———————————-Sneak Peek into the World of Music——————————–
Introduction:
Welcome to a quick sneak peek into the world of music. For my music portfolio, I’ve included some of my favorite works that I have done throughout the semester. When choosing the pieces to include in my portfolio I have thought about the meaning behind the assignments and which best showcases my love for music and represents who I am and my interests. Each of the portfolio pieces symbolizes my understanding of life and music. Like many others, for me, I listen to music for enjoyment and in order for it to teleport me into a whole different world, an escape from reality.
For starters, I’ve decided to include my record club which was my introduction to Juice WRLD. I have decided to focus on an artist that I have never personally listened to but yet were caught by his great vocals and stories behind the music he produces. This assignment enabled me to showcase my interest in new music and artists that I have never heard of before. This record club tells a slightly vague-yet-telling story of Juice WRLD moments from his life, his struggles, and the challenges he faces. For my second choice, I have decided to include my infographic which was focused on Selena Gomez and her musical journey. I decided to include her music in my portfolio because due to how important her music was, especially during my teenage years, around the time I first began to venture out into different genres and musical artists. Her lyrics from each of her singles hold a great value in her career because it creates a visual for her audiences into the world of figuring out yourself and a world of musical experiments. For my final portfolio piece, I have chosen to include my personal essay, and talk about the music in my life. I have decided to include this as my closing piece of work because it describes my love for music and the value it holds. Music has definitely been an escape from life and it really builds up an individual so having that as my last closing work really represents the materials that I have learned throughout the class and the growth in my musical taste and interest.
———————————————-Record Club: Can’t Die-Juice WRLD—————————————
The song I have decided to choose for my record club is “Can’t Die” by Juice Wrld. I believe every song he has the lyrics are very powerful and catches anyone’s attention very fast. Juice Wrld was struggling with addiction, anxiety, and depression. The fear of getting judged by the world has created an inner devil for Juice Wrld. The song Can’t Die is a very deep song that speaks directly to the audience about how he “can’t die” because he “never was alive”. That statement for the most part also touches on the depression that he feels due to the death of his loved ones, in addition to sympathizing with others who are going through the same. In the first chorus,
“Sometimes it feels like I can’t die, ’cause I never was alive”
Then in verse two, he sings
“Cross my heart, hope to survive”.
When Juice Wrld is singing you can really hear the acoustic guitar and you can pick up how the beat of the tone is more sincere and genuine like you hear the passion he has for music. As an audience, we can really notice when he raps he is very heartfelt but also when he sings it’s more calming and his vocals create a sense of sadness/pain. Expressing his emotions through his music really allows his audience to connect more with him, socially about mental health. Many individuals use his music as an escape from reality and transport it to somewhere they feel safe.
This song is considered a hip hop/rap genre. The chorus, verses, and the bridge in the song really create a sense of honesty and gives the audience a visual of his life and his mental health through the art of music. The song has a combination of a beat, tempo, chorus, and tone that really makes the music more smooth and creates a balance. The tone and phrasing in Juice WRLD’s music are presented in ways that really capture the shape of his music and sequence of notes in order to express his emotions. Juice WRLD has constantly accomplished this by drifting stylistically from the sheet music by adjusting tone, tempo, dynamic, and more.
Musical Terms:
Chorus: It is a repeated section in the music, and it is a common song structure, and usually it is repeated at least twice in a song.
Beat: it is a regular pulse in music that allows the dancers/audience to go with the beat and music to run smoothly.
Tempo: the speed at which the music is or should be played.
Tone: is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. The tone in the music can be anywhere from informal to formal, cheerful, or sad.
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJNsZkMS1eo
——————————————Infographic: Selena Gomez-Musical Journey——————————–
Many might know Selena Gomez from her debut on the Disney channel. She is an American singer, actress, and producer. Born and raised in Texas, alongside her television career, Gomez has starred in few films and also voices many characters in Disney films. Selena Gomez released a total of seven albums, three studio albums, one compilation album, and three promotional singles.
