Musc 1020 blogposts

  For this weeks blogpost, I decided to write about Tina Turner's hit single "What's Love Got to Do with It." I find this song intriguing because of her demoralizing past that correlates with it. For 16 years, Tina Turner was abused in her marriage by her atrocious husband Ike Turner. I feel that her views on love after such an egregious marriage are evidently visible throughout the song. I feel that her feelings are best displayed when she states, "If I tend to look dazed I've read it someplace. I've got cause to be." I feel she's saying that everyone should be able to understand her abhorrence toward love because she's experienced the terror and anguish that can be brought about by it. She has a right to the opinion she has of love. Everyone's goal, though never explicitly expressed, is to hurt anyone they can, regardless of what they've done, in order to make themselves feel better. I feel that this message is eloquently portrayed ...

  For this week's blog post, I decided to do "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder because it is absolutely one of my favorite songs. My dad would play it whenever I got into his truck when I was younger so whenever I listen to this song, I always get super nostalgic. I love the simple drum kit beat that opens the song, and the subsequent electric slap bass that come in help build the song and give it such a swanky and fun beat. I do wish that the bass would switch up to something else every once in a while though because it plays the same two measure riff throughout the entire song, which gets a little monotonous after a while. I love Stevie Wonder's voice because it matches the music perfectly. I feel that the background music can only be described as swanky and that's exactly the way his voice sounds as well. To be honest I can't really think of an underlying profound message in the lyrics. They're pretty straightforward just about being superstitious. So the...

For the majority of songs, after we listen to them they fade way without having any impact. On the other hand, there are the rare and exquisite songs that transcend the shallow label of music and achieve a poetic status and endure our hearts. For me, this song is unequivocally the latter. Simply put, the woman at the beginning is an allegory of the avaricious and arrogant society of people who believe that everything, including a "stairway to heaven" can be acquired with money alone. I feel that this allegory demands that we give credence to veering off the trodden path, and realize that our lives and actions are worth more than the monetary value our society puts upon them. The opening verse demands resolutely that we are worth more than the materialism of contemporary society says that we are. The next verse states "there's a feeling I get when I look to the west and my spirit is crying for leaving. In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees and th...

  For this weeks blogpost, I decided to do "Hotel California" by Eagles. This is a superlative song for a variety of reasons, but the main reason that I find this song so enjoyable to listen to is its lyrics. While the music is fairly upbeat and fun, the lyrics tell a darker story. A story that I believe to be about drugs and obsession. These themes weren't really apparent by just listening to the music, but as I read the words, I started to get a new interpretation of the lyrics. One line that I like is, "They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill this beast. I believe this line to be a metaphor for heroin use, where "knives are the needles/syringes and "the beast" is there addiction. Another line that correlates to this is when the song states, "We are all just prisoners here of our own device." This could be another metaphor that discusses drug use, where the Eagles are the "prisoners" to the addiction th...

  For this extra credit opportunity I decided to listen to a podcast episode titled, "Why ABBA Songs Just Hit Different" by Switched on Pop. The hosts open this podcast with a discussion of why ABBA is such a controversial band. Some people very much dislike this band due to their cheesy 80's synths and meaningless lyrics. Others enjoy and idolize this music due to the harmonic intricacy, and even enjoy the cheesiness of these songs. I am absolutely a constituent of the latter group. I adore the cheesy synths and arbitrary lyrics that they incorporate into their songs. I believe them to be one of the most soulful, visionary, and influential pop acts of all time. The hosts later proceed to discuss the "studio wizardry" of ABBA songs. They discuss the unbelievable variety of instruments that they incorporate into every single ABBA song. Many of the instruments are even double tracked. The songs typically start with drums, then a track with percussion enters, a sub...

For this extra credit opportunity, I decided to listen to Switched on Pop 's podcast episode from last year that's titled, "The Beatles Get Back to their Roots." This song begins with a brief review of their beginnings. The Beatles started as a live band and they would play in clubs in Hamburg, Germany. It was shocking to hear the recording of one of their club performances after listening to their most popular songs during lecture because it sounded like garage rock. It was so raw, unrefined, and unpolished, but you could immediately recognize the singers. It was quite the stark contrast to the song we heard in lecture that had been refined by studio effects. The hosts then proceeded to discuss the counterculture and psychedelia that is so distinctive and noticeable in their songs from the experimentation they did in all of their songs. As turmoil began to rise after their counterculture songs became popular, Paul McCartney decided that the band needed to get back in...