Hi, my name is Salomon Marcos and this is my music portfolio for the ASEM course “Writing About Music” with Brad Benz.  This course is focused on 4 major assignments during the spam of this one-month course. Each assignment is used to understand the different aspects of music criticism. All three assignments are called WP#1, WP#2, and WP#3. The fourth assignment is called Portfolio. The first assignment (WP#1) was an annotated playlist. We had to choose an artist and analyze their top 8-10 songs that describe the artist the most. I choose The Pet Shop Boys. This band consists of a boy duet that was very popular around the world and specifically in the UK. I choose this band because this was all my parents listen to when I was growing up so I got molded into this type of old-school music. The Pet Shop Boys have a lot of songs but I specifically choose these 8 songs because all together they describe this boy band perfectly. 

The second assignment (WP#2) was called a Desert Island Disc. This assignment basically meant that if you were to be stranded in a desert island for the rest of your life, what album would you take with you and why? I choose the album “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry. I choose this album because this album has all my happiest and at the same time saddest and reflective memories I had as I was growing up in my teenage years. The third assignment (WP#3) in this class was called Live Review. This assignment consisted of going to a live concert of your choosing and then writing a live review of this concert. I choose to go to the Jonas Brothers concert due to them being separated for over 8 years and this being their first tour together. The final assignment in this class was the Portfolio. This consists of putting together our 3 major assignments while two of those are revised by the notes Professor Benz said and writing a memo. Then we put all this into WordPress. The two pieces of literature that I am going to be revising are WP#2 and WP#3. I selected to review these two assignments because in WP#2 I was lacking that personal connection that the assignment needed. I added more personal pictures of me in my teenage years, as well as more links to the song lyrics and reviews that other people say about this album. In WP#3 I wanted to revise it due to the assignment being very fun to do because it involved going to their concert. I wanted to also re-organize my WP#3 because it was little bit confusing to understand its structure.  In both of this WP’s I also added an extra round of editing. By revising WP#2, when the reader goes through it, they can now put themselves in my shoes and understand what my emotions and feeling were. I also added that personal connection that the reader can get by reading my WP.  The links to reviews and lyrics added more credibility to the WP and an overall sense of research to the information being stated. By revising WP#3, the reader can now understand the assignment in a chronological order and the way I want them to understand them. I also changed the title to make it more appealing to the reader and added a few more key links and details to it. I can now say that both of this WP’s are re-vise the way I wanted them to be and it is going to make the reader understand them even better.

A) How does your portfolio reflect your personal experiences with music, and with writing about music to public audiences?

The only way to truly understand all types of writing about music is to add your personal experiences into the writing. In my portfolio, WP#2 is full of personal experiences that I have had with music. The album “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry describes detail by detail by all my personal experiences and emotions that I had when I was growing up. This album has specific songs like “The One that Got Away”. This song reflects the time I dated this girl for 4 years and then we had to break up due to going to different colleges. Another example is the song “E.T and California Gurls” remind me of all the great times I had when I lived in California and all those happy moments that I had in those 3 years. I believe that by adding personal experiences to your writing you make it easier for your brain to connect your thoughts and the overall writing is just way better because it comes from things or emotions that you have experienced. My portfolio has a lot of connections to my personal experiences and emotions that I have experienced throughout my life. 

B) How does your portfolio’s content reflect how you will approach music and music writing (your own and by others) in the future?

My portfolio has a lot of meaningful and deep writing. I reflect a lot on my emotions and what the songs mean to me personally. I also show my ability to see others people’s emotions and reactions to an artist. The content that I have has a lot of research. In WP#3 when I went to see the Jonas Brothers I could have only written about the concert, but I took that extra time and researched the background past and the why’s that are key to approaching all the angles. This is showed very deeply and it adds meaning and credibility to what you are saying so the reader can understand the writing better. In WP#1 I also reflect how I approach music overall. The Pet Shop Boys are an old band (to me). I had to go back into their old songs to get the full description of this band and not just the newer version of them. This approach to music writing gives you that credibility and extra step that also makes your writing better. Finally, my portfolio’s content reflects how I approach music by me choosing completely different music genre artist in all of my three WP’s. The deep analyzes of each of the different genre artists shows that I can approach ang kind of music due to me not staying only in one genre. I like all kinds of music and I can find my emotions in different genres of music as-well. This gives me a lot of versatility in the future when I listen to music and most importantly when I research and write about music. Overall, I think my portfolio reflects and tells you how I am going to approach music and music writing in the future. 

C) What does your portfolio reveal about your understanding of how music and music writing connect with and influence the broader culture?

I think the only way to fully understand the type of music you are listening to is to see how it is affecting the people or culture. In my WP#3, 8 years ago when I first saw the Jonas Brothers, they were not only singing their songs they were shaping their fans and starting an influence in the culture. I can state this for a fact because 8 years later, I saw the fans show all kind of emotions (tears of joy, smiles, waves, kisses) towards the Jonas Brothers being back together and doing what they do best. This music influenced this culture of the teenage girls who saw them 8 years ago coming back and seeing them at their 20’s-30’s. By understanding how the Jonas Brothers influenced a broader culture, you can see that music has way more meaning than just lyrics and having a nice voice. Music writing is a litte different the way it affects culture. In WP#1 the way I write and phrase myself is focused on how The Pet Shop Boys influenced culture in the UK. I explain how they changed this culture and the influence they had. By being a music writer, you also help the listener understand the emotions they are going when they hear the song and then the writer can see how the listeners reacted.  When I wrote my portfolio, I was focusing on not just writing about each artist but to explain how each different type of music affects a person emotionally and an creates an impact in a specific culture.

Music is one of the biggest attributes that a person has invented. It can affect your mood, change your feelings, or make you do something that you wouldn’t normally do. This effect of music on us is very magical. Music is just not writing lyrics and singing, it is more than that. It can shape you to be the person you are today, it can help you understand things that you did not know about yourself, and it can help you through your toughest times. My portfolio shows many examples of how music can affect a person and the deeper meaning of it. I hope that by reading this portfolio you can get to appreciate how music affects everyone of us.

Jonas Brother’s Tour Reunion

Jonas Brothers December 7, 2019 @Frank Erwin Center Austin, Texas.

