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- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
- Resource Type: Text
Description
This creative project includes a self-reflection, four original compositions by Drew Hensley, and supplementary song commentaries. The self-reflection section of the project contains an extensive look into how Hensley's musical experiences and upbringing influenced his song writing process and compositional voice. Specifically, the piece analyzes how Hensley's gravitation to jazz music and musical styles of various cultures influenced the chord structures, rhythms, and melodies in his pop compositions. The track list for the project includes "Do It Anyway," "Puppeteer," "You Really Kind of Suck at Love," and "Drag You Down." Each piece includes lyrics and composed sheet music for vocals and instruments including guitar, piano, bass, and violin. The pieces were supplemented with commentaries describing specific inspirations for both the lyrics and music. "Do It Anyway" discusses Hensley's decision to pursue music and takes inspiration from classic American jazz melodies and Latin jazz rhythms. "Puppeteer" addresses the complexities of control through the metaphor strings. The piece pulls inspiration from the double harmonic scale often associated with Arabic music. "You Really Kind Of Suck At Love" addresses a break up through expertly placed humor and sarcasm. The piece is a new take on the standard 12 bar blues song form. "Drag You Down" tells of Hensley's personal struggles in music using thoroughly developed metaphors and chord progressions native to American rock music of the 1990's and 2000's. Together, the work will be recorded as an Extended Play entitled Do It Anyway. Hensley plans move to Los Angeles, California and use the recordings to pursue a career in pop music performance.
ContributorsHensley, Andrew Michael (Author) / McAdams, Charity (Thesis director) / Bhattacharjya, Nilanjana (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Since 1965, Billboard has been charting top songs to publicly inform music artists and consumers which music is most popular at a given time. Given the changes in culture, technology, and countless other factors over time, it seems as though there are very few consistencies across the board to answer the question of why a song makes it to the top of the charts. To analyze this issue, I look at both songwriting trends and consumer mentality as they relate to the following questions:
1. What does a consumer look for in the music they choose to listen to?
2. What do trends in songwriting show us?
3. How can artists make songs that stand out in an oversaturated market?
In examining songwriting trends, I utilize both secondary research and Python code for a dataset from Kaggle that contains over 5,000 records of Top 100 songs since 1965. To understand the consumer, I observe psychological, sociological, and psychographic behaviors that contribute to their music consumption patterns. To take time factors into consideration, I also consider the implications of our technology-heavy modern world.
Consumers seek male vocalists with noticeable effort exerted and seek to explore themes present in the Urban/Contemporary stage of their lives, which occurs around early adulthood and involves finding love and social acceptance. Consumers also seek familiarity within or immediately surrounding their music due to psychological factors pointed out by author Charles Duhigg. Popular structure has changed over time by becoming shortened due to a decrease in attention span, and lyrics have evolved to focus more on the self due to the increased presence of social media.
My results give songwriters a short, broad reference with which to understand consumers and create music that has a better chance at success and popularity. Though tailored to music, the results can be applied to all art forms, as the end consumer is very similar and the same societal shifts have shaped art for the past five decades. My goal is to inspire the artist that there is room for them in the ever-growing world of music that craves individuality as much as it does familiarity.
1. What does a consumer look for in the music they choose to listen to?
2. What do trends in songwriting show us?
3. How can artists make songs that stand out in an oversaturated market?
In examining songwriting trends, I utilize both secondary research and Python code for a dataset from Kaggle that contains over 5,000 records of Top 100 songs since 1965. To understand the consumer, I observe psychological, sociological, and psychographic behaviors that contribute to their music consumption patterns. To take time factors into consideration, I also consider the implications of our technology-heavy modern world.
Consumers seek male vocalists with noticeable effort exerted and seek to explore themes present in the Urban/Contemporary stage of their lives, which occurs around early adulthood and involves finding love and social acceptance. Consumers also seek familiarity within or immediately surrounding their music due to psychological factors pointed out by author Charles Duhigg. Popular structure has changed over time by becoming shortened due to a decrease in attention span, and lyrics have evolved to focus more on the self due to the increased presence of social media.
My results give songwriters a short, broad reference with which to understand consumers and create music that has a better chance at success and popularity. Though tailored to music, the results can be applied to all art forms, as the end consumer is very similar and the same societal shifts have shaped art for the past five decades. My goal is to inspire the artist that there is room for them in the ever-growing world of music that craves individuality as much as it does familiarity.
ContributorsSperduti, Erin Michelle (Author) / Sopha, Matthew (Thesis director) / Voorhees, Matthew (Committee member) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The attainment of a meaningful existence is a one of the most fundamental human desires. While the pursuit for a meaningful existence is universal, the path to achieving it looks different for all people. An important aspect in achieving a meaningful existence is personal enlightenment that is attained through not only a profound understanding of one's own identity through reflection but also an awareness of the environment that has shaped that identity. The purpose of reflection should not be to attach blame or find excuses for the aspects of one's life that are unfavorable or shameful; rather, it should be to achieve the sense of inner peace that is integral in making informed and rational progress towards realizing aspects of an individual's life that bring meaning and happiness. The purpose of the following two sections is to demonstrate how an understanding of group-specific challenges regarding identity and upbringing may help those that identify with Chinese American or immigrant culture in their pursuit of a meaningful and satisfying existence. The first section provides a profile on some of the common issues facing Asian Americans, particularly how an immigrant approach to parenting can affect the degree of acculturation, mental health, and identity of immigrant children. The second section provides a personal backdrop to some of the themes discussed in the first section through an autoethnographic account from a Chinese American student. The purpose of the autoethnographic account is to demonstrate that leisure activities, such as music, can address issues regarding acculturation and identity that Asian Americans commonly face.
ContributorsWen, Charles H (Author) / Mantie, Roger (Thesis director) / Libman, Jeff (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The purpose of this project was to create an album that utilizes unique and unconventional approaches to songwriting to avoid over-relying on the same creative process. The project includes four original songs as well as a detailed account of how each song was written. The paper describes the various sources of inspiration, the methods used for both writing and melodic composition, and finally addresses challenges in the writing process.
ContributorsRamesh, Meghna (Author) / Libman, Jeffrey (Thesis director) / Esmeralda, Aida (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor)
Created2024-05