Paper Assignment #1
Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off is a song that is stuck in the minds of the majority of Americans, and many can recognize the songs just seconds from the beginning. It’s catchy tune and light-hearted and spirited lyrics leave the listener with a joyful feeling after hearing the song. However, looking more in depth and analyzing the parts of the song, one can find that it is more complex that you would think from just listening to it once.
Looking at the overall structure of the song, one can conclude that it has a strophic structure, and the texture of the song could be classified as polyphony. It contains different verses, a repeating chorus with a pre-chorus, and a unique bridge that can be found towards the end of the song. One of the characteristics of the song that help us differentiate between the different sections of the song are the vocals. A main differentiation in vocals I heard when listening to the song is found in the hook before the bridge. At the beginning of the bridge, there is a section where Taylor takes a break from her prior melody and lyrical …show more content…
Rather than thinking of the notes that fit together to compose the melody, they would more than likely just tap their feet to the beat or sing along to the chorus. However, after critically listening to the song, I have picked up on many of the ways in which certain instruments work together to form a rhythm, or play similar patterns of the same measure. For example, I would have never noticed the mixture of the drums set and saxophone and how they play similar beats and measures if I had just shallowly listened to the song. I also would never have guessed how many different types of instruments make up the song, because some are very faint and only appear occasionally, such as the idiophone found at
Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off is a song that is stuck in the minds of the majority of Americans, and many can recognize the songs just seconds from the beginning. It’s catchy tune and light-hearted and spirited lyrics leave the listener with a joyful feeling after hearing the song. However, looking more in depth and analyzing the parts of the song, one can find that it is more complex that you would think from just listening to it once.
Looking at the overall structure of the song, one can conclude that it has a strophic structure, and the texture of the song could be classified as polyphony. It contains different verses, a repeating chorus with a pre-chorus, and a unique bridge that can be found towards the end of the song. One of the characteristics of the song that help us differentiate between the different sections of the song are the vocals. A main differentiation in vocals I heard when listening to the song is found in the hook before the bridge. At the beginning of the bridge, there is a section where Taylor takes a break from her prior melody and lyrical …show more content…
Rather than thinking of the notes that fit together to compose the melody, they would more than likely just tap their feet to the beat or sing along to the chorus. However, after critically listening to the song, I have picked up on many of the ways in which certain instruments work together to form a rhythm, or play similar patterns of the same measure. For example, I would have never noticed the mixture of the drums set and saxophone and how they play similar beats and measures if I had just shallowly listened to the song. I also would never have guessed how many different types of instruments make up the song, because some are very faint and only appear occasionally, such as the idiophone found at