Salomon Marcos

My older sisters took me to my first Jonas Brothers Concert in California in 2010, I was 13 years old at the time. I relived this amazing band experience 8 years later at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. The Jonas Brothers consist of 3 brothers named, Joe Jonas, Nick Jonas, and Kevin Jonas. The first concert that I went to was the last tour they did due to the band separating. The concert that I went last week was the first tour they did since they regrouped together as a band. The tour that they did was named “Happiness Begins”. They named the tour as their new break out album. The Jonas Brothers are doing a worldwide 1-year tour to bring their popularity back to the top rankings.

The Jonas Brothers have released five albums, “It’s About Time”, “Jonas Brothers”, “A Little Bit Longer”, “Lines, Vines and Trying Times, and their new hit number 1 album “Happiness Begins”. The first 4 album were released in a spam of 4 years, from 2006-2009. Then they took their 8-year break and came back with the last album. The name of the last album has a double meaning. The meaning of it is that the Jonas Brothers are happy to be together again and make the music their fans love to hear. This album consists of very happy, love, and energetic songs that fans can scream to the top of their lungs.

This concert was way different than the one I went when I was 13. The first thing that was different was the vibe of the place. As you walked in, you could hear the excitement, the happiness, and the uncontrolled emotions filled with energy of the packed 20,000 people arena. The vibe that was been distributed through the whole stadium was out of this world, this was due to fans waiting 8 years for their 3-boy band to reunite and play their music. The new songs that they released were more upbeat than the ones they released before. They started with the song “Sucker” Sucker Music Video, this song was their hit regrouping song. I could hear the audience sing their chorus “I am sucker for you”. I could feel the emotions of every single person that was around me from singing this chorus.  The other thing that was different was that the 3 brothers grew up and matured. When I saw them at first, they were 17-year-old teenage kids. This time they are grown 24-28-year-old man. All through the show I could hear every single girl and sometimes guys yelled “I want to marry you Joe”, “You are so hot Nick, I love you”, “OMG Kevin waved at me”, and many more. The fans not only love their upbeat good lyrical songs, they are in love with the band members due to their physical attractions. 

This type of energy was not present 8 years ago.  The Jonas Brothers ended their concert with their all-time number 1 hit, “SOS”. 

“This is an S.O.S.
Don’t want to second guess
This is the bottom line,
it’s true, I gave my all for you
Now my heart’s in two
And I can’t find the other half
It’s like I’m walking on broken glass
Better believe I bled
It’s a call I’ll never get”

This chorus is the all-time singing high school break up love song that every single girl and boy knows. This song was the best way to end the concert due to the Jonas Brothers bringing back all the memories that the fans and I had during this song release. It reminded the fans why they still love the Jonas Brothers. 

The Jonas Brothers put up great concerts. This is due to the way their songs mean to the fans and how much each individual fan loves them more as a band than as individual artists. The Jonas Brothers are one of kind performers and a very unique boy band. 

Jonas Brothers Live Concert Pictures:

WP #3 Live Concert

Jonas Brothers December 7, 2019 @Frank Erwin Center Austin, Texas.

Salomon Marcos

My older sisters took me to my first Jonas Brothers Concert in California, I was 13 years old at the time. I relived this amazing band experience 8 years later at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. The Jonas Brothers consist of 3 brothers named, Joe Jonas, Nick Jonas, and Kevin Jonas. The first concert that I went to was the last tour they did due to the band separating. The concert that I went last week was the first tour they did since they regrouped together as a band. The tour that they did was named “Happiness Begins”. They named the tour as their new break out album. The Jonas Brothers are doing a worldwide 1-year tour to bring their popularity back to the top rankings.

This concert was way different than the one I went when I was 13. The first thing that was different was the vibe of the place. As you walked in, you could hear the excitement, the happiness, and the uncontrolled emotions filled with energy of the packed 20,000 people arena. The vibe that was been distributed through the whole stadium was out of this world, this was due to fans waiting 8 years for their 3-boy band to reunite and play their music. The new songs that they released were more upbeat than the ones they released before. They started with the song “Sucker” Sucker Music Video, this song was their hit regrouping song. I could hear the audience sing their chorus “I am sucker for you”. I could feel the emotions of every single person that was around me from singing this chorus.  The other thing that was different was that the 3 brothers grew up and matured. When I saw them at first, they were 17-year-old teenage kids. This time they are grown 24-28-year-old man. All through the show I could hear every single girl and sometimes guys yelled “I want to marry you Joe”, “You are so hot Nick, I love you”, “OMG Kevin waved at me”, and many more. The fans not only love their upbeat good lyrical songs, they are in love with the band members due to their physical attractions. 

This type of energy was not present 8 years ago.  The Jonas Brothers ended their concert with their all-time number 1 hit, “SOS”. 

“This is an S.O.S.
Don’t want to second guess
This is the bottom line,
it’s true, I gave my all for you
Now my heart’s in two
And I can’t find the other half
It’s like I’m walking on broken glass
Better believe I bled
It’s a call I’ll never get”

This chorus is the all-time singing high school break up love song that every single girl and boy knows. This song was the best way to end the concert due to the Jonas Brothers bringing back all the memories that the fans and I had during this song release. It reminded the fans why they still love the Jonas Brothers. 

The Jonas Brothers have released five albums, “It’s About Time”, “Jonas Brothers”, “A Little Bit Longer”, “Lines, Vines and Trying Times, and their new hit number 1 album “Happiness Begins”. The first 4 album were released in a spam of 4 years, from 2006-2009. Then they took their 8-year break and came back with the last album. The name of the last album has a double meaning. The meaning of it is that the Jonas Brothers are happy to be together again and make the music their fans love to hear. This album consists of very happy, love, and energetic songs that fans can scream to the top of their lungs.

The Jonas Brothers put up great concerts. This is due to the way their songs mean to the fans and how much each individual fan loves them more as a band than as individual artists. The Jonas Brothers are one of kind performers and a very unique boy band. 

WP 2 Final Draft: Desert Island Album

Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”

The album that I chose to bring to my desert island is Teenage Dream, released in 2010, artist Katy Perry, the cover has her image lying on her stomach covered with clouds, the image by itself attached me to feel that sense of tranquility in which she is expressing. This is the sensation I want to feel in my desert island, serene, no worries just a “Teenage Dream” running away in my desert island without turning back. The sound tracks in this album revolves around young love, partying, self-empowerment, and personal growth. These themes will distract my mind to make me feel motivated and happy in my desert island, Katy Perry has a magnetic voice that will take me to those places deep in my subconscious I know that is where I want to be, and that is what I want to feel, the songs will bring me to life listening to the lyrics of each song.  The choruses of each song are the fragments that connected me the most, and by memorizing them when I start feeling anxious or scared, they will soothe me completely. 

1. Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)

[Chorus]

Last Friday night

Yeah, we danced on tabletops

And we took too many shots

Think we kissed, but I forgot

Last Friday night

Yeah, we maxed our credit cards

And got kicked out of the bar, so we hit the boulevard

Last Friday night

In the chorus of “Last Friday Night” her excitement of dancing, drinking, living to the limits transports me to remember my best friends and how we would gather on weekends to spend a night out, those were the best nights with them. This song gets all my happy emotions out and makes me think of all those “crazy” teenage weekends that I had back in my teenage years. Perry explains that this song is about having fun and forgetting all those hard things that life brings you. It is a song where you just lose yourself and have no regrets of what you did last night. 

California Girls Video

 If I start to experience the hot weather of the desert I will imagine being in LA enjoying summer vacations on the beach, “California Gurls” will take me to this moment, thinking about the palm trees, bikinis, the sun absorbing in my skin then taking a dip in the beach to wash out the summery sensation feeling refreshed and clean. When the sun gets tired and goes to rest, I will lie down on the sand and be prepared to gaze at the moon and stars with all of my soul, each star that I see will be as if I were looking at fireworks, with the song “Firework”, I will cherish my own being and be aware of how I am so tiny compared to the cosmic universe that I live in but we all share a common light, and each star represents me in a way that gives life to the night, if I didn’t shine then the universe would be only plain darkness. These two songs go hand in hand. Perry talks about the California girls to be very attractive and hot and crazy. She states in her song; “California girls, We’re unforgettable, Daisy dukes, Bikinis on top, Sun-kissed skin
So hot”. She is a California girl and she is saying that California girls are the hottest and best girls to party and be with. She applauded herself and all of her California girlfriends. The song “Firework” comes next. In this song Perry talks about the love of her life and she is resembling it to a firework. “Because baby you are a firework”, in these lyrics she is saying that the love of her life is like a firework because he sparkles, he’s so outstanding, and very attractive. You can see the double meaning of Perry’s description of the guy she loves and a firework. These two songs remind me of the time I lived in California with all those “California Girls” walking on the beach and really being very attractive like Perry says. Then I transition to the nights like 4^th of July, New Years, and many more holidays were in California the used to have all these pretty and amazing fireworks. I lived in California for 3 years and these two songs summarize my time there.

7. The One That Got Away

[Chorus]

In another life, I would be your girl

We’d keep all our promises, be us against the world

In another life, I would make you stay

So I don’t have to say you were the one that got away

The one that got away

 In the mornings when I go out for a walk, remembering the song “The One That Got Away” makes me think about my old loves and teaching me not to linger on thinking on the mistakes that I made and not just repeating in my head the same situation not letting it go, but at the same time not letting events control me, instead learning about that it wasn’t meant to be and maybe in another life I can be with her. The song name of this song is very self-explanatory. The name of the song summarizes all the lyric songs. I have a very deep connection to this song. I used to date a girl for 5 years. When I moved to college, we broke up due to distance problems. I listened to this song during that time I broke up with her. This song has all my sad and depressed feelings that I felt during that break up. The song resembles all the times I cried and I felt very sad about leaving what I thought was the “love of my life”. 

Teenage Dream Lyrics

E.T Video (Must Watch)

If I start to feel some kind of energy or that someone else was with me, the chorus of “E.T” and “Teenage Dream” will get hold of my own feelings permitting myself to just “feel”, not tending on forgetting that I can feel and accept that feeling as mine, not abandoning it as if it wasn’t worth, instead allow the sensation it can bring. These two songs remind me of the same thing, when I used to the a junior and senior in high school and I just to party with my friends. “E.T”. was the most popular song due to Kanye West being part of the song, they used to play this song at every party or event. “Teenage Dreams” was also played at every party due to being the most popular song for over a year. All the girls used to sing this song late at night and imagine their “teenage dream.” These two songs bring out my happy and outgoing emotions. They resembled all those good times I had, all the friends and girlfriends I made when I was younger, and all those irresponsible nights that every teenager has in high school.

“Who Am I Living For?” Chorus

“I can see the writing on the wall,
I can’t ignore this war,
At the end of it all,
Who am I living for?”

After I recognize my feelings, I should know that I have a sense of purpose in this life even though being in the desert can make me not see this, answering the question like the song “Who Am I Living For?” will make this misunderstanding go away and help me focus on thinking that I should have a purpose in my life or maybe I am living for someone else, and giving that happiness and self-worth to others than myself. This song is the ultimate song that I would listen at my desert island. After all those feelings that all those songs bring out of me this song puts me in a reflection mode. When I listen to this song I think about: Why am I breathing? What’s is my goal in life? What is my purpose? All this questions and deeper thoughts come to my brain and it makes me focus on what I need to do in life to be happy and reach my overall life goal. This song shines the light on the goals that I have in my life and lets the things not letting me reach my goal slowly disappear

This album is the album that I must correlate with. It reminds me and shows all my emotions from all the happy times I’ve had to all the sad/depressed times. This is the album I would take to my desert island because it summarizes all my teenage years. This album was released as I was in my teenage years, so the album makes me who I am due to all the songs reminding me of the emotions I have. The album would never bore me because it has a mix of sad to happy to reflective songs. For me, it is the best mixed emotions album ever released and I would not change it for anything. It would make me show all my feelings in my desert island. 

