For this prompt, I decided to go with the song Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears. Tears for Fears is a British pop rock band that started in the 1980s. Their first album had hit number one in the UK but, they didn’t hit the US until their second album released. Which had two singles,  Shout as well as Everybody Wants to rule the world, hitting #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100. However after their world tour, the band had split but reconciled a decade later in 2000. Recently, they had gone on tour this past spring and are performing in the UK the day this assignment is due. I had listened to this song when I was younger but it was only until a few years ago, when I rediscovered the song, when I started actively listening. Listening to the song, I think the rhythm of it follows a ¾ signature due to the drum accenting every meter. And from my research, the song has a tempo of 112 BPM which is just slightly under allegro. The piece follows a alternate verse-chorus form where it goes from verse one, chorus one, verse two, chorus two. But after that, following the bridge and the third chorus, there is a solo from the synth at first and a guitar improvisation afterwards (right around the 2 minute mark). This was most likely a song Tears for Fears made to appeal to a general audience and assumed that it would be slowly forgotten after a while. However, thanks to the use of the song in media like TikTok, Tears for fears still gets 14 million monthly listeners and has over 800 million streams for Everybody Wants to Rule the World on Spotify. I think the most musically interesting part of the song is the guitar solo. There is a part where the guitar plays an intro riff right before the solos start but after it ends it uses the same pattern but in a higher key. It’s a little hard to listen for but if you focus just on the guitar you can hear it happening.  

A song that I love and have loved for over three years now is striptease by carwash. Striptease is a lo-fi pop song that can be found on Spotify, Soundcloud, and many other platforms. I honestly just find this song adoring and often see myself listening to it when I need to cheer myself up. I often get bored of replaying songs over and over again after a month or two but I’ve stuck with this song for a few years now which is special to me. At 0:35 seconds of the song the dynamic changes for just a few seconds. It lowers itself and then introduces the chorus right after. I personally love it when a song does this, a good beat drop always makes or breaks a song for me. I may be wrong but I believe that the song is polyphony. LIstening to the song I can hear the beat of the instruments and the singer of the song. Putting them together makes the song what it is and it would be entirely different if either of them did not have the other. Overall I do not know much about this artist nor do I care for their other songs but this specific one will always hold a spot in my playlist.

The piece of music I chose to talk about today was “All Falls Down” by Kanye West. I really enjoy listening to this song whenever I wanna boost my mood. This is a hip-hop song that demonstrates a great example of rhythm. Kanye West is known for taking time on making his songs unique, as most would say. His whole career started when he chose to add lyrics to the beats he would create for other musical artists. I think making a beat for Jay-Z is what really opened his eyes to take his own music seriously. West would create beats for the rising artists in Chicago and become popular because of Channel Zero. This small news channel in Chicago grew bug once the small town producers on it, one being Kanye West, realized that they could reach their dreams if they kept trying hard enough. That’s when they realized they had a chance to achieve their dream and West didn’t give up. He got so popular there that he brought his talent all the way to New York. He watched other artists receive so much recognition for the beats of a song that he would create. The song I choose to talk about today is actually one of the first songs West took into record label offices to show them his talent. I would say this song shows a good example of texture because it has many beats going on at once, this song would fall best under the polyphony category. This is because the song features two relatively independent voices with Syleena Johnson being the featured artist in this song. Johnson sings the chorus while rapping phrases that he turns into verses. I would say the first verse of the song is what’s most interesting. The song follows the same beat the entire time while the verse and course switch.

The song that I am familiar with and chose for this blog is, Flashing Lights by Kanye West(ft. Dwele). Kanye West is a Rapper, Producer, and Fashion Designer. Kanye is not only one of my favorite rappers/producers, but he is one of the most influential Hip Hop Musicians of all time . He is from Chicago IL., and he first gained recognition as a producer at Roc-A-Fellas Records (in New York). It wasn’t easy, but he had intent on pursuing a rap career. He was able to release his first album which was called the ”College Drop Out”. That album became a commercial success and made him really famous. Until then , Kanye West has released a lot of hit singles/albums and is still one of the biggest rap artist today.

