Songs today are very interesting as many artists think creatively with sounds they use to give us the best listening experience. These sounds don’t even have to come from an instrument . Because of the introduction of Digital Music Software anybody has the capability of being a song writer . An example of some one that became famous for there songs off of software such as Ableton and logic is Billie and Phineas Ellish. These two siblings made music from their home bedroom and released there EP’s on sounds cloud . One day these songs where acknowledged and lead to there shoot up into stardom . On this page we are going to be analysing one of there songs and comparing them to there acoustic and edited versions. The three songs we are going to be looking into are ‘six feet under’, ‘ocean eyes’ and ‘bellyache’. For this lesson me and my group were tasked with analysing six feet under.
Six Feet Under
The song ‘six feet under’ is about someone loosing them selves when trying to find the special person in their life. But the person that she has been chasing betrayed her. The phrase ‘six feet under’ is describing how the pain feels deep inside of her soul. The phrase is also linked to death, which means she is talking about how she lost part of her self in the process or how she feels dead and meaningless because of this event.
The song is in the key of B minor with a BPM of 68, this is very slow for a song. Minor keys are often associated with sad or emotional songs, which is fitting with this one because of it’s sad theme. The songs chord progression is; vi, V, IV in the key of B minor. The song use a diatonic harmony, meaning it only uses notes inside of the ley. This means there will be no off key notes in the harmony. The song also has a simple and repetitive chord progression.
The melody in this song is simple and memorable, this is because of how often it tends to repeat it’s self. The melody works in the keys pentatonic scale, this means there is no clashes with the melody and the harmony. Pentatonic scales are good for writing melody’s as it is hard to go wrong with one. The creative thought put into the melody is very good and here is an example of why I think that. On the lyric ‘six feet under’ the melody lowers in pitch, the lowering in pitch is resembling that of a coffin being lowered down into a six foot hole. There for the lyrics and melody are working together to create an image in our head. The melody of the chorus is higher in pitch than the verse and has a different rhythmic pattern, this shows the contrast between parts in the songs structure. The rhythm of the melody overall is slow.
Song Analysis Part 2
For this part of the lesson we had to analyse more songs, but this time we had to listen to songs from the 1970’s or earlier. For this part we were less analysing the song and music it’s self but what inspired the artist to write it, and we also where asked to look into a bit of other backing behind it. Some artists we were tasked to analyse where; Elton John, David Bowie and Leonard Cohen. We were split into teams of two and had the freedom to pick our own artist. The person me and my group picked was Leonard Corden.
The Song Analysis
Leonard Cohen is a Canadian singer, song writer, novelist and poet. He is known for his intellectual, ruminative lyrics and sorrowful persona. His lyrical and poetic work explored themes such as; religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death and romantic relationships. Cohen was inducted into ‘The Canadian Music Hall Of Fame’, ‘The Canadian Song Writers Hall Of Fame’ and ‘The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’.
The song of his we choose to analyse was ‘Bird On The Wire’, this song is about how it is impossible to be free in this world because it so full of tethers and boundaries. Cohen both wrote and composed this song. This songs belongs to the rock music genre. The song was recorded on the 26th of September 1968 in Nashville, this song was also included on his 1969 album named ‘songs from a room’. Some of the instruments I heard in the live studio version where; vocals, backing vocals, violin, bass, saxophone, acoustic guitar and a Rhodes piano.
https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-leonard-cohen-bird-on-a-wire/