WP#2 – Desert Island Album

Salomon Marcos

The album that I chose to bring to my desert island is Teenage Dream, released in 2010, artist Katy Perry, the cover has her image lying on her stomach covered with clouds, the image by itself attached me to feel that sense of tranquility in which she is expressing. This is the sensation I want to feel in my desert island, serene, no worries just a “Teenage Dream” running away in my desert island without turning back. The sound tracks in this album revolves around young love, partying, self-empowerment, and personal growth. These themes will distract my mind to make me feel motivated and happy in my desert island, Katy Perry has a magnetic voice that will take me to those places deep in my subconscious I know that is where I want to be, and that is what I want to feel, the songs will bring me to life listening to the lyrics of each song.  The choruses of each song are the fragments that connected me the most, and by memorizing them when I start feeling anxious or scared, they will soothe me completely. In the chorus of “Last Friday Night” her excitement of dancing, drinking, living to the limits transports me to remember my best friends and how we would gather on weekends to spend a night out, those were the best nights with them. If I start to experience the hot weather of the desert I will imagine being in LA enjoying summer vacations on the beach, “California Gurls” will take me to this moment, thinking about the palm trees, bikinis, the sun absorbing in my skin then taking a dip in the beach to wash out the summery sensation feeling refreshed and clean. When the sun gets tired and goes to rest, I will lie down on the sand and be prepared to gaze at the moon and stars with all of my soul, each star that I see will be as if I were looking at fireworks, with the song “Firework”, I will cherish my own being and be aware of how I am so tiny compared to the cosmic universe that I live in but we all share a common light, and each star represents me in a way that gives life to the night, if I didn’t shine then the universe would be only plain darkness. As the days goes by, probably I will start to feel tired, lazy, as if nothing makes sense or as desperate as when there is no end, but with the song “Peacock”, it will bring out my inner strength without judgements, and learning to live day by day, never being afraid of showing my true value as a human being when things start to feel uncomfortable this is when I need to be brave and stronger, there is no other way. In the mornings when I go out for a walk, remembering the songs “Circle the Drain” and“The One That Got Away” makes me think about my old loves and teaching me not to linger on thinking on the mistakes that I made or “Circle the Drain” just repeating in my head the same situation not letting it go, but at the same time not letting events control me, instead learning about that it wasn’t meant to be and maybe in another life I can be with her. If I start to feel some kind of energy or that someone else was with me, the chorus of “E.T” will get hold of my own feelings permitting myself to just “feel”, not tending on forgetting that I can feel and accept that feeling as mine, not abandoning it as if it wasn’t worth, instead allow the sensation it can bring. After I recognize my feelings, I should know that I have a sense of purpose in this life even though being in the desert can make me not see this, answering the question like the song “Who Am I Living For?” will make this misunderstanding go away and help me focus on thinking that I should have a purpose in my life or maybe I am living for someone else, and giving that happiness and self-worth to others than myself. Creating my own life with my own decisions, living at my own pace and rhythm, remembering the song “Pearl” that talks about not being our own shell but being a pearl, unique and authentic. With the last two songs “Hummingbird Heartbeat” and “Not Like The Movies” will aid me in healing my heart, listening to every heartbeat, to the rush of blood that moves through my veins, letting my wings open and fly in my own journey, creating my own world.

Track List & Lyrics (chorus):

1. Teenage Dream

[Chorus]

You make me feel like I’m living a teenage dream

The way you turn me on

I can’t sleep

Let’s run away and don’t ever look back

Don’t ever look back

My heart stops when you look at me

Just one touch

Now baby, I believe this is real

So take a chance and don’t ever look back

Don’t ever look back

2. Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)

[Chorus]

Last Friday night

Yeah, we danced on tabletops

And we took too many shots

Think we kissed, but I forgot

Last Friday night

Yeah, we maxed our credit cards

And got kicked out of the bar, so we hit the boulevard

Last Friday night

We went streaking in the park

Skinny dipping in the dark, then had a ménage à trois

Last Friday night

Yeah, I think we broke the law

Always say we’re gonna stop-op, oh whoa

3. California Gurls

[Chorus: Katy Perry]

California girls, we’re unforgettable

Daisy Dukes, bikinis on top

Sun-kissed skin so hot, we’ll melt your popsicle

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

California girls, we’re undeniable

Fine, fresh, fierce, we got it on lock

West Coast represent, now put your hands up

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

4. Firework

[Chorus]

‘Cause baby, you’re a firework

Come on, show ’em what you’re worth

Make ’em go, “Aah, aah, aah”

As you shoot across the sky

Baby, you’re a firework

Come on, let your colors burst

Make ’em go, “Aah, aah, aah”

You’re gonna leave them all in awe, awe, awe

5. Peacock

[Chorus]

Are you brave enough to let me see your peacock?

Don’t be a chicken, boy, stop acting like a bi-otch

I’ma peace out if you don’t give me the payoff

C’mon, baby, let me see what you hiding underneath

Are you brave enough to let me see your peacock?

Whatcha waiting for, it’s time for you to show it off

Don’t be a shy kind of guy, I bet it’s beautiful

C’mon, baby, let me see what you hiding underneath

6. Circle the Drain

[Chorus]

You fall asleep during foreplay

‘Cause the pills you take are more your forté

I’m not stickin’ around to watch you go down

Wanna be your lover, not your fuckin’ mother

Can’t be your savior, I don’t have the power

I’m not gonna stay and watch you circle the drain

Watch you circle the drain, watch you circle the drain

7. The One That Got Away

[Chorus]

In another life, I would be your girl

We’d keep all our promises, be us against the world

In another life, I would make you stay

So I don’t have to say you were the one that got away

The one that got away

8. E.T

[Chorus]

Kiss me, ki-ki-kiss me

Infect me with your lovin’

Fill me with your poison

Take me, ta-ta-take me

Wanna be your victim

Ready for abduction

Boy, you’re an alien

Your touch, so foreign

It’s supernatural

Extraterrestrial

9. Who Am I Living For?

[Chorus]

I can see the writing on the wall

I can’t ignore this war

At the end of it all

Who am I living for?

