Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Friday, May 2, 2014
Sean Bostrom
Period F
May 2, 2014
Album Review
THE
KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: THE WHO
The
album I chose to do my review on is The Who's The Kids Are Alright
album. For those who are not familiar with this band here are some
facts to understand them more. The members of the band are Roger
Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer
Keith Moon. They were an English rock band formed in 1964. I chose
this album because songs that consist on the album is the first time
I listened to The Who. My favorite song on the album is my favorite
song by The Who and that is “Baba
O'Riley”.
This song is so upbeat and builds to the point where you just want to
dance until it is over. Another song on this album that contributed
into putting this band on the map is “My
Generation”.
This song was directed towards teens since it was written during the
baby boomers time. Just like “Baba
O'Riley”
and many of the who songs, “My
Generation” has
a fast paced beat but also deep lyrics if you stop and actually
listen to the song for what it is. On a scale from one to ten in my
honest opinion I would give this album a solid nine due to the fact
that majority of the songs people can relate to and they are just fun
dancing songs. Music today should be just as it was during The Who's
time.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Sean Bostrom
Period F
April 16, 2014
Tonal Analysis
SWEET
CHILD O' MINE: GUNS N' ROSES
For
every song created there are more and more literary devices being
used. Now given that there are multiple different genres of music and
multiple different literary devices, talking about all of them would
just be exhausting and time consuming. That being said I believe the
most commonly used literary devices are tone/mood, imagery, and
simile's/metaphors. These three devices are the top three in my
opinion and one song of many that incorporates all three of these
devices is Guns N' Roses, “Sweet Child O'
Mine”. This song does a really good job in
expressing each device.
First
device this song contains is simile/metaphors. For those who don't
know, a simile is a comparison between two artifacts using the terms
like an as. A metaphor is along the same lines as a simile but
instead it only uses the term like. For example lines such as “She
got a smile that it seems to me, reminds me of childhood
memories,where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky”
shows the comparison between her smile and the bright blue sky, how
when she smiles it makes the sky bright and sends an happy upbeat
vibe. Simile's are the best device to use when comparing two
artifacts because you as the listener/reader can understand it to its
full capacity.
Second
device displayed throughout the entire song, is probably the most
used literary device is imagery. Imagery is best described as a
literary device that created a vivid and descriptive language to
create depth. Lines such as “Now and then when I see her face, she
takes away to that special place, and if I stare to long, I'd
probably break down and cry” displays imagery because every time
they see her that remember back to that special place where they may
have met. Another example would be “She's got eyes of the bluest
skies, as if they thought of rain, I hate to look into those eyes and
see an ounce of pain” puts the vivid picture of this girl is too
pretty to cry and seeing her in pain is just not the sight worth
seeing in your mind. Imagery is what made up this song.
The
third and last device contributed in this song is tone/mood. Tone is
all about the attitude towards the reader/listener intended by the
artist/author. Mood focuses more on the setting. The tone of this
song is a constant upbeat, cheery tone. The setting revolves around
what seems to be the love of his life due to the lyrics I have
already covered. The mood balances with the tone nicely because
similar to the tone, the mood stays the same happy beat as it started
out. Sweet Child O' Mine is a quality song for when you just want to
dance and have a good time, those are just some of the many literary
devices used in this song.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Sean Bostrom
April 9, 2014
Period F
Plagiarism in Song
Plagiarism
is the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as
your own.
Plagiarism has been happening in
songs for many years. An example of a piece of plagiarized music is The Beatles
song “Come Together” and Chuck Berry’s song “You Can’t Catch Me”. Come together
shares the some of the same lines as You Can’t Catch Me such as in the Beatles
song they say “Here come old flat top, he was groovin’ up slowly” while in
Chuck Berry’s song the line reads “Here come old flat top, he was groovin’ up
with me”, the Beatles just reworded the phrase by replacing one word. Many have
argued that the melodies are similar as well. The Beatles idolized Chuck Berry,
in fact they listened to him nonstop and he was one of many who inspired them
to play music. After hearing “Come Together” a man by the name of Morris Levy,
who owned rights to many of Chuck Berry’s songs, took Lennon to court over this
matter. Long story short after all the trials and counter suing was done Lennon
was due 84,912.96 dollars. Who would have thought that just one phrase could
cause so much chaos.
However there are many songs who
were accused of plagiarism when in fact they just have coincidental features.
Song such as Dave Matthews Band’s “Drunken Soldier” and Pink Floyd’s “Breathe”
for example. Many have said that at the six minute point in “Drunken Soldier”,
the guitar sounds a lot like the guitar that is played in “Breathe” just
because of the similar notes that were used. But others argue that Pink Floyds
song sounds more similar to the song another one of their songs “Great Gig”. It
wasn’t brought to court which to me shows that “Drunken Soldier” only got
accused due to its similar melody and not lyrics wise.
Sites Where I Found My
Information
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Sean Bostrom
April 1, 2014
Period F
Double Entendre in
Songs
Tom
Petty’s song “Mary Jane” is counted as a double entendre. Mary Jane could
either be a girl who he likes or it could be the drug marijuana. Lines such as “She
grew up in an Indiana town” could be taken as a girl would was raised up
somewhere in Indiana or it could be taken as a plant that has grown and blossomed.
Another line that displays the double entendre for example would be “Last dance
with Mary Jane, one more time to kill the pain” shows that one last dance could
be with a women or he has a lot of pain and majority of people who use drugs
use them to not feel pain anymore. I think Tom Petty used a double entendre for
this particular song to show that no matter where you are from or where you go
you are most likely to come in contact in marijuana at some point.
Another
song that contains a double entendre is GZA’s “Animal Planet”. GZA use’s
different types of animals to show the listener all the different kinds of
people that make up the world. For example lines such as “The rat squeals” and
Now you’re neck deep in a bunch of loan sharks” relates to humans because
people who tell on others who have usually committed a crime are known as rats
and loan sharks are people who others borrow money from and if you don’t pay
them back a certain amount at a certain time they will find you and most likely
hurt you till the point of death. I believe GZA used a double entendre in this
specific song to display the world we live in and all the corrupt people that
make it up.
Rush’s
song “The Trees” use’s nature to represent a double entendre in this song. This
song in my opinion is about equal rights between blacks and whites. Through
lines such as “But oaks can’t help their feelings, if they like the way they’re
made, and they wonder why the maples, can’t be happy in their shade” is
basically saying that the blacks are proud to be who they are and won’t let the
whites turn them into something they’re not so they do not want to live or be
around the same area as them. Another line for example is “And they grab up all
the light” shows that the whites believe that have all the power over the
blacks and they basically control them in a way but the blacks just want more
sunlight, they want their rights so everyone can be equals.
The
last song of the day that contains a double entendre is the band Tool’s song “Right
in Two”. This song talks about crime and how people are figuratively act like
animals. Lines that support this idea are “Fight over the clouds, over wind,
over sky” is saying that people will kill one another over the littlest things
just because they can, and “Angels on the sideline again, wondering when this
tug of war will end” is saying that those who have past and are in heaven are
wondering when will the crime and violence will end because it is get worse and
worse as the days go by. Tool also is trying to say that why were people given
free will because all they are doing is abusing it and using it for bad and not
good.
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