Writing A Disco Song

Disco's all about feeling good and letting go, which is something that the lyrics are all about and reflect feeling good. Heavily influenced by a range of previously existing genres such as:

• Psychedelic music - "And the scene's combination of overwhelming sound, trip lighting and hallucinogens was indebted to the late 60's psychedelic culture" (Reynolds, 2001)
• Funk
• Soul
• Latin (especially salsa) - "the fusion of Latin rhymes, Anglo-Carribena instrumentation, North American black 'soul' goals and Euro-American melodies gave rise to the disco music" (Lipsitz, 2001)
• Gospel
• Swing

Taking into account all of this inspiration, disco became the feel good genre that allowed the masses to become free, and instead of being the part of the counterculture that was against 'the man', it was more about individuality and feeling empowered, especially for the minorities "initially, disco musicians and audiences like belonged to marginalised communities: women, gay, black and latinos" (Nicholls, 1998).

When writing 'To The Groove', I took into account the idea of the feeling of letting go of all of the weeks troubles and waiting for the weekend to begin to finally let loose on the dance floor. The upbeat tempo of it and the repeating and catchy chorus and bridge helps to create the foot-tapping and hips moving beat which is emphasised by the funky bass line and the simplistic drum beat. 

After the second chorus, a simplistic bridge is repeated several times and it builds creating the uplifting theme that disco has. Building up helps to create a climatic finish and also enables the audience to join in with the catchy song, something that is also key in disco music.

"The rhythm and the dancing, makes you move your feet

The rhythm and the dancing, moving to the beat"

The simplistic bridge that is also repeated at the end of the song as well I think helps to round off the song in a fun an engaging way, especially if the audience join in.

Writing A Psychedelic Song

Utilising non-Western, specifically those used in "Indian Classical music such as the sitar and tabla" (Rubin & Melnick, 2007) and elaborate studio effects such as "backward tapes, panning, phasing, long delay loops and extreme reverb" (Borthwick & Moy, 2004), psychedelic music's main goal is to to replicate the effect when taking psychedelic drugs - such as LSD, originally promoted as a "potential cure for mental illness" (Farber, 2002).

When writing a psychedelic song, the feeling of being under the influence of the recreation drugs is important to get across. One of the immediate things thats comes to mind when I hear the word 'psychedelic' is the colourful and bright psychedelic art and the effect that it has on your eyes when you stare at it for too long (i.e: blurred vision, 'fuzziness' and a surreal visual exploration). Writing a song about the things that one would see when taking these drugs are exploring that would help to create the lyrics that help get across the feeling without actually taking them.

Coming up with the title 'Lights' helped to shape the rest of the lyrics that I wrote to do with being under the influence, with the lyrics being about hearing voices, seeing things that aren't there and time moving at different speeds. "Sensory perception become especially brilliant and intense", "colours seem more intense" and "Time may seem to slow down...or it may stop entirely, giving place to an eternal present" (Grinspoon & Bakalar, 1983). Just some of the general psychological side effects of psychedelic drugs, which I attempted to recreate when writing the lyrics such as "And it burns, the world turns. And I scream, it's a dream" which gets across the point that everything that happens isn't real. All the things felt are in the mind which is the bodies most powerful weapon and when under the influence of these drugs, the impossible can seem possible, no matter how bizarre.