10. Pearl

[Chorus 1]

Oh, she used to be a pearl, oh

Yeah, she used to rule the world, oh

Can’t believe she’s become a shell of herself

‘Cause she used to be a pearl

11. Hummingbird Heartbeat

[Chorus]

You give me that hummingbird heartbeat

Spread my wings and make me fly

The taste of your honey is so sweet

When you give me the hummingbird heartbeat

Hummingbird heartbeat

Ah ah, hummingbird heartbeat

Ah ah, hummingbird heartbeat

12. Not Like the Movies

[Chorus 1]

If it’s not like the movies

That’s how it should be, yeah

When he’s the one, I’ll come undone

And my world will stop spinning

And that’s just the beginning, yeah

Part A: 

 The way Lester Bang analyzes the sound of each song and performance is by focusing on the many different ways Van Morrison uses words and emotions he puts in the songs. The emotions that Morrison and Bang have are sad and depressing feelings. They both experience these emotions. Bang only talks about a few of Morrison’s songs. He then talks about the people that each individual song is about, gives his own impressions, and also gives background information about the songs. Bangs method of analysis is about him asking his own questions and the meaning of Morrison’s songs in Morrisons’ point of view. Both Morrison and Bang share the same feelings of being lonely and that is something they have in common. Morrison then says that even though life can be hard and have struggles life always has that one happiness feeling. Bangs talks about this in the quote “But, when we’re alone, we can talk all we want about the universality of this abyss.” This is how these two people relate with each other by not dealing with loneliness by themselves but with other people. Due to Bangs correlating and connecting to this Morrison’s feelings, he is able to connect with style and the lyrics of his songs to critically analyze Morrison’s songs and performances.

Part B:

Jeff Chang and Ellen Willis albums have different strategy. Chang is trying to show that the genre of rap started in New Orleans as he shows the meaning of his album and in the other hand Willis is analyzing and reviewing the album and the meaning that it has on her. Willis states that velvet underground was the main founder of punk music in the US and England. He says this by showing artists like David Bowie, Mott and Roxy music. He says that these artists were the reason this kind of music was shown all throughout the world. The main point of velvet underground was that it includes mixing punk and rock. This was done so it can be liked by anybody who listens to it and not only specific people and social classes. Willis then states how this kind of music is so special due to the emotions that it makes you feel and the mood it has. Willis arguments also rely on quotes and song lyrics to show what rock is all about as well as the individual songs. He then finishes off explaining how velvet underground influence music today. Willis Chang talks more about the history of New Orleans than about the music itself. The technique that Chang uses is to mix band history, songs and city history to support his argument of what is music as of today. Chang explains how the American Slavery gave the affected the music in the US and in some way shaped it to what is today. He then argues why rap started in New Orleans. He states that the African culture was the main founder of hip-hop and rap. He says this due to the rhythms that this community had, for example their rhythms were; rumba, mambo, samba, reggae, calypso and junkanoo. He then argues that The Meters shows the influence that it played internationally due to their unique music sound. Chang quotes “You looked forward to see this, the pan drums, cow bells, bottles, and tambourines. It was like a tribe.” You can say that Willis’ and Chang’s reviews are similar in some ways but the difference is that Chang talks about more of the history part of it than explaining what the music genre is. 

Part C:

Without Bitches Brew, Greg Tate would have never been able to find Burnt Sugar. This is why he contrast Bitches Brew to Burnt Sugar. Tate’s interest of Bitches Brew is the reason he found Burnt Sugar. Tate states: “It’s a record that possesses colt knowledge about the creative process made musically manifest in ways that don’t so much insist as swell, swim, smash the shore, retreat to the horizon, suck in like a tsunami, blow hard like a typhoon, pretend to go in like a lion, always come out like a lamb”.  He then explains that the album has signs and runes, mysteries and prophecies, and cyphers and gestures. This is why he had a lot of respect and admiration for the track that then led him to Burnt Sugar which he calls ‘the love of his life”. At the end, Tate says how Bitches Brew helped him through his bad/sad nights and how the song got him up through the days where he felt lonely. This is how he connects to the song of Bitches Brew. This song was at his lowest moments and he has a lot of admiration and respect toward the song. 

Part D: 

            My two albums in contention for my desert island are Teenage Dreams by Katy Perry and Encore by Eminem. I choose these two albums because they contradict each other. Encore is an album that has a slow beat and very meaningful lyrics by Eminem. It is the perfect album when you want to hear good lyrics with a slow beat. The songs in these albums make you reflect about your life and by listening to Eminem’s life you can compare your life with his life and he motivates me to never give up when life gets hard. When life gets hard and you do not know what is happening, I like to listen to his album and these types of songs because it resets my mind to what I need to do and what I have to let go. Encore helped me a lot while I was growing up and dealing with the teenager years. It was really smoothing for me to listen to it and it has a lot of emotional meaning to me.

Katy Perry’s Teenage Dreams is a very upbeat rap and dance music album. This album is about chill and party music. It is the music I put if I want to go out to a bar or if I want to go to a party. It is very relaxing sounds mixed with a lot of nice and beautiful lyrics. This album reminds me of all the fun memories I have since I was 13. This is my fun time music and it makes me happy. This album makes me want to forget about everything and just have fun and enjoy the moment I am with. One of the songs is called “ET” and it is about a girl who falls in love with an “alien” and that “alien” being Kanye West. This song reminds me of all the summer fun times I have had with my friends and all those “crazy” teenage nights. This song was the first rap/dance song I listen to when I moved from Mexico to the USA, so it has a lot of emotional meaning to me because this was a difficult/exciting time for me. This album has all my teenager fun memories. 

These albums are the perfect balance to choose for a desert island. One resembles my deepest and hardest times as a teenage and the other one the fun times I had when I was younger. Both of these albums have a lot of emotional value to me, one being in the happy side and the other album being more on the hard/sad side of my life. But, at the end of the day these two albums mean a lot to and would make my desert island a fulfilled perfect balance place to be. 

WRITING ABOUT MUSIC IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Writing Project #1: Track-by-Track Annotated Playlist

THE PET SHOP BOYS CAREER

An amazing electronic pop group composed of the genius of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, they  have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Their first five albums (“Please,” “Actually,” “Introspective,” “Behaviour,” and “Very”), listed as the most successful duo in UK.  Their albums are named with one word, have collaborated with music artists including David Bowie, Elton John and Robbie Williams. Their music fits into the Dance-pop, Synth-pop, and the electronic dance music genre. The Pet Shop Boys are very liked because they are a constant revolving door, meaning that each album pushes into a new direction of music. 

