Week 6

"Every Day" by Buddy Holly

This week I chose to listen to the song, "Every Day" by Buddy Holly. It isn't a song that we listened to in class but I thought I would try something new and choose a different song by someone we were learning about since there wasn't a ton of options this week. This helped me understand who Buddy Holly was a little better. The first thing that sticks out to me about this song is the bells that break away from the rest of the instruments that are played throughout the song. Then it sounds like someone is slapping their knee for percussion. There isn't many instruments used in this song, that gives it an acoustic feel. It isn't a long song being only 2 minutes long, it is easy to listen to the whole thing. The lyrics are about a guy who is patiently waiting for the girl of his dreams to come his way and he isn't going to make the first move. “Everyday, it's a gettin’ closer, Going faster than a roller coaster, Love like yours will surely come my way, (hey, hey, hey).” The lyrics tell a story throughout and it progresses but also repeats some parts which helps the lyrics interact with each other. The target audience is probably teenagers and young adults who are looking for love <3 I enjoyed listening to it, I think the lyrics and the idea behind the song is really cute!

Week 5

"Hey Good Lookin" Hank Williams 

This song is one that I would actually consider listening to without being forced to by this class. I am a huge fan of old country music. I vaguely remember being little and hearing this song play in my grandmas car. She likes Hank Williams and Hank Williams Jr. My favorite genre of music is country so this was a good choice for me. This song is the very beginning of country music and it is interesting to see how much the genre has changed from when this song was written to what it is now. This song brings emotions of love and the feelings you get when you like someone. The lyrics are clever and they all fit together to tell a story of a guy telling a girl he wants to spend all of his time with her. He is showing his affection and says that he wants her and only her and he is going to write her name on every page of his date book, and that is cute! The target audience is probably more towards young adults and teenagers because it has a young feeling to it. It talks about an old truck and listening to music and soda, things that teenagers are all about. I think it is such a cute song all together. There is nothing that i don’t like about it and the more I listened to it and really focused on what it was saying made me like it even more when I understood what it was about.

Week 4

"In the Mood" by Glenn Miller 

What surprised me about this song is that when I first listened to it I immediately knew that I have heard it before. With the songs that we have listened to up until now I had never really heard any of them before. I immediately made a connection with this song because it reminded me of the movies that I would watch when I was a kid. I'm pretty sure this song is in the Parent Trap and others at some point, or that is what it reminded me of. This connection will help me remember it for the next Exam. I like all of the instruments that are used, the trumpets and saxophones that are mainly used. I especially like how the beginning sounds. That is my favorite part of this song. Songs that don't have lyrics are harder for me to listen to, that is the only thing that I don't like about it. I'm not really sure of the exact meaning of this song but the Title “In the Mood” is a risky title but the sounds sounds very innocent. This song is very easy to listen to and all throughout it repeats itself the right amount of times and also adds contrast all throughout which doesn’t allow you to get bored when you listen to the whole thing.

Week 3

“I Got Rhythm” by George and Ira Gershwin, preformed by Ethel Merman

Songs like this were wrote to be fun and escape life's issues. It is up-tempo and loud. Ethel Merman is a belter, which is a loud singer. This song is happy and up beat and was wrote to make the people in that era want to dance. It became popular because it brought a nostalgic feeling when listened to. It says that life is good when you have rhythm, music and your man.When i listened to it i like this song more than the others we have listened to so far. The trumpets stand out from the rest of the instruments and it comes across loud, which is why this song is so different from the others. The belting that Ethel Merman does fits in with the trumpets and is almost overwhelming to listen to, i thought. This song fits in with the genre of music that i like because it is so up beat and happy, i like up beat and happy music more than slow and depressing stuff. I think the target audience is more towards girls because it talks about more girly things like daisies and starlight and having a man. The song is set up in the AABA format and the lyrics interact with each other because it repeats its self in all three of the A verses. The A verses are all the same way, just different words. That helps the song be catchy and easy to listen to. So far this song has been one of my favorites to listen to.

Week 2

"Long John" by, Lightening Washington and fellow convicts

The music and lyrics of this song interact with each other in the way that the main guy that is singing the song sings a lyric and then the "convicts" repeat exactly what he said. This song is more up beat that the other ones and it relates to the kind of genres that i like because it reminds me of some country songs that do the call and response thing. There is no instruments used except the voices of the convicts and that is what gives it the beat that the song has. I don't have a favorite part of the song, i don't particularly like it all that much, I just chose it because it reminds me of other songs that i have heard that are written the same way. My least favorite part of the song is when it repeats "He's long gone about 4 times in a row for the chorus, that gets kind of annoying in my opinion. The emotions that it has is you know that they are prisoners or even slaves working and singing to probably pass the time and that isn't a happy emotion, its more of a sad or you feel bad for those guys, emotion. This music fits with the theme Listening of the class because all that the song is, is the lyrics and listening to them. There is no instruments to distract from the lyrics so all that you do is listen to the words and hear the story of the song.