The song i will be using is ” Love on the Brain” by Rihanna. Rihanna is a Barbadian singer , that sings mostly pop music.Popular music is commercial music made to please the audience but it is quickly forgotten, not to me of course. I was around 10 or 11 when this song came out (i was not supposed to be singing this song)but when i heard it on the teen choice awards i was obsessed. I feel as though i have a great relationship with this song it makes me think of love and being loved by others , it captures my vision of love even though its supposed to be a song that describes love and hate. Hopefully I get to dance to this song at my wedding. Two musical elements i noticed in this song are rhythm and melody. When the song first starts there is a repeating melody that continues into the chorus. Then it changes completely to where multiple instruments are playing at the same time opposed to the two instruments that were playing before. Her voice is very low pitched throughout the whole song but that what gives it the rhythm or (the bopping head affect as i like to say). During the pre chorus she starts to uses phrases to build up the chorus. A interesting moment in the song is when the harmony became Dissonant during the chorus but was switched back to consonant as son as the chorus was over. I think that is what made the song stand out to me because it just feels like she put her all in to that song.

The song that I chose for this assignment is “Hysteria” by Def Leppard. Def Leppard is a band that came about in 1977 who started in England. They are a heavy metal rock group with many popular songs including the one I chose, “Love Bites,” “Rock of Ages,” and “Photograph.” They became popular in the United States in the 80’s. Their first big hit was “Photograph” and their album named “Hysteria” is their most popular album. Ever since around 7th grade, I have come to appreciate songs from older generations. However, I never really listened to this band until this past year. Their music puts me in a better mood and is usually what I listen to while driving. I even went to their concert with my boyfriend this June. The song “Hysteria” has the keys D major and G major and is listed under the genre of Alternative Rock. Unlike their other songs, this one is a more soft texture song since it lacks the heavy instrumentals. There is a guitar melody as well as vocals. It has a tempo of 107 beats per minute and is written in the key of G. A musically interesting moment in the song is when it shifts to just an instrumental moment with different pitches. An interesting fact I found was that Rick Allen, their drummer, said in an interview that this is his favorite song and that it makes him feel comforted. I actually feel the same way listening to this song which is why when I listened to the interview I found it interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SluRyO4EA4

One of my favorite songs is Flawless by The Neighbourhood. The Neighbourhood is an American band that was formed in 2011. The song Flawless was released in the album, I Love You. (2013). They are under Columbia Records and the genre they are mostly under is rock (alternative, indie, pop, etc). The band consists of vocalist Jesse Rutherford, guitarists Jeremy Freedman and Zach Abels, bassist Mikey Margott, and drummer Brandon Alexander Fried. This is one of my favorite songs because of the story of the song. It is about a man who falls in love and it seems perfect at first, but later he finds himself trying to keep their relationship alive after it starts becoming flawed.

The tempo is 120 BPM and the measure is played in 4 beats. The song is mostly in C key and in Major. The harmony is dissonant because it is reflecting the instability of the love between the two characters displayed in the song. It is a homophony as most modern music is. There is a melodic line (Jesse’s vocals) accompanied by chords. The form of the song is verse 1, pre-chorus, chorus, verse 2, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus, and the outro. A musically interesting part is the chorus. When I first listened to it, I didn’t expect for the second part (“The only flaw, you are flawless”) to pick up in the song.

Cacophony is a heavy metal band formed in 1986 by guitarists Marty Friedman and Jason Becker. Their song Speed Metal Symphony was released on the album Speed Metal Symphony in 1987. It is considered one of the best neoclassical metal songs in the genre, and both guitarists the best in the genre as well. I heard this song in my junior year of high school as I was going into my deep heavy metal trance. I was extremely impressed my it due to how technically demanding it is and how it only took two people to come up with a song like that.

The song is in 4/4 timing, however it is very difficult to tell with how much is going on in the song. The song is basically an explosion of sounds from the guitars, which are at the forefront of the song. Although the song stays in 4/4 time, it does speed up and slow down throughout the song. It starts off slow, speeds up to a mid tempo range in the middle of the song, speeds up towards the end o=of the song, and slows down again, which feels, or sounds, a lot like a rollercoaster. It has a lot in common with most heavy metal songs in terms of rhythm, otherwise, by 1987 standards, this was a completely new thing.

The piece is basically the two guitarists interacting with each other, with the bass and drums keeping the rhythm going. Marty and Jason are harmonizing by playing the same guitar lines, trying to keep up with each other. It uses heterophonic guitar lines. The song alternates between guitarists, one playing single notes on his guitar while the other shreds, and then they’ll switch, letting the other guitarist shred while the other plays the rhythm. At the end it does turn into a cacophonic noise to bring the song to a climactic ending.

The song I chose is a game boss battle theme from Genshin Impact’s La Signora Battle, which was composed by Yupeng Chen, a Chinese composer on the game team. Genshin’s music serves the story in the game, so listening to their music allows you to visualize the story in your head. The main character in this song I chose is called La Signora, she is a sad and pathetic character. The innocent girl lost her lover and turned into a crimson witch. She resorted to all means and joined the evil forces to achieve the goal. She was willing to burn her life to fight against the injustice of the world.