PLAYLIST:

1. “West End Girls”, In a review of the album Please, Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusiccalled the song “hypnotic”. The song was released in 1984 from the album “West End Girls”,  the song’s lyrics were inspired T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land, about class and inner city pressure, won best single at the Brit Awards. This song was reworked first produced in 1983 by Bobby Orlando who played most of the instruments, but then in 1984 it was released becoming a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ended their negotiations with Orlando in 1985 and signed with EMI with their new manager Tom Watkins.  

link to hear song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3j2NYZ8FKs&list=RDp3j2NYZ8FKs&start_radio=1&t=25

2. “Its a Sin”, Lead song from the second album Actually, singer Neil Tennant said “Having been brought up as a Catholic you thought everything was a sin”. Tennant explains his inner childhood in this song and tells his fans how he grew up and that its okay to “sin”, Ten of the most blasphemous pop songs, caused a lot of controversy based on his real-life experiences, and first songs to critique religion, writing this song was a way to rebel against Catholicism and criticizing the Church. The song was released in 1987 which reached number one on the UK singles chart for three weeks. 

link to hear song:

3. “Opportunities (lets make lots of money) “, The lyric outline in Tennant’s words, “two losers”.

Was released in 1985. Neil Tennant commented to Mojo magazine August 2013: “It’s a simple message isn’t it? ‘I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks, let’s make lots of money.” The song was influenced on Thatcherism which constitutes the conviction, economic, social and political style of the British Conservative Party by politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990. And written from the perspective of a man who describes himself as being cerebral and literate, the main source of inspiration according to Tennant was the relationship between Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy, so there’s also a fair amount of homoeroticism in there. Neil Tennant’s lyrics were written as a satire of Thatcherism and its embodiment in conspicuous consumption in the United Kingdom during the 1980s. The Pet Shop singer penned them after keyboardist Chris Lowe, asked him to make up a lyric based around the line “Let’s make lots of money”. They’d  written the Thatcherite anthem but very difficult to think that there was a period before money culture, that was the changing moment. It was that period where suddenly one’s sensitive left-wing soul was shocked by everything being about money. Now the new generations have grown with this influence knowing nothing else but to spend and live around materialism.

link to hear song:

4. “What Have I Done to Deserve This?”, Allee Willis, who wrote this song with the Pet Shop Boys, told us what its about: “Someone who’s in this relationship that they know they shouldn’t be in”. Was released in 1987, featured singer Dusty Springfield, it peaked at number 2 in the UK and also at number 2 on the Billboard and becoming the fourth top ten hit for Pet Shop Boys as well as the biggest hit of Springfield’s career in the US. This song has a personal connection to all at the fans that are in a toxic relationship. The lyrics and the tone of the song brings a reflection of your partner and it brings out the true emotions that you share with someone. 

link to hear song:

5. “Domino Dancing”, Rolling Stone magazine calls the video “probably the most homoerotic pop video ever made.” The video exemplified the mainstream exploitation of gay sex in the 80’s, most evident in Calvin Klein ads and feature films like Top Gun, Tennant remembers, “It entered the charts at number nine and I thought, ‘that’s that, then – it’s all over’. I knew then that our imperial phase of number one hits was over.” Was released in 1988 as the lead single from their third studio album Introspective. It reached number seven on the UK Singles chart and topped the charts in Finland, Poland and Spain. The song influenced by latin pop, But the most important thing about “Domino Dancing” is its video, which depicts a love triangle between two young men and one girl.

“Unfortunately, Domino Dancing was every bit as dishonest, titillating the straight world with images it could never acknowledge, then doubling the repression by keeping openly gay expression closeted.”

                                                                                                                 — Jim Farber, Rolling Stone 

link to hear song:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik2YF05iX2w&list=RDp3j2NYZ8FKs&index=2

6. “Left To My Own Devices”, The b-side was “the sound of the atom splitting”, was released in 1988 as the second single from their third studio album, Introspective.  It was also the first track of the album, it is their 9th best-selling hit. It became the first track that Pet Shop Boys recorded with an orchestra, arranged by Richard Niles. Since its release, it has become a staple of Pet Shop Boys live performances.

Neil Tennant explains the meaning of the track: “This person goes through life always doing what he wanted to do. I liked the idea of writing a really up pop song about being left alone. This song is a day in the life of someone, so it starts off with getting out of bed and being on the phone and drinking tea and all the rest of it, and it ends up with coming home. By this time I was making the words very exaggerated and camp, though writing a book and going on stage were both things I had wanted to do when I was young.”

link to hear song:

7. “Always On My Mind”, In 1987, the Pet Shop Boys performed a synth-pop version of “Always on My Mind” on Love Me Tender, a television special on the ITV network in the UK. Commemorating the tenth anniversary of Presley’s death, the program featured various popular acts of the time performing cover versions of his hits. The Pet Shop Boys’ performance was so well-received that the duo decided to record the song and release it as a single. In November 2004, The Daily Telegraph newspaper placed the version at number two in a list of the fifty greatest cover versions of all time.In October 2014, a public poll compiled by the BBC saw the song voted the all-time best cover version. In the video for Pet Shop Boys’ version of “Always on My Mind”, Tennant and Lowe are seated in the front of a taxi cab, when an eccentric passenger gets in, played by notable British actor Joss Ackland. At the end of the song, he gets out of the car, which drives away.” The Pet Shop Boys describe how this particular person is always on their mind everywhere they go and they can not get them off their mind. They try to explain the thing that this person did to them to make them always be on their mind. 

“Was released by Pet Shop Boys as a non-album single in late 1987, after being featured in the ITV “Love Me Tender” TV program commemorating the 10th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death.”

link to hear song:

8. “Love Comes Quickly”, The second single from their 1986 album Please, written by Pet Shop Boys Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe along with their producer Stephen Hague, this song is about how there is no escaping falling in love: “Love comes quickly whatever you do you can’t stop 

falling.”

According to Neil, the meaning of the lyrics are simple:

“The whole song was about how you can suddenly fall in love with someone and you can’t help it. When you fall in love with someone, it’s totally disruptive. You’re having a comfortable life, and suddenly everything’s just turned upside down. All your priorities change. But the song is also saying that, after it’s happened, you suddenly realize you hadn’t really been alive at all.”

This song was one of the fan’s favorites due to their fans seeing themselves on the lyrics of the song. The fans saw a reflection of what has happening to them in this song and the emotions that were being shared

link to hear song:

The Pet Shop Boys were the biggest duo that Britain has ever seen. The songs that this duo made reflected the lives of many people that shared the same feelings or emotions. The Pet Shop Boys cannot be summarize within these 8 songs but this songs give you a whole grasp of who they were and why they were liked by millions of fans. The diversity that their albums brought, the upbeat tones, and the change of singing voices made this two guys extremely likable to anyone who listened to their music. People say there is never going to be a duo like them in the future due to the feelings and emotions that the songs shared with their fans. 

