The basic idea behind this investigation is to look into and explore the power language holds on us humans emotional. What words/phrases/tones/genres capture certain emotions?
This has been narrowed down to one Artist, Adele Laurie Blue Adkins professionally known as Adele. Adele is a British singer – songwriter currently aged 23. She has written two albums, which have nationally been number one hits. Her music talks about heartthrob and relationships and has such a connection to our emotions in those circumstances. The connection has been put in place not only through the music but also through the lyrics. Admittedly the most important part of the song, her honesty and realism is extremely complimentary to her work. Relative feelings and situations allow others to relate with their own personal experience, allowing them also to gain something from the song.
I have chosen the songs, ‘Someone like you’ and ‘Rolling in the deep’ as I have found them both to be the most emotional and relative, they also have been her greatest successes.
I plan to gather information from different age groups, different personal and different classes to give an over idea of the impact these songs pursue. This information will be collected in different ways such as playing the song to the person and then asking them how it made them feel, then asking them to comment on certain aspects. Or I will play certain verses of the song and then ask the person to narrow down what each line means and then what it means to them.
I hope to gain a good knowledge of the meaning of this song after research from the artists view and also from those around me.
My main factors are to gain comments/understanding on not only the emotional reference but also on the structure and tone of the song. These will all tie in together eventually. As the emotional side of things is also extremely relevant to the tone, as it also comes under the mood portrayed. The structure is still important by not as important as it is mainly looking how the lyrics have been placed and to see if the story that is being told through song has come across in the way in which it was meant to.
Your idea how language holds power over human emotions is a good one. You will need to do some research into language and, probably, poetry if you are going to investigate the phenomenon in detail. What have you read as background so far?
ReplyDeleteYou are suggesting that familiarity with the ideas in the lyrics is a key factor to their success. This may well be true. Can you find any articles or interviews either featuring or by Adele that mention this aspect of her success and popularity?
Your choice is based on personal response: that’s ok so far. Also cite her success in the cd/album charts to support your idea that her work has general appeal.
Which age groups are you going to use? Why those ones? What are your questions? You need to decide exactly what you’re going to do: if it doesn’t work, then there will be time to find another approach, but we can’t waste time. Bring the questions to class + try to use them on some subjects to find out the type of responses you’re getting and if they’re what you hope/need.
Can Mr Burbury (or other members of the Music Dept) help you with some background information about mood, etc?