Musical Analysis - Tumblr Posts

You can call me insane all you want but I love listening to musicals on shuffle.

I’ve been listening to Rent on shuffle and I’m almost done. But here’s the thing that’s so great about listening to things out of order. Instead of being a song that’s part of a musical and bigger story, each song is one thing in itself. Once you know each song well enough, you can appreciate the little things. The harmonies in “Will I?”, the overlapping but separate stories in “Christmas Bells.” It’s such a genius musical. “Christmas Bells” especially, the little conversations that are hidden in the music really show the characters and how they interact with each other.

Angel and Collins buying coats and he finds the one that was stolen from him. Angel saying “let’s get a better one” really shows their character.

Also the conversation between Mark, Roger, and Mimi. Roger says “Let’s not hold hands yet.” This man is so scared of falling in love and then dying so he’s trying as hard as possible to not fall in love. Mimi says “Is that a warning?” She doesn’t know why he’s so scared because they’re in the same situation but handling it differently. Roger is shutting out the world and Mimi is seizing every moment possible. Mimi thinks that Roger doesn’t want a serious relationship like she does because I bet she has fallen in love with people who didn’t want anything serious. Then Roger clarifies by saying “I just need to take it slow.”

Anyways that got really off track but as someone who has seen this musical 4 times live and listened to the soundtrack for almost 10 years, I’ve had a lot of time to listen to things carefully and notice the tiny little beautiful things.

So if you haven’t listened to rent on shuffle or at all, do it. Do it right now. Go on Apple Music (because Spotify only has the disgusting auto tune movie version) and listen to it.

That concludes my Christmas Bells analysis/Rent appreciation post.

Have a nice day :)

Torches-The Oh Hellos

My personal analysis of this song and how I interpret this song based on my knowledge and experience as an ex-Christian and Songwriter. Thanks @greatcelestialhieroglyphs for the idea to do this add this to the Masterlist or reboot if u want.

Trigger Warning for Religious intolerance, racism, Pedo mention, & general fear/hate mongering. This is a very eye opening song when looking at the lyrics and I’m glad a Christian band is willing to show the ugly side and it’s negative effects.

Lyrics in full: (my analysis in this color)

I got a venom like a snake running out of my mouth (Running out of my mouth, running out of my mouth) These first words show hateful words spewing unfiltered. I see this as hateful rhetoric.

It's got you burning at the stake. Innocent or not, you're not a bet I care to take A recall to the witch trials a time were paranoia and fear born out of the horrible lie spread by a man who hated a particular women. Taking the lives of thousands. The Oh Hellos are Christian and are against such hateful words when their religion is one of healing and forgiveness.

And Father Ignorance will make brothers of us all (Brothers of us all, brothers of us all) Again ignorance to fact leading to such a mob mentality.

As he sets our torch aflame. Witch-hunt and the modern day incident of white nationalists marching with Tiki torches in Charlottesville, Va.

Chasing down the flimsy specters that we co-create Making of a strawman enemy.

Over and over, again We keep that old wheel turning We spin it around This is a trend in history and now.

I got a terror I can't shake pushing down on my lungs (Pushing down on my lungs, pushing down on my lungs) Either an act of terror through verbal abuse or a feeling of terror that causes one to act aggressively and irrationally.

It's got me lying there awake with a hand On a gun while turning shadows into shapes Making a crowd restless and willing to commit grave acts of violence.

Mother Fortuna, O, she makes sisters of us all (Sisters of us all, sisters of us all) I don’t know

When the faces in her wake Look more like our own than the effigies we immolate I see this as the monsters become among the people than the others that are demonized. An example are Pedos often being youth pastors when drag queens are demonized as such.

Over and over, again We keep that old wheel turning Over and over, again We lay the next spoke down Over and over, again (oceans will roll in) Over and over, again We spin it around How the cycle continues

How this song weaves and hides the message of your not looking carefully enough:

Basically, this song is very beautiful and has a lot of call and repeat with Maggie calling and the rest repeating. Even I didn’t understand the lyrics cuz I was caught in the beauty of the song. I don’t know if it was intentional or not but it shows how such nasty elements can be hidden, either by ignorance (not a bad thing as long as your willing to learn) or getting caught up in what one believes in. Like getting caught up in the beauty of the song.

Once you realize what this song is trying to say, it brings a new perspective. I’m not christan but I love The Oh Hellos and how they are willing to face the monsters in one’s own group. I know my community aren’t made of saints but for others it’s harder. Passerine is also another song with similar themes.

-ALoe

I've been thinking about this for a while, not just in terms of Eurovision, but it's a good context to explore the idea in.

