smile.

David chowder

littlerichard — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 19:04:45 +0000

David Crowder – All Around Me

I love it when a song leave me in rapt suspense as to when/if it will ever explode into a fiery ball of drums, guitars and sheer power. Simply astounding…

Fine New Post. On… Teenage Dream!

littlerichard — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:59:58 +0000

I’ve been thinking (amongst other things) lately about the defining characteristics of an intensely catchy song like Teenage Dream. I don’t care if you hate Katy Perry, if you despise her outfits, if you think she ugly, whatever. That song is catchy.

Ok here’s my musical perspective:
- In the verse, simple guitar voicing that has maybe two or three notes per hit as opposed to entire chords being strummed (Kelly Clarkson employs this a lot)
- Really nice flipping between head and chest voice gives her power when she wants it and soft dynamics on top
- Chord stabs in the chorus! I LOVE LOVE LOVE chord stabs, it’s hard to use it without sounding trancey though, hence the difficulty of creating a catchy song. I think it works because it’s syncopated.
- If you listen to the verse + chorus, the singing only varies between 5 notes (Bb, G, C D F). Contributes to singability and so the hook is simple yet compelling.

Pretty amazing stuff. I can’t speak for the lyrics because as previously mentioned, I don’t listen to words. The music communicates to me independent of what the writer wants – in fact I think the only words in the song I know apart from “Teenage Dream” is “skin tight jeans” haha. Ok bye!

Lots of changes, but none will be in this post.

littlerichard — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:23:24 +0000

I break my silence to give yall this gem:

There’s this late20′s woman that I’ve been working with on and off since I was an intern back in ’05.. and every time I come back she has gained like 10 lbs. So imagine it from my perspective, seeing her when we first met at X lbs, and now she’s X+40 or X+50!!!

The crazy part is in office life, it’s so gradual over the years that I bet we don’t even notice when we gain weight… scary.
Bye!

The dichotomy of word and sound.

littlerichard — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:39:26 +0000

Aaaand I’m back.. for now. I felt bad for a while about not posting and losing readership, pissing off friends, etc. etc. but then I got over it. Once you fall off the train, only the first few moments do you panic – after that, the train is so far away from you that you give up entirely.

One thing I’ve been thinking about recently is how I’m a very music-oriented person, even IN the topic of music itself. I feel like the only things that speak to me are the backgrounds, melodies, and the aural landscape of the song. People tell me all the time that lyrics totally make the song, and that they dont listen to certain artists because their lyrics “suck” or are “stupid”. I’m realizing more and more that I don’t even listen to what the singer is saying.

This often turns into awkward conversations with people, when I say things like “I love Kiss Me Thru The Phone!!” … and the friend stares at me and judges me silently with their eyes. It’s catchy okay?! Geez. I don’t listen to the lyrics so I have no idea how retarded Soulja Boy is, just how much his pro-du-cer rocks.

Case in point: John Mayer – Heartbreak Warfare. It’s a nice sounding song, with a lot of ambient fills and licks, strong melodies and a solid kick – everything I LOVE. The music paints this picture in my head of this dude kicking it on top of a mountain, observing his surroundings with nothing but a beer and a patio chair. However, when I actually looked up the lyrics, its the saddest freakin’ thing on the planet. I think artists usually try to blend the meaning of the words with the meaning of the music, but sometimes they dont do the best job. Quite frankly, the very fact that they are two different languages that they are to meld together makes me respect songwriting even more. And scares me even more.

“Lightning strikes
Inside, my chest to keep me up at night
Dream of ways
To make you understand my pain”

See? WTH John. Drama queen.

One more thing – John Mayer, if you ever get Taylor Swift to duet with you (a la Half Of My Heart), give her more than 2 lines. I can sense her boredom through my headphones.