including the singer’s voice, and they all lean towards a higher pitch, it sounds pleasing to the ear and there is a constant beat that the harmonies follow which give a sense of stability. 

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eab_beh07HU