I'm not sure it there is an actual term for this, but I've come to think of it in terms of genre literacy, where for certain musical genres you need a base of understanding (and experience) to work from, in order to fully understand or appreciate the more complex or derived works within a particular genre.

This doesn't negate those moments when you're introduced to something outside of your normal experience ("What the **** was that?!") and it completely knocks your socks off, but even then, chances are you're going to be inspired to do more exploring around that song/artist/genre, thus providing you with more background and musical context.

This is why I get so excited seeing variation in some of the less well-trodden genres in Eurovision; to me, Viszlát Nyár by AWS (Hungary, 2018), in addition to being one of my favourite Eurovision entries ever (and being one of the few to reliably make me cry), is wildly different from anything we've seen before or since, including the examples you gave from 2021, Zitti e buoni by Måneskin (Italy) or Dark Side by Blind Channel (Finland, of course).

As much as I would like to feel slightly smug about my taste in music, I very much feel this applies to 'pop' music as well; with a few exceptions (Lizzo, Lana Del Ray, Miley Cyrus, and a smattering of Carly Rae Jepson and Cardi B) I've barely listened to anything approaching the mainstream musical canon for a few years, so turning on the radio it all sounds like a bit of a homogeneous blur. That doesn't mean that mainstream pop music is objectively bad, or less complex or worthy than the music I enjoy, more that I don't have the experience and the background knowledge to judge whether it's good or bad in context.

A lot of my musical taste is so niche, I'm also just really happy seeing other people finding music that they enjoy and that means something to them (even if I would love to have more people to talk to about Epic Nautical Funeral Doom Metal ;) )

This gets further complicated when you consider artists and songs who are deliberately pushing (or breaking) the boundaries or tropes of a genre; you need that grounding in order to fully appreciate what they are doing differently!

One of the reasons I love Eurovision so much is because it's one of the few arenas where we get to see a wide variety of genres (and cultural contexts) in one place, and I feel that has been invaluable for me in terms of my overall musical genre literacy.

That said, if we did ever see a doom metal entry in Eurovision (unlikely, and I'm not convinced it would do well), I would absolutely flip my lid! :D

I sometimes get annoyed at how eurofans trend to treat all rock/metal songs the same, putting very different songs into the same box/genre, while for instance Zitti E Buoni and Dark Side were very different songs. Meanwhile, when listen to the pop entries my reaction to pretty much all of them is “it’s pretty catchy, I could listen to it but I would not seek it out”, and I get baffled when half of them are written of as masterpieces and half of them as trash.

(to be clear: this post is meant to be about how people tend to view music they listen to more “complexly” than music they don’t listen to, and how I can be hypocritical, this is not an attempt to claim that I have superior taste in music)

Veronica's actions mimicking Heather is really interesting. Because yeah it's showing that she's becoming more and more like Heather but also because Veronica moves first.

Their movements weren't fully synchronized, Veronica would fold her arms and Heather would copy her. Because yes, Veronica is becoming like Heather was, but she hasn't picked up on it, it was Martha who would've seen it, and of course Heather did too. Heather was mocking her, proving she had become just like what she once hated. Her "let me sit at your table just once, no talking necessary" had turned her into the same person but worse.

Heather never thought she was a good person. She knew who she was, she knew what she did but she was proud of it. Veronica didn't notice (and she never really did, it ended with her blaming JD for everything) and always believed she was a good person. She thought she was better than Heather and much better than JD but that way of thinking was what made her just like them. Heather mimics Veronica's movements because she can see what Veronica is like, because she could always see what she was like.

And Martha would notice too. She may not be able to see the ghosts but she was looking right where she was standing and I think that shows how she was seeing Heather in that moment, instead of Veronica (especially considering Heather stood directly inbetween them multiple times). This wasn't her best friend, this wasn't the girl who was always supportive for her. This was the girl who had helped her bully, the girl who tricked her into thinking Ram loved her.

You can see her trying to look around Heather but then Veronica starts acting just like Heather, and Heather stands directly next to her, if she was physically there Martha would be looking right at her.

And lastly, Veronica moving first shows her being worse than Heather. This isn't her copying her to fit in, this is her covering up murdering three people. And it isn't just to protect JD, she doesn't want to get in trouble either. Heather is mean, and she isn't a good person but neither is Veronica and this scene and a few others really highlight that she is not any better than the people she kills.

This is showing the effect of Veronica's actions and showing what she did to Heather as well as Heather's effect on Veronica.

This post is going to be all about Parade the Musical.

First of all, LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Parade. Absolutely adore it. It's my favorite musical of all time and here's why.

