Essay/Term paper: Music analogy

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Culture

"The final years of the 1970"s saw the emergence of a new

style of pop music that would continue in popularity into the

early 1980"s. This music was known, by its fans at that

time, as New Wave"

(http://www.erols.com/alloyd/adam2.htm). "New Wave"

had a particular style that utilized the synthesizer as a main

instrument. The synthesizer was a machine that

electronically produced music. It gave a certain artificial

and metallic feel to the music. The Cure and Erasure, bands

formed during that period of time, were some of the bands

that implemented the synthesizer into their music. Though

both bands fit into the category of "New Wave" the feel of

their music is somewhat different. To explain the difference

I would have to analyze their songs. Two examples of their

music that I will analyze are "Friday I"m in Love" by The

Cure and "Always" by Erasure. The song "Friday I"m in

Love" by The Cure had a 4/4 meter. The song began with

a pickup by the guitar and led into a backbeat by the

drums. The synthesizer played a continuous riff providing

the "tinging" artificial sound and there"s also bass in the

background. There were also sounds towards the end of

the song that sounded a lot like the "theramin." The beat

subdivisions seemed to be triplets because the song

seemed to swing and the other subdivisions didn"t match.

The correct sequence and lengths of the sections in this

particular song can be best labeled as I8+8 A8 B8 C6 B8

Solo8 B8 C6 D8+8 A8 B8 Solo8 Solo8. The labels A and

B are to distinguish the two different verses, the label C

stands for the chorus and the label D symbolized the new

section (the bridge). The vocals within this song have a

deeper and a more wailing kind of voice than that of the

band Erasure. The song "Always" from Erasure also had a

4/4 meter, but unlike The Cure the song did not start out

with a pickup and instead of the guitar the song began with

the synthesizer. There didn"t seem to be any other

distinguishable instruments besides the synthesizer and the

drum, though I did seem to hear the use of the theramin for

the eerie effect. There were also these clicking sounds, but

I"m assuming the synthesizer made it. The groove of this

song was more harmonized and brings to mind the music of

the early Beatles. The subdivisions of this song were 8th

notes. The sequence and lengths of the sections for this

song can be labeled as I8 V8+8 C8+4 V8+8 C8+4

CFADE. The label V symbolizes the verse of the song and

the label C symbolizes the chorus of the song. Although

both these bands are categorized under "New Wave", the

feel of their songs is very different. While Erasure"s song

had a more "spaced-out" feel to it, The Cure"s song

seemed to have a faster beat and seemed to be less eerie. I

think the difference was from the bands" distinct way of

using both the synthesizer and the theramin. While Erasure

used the synthesizer throughout the song, as the main

instrument, The Cure used the synthesizer along with other

instruments. Therefore, The Cure"s piece was less

"artificial" and the beat fit in more with the category of rock

and roll. But the category of "New Wave" music is not

always associated with the artificiality of the songs, thus

The Cure"s interesting way of manipulating the vocal pitch

of the vocals (a kind of a deep wailing sound), the

"eerieness" of the music stands out.