Claudia+P+popular+music

=Popular Music Assessment =


 * Artist ** - Vance Joy
 * Song 1 ** - Fire and the Flood


 * Song 2 ** - Georgia
 * Performance ** - Riptide

Fire and the flood is by a band called Vance Joy. Vance joy is an Australian band and the lead singer James Keogh is a singer and songwriter. James singed with a five-album deal with Atlantic Records in 2013. His song 'Riptide' was number 1 on the Triple J Hottest 100. The album has had 1 million solid buys and went to the top 10 in UK,Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Fire and the flood was also one of Vance joy's best songs on his album 'Dream your life away'. At first James wanted to be in law but after falling asleep in most of his classes he decided law wasn't for him and started a career in music. His first song was 'Winds of change' that Vance Joy thought was any good. James says "It was a breakthrough. It planted a seed in my head of me being able to write good songs. So I went away and I had all these ideas running through my head, I didn't take an instrument, I just made notes in my book. When I came back I wrote 'From Afar'.' Winds of Change' was the first song I wrote that I wanted to show people. "I'm glad that song opens the album. It was the change in my songwriting, I discovered that strumming rhythm. It started something".
 * Bibliography****-**

Song 1- media type="youtube" key="zKmWd8DPrEc" width="560" height="315"

The style of music Vance Joy plays is pop music. The characteristics of the music they play include an aim to appeal to a wide audience. The musical characteristics are short, simple, catchy and melodic. Pop music is very popular around the world and uses a combination of rhythms and energetic beats. Pop music has been loved since the 1950's and still is today. An artist that is alike to Vance Joy is George Ezra. George's song 'Budapest' was a very famous song and has 64,493,421 views and counting. George was also from a small town called Hertford. George is a British singer, song-writter and became a hit on their song 'Budapest' on the 13th of December 2013 in Italy and than topping the single charts in the UK, than reached Austria, and New Zealand topping both their charts. Also reaching and topping charts in top ten in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, and Switzerland.
 * Analysis**-

The structure of the piece: Instruments:
 * Intro- 0:00
 * Verse one: 0:08
 * Chorus: 0:50
 * Verse two: 1:40
 * Chorus two: 2:22
 * Bridge: 3:13
 * Chorus: 3:29
 * Outro: 4:19
 * Intro: Electric guitar,
 * Verse one: Vocals, drums, electric guitar, piano, guitar
 * Chorus: Back up vocals, drums, guitar, piano, vocals, back-up track
 * Verse two: Drums, guitar, piano, vocals, back up vocals
 * Chorus two: Drums, guitar, piano, vocals, back-up track
 * Bridge: Piano, vocals,
 * Chorus three: Drums, guitar, piano, vocals, back-up track

Tempo/ Dynamics The tempo of the piece changes throw-out the song but is the most strong in the chorus. The dynamics of this piece do change gradually throw-out the piece. All instruments throughout the song do change. The first chorus has back up vocals, than changes in the other chorus's to the same instruments but without the back up vocals.The bridge and verses are soft and are different to each other. Some instruments do have an effect such as the piano and guitar.
 * Intro: slow/soft
 * Verse one: slow/soft
 * Chorus: Fast/loud
 * Verse two: fast/loud
 * Chorus two: fast/loud
 * Bridge: slow/soft
 * Chorus three: fast/loud

The singer has an Australian voice so his music sounds very Australian. The backup vocals in chorus one only sing in the loud parts of the song. There is no instrument that plays by its self and has a solo but the main instruments are the drums, guitar and piano. There are 4 beats per bar in the song. The music in this song is major because the music is intriguing like you want to find out more. The music does layer but it is consistent throughout the song until it gets to the verses when it goes back to layer one. The chorus's are the most repeated pattens throughout the song. The verses are all the same chords (F,Bb,F) but in the chorus they add a C and Dm (Dm,Bb,F,C), the bridge is the same as the chorus. The chorus is the highest part of the song because it is the most intense uplifting part of the song.

Song 2- 'Georgia', is one of the song-writers favourite songs and it was particularly important. He wrote it on January 1st 2014. When Vance Joy was writing Georgia they decided to sit in a tree house to write it because they wanted to be close to nature. James says "It was beautiful" also "And it was so cool being super close as we were recording". Hemingway says, "I have written well, I will write well again." When you do well it doesn't dry up. After writing it the band knew that this is the song that will inspire others, and it did. "For 5 days I was on a high and knew when the song was coming" said lead singer James Keogh.After struggling with songs to write Vance Joy decided that they have to have a new song for their album 'Dream your dreams away' with new instrumental parts to it and new structure so the song will stand out against all the other songs on the album.
 * Bibliography****-**

media type="youtube" key="DQMbHNofCzw" width="560" height="315"

After the song Georgia many artists decided to structure a song like their and make their song unique from the other songs on there album. Hozier (full name Andrew Hozier-Byrne) is a well liked artist that has gone global after writing their song 'Take me to Church' in 2014 on their album 'From Eden'. Hozier was born 17th of March 1990. He was born in Bray, Count Wicklow, Ireland and he was the son of a musician. Hozier's song 'take me to church' got 83,195,627 views on Youtube and the numbers are still rising. Hozier wrote 'Take me to Church' in his parents attic after having trouble writing songs.This song's lyrics was about Hozier's anger on the Catholic Church for not allowing Homosexuality. 'Take me to church' became a top hit in 12 countries as well as top 10 in 21 other territories. His song was on the top of Hot Rock Songs top charts for 23 continuing weeks.
 * Analysis**-

Structure of the piece: Instruments: Tempo/Dynamics The tempo does change throughout the song it starts out soft and slow but towards the end of the song it gets faster and louder because the song gets more drimatic. The dynamics of the song do change suddenly towards the middle of the song All the instruments change in certain sections of the song .The intro, Verse one, and the bridge have the same instruments but the Chorus one, Chorus two and Verse two have the same instruments. Some of the instruments do have an effect. The drums have a dramatic loud bang to them. The singers voice is sad sounding and at the same time uplifting and deep. There are no back-up vocals There is no instrument solo but the guitar and drums are leading the song. There are 4 beats per bar. The song is minor sounding but adventurous. The song does layer and but it isnt consistent. The layer will go for a bit but then suddenly change with the new verse or chorus. The chorus's are the most repeated pattens throughout the song. The bridge is the same as the chorus with the chords (Em,D,G,C) but the verses are different with the chords (Em,Bm,C,D) The most high points of the song is just before the chorus ,at the end of a verse, and into the chorus. These parts are the highest points in the song because they are the most dramatic.
 * Intro: 0:08
 * Verse one: 0:22
 * Chorus one: 0:53
 * Verse two: 1:34
 * Bridge: 2:25
 * Chorus two: 3:12
 * Intro: Guitar, drums,
 * Verse one: Guitar, drums, vocals
 * Chorus one: Piano, guitar, drums, vocals
 * Verse two: Drums, guitar, vocals, piano
 * Bridge: Vocals, guitar, drums
 * Chorus two: Piano, drums, guitar, vocals
 * Intro: slow/soft
 * Verse one: slow/soft
 * Chorus one: Fast/loud
 * Verse two: fast/loud
 * Bridge: fast/loud
 * Chorus two: slow/soft