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Mero Blog 2

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 
 

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