Kanye West is very experimental and diverse with his music. The song Flashing lights comes from one of his known albums called “Graduation”. The bpm(beats per minute) of the song is 90 bpm, slow paced, and the key is in F sharp minor. The instruments consists of violins, synths, and digital drums. The Harmonies of the song gives a consonant sound when the violins are playing smoothly like an orchestra. It then switches to a dissonant sound where the synth stabs are playing. The synth stabs gives a bright loud feeling to the song. The Texture of the song shows a sense of Homophony. The chorus of the song “What – do – I – know; Flashing – Lights!” stands out the most, and it is being accompanied by the synths stabs playing in the background. This song is definitely one of my favorite songs from Kanye. Not only the song has a cool feeling but it also gives an anthemic vibe.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanye_West

Song: https://youtu.be/ZAz3rnLGthg

The song that I picked is “Runaway” by Kanye West. Kanye is a hip-hop artist that in recent years has been shrouded in controversy, yet his work is some of the best music has ever seen and has influenced countless artists. This song has affected me as it really made me understand that music itself is art and I believe everybody should listen to this song at least once. The melody of this song is so memorable especially due to the first few C notes that are played. It is so distinct and the rest of the song is so recognizable due to its uniqueness. The melody is very diverse and pitches up and down but is balanced in a sense. The timbre of Kanye’s voice adds so much balance and beauty to the song. He often pitches up and down, yet he does not make the 9-minute drag time of the song boring at all. The pre-chorus and chorus especially shows the timbre of Kanye as he often changes how loud or how low he is sounding, yet it is balanced and creates a new sense of stability to the song with his intensity, which is why it is often regarded as Kanye’s best song. This song’s best moment is that chorus with the way Kanye harmonizes all instrumentals and voices into one beautiful piece of art. 

The song I decided to choose was the song called “Sunroof”. The song is of the pop genre and the artists who sing it are Nicky Youre and Dazy. The song established itself in the top 10 of Billboard 100 and placed itself at number six. I happened to discover this song randomly on social media while I was scrolling through some videos. While listening to the song I noticed it had a very good rhythm, a catchy melody, and lyrics that were easy to remember and sing along to. The overall vibe of the song was very energetic and perfect for summer. It wasn’t heavy or overbearing and instead let you relax and follow the flow of the song. Another factor of the song I liked was its genre. I like pop songs and this is what probably led me to gravitate toward it and pique my interest. The lyrics and melody were so catchy it was stuck in my head for the day and let it establish itself as a hot song. Two musical elements I noticed in the song are harmony and texture. In the song, I chose I noticed it had a thin texture were only a few instruments playing, or there were only one or two melodies and harmonies. As supposed to having a heavy texture where there are many instruments playing. As for the harmony, I believe it went together and was well-balanced. The song was balanced and didn’t seem to have components that were overbearing. A musically interesting moment in the song is the melody and the pitch of the song. To start off the song has a mixture of low and high pitches. The song is in a low pitch for the most part of the song but rises in pitch as the song goes toward the chorus. The chorus portion of the song has a higher pitch than the other portion of the song which is very. The song also incorporates hums into the melody during some portions of the song. The incorporation of the hums is well blended into the song and doesn’t seem distracting. It is also not very noticeable as it is well incorporated into the rest of the melody. This was interesting as I haven’t heard many songs that use hums but rather use instruments to create these noises. It was refreshing to see new techniques being used and outside of my knowledge. 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK7riqg2mr4

Song: Agar Tum Saath Ho

Artists: Alka Yagnik and Arjit Singh

Music: AR Rahman 

Lyrics: Irshad Kamil

Music Label: T-Series

Genre: Bollywood

Relationship: I grew up watching Indian Movies and listening to Indian Music. It is a part of who I am and my culture. In my opinion, this song, instrumentally and vocally, is very breathtaking, complex, and emotional. 

Musical Element #1: Melody 

The third verse of this song is something I can’t stop singing or humming. There is so much that is happening instrumentally and vocally, that you are taken aback by what you’re listening to. The melody here follows disjunct (the melody ascends and then descends and then ascends and so forth) [You hear it in the violins especially]. This whole song in general is a combination of music that makes you feel pain/sadness but also love at the same time. Two very contrasting emotions and feelings of music. The singer’s voice, however, in this section, is performing in the conjunct method (gradually ascending and then gradually descending). For every line he sings, he starts off low, and towards the end, you hear the stress of when he’s hitting the high note. This pattern continues into the next line and so on and so forth. 

Musical Element #2: Timbre (Tone Color)

Again, I’ll reference the third verse because I feel like it is a good representation of the main elements of music. Timbre refers to the distinctive quality of a voice or an instrument. In the third verse, the male singer’s voice is overlapped. He is singing the same lines but on two different scales (a series of pitches, ordered by the interval between its notes) and pitches (a tone that is composed of an organized sound wave). In one voice, he is singing calmly and in the other, he is singing in agony, very representative of the roller coaster of emotions that the characters experience in the movie. One of which is in a high tone and the other which is in a low tone. It is significant because it portrays the emotions that the people involved in making the song want the audience to feel. They want the viewer to go through the journey with the character.