Liz's Thoughts on Music

 I chose to analyze Bill Haley and His Comet's "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" this week. I did not know before learning about this song in class that it was one of the first rock-n-roll hits. But it's interesting to think that this is where rock-n-roll started. "Rock Around the Clock" is an up-beat and happy song. It creates a care-free feeling. It's almost as if it's suggesting that you could leave your cares aside for a while and just dance to this song. That's one thing that I like about this song.  Another thing I like about this song is the lyrics. In each verse it talks about different phases of a dance that is going on 'around the clock', as the name suggests. The first verse talks about the hours "two, three, and four". The second talks about "five, six, and seven". The third talks about "eight, nine, ten, eleven". And then the fourth verse talks about the clock striking twelve and starting...

  I chose to analyze "Sh-Boom" by The Chords. Whenever I hear this song, like many of you, I think of the movie Cars . And because this song is in Cars , when I hear this song I tend to think about what life would have looked like back in the 50's. I might think this way especially because I live in a town that Route 66 goes through and work is being done to restore 'historic downtown'. This song is up-beat and has a happy sound to it. It makes me smile when I listen to it and I think it is definitely a song that you can cruise to. :) There are a few elements of "Sh-Boom" that remind me of jazz music. The scat singing throughout the song reminds me of jazz singer Louis Armstrong who often used scat singing in his songs. The saxophone solo in the middle of the song reminds me of the riffs and improvisation that are common in jazz songs. So in other words, I think that jazz had an influence on the musicians and singers in The Chords, which is why there are...

 I chose to analyze "Blue Yodel No. 2", performed by Jimmie Rodgers, this week. This song is a hillbilly or country song that is evidently influenced by the blues. This makes the song's tone and sound slightly sad. But for me, this type of a sound is nostalgic because my favorite teacher in high school would sing and play songs like this one on the guitar for us sometimes. All of the songs he sang and played were similar to "Blue Yodel No. 2". I think that the 'hillbilly' style of music was one of my teacher's favorites. It's one of my favorites too because most songs like this are ballads, or in other words, they tell stories. Another aspect of 'hillbilly' music that I love is the way the sound of the guitar and banjo accompany the singer who is telling a story. To me, this really helps establish the tone and helps frame the story the singer is singing.  With that said, "Blue Yodel No. 2" is sung from the perspective of someone...

"How Deep Is the Ocean?" starts in a minor key, which creates a melancholy tone. This sad tone, to me, suggests that the singer (in this case Bing Crosby) or the writer of the song (Irving Berlin) is trying to find the best way to express how much they love the person this song is about. In other words they desperately want that special person to know how much they love them. And it's almost as if they are asking themselves these questions, 'How can I tell you how much I love you? How can I measure just how much I do?'. Then the singer (or writer) responds with more rhetorical questions, such as - 'How deep is the ocean?... How far is the journey from here to a star?' -  which suggest that these distances reflect his love. These questions about distances and the happier tone that is created when the music moves from a minor key to a major key during the bridge helps make the last chorus seem as if the singer (or writer) has found the answers they were look...