H5

Applied Humanities

Choices Choices in Music 5 Module Five: Impact of the Humanities / Page 5.2.3 Choices in Music On this page: 0 of 2 attempted (0%) | 0 of 1 correct (0%) Objective: Recognize both structure in genre and choices in songwriting.

What goes through the minds of composers as they write music? Do they hear a tune and write it down? Do they start with someone else’s song and modify it to make it their own? Do they noodle on the piano or guitar, trying things out until something sounds right? And what does it even mean for a musical phrase to sound right? Could anything really sound wrong?

Assume you are a writing a blues song on the guitar. That closes down a lot of options, right? How many cues do you take from the standards of the blues genre and how much freedom do you have within those standards? Blues music is characterized by a particular chord progression played in a specific sequence with a distinctive rhythm.

YouTube video. https://youtu.be/1PiOIVK8rMQ. Uploaded October 6, 2011 by ibanez0930. To activate captions, first click the play button and then click the CC button

in the embedded player. For a text transcript, follow the link below.

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Blues Guitar Lesson 2 - The 12 Bar Blues ProgressionBlues Guitar Lesson 2 - The 12 Bar Blues Progression

If all those elements are set, is there any room to be creative? Well, yes. Building on a common foundation is the entire genre of blues; the choices made within those constraints are what separate one song from another. Play only the basics and a song is boring; stray too far from them and it’s not the blues any more.

Blues is not unique in having a structure. Whether it’s reggae, surf, Bollywood, or trap music, common structural elements are what place a piece of music within a genre. Consider the similarity of some #1 songs on the country music charts.

YouTube video. https://youtu.be/FY8SwIvxj8o. Uploaded November 4, 2014 by Sir Mashalot. For a text transcript, follow the link below.

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Short-Answer Question

The 12-bar blues progression is one of the standard elements that makes music sound “blues-like.” Based on the country mashup video, what are three specific standards that tie country songs together?

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While the common elements of these songs don’t define all of country music, they have lead some critics to declare such music “formulaic.” The implication is that all one

Sir Mashalot: Mind-Blowing SIX Song Country MaSir Mashalot: Mind-Blowing SIX Song Country Ma……

needs to do to write a hit country song is to follow the formula—but that can’t be the case, right?

If you want to even get on the country chart, you have to follow enough of the rules to be recognizable as country. But to sell more records than anyone else (a key part of getting to #1), you have to do so in a way that millions of people find interesting.

This should not be read as a knock on country music in particular. A similar mash-up could likely be made with songs from any genre. But the similarities show what is meant by “formulaic.”

Multiple-Choice Question

What do composers have to do to successfully sell records that identify as belonging to a certain genre?

Use as many formulaic elements as possible, such as set structures and standard chord progressions. Be as innovative as possible, trying not to follow any standards or conventions in the genre such as structure or chord progression. Use enough genre standards for a song to be recognized as part that genre, but do so in a way that people find interesting. Spend months or years reworking a musical theme before including it in a finished piece.

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