This week for my music, I chose to write about Miley Cyrus. Joanna brought in that Miley Cyrus CD and that got me thinking why I haven't written about her yet. We always used to watch her on "Hannah Montana," and listened to her songs, but lately she's been a little different. For my familiar music, I chose to listen to three songs from a section called "The Backyard Sessions," and three more from one of her older albums, "Can't Be Tamed." I'm going to write about "Jolene," even though "Take Me Along" is one of my favorites as well. This is Dolly Parton's original song, I believe, Miley Cyrus just chose to cover it. Her song that she sings here is unique, she has a different or special band that is accompanying her. Her texture is obviously homophonic, with her as the lead singer, and the band as her accompaniment. Sometimes, the guy playing the drums harmonizes with her, like at :29, 1:42, and 2:32. Her band consists of a drum set, a keyboard, two acoustic guitars, and a double bass. The drum set has interesting drum sticks like paintbrushes, that I think are called wire brushes. These few instruments allows her natural voice to come through. These days, she uses a lot of electronic equipment, like in her Bangerz album, and most people, including me, respect her for the change and her courage to explore her sound, but would really prefer her to go back to this type of sound. This song has a nice groove and a nice sound to it. The song starts with the acoustic guitars alone, and later more of the instruments come in, then starts to sing the song. The beat is easily felt because there is a strong pulse that shows the duple meter that is present. I can't exactly say if it's common time, or cut time, or any others, but it feels like its in a double meter. At 2:18, she does an interesting thing with her voice that differentiates her from Dolly Parton, and many other singers. The other songs that I listened to other than "Jolene," are "Lilac Wine," "Look What They've Done To My Song," "Two More Lonely People," "Permanent December," and "Take Me Along." "Lilac Wine" and "Look What They've Done To My Song" have the same sound to them as "Jolene," because the same band is accompanying her. My favorite song of the last three was at first "Permanent December," but after listening to them more, I realized that it's really "Take Me Along" because of the beginning. I don't know what it is about the beginning, but I really like it; maybe because it starts the drive of the song with the strums of the chords from the piano.
Jolene- Miley Cyrus
Lilac Wine- Miley Cyrus
Look What They've Done To My Song- Miley Cyrus
Two More Lonely People- Miley Cyrus
Permanent December- Miley Cyrus
Take Me Along- Miley Cyrus
Adore You- Miley Cyrus
We Can't Stop
4x4- Miley Cyrus
Love Money Party- Miley Cyrus ft. Big Sean
Do My Thang- Miley Cyrus
Someone Else- Miley Cyrus
This week for my unfamiliar music, I chose to listen to Miley Cyrus' newest album, Bangerz. My sisters sometimes listen to this album, but I have heard weird things about it so I have kind of been ignoring it, but after listening to them, I like the songs. They're really different from her past songs, and I think that's what she was trying to accomplish because she wanted to separate herself from the girly girl who did the show "Hannah Montana" and everything, but it's also good how she's willing to explore her voice and the different sounds that she can produce. This song that I'm writing about, "Someone Else," is relatively normal when compared to the other songs on her album. Beginning at :16, some electronic equipment is building tension with an interesting sound. Later, a strong bass sound emphasizes the duple meter. She used to do this a lot with her "Can't Be Tamed" album, so it's nice to hear that she actually grew and learned from her past albums. At 1:07, I don't know what it is, maybe the pitch jump that her voice sings, but I love the line that says, "It's not the end." At 1:47, we hear more of the electronic equipment that she uses now, which is different for her backyard sessions. At 2:25, she has a lot of harmony with herself, which is obviously not possible, so she recorded over it and made the harmonies possible. Here it's almost a cappella, which I like a lot. But I guess I did like these songs, even if they are a little different than what I usually listen to.
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