1. The Story

The plot is based off of the real life of Leo Frank and his story. If you don't know his story I highly suggest you read about it and his trial (warning: themes of antisemitism, murder and assault). Though this case happened in the early 20th century, many aspects of it still apply to us as a society now. The way the musical portrays the effects of racism on many different characters is just amazing. For Leo and for Newt, the prejudice against them means very different things for them, yet it's the same type of hatred in so many ways. There are just so many amazing and powerful moments in the musical that are noteworthy and the parallels you as an audience member are able to draw between then and now are eye opening.

2. The Music

The music is AMAZING. The use of instruments traditionally used in a marching band (or parade) setting vs. the use of more symphonic instruments is genius. The way JRB uses minor and major modes to portray each character's personal journey is PERFECTION. I highly suggest you watch some of his videos about how he uses musical devices to tell each character's story. Here is a video of him explaining some of the process between writing the opening number "The Old Red Hills Of Home" (sidenote: I HAD NO IDEA HE COULD SING UNTIL I WATCHED THIS VIDEO). Not only does he tell each character's story through these breathtaking orchestrations, but also he moves the audience with the characters through their journey. The main way I would describe Parade is as a musical journey. I have listened and seen lots of musicals but very few are able to put the audience on a true musical journey. In Parade, the music reflects the emotions and thoughts of each character. When there is a change in a character's thoughts or feelings, the music reflects that change. JRB does this through the use of major and minor and also reoccurring melodies (another thing composers do that I love). The music does an amazing job of capturing Leo and Lucille's darkest moments and their biggest breakthroughs. Just look at the difference musically in "Leo's Statement" vs. "This Is Not Over Yet". These choices were made by JRB on purpose to take the audience on Leo's musical journey. The musical journey helps the audience understand the story, above all else. The music is not simply an ornament on the story's tree. It's more akin to the straw in the story's cup. The audience could drink out of the cup without the straw. Would they still get the drink? Yes. However, using a straw is a more efficient way to get the drink to the audience. The "drink" is the meaning and message of the story in this metaphor (I hope that all made sense I am terrible at metaphors).

3. Impact On The Audience (+ my personal faves from Parade)

Of course, no two audience members are going to feel the exact same after seeing the show, however, I do think this point is important to note. The intended impact on the audience isn't necessarily to make them bawl their eyes out (though I do know many including myself who have because of this show). The intended impact is to both educate the audience on the story of Leo Frank and move them to examine their own lives and create change in society now. It's no mistake that this specific story was chosen. Leo Frank's story has many parallels to today that we still see. Themes of racism, injustice, antisemitism, loss of hope, etc. All of these are things we see today. In my opinion, the best musicals (or just art in general) are ones where we can watch (or read or listen to) them and come away from them learning something about today. No matter when it was made. If you walk out of a musical and find yourself making connections to the real world, it had an impact! This is part of why I love Parade. It's not only a great piece of art on its own but it's also relevant. Not only that but I believe musicals are one of the best mediums for impactful messages like this ESPECIALLY for younger generations. I could go on a whole tangent about why, but I will shorten it to this: people love music and love stories and musicals are both combined. So many people love musicals because it's combining 3 mediums (verbal storytelling, visual storytelling and music) to make one final product. Parade combines the three beautifully, making it very effective and impactful. A great example of this is my favorite song from the entire show, "Don't Make Sense". Short bits of dialogue interrupt the music throughout this song which make it all the more beautiful. The song starts with a group of people singing a hymn. The hymn is then overlayed with dialogue, a news report of Mary Phagan's funeral, which continues until we hear Frankie begin to sing. The beginning part alone is just beautiful storytelling. It introduces the funeral visually and musically. In the dialogue, the reporter mentions that Mary was "2 months shy of 14" and that some of Mary's friends were "deemed too small to shoulder the burden". This line alone reiterates just how young Mary was, reinforcing how tragic her death was and who it affects. The music in the back being a hymn sets the gloomy scene for the funeral. Then, when Frankie begins to sing about Mary and what he loved about her (on the lyrics "did you ever hear her laugh?), the music changes to a brighter tone (bright may not be the right word for it but I don't know what else to describe it as). Specifically, this change comes in on the word "laugh", which is just genius. Her laugh is the thing that triggers the music to lighten in tone because her laugh was able to lighten people's moods. This brighter melody returns in the song when other people sing about what Mary was like. Mary was a light in people's lives and so she's also a light in the music. There are so many more moments in this song AND in the musical I could talk about but I simply cannot or else this would be as long as War and Peace. I just wanted to highlight one from my favorite song in the musical.

This entire post was hardly proofread so excuse any errors. I may or may not go back to edit them.

Anyways, I HIGHLY suggest you listen to or even go see this amazing show. I highly recommend you listen to the OBC and revival cast albums. I also recommend the 2007 album also.. They're all amazing.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading!