Urban Music Song.

The song I have researched is Professor Green Ft Emeli Sande- Read All About It and was released on 23 October 2011.
The song is in the format of a personal letter from Pro Green to his deceased father talking about all the bad things that have happened to him and how it made him feel because he had a bad relationship with his father and was raised by his grandmother.

The backing track of the music is simple, with just the use of drums and some piano chords and melody over the top.

The chords that are used in this song are:
Bm, D, A, F-sharp-minor.
These are the same chords throughout the whole song repeated for the verse and the chorus.

The structure of the song starts with Emeli Sande singing the chorus followed by Professor Green rapping in the verse. The whole structure of the song is rap followed by singing of the choruses.

I have chosen to study this song and to work my song in the same format using the verse as rap and the chorus is sung. Also the lyrics to my song is also a personal meaning to it, talking about the highs and lows of life.

Listening to the way that Professor Green raps his verses, some words and phrases are sung in a way that is relevant to the emotion(s) that is portrayed in the meanings of the lyrics.
An example of this would be in the first vcrse:
"...Family is something that you've never been to me. In fact making it harder for me to see my father was the only thing that you ever did for me"
This whole line is about how big of an impact it was for Pro Green to grown up with the absence of his father due to his step father being in the way of this. As expected, Pro Green is angry with his step father for being in the way of this. His feelings are shown and made very clear when rapping this line.

When he raps the line:
"Family is something that you've never been to me"
he says it just as if its nothing, no emotion. Just words. It's almost as if he is just throwing the words away when he says them.  This could be because of the way that he felt about his step father. He felt nothing for him and in his eyes, his step father was just a man.


"In fact making it harder for me to see my father was the only thing that you ever did for me"
When he raps this line, he builds up his anger as he thinks about what happened and how bad his step father was to him. You can see this in the way he raps this line because he starts off being not too angry, but as it continues, it's almost like sudden realization of how bad things were. He stopped him from seeing his father, finally at the end of the sentence, he is angry and could be seemed to be spitting the words out with anger and frustration. Similarly, this could be seen as because Pro Green is so angry and wound up, he could be metaphorically "Spitting" on his step father's grave. 

Charity Song. - Wavin' Flag

Wavin' Flag

The charity song that I have researched is Wavin' Flag.
This song was used to raise money for the 2010 Haiti earthquake appeal.
The song was written by Somalian singer/rapper called K'naan. It reached the top ten in music charts in 19 different countries and was then chosen the be Coca-Cola's promotional theme song and also the theme song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The song was used for Coca-Cola promotional reasons because they felt that the song brought togetherness and joined nations together for the World Cup and wanted to use the song to work alongside their product.

Wavin' Flag become so popular around the world and was translated into 10 different languages and entered the charts.

The artists that contributed to the charity single were:
K'naan
Nelly Furtado
Sam Roberts
Avril Lavigne
Pierre Bouvier
Tyler Connolly
Kardinal Offishall
Jully Black
LIGHTS
Deryck Whibley
Serena Ryder
Jacob Hoggard
Emily Hannies
Hawksley Workman
Drake
Chin Injeti
Ima
Pierre Lapointe
Elisapie Isaacc
Esthero
Corb Lund
Fef Dobson
Niki Yanofsky
Matt Mays
Justin Nozuka
Justin Bieber


The song starts straight away with very little introduction. It starts with the chorus immediately instead of going to the verse  first as most songs do. As a charity song, the lyrics to the song should be positive, meaningful and inspirational to the listeners.
The first line of the song is
"When i get older, i will be stronger, they'll call me freedom, just like a waving flag"
Just from the first line of the song, it provides the listener with hope and has given positive words. "When i get older" this line shows that the person singing the song has their own ambitions and dreams and hopes of being something, being someone, making something of themselves, proving that there is hope for them yet.
"they'll call me freedom, just like a waving flag" This is the justification of the first line, again showing that he has ambition and drive and knows what they want to be and do for themselves in the future. There is also a play on words, "...freedom, just like a waving flag" freedom, showing that with age and growing up there is freedom that comes. This shows that this song can be for all people of all ages. Freedom comes with age and then they can all relate to and they have to grow up showing hope and positivity.
The emotions that are to be expressed through the song is about bringing hope not only to a person, but also to a community, nation, country etc. They are all in the same situation as each other so they can all sing the song to show express hope. Almost as if to say 'there is light at the end of the tunnel'

The main hook of the song is the same as the first line of the song.
  "When i get older, i will be stronger, they'll call me freedom, just like a waving flag"
This line is repeated throughout the song many times and is the main part of the song as it is catchy. 'Waving Flag' the name of the song is used over and over to really get the message of the song across. Its repeated so many times the same way as the chorus is repeated so many times.