Gomez began her career by appearing on the children’s television series, and in her teens, she fulfilled her role as Alex Russo in the Emmy Award-winning Disney Channel television series Wizards of Waverly Place (2007–2012). Alongside her television career, Gomez has starred in many award-winning films. She has also served as executive producer for the Netflix television series 13 Reasons Why (2017–2020) and Living Undocumented (2019). Her transition from the Disney channel and the film industry was filled with many criticisms but she was recognized for her great vocals. Her transformation to the music world has allowed her to experiment and play with different musical genres and continue her journey till today where she has successfully created a name for herself.
Selena Gomez’s first album which was released in 2009 “Kiss & Tell”. The album held freshness and a twist. Kiss & Tell is a work of near-genius modern pop that shows off Gomez’s light but soulful vocals in a near-perfect setting. Plenty of songs in this album has her talking about her boyfriends, tracks joyously detail newfound love affairs, and a good many generally rock out. The variety of styles and sounds on the record is pretty impressive. There are snappy bursts of punky pop bump up against Latin-influenced dance jams, midtempo, new wave rockers, techno-ish dancefloor, and hopeful love songs. Her vocals sound young and fresh and her singing is full of energy. The album was a great start to Selena Gomez’s musical career.
The second album was released in 2010 “A Year Without Rain”, wasn’t as successful as the first one but the album’s mix of frothy teen pop with super-catchy choruses, excellent production, and Selena’s sweet yet powerful vocals proved popular with both critics and the public, and it was a long-running one. There are no new wave or emo-pop influences, only a couple of songs that aren’t about serious longing and heartbreak, and an overall feel of the sorrow of heaviness. The album overall held great vocals but was not as successful.
“When the Sun goes Down”, released in 2011 being the third album in three years. The songs are sassier, lighter, and more fun. Her vocals are more spirited, the arrangements less reliant on heavy synths, and overall, there’s a more playful feeling to the record that’s more in keeping with her first album. She bubbles her way through dancefloor-friendly tracks like “Bang Bang Bang” and “That’s More Like It”. The rest is really solid and fun modern pop with sharp hooks and a couple of surprises. It adds some welcome taste and creates a straightforward record, and shows how easily and successfully she can slip into different personas and styles.
“Stars Dance” 2013, takes a slightly more eclectic approach. Gomez and her writers and producers don’t drift far from the dancefloor and party jams, and these are the strongest songs on the album. It’s hard to resist the jumping beats, shiny synths, and Gomez’s cherry vocals on tracks like “Slow Down,” “Undercover,” and the disco-y “Save the Day.” Stars Dance is another quality entry in her catalog and just another example of why Selena Gomez is one of the best pop stars making music in 2013.
Release of “Revival” in 2015 the artist went through few changes such as the label change and her public relationship. The album sticks pretty close to a club hits-and-ballads mix with a couple of R&B-inspired jams thrown in. Gomez sounds most at home on the uptempo dance tracks like “Kill ‘Em with Kindness” or “Me & the Rhythm,” where the smoothness of her voice fits in with the surrender of the beat. She aims for several kinds of maturity, and the production holds professionalism.
2020–present: “Rare” and “Revelación”, are the newest albums. Her break after her last album has changed her as an individual and the artist herself had gone through a huge health journey that allowed her to change her perspective in music. The introverted and emotionally raw song “Lose You to Love Me” surrounded Gomez’s aching vocals with sparse piano, swirling strings, and lush background vocals, and connected instantly with her fans and anyone who ever had to ditch someone in order to save themselves. That song, and the record it appears on, mark something of a turning point in her career. Where in the past she focused mostly on breezy sentiments, playful frothy pop, and more recently sexy come-ons, now she’s digging deeper and mining her own life and loves for subject matter in more obvious and revealing ways. Revelación is Gomez’s first release to be prominently in the Spanish language, combining reggaeton, electropop, Latin pop, and R&B with urban elements.