The song is divided into two phases. From 14 seconds, celesta joined in. The cold timbre of celesta made people feel cold, and the bass strings and bass drum formed a heartbeat sound, which made people feel uneasy and dangerous. More and more strings join in, and at 60 seconds, dynamics become louder and louder. Then the female chorus joins in to sing the melody, and the female chorus here gives me the feeling that she is telling her suffering. At 2:08 seconds, along with the harp, the male chorus joins in, as to sigh and feel sad about her suffering. Then they call and respond, making the emotion stronger, and finally, they seem to reach some kind of consensus. The music stops and phase one is over.

In 4 minutes, the second phase begins, which is very different from the first phase. Compared with the cello sound in the first phase(at 0:02) , the rhythm of the music is much faster, and the string instrument was replaced by the electric guitar. At 3:36 seconds, the female voice joined again, this time no longer feeling sad, replacing sadness with anger. At 3:57 seconds, drum and bass, strings, and male chorus joined in. The crazy strings made me hear her anger. At 4:30, the electric guitar replaced the crazy strings again, bringing the emotions to the highest level. After the guitar is over, the female voice appears as an operatic solo with the flowing sound of the harp. It is as if she suddenly recalls the good times she had with her lover. Then the drums and the male voice come back and bring her back to reality. Finally, she stands in the fire singing her sorrow, flaming herself up, sacred and solemn.

This song mixes classical music with modern electronic music on the basis of opera. that is what I think is most interesting. Yupeng Chen combines these two elements so well that it sounds totally compatible. it was blew my mind when I heard this song for the first time while playing the game.

Here is the link: https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VnMOQ2j2l4

“Centuries” by Fall out Boy. Fall Out Boy represents various genres, including Alternative Rock, Pop, emo pop, and pop rock. I like the message of the song but also the intense moments this song has. I liked this song because it begins with a soft melody for a few seconds and then immediately gets more intense by introducing more instruments. Then near the end of the song before the last chorus, the same soft melody played in the beginning, is played again. I found this very interesting because it reminds you how the song began. Lastly, throughout the whole song the same piano repetition/melodic line is played in the back, which is homophony. Chords also accompany it in order to create the song. https://youtu.be/vR18NP-acL4

the song I choose is titled Last Last by burnt boy. the artist was once a grammy winner whose genre is Afro-beat. some people argue that his genre is not afro-beat, while others claim the mixture of R&B, reggae, Afro-beat and more. burns boy mixes his lyrics with mostly Yoruba, English, and other dialect of English. his songs also include street slang. my relation to this is the content and the message of the song. this content include hearth- break, and personal life. this song was global summer national anthem.I think everyone vibe to the song because of the melody tone burns boy utilizes. the melody sound wave is too easy to remember that both people who understand the lyrics, and of those who can’t translate the lyrics was able to hum to the beat. I also notice that the Dynamics was stable and a high deep beat after every four head nod. the texture of the song was crescendo at some point while it changes to decrescendo at other point of the song. the texture was changing at different section of the song.

I am more interest in Chinese music which I would share one of the music by JJ Lin “修炼爱情 Practice Love”. This song is written by him and sang by him in the memorial of a girl which they had crushed upon each other. However, sadly the girl passed away in a plane accident. The rhythm and melody of the song is very upsetting, including all the tears and misses. Good music is meaningful, emotional and self experiences.

As the reading packet 2 has stated that “music must show at least a degree of intentional foresight.” There are humanity in music which when you truly understands the music you’ll get the gist of what this piece of music meant and you will know why it attracts you. I will put a link of the song by JJ Lin, if you are interest you can press into it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWV-f6dMN3Q

A song that I am familiar with and that I really enjoy listening to is called “Redbone” by Childish Gambino.

Childish Gambino’s real name is Donald McKinley Glover and is known for being an American actor, writer, singer and comedian. His music has been very popular over the past couple of years and is known for being part of the R&B music genre. The genre of R&B combines jazz, gospel and blues. Gambino was nominated for many awards in the past including Song of the year for the Grammy awards, and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for the Primetime Emmy Awards. When I first heard the song Redbone, I thought it was very strange. It was like something I had never heard before in my life and I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. The vocals sounded distorted and it seemed as if they had been put through some sort of voice changer. After listening to the song multiple times, I found out how nice the lyrics were and how well made the beat is.

There is a part in the song that I find very interesting. In music terminology, I believe this part is called the chorus. In this section, you can hear Gambino’s vocals say “If you want it, you can have it” while accompanied by drums and bass and sounds of high pitched percussion instruments. Based on this we can say that the texture of this part is polyphonic because of how the vocals and instruments are independent and work with each other. We can also see a Harmony present here since there are multiple different notes in the instruments being played at the same time here.