WRITING ABOUT MUSIC IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Writing Project #1: Track-by-Track Annotated Playlist (70 points)

THE PET SHOP BOYS

An amazing electronic pop group composed of the genius of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, they  have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Their first five albums (“Please,” “Actually,” “Introspective,” “Behaviour,” and “Very”), listed as the most successful duo in UK. Their albums are named with one word, have collaborated with music artists including David Bowie, Elton John and Robbie Williams.

PLAYLIST:

1. “West End Girls”, In a review of the album Please, Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusiccalled the song “hypnotic”. The song was released in 1984 from the album “West End Girls”,  the song’s lyrics were inspired T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land, about class and inner city pressure, won best single at the Brit Awards. This song was reworked first produced in 1983 by Bobby Orlando who played most of the instruments, but then in 1984 it was released becoming a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ended their negotiations with Orlando in 1985 and signed with EMI with their new manager Tom Watkins.  

link to hear song:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3j2NYZ8FKs&list=RDp3j2NYZ8FKs&start_radio=1&t=25

2. “Its a Sin”, Lead song from the second album Actually, singer Neil Tennant said “Having been brought up as a Catholic you thought everything was a sin”. 

Ten of the most blasphemous pop songs, caused a lot of controversy based on his real-life experiences, and first songs to critique religion, writing this song was a way to rebel against Catholicism and criticizing the Church. The song was released in 1987 which reached number one on the UK singles chart for three weeks. 

link to hear song:

3. “Opportunities (lets make lots of money) “, The lyric outline in Tennant’s words, “two losers”.

Was released in 1985. Neil Tennant commented to Mojo magazine August 2013: “It’s a simple message isn’t it? ‘I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks, let’s make lots of money.” The song was influenced on Thatcherism which constitutes the conviction, economic, social and political style of the British Conservative Party by politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990. And written from the perspective of a man who describes himself as being cerebral and literate, the main source of inspiration according to Tennant was the relationship between Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy, so there’s also a fair amount of homoeroticism in there. Neil Tennant’s lyrics were written as a satire of Thatcherism and its embodiment in conspicuous consumption in the United Kingdom during the 1980s. The Pet Shop singer penned them after keyboardist Chris Lowe, asked him to make up a lyric based around the line “Let’s make lots of money”. They’d  written the Thatcherite anthem but very difficult to think that there was a period before money culture, that was the changing moment. It was that period where suddenly one’s sensitive left-wing soul was shocked by everything being about money. Now the new generations have grown with this influence knowing nothing else but to spend and live around materialism.

link to hear song:

4. “What Have I Done to Deserve This?”, Allee Willis, who wrote this song with the Pet Shop Boys, told us what it’s about: “Someone who’s in this relationship that they know they shouldn’t be in”.

Was released in 1987, featured singer Dusty Springfield, it peaked at number 2 in the UK and also at number 2 on the Billboard and becoming the fourth top ten hit for Pet Shop Boys as well as the biggest hit of Springfield’s career in the US. 

link to hear song:

5. “Domino Dancing”, Rolling Stone magazine calls the video “probably the most homoerotic pop video ever made.”

The video exemplified the mainstream exploitation of gay sex in the 80’s, most evident in Calvin Klein ads and feature films like Top Gun, Tennant remembers, “It entered the charts at number nine and I thought, ‘that’s that, then – it’s all over’. I knew then that our imperial phase of number one hits was over.” Was released in 1988 as the lead single from their third studio album Introspective. It reached number seven on the UK Singles chart and topped the charts in Finland, Poland and Spain. The song influenced by latin pop, But the most important thing about “Domino Dancing” is its video, which depicts a love triangle between two young men and one girl.

“Unfortunately, Domino Dancing was every bit as dishonest, titillating the straight world with images it could never acknowledge, then doubling the repression by keeping openly gay expression closeted.”

                                                                                                                 — Jim Farber, Rolling Stone 

link to hear song:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik2YF05iX2w&list=RDp3j2NYZ8FKs&index=2

6. “Left To My Own Devices”, The b-side was “the sound of the atom splitting”, was released in 1988 as the second single from their third studio album, Introspective.  It was also the first track of the album, it is their 9th best-selling hit. It became the first track that Pet Shop Boys recorded with an orchestra, arranged by Richard Niles. Since its release, it has become a staple of Pet Shop Boys live performances.

Neil Tennant explains the meaning of the track: “This person goes through life always doing what he wanted to do. I liked the idea of writing a really up pop song about being left alone. This song is a day in the life of someone, so it starts off with getting out of bed and being on the phone and drinking tea and all the rest of it, and it ends up with coming home. By this time I was making the words very exaggerated and camp, though writing a book and going on stage were both things I had wanted to do when I was young.”

link to hear song:

7. “Always On My Mind”, In 1987, the Pet Shop Boys performed a synthpop version of “Always on My Mind” on Love Me Tender, a television special on the ITV network in the UK. Commemorating the tenth anniversary of Presley’s death, the program featured various popular acts of the time performing cover versions of his hits. The Pet Shop Boys’ performance was so well-received that the duo decided to record the song and release it as a single. In November 2004, The Daily Telegraph newspaper placed the version at number two in a list of the fifty greatest cover versions of all time. In October 2014, a public poll compiled by the BBC saw the song voted the all-time best cover version. In the video for Pet Shop Boys’ version of “Always on My Mind”, Tennant and Lowe are seated in the front of a taxi cab, when an eccentric passenger gets in, played by notable British actor Joss Ackland. At the end of the song, he gets out of the car, which drives away.”

“Was released by Pet Shop Boys as a non-album single in late 1987, after being featured in the ITV “Love Me Tender” TV program commemorating the 10th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death.”

link to hear song:

8. “Love Comes Quickly”, The second single from their 1986 album Please, written by Pet Shop Boys Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe along with their producer Stephen Hague, this song is about how there is no escaping falling in love: “Love comes quickly whatever you do you can’t stop 

falling.”

