Who Invited You To This Party?
Music has a unique ability to tell and compress stories and narratives that transcend social, cultural, and even linguistic barriers. Through arrangement, lyrics, and instrumentation its possible to weave together a narrative of whatever you desire. As a creator, it is imperative to be conscious of these factors when creating a project. Think of song making as a highway with cars speeding by. Each of these cars contain a way for the listener to engage. Some cars may contain lyrics and meaning, while other cars may contain the music and the feelings they evoke. When the audience listens to music they are standing beside the highway watching the cars go by, it is only when they engage with the music that they step into one of these cars and go for the ride.
It is important to ascertain this analogy as a songwriter because the implications of this distinction. Being acutely aware of the manners in which your audience engages in a piece helps you make decisions musically and lyrically to determine which car, in the highway analogy, will take precedence to the listener. If a bright green Ferrari passes you on the freeway, you would most likely be visually aware of it. In the same way we, as songwriters can make an aspect of our music take priority to a listener. Manipulating and steering the audience to whatever we wish to highlight.
When you understand this you can predict, to an extent the way a listener interacts with your music. Typically, songs are accompanied by an aesthetic, an image or theme that the audience envisions when listening. The ability to steer this aesthetic can help push a narrative, evoke a feeling, or have the two converge at a singular point. In this project I attempted to practice my theory, of controlling narrative and emotion through emphasis on certain aspects of songs.
The resulting praxis was a short album/project I created along with my band. In each song we had a clear view on what we were steering our audience toward. The project tells the narrative of a single night when a party takes place. The perspectives jump around from individuals that attended the party and how they experienced it. The goal was to make each song able to stand on its own, but when brought together in order, the narrative would be revealed.
The songs in order below, emphasize different things. Below each song I wanted to test my theory to see if the intended spotlight was emphasized to the listener and they were steered in the desired direction.
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Lyrically, this song acts as an exposition to the party, from the perspective of the person throwing the party. However, the emphasis was not on the lyrics and message, but more so on the feelings evoked. I created a catchy riff and accompanied it with 808’s and a synth to create a vibe of a late night party. The intent was to draw the listener in to the party environment and make them feel like they were inside a house party. The darker tones and lyrics highlight the reasons people go to parties, to get drunk, get high, or get laid. Lyrics can be found here.
Enemi
This song embodies falling into the temptations of a party. It pushes the narrative along from the perspective of a “player”. The emphasis is on the tone of the song, the darkness of the guitar riffs reflect the darkness of the message. The goal was for the audience to be dragged into this darkness. The percussion is filtered evoke the image of a dimly lit party where the bass in the music is felt more than it is heard. The progression was intended to create a sense of uneasiness and to reflect the singers no-good intentions. Lyrics can be found here.
Spinning
The approach with this song was to ease the tension from the previous two. While seemingly upbeat and pop rock oriented the message continues on the darker tones. I wanted to make the audience feel good but push the narrative. The music and message diverge from one another as the song tells the story of the girl who cheated on her boyfriend with the player. However, the catchy riff in chorus as well as the happy major chords used in the rhythm guitar and the pop-rock percussion draw attention away from the message and more on the feeling. We made a conscious choice to relieve the audience from the tension of the last couple songs and into a happier space, however, it was necessary to continue driving the narrative. To do this we placed the spotlight on the instrumental and not on the message, leaving the lyrics brief and allowing the instruments to lead. Lyrics can be found here.
Clouds
This song was created with narrative at the center. We created very specific lyrics that paint a clear image and story. The instrumental accompanies the narrative and helps evoke a calm before the storm and chaos of the party. It takes place from the perspective of the boy who gets cheated on. I wanted to specifically highlight how jaded he is so there is floaty breaks to begin the song and in the middle of the song. While the upbeat rock portion reflects the chaos of the party and the events that take place. We approached this song and built it from a storytelling perspective. Lyrics can be found here.
Hints
The aspect I wanted the audience to engage with in this song was a feeling. The goal was to create a song that evoked pity and sympathy for the singer. It is from the boyfriends point of view and plays off his understanding of the situation. The lyrics we chose were very literal and used to show how the boyfriend had been treated leading up to this point. The instrumental is simple, a guitar, bass, and drums. The progression flows and pauses with the melody in order to further the focus on the feelings of the song. The lyrics can be found here.
Gears
The closing song of the album had to hit hard. So we decided to end the narrative with death. It takes multiple perspectives of the boyfriend and his mother as it charts his death. I wanted emotion, lyrics, and music to converge and impart the audience with a feeling of sadness. I feel like a mother’s love is a universally understood emotion that stretches past cultures, time, and people. To embody this loss and love I chose to not include any percussion in the song, simply bass guitar, guitar and a voice. We wanted to capture, raw emotion. Which I felt like it did. The lyrics are here.
Putting my theory of song making into practice yielded several unexpected results. First, it was much more difficult to create songs that could stand alone and contribute to a narrative. I felt at times the meaning and narrative were ambiguous and could be lost due to lack of clarity. Which makes me think that steering a listener to a desired focus all depends on the individual listening. To me, the songs were very clear, as was the narrative, however, when I showed it to friends and family it was not as clear to them as it was to me.
Second, I think I was wrong to try and force a perspective on a listener. Manipulating how someone engages with your work defeats the entire purpose of the work. It yields cookie cutter results and no listener can truly engage with your music. However, I do think that I was correct in formatting the songs to emphasize specific aspects of the songs. Rather than manipulation and steering, I found my explanations of the songs to act more as a spotlight. I went too far in trying to determine how a listener interacted with my music. Instead, I should have widened the spotlight, I tried to specifically pinpoint what I desired my audience to feel, see, or hear. Rather than this, I should have made the scope more broad, because the listener is going to take what they want from the song.
After showing a few people the project, I came to understand that a listener is not bound to what the song maker desires. Regardless of how hard I attempt to steer them towards what I want, everyone is different. Understanding this has actually granted me more freedom in creating. Instead of being so focused on how I want my listener to engage, I can focus more on the aspects that matter to me. I had been completely neglecting the fact that while I am the song maker, I am also the first listener. I did not start making music for other people to listen to and enjoy, I began for myself. In my theory I lost sight of how I engage with a piece, and tried to force my perspective as a song maker on to the listeners. An action that was, unbeknownst to me, also neglecting my duality as a listener and creator.
