Student Life

Listening to both Queen and Pink Floyd helped me to see how music had evolved from the 60s to the 70s. Rock became harder (therefore becoming heavy metal), appearance became a bit factor, more so than before (for example David Bowie and glam rock) disco became very influential, battling rock for music domination.

When asked to create a piece of music inspired by the 70s music (Queen/Pink Floyd), it was difficult to come up with one idea to try and create it around. Therefore, it was only logical to take parts from Queen, and parts from Pink Floyd.

Bohemian Rhapsody (one of the most well know songs by Queen) consists of several different sections. From a ballad, ending with a solo on guitar, into an almost opera style section and finally into a rock section. "At the time, it was the most expensive single ever made" (Cunningham, 1995).
Freddy Mercury, the writer of the song only stated the song is about "relationships; the band is still protective of the song's secret)" (Chiu, 2005)

"I think people should just listen to it, just think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them" 

Freddy Mercury (Davis, 1993, p. 20)

When taking into account both the fact that Bohemian Rhapsody has distinct sections, and that Pink Floyd's 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' is a concept album, a piece inspired by both would help to showcase the 70s better.

The main idea of this was first to build it around one specific thing (ala concept album/Pink Floyd). The easiest topic was to do something that we're familiar with: being a student. Then taking inspiration from Queen, it was clear that if it was in sections, it would help represent the life of the student that much clearer.

Starting off with a slow string and synth sound, it represents getting up in the morning and everything feeling a bit groggy.
As the guitar comes in, it helps to give it a bit of rhythm, getting into the swing of things and actually doing something. As the piano comes in, it helps to back up the guitar and make it more pronounced, keeping the string\synth sound in the background (because students are always tired). The removal of both the guitar and piano helps to create a more fluid song as it rises slightly then drops, helping to create a nice 'wave' of sound. All at once, a beat is 'dropped' and things start to build up immediately, which contrasts the previous sections. This helps to give the song a change in dynamics and also represents the party aspect to a typical student life. A more prominent synth sound is still present to recreate the feeling of being dizzy and almost drunk. The piece ends with a sudden stop of that fast beat and into the beginning however this time with almost a beat, bringing it full circle, from the moment a student wakes up, to the moment they go to sleep.

This was made using Protools (which I am still getting use to) however I am pleased with the result of it. One improvement is that the middle section is a little out of the time (the piano is with the strings). Although I know it's wrong, it could be interpreted as a blur of the two sections from waking up to every day activities.
Also, I think that maybe a sound that lasts the whole piece would help to give it more of a foundation. Maybe utilising another thing from Pink Floyd (music concrete). The sound of static, faintly in the background would help to represent the brain of a student and how they aren't fully taking anything in (almost a sense of being broken)