The structure of the song is:
-Chorus
-Verse1
-Chorus
-Verse 2
-Chorus
-Verse 3
-Extended Chorus
-Middle 8
-Augmented chorus
-Outro

Unit 34. Writing a Christmas Song

Last Christmas – Wham!

The group consisted of two men, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley formed in the early 1980’s and together sold 25 million records in the years they were active 1982-1986. 
They released the song ‘Last Christmas’ in 1984 and was written by George Michael and during the year of release they wanted the song to be the Christmas number 1, but they were beat out by the Band Aid Project fronted by Bob Geldof in the UK, however ‘Last Christmas’ topped the charts in other countries. 
WHAM! Sold over a million records of this song and it became the biggest selling single in UK chart history not to reach number 1. The song is about saving your love for someone else Christmas.
This is a successful Christmas song because it is catchy due to the use of repetition throughout the song. Also the backing track has some elements that you would use to describe some of the sounds at Christmas such the twinkling sounds that could be used in relation of the Nativity play and the story of Jesus’s birth about how the three wise men followed the star to get to Jesus.

This song includes a lot of repetition and numerous interludes of instrumentals. At the start of the song there is an interlude of just instrumental and then we are introduced to a single voice singing the chorus giving the song a thin texture of just that homophonic sound.  As soon as this single voice has finished its phrase, the second voice repeats the chorus accompanied by the first voice giving the song a polyphonic sound and a thicker texture. Following this, there is another instrumental interlude before the verse starts. There is one voice singing the verse with the occasional accompaniment of the second voice then it goes back to the chorus starting again with one voice singing the chorus once and then the second voice joining in during the second time that the chorus is sung.  Before starting the second verse there is yet another interlude of instrumental music but this is an augmentation of the interlude of music that we have previously heard in the song. The second verse starts with one voice singing but then is soon joined by the second voice thickening the texture of the verse and this leads off to the chorus but instead of starting the chorus with a single voice as they have been doing, they start it with both voices singing at the same time repeating the chorus with both voices twice. There is another interlude of instrumental music followed but this is shorter and then leads into the last lines of the chorus where just one voice is doing the singing and hitting the high notes. From there, the song fades out.

The structure of this song is:
-Chorus x2
-Verse
-Chorus x2
-Verse
-Short interlude
-Verse
-Chorus x2 (Augmented)
-Middle 8
-Augmented chorus
-Outro


There aren't many chords used in this song, there are only four chords.
D, Bm, Em, A.
This does not change, it is the same chords all the way through the song. 


There is some relation to the lyrics and the melody for example:
"...But the very next day, you gave it away.
This year, to save me from tears, I'll give it someone special"

The top line of the one above, is sung differently compared to the bottom line. 
"...But the very next day, you gave it away." 
This line is about giving someone you love, your love and expecting them to return the love to you, however instead of love being given back, the person gave the love away. This is the same as saying: "I showed you how much i love you, but then the next day you ended the relationship. You took my heart and left me"
Due to the feelings of sadness, hurt and upset from the person singing, this line is sung as if the person who showed the love is hanging his head down because his feelings are hurt. The line is also sung like the person is/was shocked, especially when the singer says :"but the very next day"

"This year, to save me from tears, I'll give it someone special"
This line is about learning from your mistakes and making sure that you give your love to someone who deserves it. 
The emotion in this line is almost as if the singer is talking about being "born again", having the strength to move on, be stronger, let go of the past. You can tell that the singer is stronger than what they were before because of the way the singer sings: "this year" he almost shouts it, to show his power and how much he means what he is saying. 
When the words "i'll give it to someone special" is sung, the singer soften his voice to show that even though he has shouted his beginning part, he now is softening his voice to show that he still wants to be in love.