According to Neil, the meaning of the lyrics are simple:

“The whole song was about how you can suddenly fall in love with someone and you can’t help it. When you fall in love with someone, it’s totally disruptive. You’re having a comfortable life, and suddenly everything’s just turned upside down. All your priorities change. But the song is also saying that, after it’s happened, you suddenly realize you hadn’t really been alive at all.”

link to hear song:

Hi, my name is Salomon Marcos. I was born in Mexico and moved to Colorado for college. My major is Hospitality Real Estate an di am graduating on September 2020. My main email is salomonjm98@live.com

The first feature of an album review is to bring both the weaknesses and the strengths of the person reading the paper. Petrusich’s stated in “Tell Me How You Really Feel” by opening with “Hopelessness” which is as good a word as I can think of to describe the tumult of the past couple of years and what it feels like to keep insisting on optimism” (pg. 11). This brings sufficient insight on the person reading by stating the bright side of music. Balm basically focuses on reviewing “Go Girl Crazy”. The strengths of this are that he interprets the music that is present and explains the thoughts. The weakness that they present is that the thoughts can be very controversial for the person that is reading the review. 

One of the second features of an album review is the one that makes the public decide if they are going to buy the album and then listen to it or spread it by word of mouth/social medial. Petrusich explains that, “Tell Me How You Really Feel addresses both personal concerns and the broader Zeitgeist” (pg. 4). The main thing about a song is that it can give a reader different kind of emotions based on the song. This can also help the reader understand their spiritual needs and wants. Balm states that “Go Girl Crazy is entertaining because the dictators opt for un (or anti) pretension in lieu of refinement” (pg. 218). This attracts readers that have the same attitudes and values towards a certain thing. 

The last feature of an album review is  that people have the same feeling about a type of musical based on its hardcore evidence In Petrus ich’s review of  “Courtney Barnett’s “Tell Me How You Really Feel”, “Any woman who has ever had to speed walk down a side street late at night knows this trick-using your keys to make a kind of wolverine paw of your hand” (pg. 4). She started with lyrics that show how feeling and the knowledge that woman has during periods of time. In Balm’s review of “Go Girl Crazy”, he states at hat Basically a vocal group using rudimentary riffs and instrumentals-frenetic fuzzed-out guitar, the strong emphasis on beat’ adherence to 4-4 tempo-the Dictators aren’t much bothered by having a facsimile sound or with taking a tedious break” (pg. 217). They examine how the instrument works and the author also breaks down the music in detail and then gets a bigger and deeper aspect of it. 

Petrusich explains that Courtney Barnet likes to sing about songs that are related to depression, sadness and anxiety. Petrusich gives us a sense of what kind of personality Barnett has, “she sounds glorious, enviably unbothered, even as the circumstances around her openly deteriorate”. By showing themselves through the lyrics, people that have the same values as the song can be attracted due to having the same feelings and attitude that the song brings. This also helps the reader know how the vibe is on the whole song that is playing.

The album that I choose was “When we all fall asleep, where do we go?”. This album was released on March, 2019. The album cover can show many different feelings, it gives you a creepy/scary vibe. Billie Ellish is an 18-year-old girl that has been risen in the music industry for the last 3 years. Billie Ellish gained a following in 2016 when she released her single “Ocean Eyes”. She got signed by Interscope Records and from there here career took off.  She has only released one album, but has had two EPS, which add up to a total of 20 songs released. Ellish’s music is considered pop alternative electropop but she has very sad, creepy, depressed lyrical songs but they are combined with an upbeat sound system. 

The album released on March and it was named the Best Album for the next 2 months. It got nominated for 20 Awards, including Best Album at the American Music Awards. The album’s top songs are “Bad Guy”,”Iloilo”, “wish you were gay”, and “my strange addiction”. Ellish’s fans have given great reviews about this album. This album has 5 songs on the top 50 songs in Spotify. The album was a great success. 

This album has very depressed and sad lyrics. It is focus on broken hearts, tears, and having a negative/sad attitude towards everything that happens in life. The weird thing is that Ellish combines these sad emotions with an upbeat music, this gives it the popularity and uniqueness that her songs have. Her voice is very pure and she does not use any kind of sound effects, she changes her singing voice based on the music beat and it sounds beautiful. Ellish has been known as having “the voice of an angel”.

Her most popular song on this album is called “Bad Guy”. The lyrics go as stated: 

“So, you’re a tough guy
Like it really rough guy
Just can’t get enough guy
Chest always so puffed guy
I’m that bad type
Make your mama sad type
Make your girlfriend mad tight
Might seduce your dad type
I’m the bad guy, duh

I’m the bad guy”

In this song, Eliish is describing that the guy in this song is a bad guy, that he has the “bad boy” type and he is a very toxic person. She also tells the reader how she is the bad girl also in the relationship. That she breaks rules and does whatever she wants with whoever she wants. Ellish also brings a sexual appeal in this song:

“I like it when you take control
Even if you know that you don’t
Own me, I’ll let you play the role
I’ll be your animal”

These lyrics explain how she likes a “bad guy” that treats her rough while having sexual experiences. This is why the song became very popular. A lot of girls shared the same feelings that Ellish is expressing on this song. This made her fans feel that it is okay to like bad guys and be a bad girl at whatever things you want to be. Ellish made it “cool” to be a rebel girl. 

Another popular song in this Album is “Bury a friend”. The chorus of this song goes as follow:

“What do you want from me? Why don’t you run from me?
What are you wondering? What do you know?
Why aren’t you scared of me? Why do you care for me?
When we all fall asleep, where do we go?”

This is Ellish most creepy and deep song of this album. Ellish is telling the reader that why their friends are not scared of her. She is killing all her friends one by one. She says that she is a very different kind of friend and that she attracts more people but they should be “running” away from her. She then brings the topic of suicide:

“Step on the glass, staple your tongue (ahh)
Bury a friend, try to wake up (ah ahh)
Cannibal class, killing the son (ahh)
Bury a friend, I wanna end me”

She explains how she wants to commit suicide and end her life because she is causing so much pain to other people and herself. This song is lyrical very sad and creepy but what makes it one of her best-selling songs in this album is that the musical beat in this song is very trendy and catchy. It gives it a happy and vibey tone to the lyrics. If you listen to the beat without the lyrics, you would think it would be a party or very vibey song. 

            Ellish is rising to be one of the most popular artists in the world at a very young age. She is a very unique artist by being able to combine very sad, depressed, heartbroken feelings that many people in this world share, with a very upbeat background music that brings it to life. She still has many years to grow and develop her music and her fans cannot wait to see what this unique artist can bring to their life. 

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.