Expressions of Loneliness: An Exploration of Solitude across Musical Genres

Transcription

1 Kreger Key 1 Alex Kreger e1.d2 March 1, 2012 Expressions of Loneliness: An Exploration of Solitude across Musical Genres Key The first vocals to enter (around the nine second mark) are from Kanye West and Jay-Z, from Jay-Z s song Encore. Samples from this song also appear at 1:05, 1:08, and 1:13. As a whole, the original, unedited version of Encore serves primarily to implant in the listener s mind the image of pure success. At that point in his career, Jay-Z had solidified himself as one of the most prolific MC s of all time, and this song in particular chronicles the unthinkable spoils of his rise to fame. With such fame, though, comes loneliness. As he would be the first to admit, Jay-Z is at the top of the rap world he sees himself as peerless, and thus he is inherently alone. The next entrance is Drake (at 0:11) from his song Forever. Excerpts from this same song also appear at 0:14, 0:17, 0:22, 1:25, and 1:54. In this song, a young Drake pronounces himself the king of the hip-hop world, despite at that point having not yet released a studio album. This is a different breed of arrogance from that of Jay-Z. The former s swagger is almost deserved, earned after years of work in the business. Drake s arrogance is that of the insolent child he considers himself to be superior to other rappers based solely on the fact that he believes it to be so. This type of bravado is sure to breed its critics, which Drake addresses frequently in the song. He seems to almost take pride in his isolation, citing the critics as a source of inspiration and bragging about his lack of backing from a record label. He is, in every sense of the word, independent. Finally, several samples from Kanye West s song Power appear, at 0:25, 0:29, 0:35, 0:48, and 0:51. Throughout this song, the ever-mercurial Kanye West pinballs from self-aware to defiant while at one time Kanye loves his fame, he also despises it. For example, he declares that no one man should have all that power. The most interesting aspect of this line is not that Mr. West considers himself to be nearly all-powerful, but rather that he truly believes he possesses too much power. He recognizes that he lacks the ability to control his power, and he

2 Kreger Key 2 hates himself for it. Within the rest of the song lies a man mired deep in self-doubt, troubled by his self-imposed exile following the Taylor Swift incident. The main vocals of the mashup, from the Beach Boys song Sloop John B, enter almost simultaneously with Drake s vocals near the 0:13 mark. This song serves as the vocal foundation of the track, as it continues throughout the mashup. Whereas the three other songs would be classified as rap or hip-hop and originate from the last decade, Sloop John B was released in Thus, the inclusion of the hip-hop songs serves as a stark contrast to this older song. This contrast also extends to lyrical elements of the songs. In Sloop John B, The Beach Boys recount the story of a boat, the John B, and its crew. The song itself is very melancholic, with considerable emphasis being placed on the sad, lonely crew that wants only to return home. The three rap songs are presented from different perspectives one from an up-and-coming rapper, Drake, one from an established veteran of the hip-hop scene, Jay-Z, and one from the most mercurial and artistic musicians in rap, Kanye West. Despite this variety of artists, I was struck by how similar thematically these songs were all deal with power, though each artist treats this power differently. All four songs actually share a theme as well isolation and loneliness. However, the two main groups of songs (The Beach Boys and hip-hop) express their alienation distinctly. The Beach Boys present the sadness and despair that often accompanies such solitude. The rap songs, however, find loneliness in their superiority the top is a very lonely place. With this common thread of isolation, I wanted to address the common misconception that rappers only discuss such shallow topics as money and women. While these may be frequent motifs, on a deeper level the genre of hip-hop also grapples with a classic musical theme loneliness. The drum beat for the entire song is a looped drum solo played by Led Zeppelin s John Bonham. I chose this as the foundation of the song because it forms a bridge between the two styles contrasted throughout the song. Bonham s drumming is confident and measured, yet never overbearing. It exudes a sense of self-assuredness, never wavering or changing pace. It serves as an intermediate between the wistful Beach Boys and the arrogant rappers, tying them together and smoothing out the gaps between them. Here are the full lyrics:

3 Kreger Key 3 Can I get an encore? Do you want more more more? I want this shit forever mine ever mine ever mine We come on the sloop John B Last name Ever My grandfather and me First name Greatest Around Nassau town we did roam Like a sprained ankle, boy I ain t nothing to play with Drinking all night No one man should have all that power Got into a fight The clock s ticking, I just count the hours Well I feel so broke up I want to go home Till then, bump that, the world s ours So hoist up the John B's sail See how the mainsail sets Call for the Captain ashore Let me go home I guess every superhero needs his theme music let me go home Stop trippin I m trippin off the power I wanna go home, yeah yeah Well I feel so broke up I wanna go home The first mate he got drunk Who you know fresher than Hov? Riddle me that And broke in the Cap'n's trunk