The musical journey of Selena Gomez included many changes in the artist herself, her vocals, and her style. Her music included both her struggles and her rebirth into the music industry. Each song is meant to represent a stage in her life and what she is going through. Overall, her genre of electronic dance music, pop, and R&B-inspired songs has been a journey that included a lot of experiments, and today she is known for her well-established career, accomplishments, and her trials with music.
————————————————–Personal Essay: Music is my life—————————————–
For me, music is quite important, and I believe it is a significant part of my life. For many reasons I can say music plays a huge role in my life, for starters the world of music evolves around so many genres, artists, and different styles. Music is a form of expression which has no boundaries, and it follows no guidelines. To me, I would describe music as like air, because it has no true shape or definition, yet we need it in our life.
When I was a child, I didn’t have a great love for music as I do now. I mainly listen to Hindi music but now as days go by I am getting more into listening to Bengali, and English music. There are many Indian artists that are favorites such as Arjit Singh, Shreya Goshal, and Neha Kakkar. Music has definitely shaped me as a person and helped me get through many challenges and phases in life. When I was in elementary school I was bullied for many years, and during the time when I felt like I had no one, I had music. Music became my source of relief and escape from reality. I still believe music to this day has constantly been shaping me as a person, regardless if there is heartbreak, celebration, or sorrow there’s music for everything. I believe music can convey all sorts of emotions, whenever the emotion is joy and happiness or sadness and despair through rhythms, harmonies, and the lyrics music shows it. Some of the Bengali and English artists that I recommend and listen to are Habib Wahid, Selena Gomez, Juice WRLD, and many more. I believe their music holds a special place in my life. Each of the artists has portrayed their struggles and challenges through music and has shown growth within themselves for their audiences which I believe really allows us to know a bit more about the singers we listen to daily. Growing up in Bangladesh and till this day watching Hindi shows has not only allowed me to be in love with Bangla music but also introduced me to Hindi music which shows the power of music and how easily it can grab your attention. Listening to Bangla and Hindi music brings peace in heart and mind, it harmonizes and makes the heart and mind at ease.
Music has always created an environment where we could escape reality. Some of the music I listen to really is gentle, melodious, and smooth but there are playlists that we own that are full of groove, deep vocals, and strong rhythm. Some of my favorite genres of music are Indian pop, r&b, and hip hop once in a while. As mentioned before, I mostly listen to Hindi pop music, and choosing a favorite album or music is very hard because they all hold a different emotion and not all create and give similar feelings. Recently I have started to listen to Spanish music even though I can’t understand the language itself. The beat, harmony, groove, and dynamic that it creates really makes the audience wanna get up and dance and that is the power of music. The artist’s name is Bad Bunny, and the song that I recommend listening to is called “DAKITI”. Music really offers many advantages for learning languages. Listening to music in a different language can really help with us learning about the language and when we sing we try to reproduce sounds and tones within that language which allows our brain to really start to understand the language.
As future educators, we are constantly looking for unique and effective ways to teach our younger generations. Music has definitely started to take over our educational system and now is starting to seem just as important as other subjects in our curriculum. As mentioned before music is so important to be introduced to younger students in classrooms because it really allows them to positively have an impact and improve their academic performance, and assist in developing social skills. Corporating music in our classrooms daily can not only teach our student’s body awareness, eye-hand coordination but also about many of the instruments. Music holds great value in my life and in my future self as a teacher.
The musical images that music and songs can create are amazing. Music can transport me back in time just like a time machine. It lets me revisit lost and forgotten moments in life. Due to the high effect of music in the life of human beings, it is capable of breaking boundaries to unite people from different backgrounds and cultural heritage. Indeed, there is a lot about music that someone can talk about, but overall music holds great power to bond people together and institutes love as well. The more we explore music, just we would realize that it is not only about rhythm, melody, or harmony. Music is also a tool for learning, therapy, and teaching because it can adjust our moods, and be used throughout our lives.
