Song Analyses - How to? (1 Viewer)

[Crobat]

Hey guys,

I figured out that I want to use the Radiohead song Fitter Happier as a related text for Belonging; however, I've never analysed a song before as a related text and not many people I know do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EoukRWQ-ec

^That's the song for those of you interested.

Does anyone have any tips or pointers they'd care to share?

Cheers in advanced

 

[wootwoot1234]

I wouldn't recommend using a song as a related text unless you are a music student and have a strong knowledge of musical components, etc. This is because many students make the mistake of purely analysing what the song is about as opposed to the sound techniques that are used to convey these ideas. It is widely known that teachers are against using songs as related texts.

 

[Crobat]

Does it count if I WAS a music student? I dropped it because I realised music wouldn't benefit my HSC at all and because I already have a major work that was ruining my life

This particular song is more like beat poetry than an actual song. It's unconventional as the lyrics aren't lyrics so much as they are a list of things to improve (among other stuff) and because the vocal melody is actually taken over by the monotonous Microsoft Sam voice meaning there is no diverse musical features as far as the vocals are concerned. There's a piano playing an ostinato that sounds really distant (although I'm not sure what that effect is called, I'm a guitar player and so piano is an entirely different realm to me) and occasional electronic sounds that have staggered entry and fade outs.

Like with books and poems, literary techniques serve to emphasise the meaning they are attempting to convey. I think I am capable of analysing this particular song, but I would just like to know what sort of musical components I should be looking at to use as techniques in my essay.

 

[wootwoot1234]

Seeing that you did do music, then I think you should be fine. Musical components would refer to anything from sound, rhythm/beat, etc that you hear when you listen to the song. On the whole, the warning against using songs would apply to students who don't/have no experience with analysing songs and have limited understanding of sound techniques. The thing with using songs is that you have to treat it as a listening and literary text as opposed to just reading the lyrics like a literary text when analysing. Hope this helps

 

[Crobat]

Seeing that you did do music, then I think you should be fine. Musical components would refer to anything from sound, rhythm/beat, etc that you hear when you listen to the song. On the whole, the warning against using songs would apply to students who don't/have no experience with analysing songs and have limited understanding of sound techniques. The thing with using songs is that you have to treat it as a listening and literary text as opposed to just reading the lyrics like a literary text when analysing. Hope this helps

That does help, thank you