4 Kreger Key 4 The rest of y all know where I m lyrically at The constable had to come and take him away Can t none of y all mirror me back? Yeah hearing me rap, it s like hearing G rap in his prime Sheriff John Stone Why don't you leave me alone, yeah yeah Well I feel so broke up I wanna go home Swimmin in the money come and find me, Nemo So hoist up the John B's sail See how the mainsail sets Call for the Captain ashore Let me go home, let me go home I wanna go home, let me go home Why don't you let me go home (Hoist up the John B's sail) Hoist up the John B I feel so broke up I wanna go home Let me go home Everybody got a deal, I did it without one out one out one

5 Kreger Key 5 Reflections This piece began as a very vague idea I knew I wanted to work with music, but in what capacity I had not yet decided. I initially considered making a poem spliced together out of song lyrics, but eventually moved towards a much more complex, ambitious concept. The idea itself came from the announcement of the LDOC lineup. It included one artist, 3LAU, with which I was unfamiliar. A quick YouTube search revealed that he made mashups, and an hour s worth of procrastination later I was a fan. I was particularly struck by his chosen art form: the mashup. This format has an immense potential for artistic expression, and at the very foundation of this art form lies plagiarism. I immediately thought of our assignment: what better way to plagiarize musically than in a genre that is entirely based on such borrowing? It was decided, then, that the general framework for my project would be a mashup. I soon realized, though, that this genre was rife with bland, unimpressive combinations of songs. At first glance, merging several songs into one seems like a simple way for an artist to make a clear point. The more mashups I listened to, though, the more false this seemed to become. Instead of providing an excellent platform for artistic expression, the form of the mashup seemed to muddy the artistic waters the problem was that a mashup could sound very good without meaning anything. Individual songs with thematic weight are difficult enough to find, and when various themes and styles are juxtaposed in such a tight time span, the result is often an overwhelming amalgam of ideas. Too frequently the mashup artists chose songs that matched well rhythmically or even stylistically while ignoring a thematic clash between pieces. This struck me as a waste of a beautiful opportunity for musical expression without the need to play an instrument or sing. My goal then became to create a mashup that truly meant something, that made a point. To do so, though, I would need to link several different songs through a common theme. I eventually settled on the theme of loneliness as my central idea, because I thought it was a universal enough theme to be encountered across various genres of music. The next challenge, then, would be choosing songs. My first thought was to use songs of a similar style and genre, mixing them together to create an even more powerful song of the same vein. However, this seemed too predictable and straightforward. Naturally, my next instinct was to mix and match songs from several different genres, hoping that through the use of many different types of music some purpose would magically arise for my piece. Instead of some grand moment of enlightenment, my piece took shape at an alarmingly slow rate. While playing

6 Kreger Key 6 around with the vocal track of Sloop John B, I came across a solo drum track from Led Zeppelin s drummer John Bonham. The two fit together nicely (requiring only a slight tempo increase on the Beach Boys song) and formed the basis of what was to become my mashup. From that point forward, I experimented with countless other artists adding in bits of John Mayer, Blink-182, Coldplay, etc. but nothing struck as thematically new and interesting when the pieces were juxtaposed. In frustration, I turned to Kanye West I had originally ruled as rap and hip-hop as an option because they were so different from the Beach Boys vocal track. After I edited in a short piece of his song Power, I knew I was on to something. As different as the two vocal songs were, it worked in a strange way. So I returned to my itunes library in search of hip-hop to add to my mashup. As I looked, the dichotomy between the sadness of Sloop John B and the arrogance of the rap lyrics began to gradually emerge. Eventually I narrowed my search to only individual lines that pertained directly to this division between genres, and soon I had pieced together my mashup. The question of the point of this mashup remained, though. Yes, the Beach Boys music and modern hip-hop are lyrically and stylistically quite distinct, but this was far from groundbreaking. My breakthrough came after dozens of listens to the entire mashup. I slowly realized that the loneliness of the Beach Boys lyrics was not contrasted by the bombastic rappers, but rather it was mirrored. Their means of expressing these feelings differed, but at their core the rappers used music to represent the same sense of loneliness as the Beach Boys. In the end, I felt that I made this comparison as clear as possible and made a decent mashup sonically while I was at it that s all I ever hoped to do. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank Professor Harris for giving us all the opportunity to work on such an engaging project I don t think I ve ever had this much creative liberty on an assignment, and I enjoyed it immensely. I d like to thank my roommate, James Hsu, for enduring countless replays of my mashup in our room, and for always telling me when my music sounded terrible. Special thanks to my writing group Ben, Kate, and Rebecca for all your wonderful advice and words of encouragement. And lastly, I d like to give credit to countless YouTube videos for help and inspiration with the genre of mashups in general.