Very little Blue

In the song Blue by Joni Mitchell there are many social and contextual factors which impacted the musical style and traits. The most noticeable ones are Melody and harmony. With melody it is very sad. With the piano playing throughout the song and the sad and somber lyrics. Joni Mitchell wrote this song with a very sad message being sent. With the lyrics comparing songs to tattoos. Songs are like tattoos songs get under your skin and they occupy a place where previously there was nothing they stay with you. They have a ton of details.They can be pretty much anything, and you develop a relationship with them. The melody is more spread out to emphasize the sad message being sent from the song. With the Harmony it stands out with combination of the piano and the voice of Joni Mitchell. The piano sets the sad and somber mood and the lyrics bring everything together with the depressing tone in her voice. It makes you think why the sad harmony. When the high notes hit by Mitchell and the piano matches it it makes you think more about the lyrics and what is going on. Mitchell can not express the full range of human emotions, situations, and activities without musical tension(Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers). The piano plays an integral part in the song it keeps the pace with harmony changing. It plays along with the lyrics simultaneously as the lyrics are short and sad then long and sad. The song is very blocky with a lot of patches that kind of slows the harmony. What’s going on with America around the time of this song is one of Americas most problematic wars of all time and that was the Vietnam war. This war caused a lot of problems with Americans often protesting to end the war. The American experience in Vietnam was a long and painful one for the nation. For those against the war, it appeared to be a meat grinder for draftees, unfairly targeting the poor, the uneducated, and minorities(Stilwell, Blake). Over 20 years, more than 58,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam and more than 150,000 wounded, not to mention the emotional toll the war took on American culture (Stilwell, Blake). This type of thing going on played a factor in Joni’s writing of the song Blue and probably became popular around the time with America being very vulnerable.

Thesis: Joni Mitchell touches on the real world problems of depression. The social and contextual factors include coping with depression and breakups. The melody is conveyed with the use of the piano playing a sad and somber tone. The harmony can be heard through her voice often pausing and slowing down to get the message across.

Body 1:Blue by Joni Mitchell has many different musical traits throughout the song. This song has a lot of social and contextual factors behind it with the meaning of the song being so deep. The message is found through the tone of voice and lyrics. The musical trait that stands out in this song is melody and the melody is very sad. With the piano playing throughout the song and the sad and somber lyrics. Joni Mitchell wrote this song with a very sad message being sent. With the lyrics comparing songs to tattoos. Songs are like tattoos songs get under your skin and they occupy a place where previously there was nothing they stay with you. They have a ton of details.They can be pretty much anything, and you develop a relationship with them. The melody is more spread out to emphasize the sad message being sent from the song(Musical Elements Tutorial). The melody was affected because she paused a lot throughout the song. The pitch was then a lot higher and lower. There was a big gap between the highest pitch she hit and the lowest one she hit. “Hey Blue, here is a song for you” is trying to get Blue’s attention, by making this song an offering. This song is also sending a message about her feelings on the end of the hippie era. She’s coping with the end of it when she says “Acid, booze, and ass…Needles, guns, and grass…Lots of laughs, lots of laughs” Referring to how much fun she had during that time(Yaffe, David). The melody at this point in the song picks up at a faster speed. The melody is not constant at any point in the song it’s up and down and very out of place. The metaphors in the story are often a slower melody. It slows down when metaphors are used. The melodic contour is all over with it constantly moving up and down to emphasize the pain and sadness of the song. The social context in this song is touched on through the real life problems with depression.

Body 2: In Blue by Joni Mitchell the harmony stands out with combination of the piano and the voice of Joni Mitchell. The piano sets the sad and somber mood and the lyrics bring everything together with the depressing tone in her voice. It makes you think why the sad harmony. When the high notes hit by Mitchell and the piano matches it it makes you think more about the lyrics and what is going on. Mitchell can not express the full range of human emotions, situations, and activities without musical tension. The piano plays an integral part in the song it keeps the pace with harmony changing. It plays along with the lyrics simultaneously as the lyrics are short and sad then long and sad. The song is very blocky with a lot of patches that kind of slows the harmony(Musical Elements Tutorial). The use of tattoo imagery seems to be a metaphor for her blues. It also shows that through her blues she’s able to cope.I think in the first verse, she is commenting on how the depression has had such an effect on her, and how perhaps she wished she could have that effect on ‘Blue’. The second verse details how lasting it can be, how depression fills emptiness in you that you never knew you had “an empty space to fill in.” This song emphasizes the sadness in her heart with the way she was singing you could tell the sadness in side of her was strong. The next section talks about brief moments when she thought she can beat it “there are so many sinking now you gotta keep thinking you can make it through these waves.” It then lists these exterior forces, “acid, booze and ass, needles guns and grass”, one after another in quick succession like waves(Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers). This part of the song is powerful with the harmony almost stopping with her almost rattling off the problems like waves. The harmony is sad and somber. The musical harmony is connected with the social context with Joni Mitchell touching on the real world of depression through her lyrics. Her lyrics mixed with the harmony make the social context of depression stand out.

Conclusion: In conclusion Joni Mitchell’s song Blue has a powerful underlying message through her lyrics. The use of harmony and melody make this song one of the more interesting songs I've heard. With the combination of sad and somber music with the piano makes it more powerful. The use of different paces throughout the song make the message clear. The mixture of harmony and melody make Joni Mitchell’s view on depression and pain very clear. Some of the reasons that people like hearing sad songs are either they’re in a bad or sad mood. Another big thing is that this song and others like it that are sad might have an emotional connection to the listener. Maybe in some instances they’re going through the same situation and need the music to help them get through it.

Citations:

Musical Elements Tutorial, blog.mcdaniel.edu/elements/melody/.

“Behind the Song: Joni Mitchell on Writing Blue.” Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, 4 Oct. 2019, jeffreypepperrodgers.com/joni-mitchell-songwriting-interview-blue/.

Musical Elements Tutorial, blog.mcdaniel.edu/elements/harmony/.

Yaffe, David. “Joni Mitchell Dug Deep to Make Her Dark Masterpiece ‘Blue’.” The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 22 Oct. 2017, www.thedailybeast.com/joni-mitchell-dug-deep-to-make-her-dark-masterpiece-blue.

Stilwell, Blake. “17 Wild Facts about the Vietnam War.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 23 July 2015, www.businessinsider.com/17-wild-facts-about-the-vietnam-war-2015-7.