What makes commercial music so popular? A study into the components that make 21st century pop music successful.

This isn’t a piece of journalism but this was my research project essay/dissertation for the 2nd year of my degree. I got 62% on this module which I was quite proud of so I hope this may help or educate some people.

Commercial pop music has increasingly become very similar. So much so that it is very common for people to mistake one song for a completely different song. This goes in some way to explain why commercial music is so popular because if all the songs sound the same then the target audience are going to like them all. Initially it is important to define the term commercial/pop music. The Farlex dictionary definition of pop music is “music of general appeal to teenagers; a bland watered-down version of rock’n’roll with more rhythm and harmony and an emphasis on romantic love.” (thefreedictionary, 2015) The majority of people would see this as music and artists that seem to always be in the charts and played heavily on the radio. What is it about these certain artists or songs that make them so popular? There are many explanations such as the songwriters, composers, producers, the way they are marketed and the culture we have in today’s society; along with many other circumstances that make commercial music popular. This research paper will delve into all of these topics to hopefully uncover the secret to commercial music success.
Fiero’s (2013) idea of commercial music success, after 25 years of listening to recordings as an industry professional, music lover and music critic, follows six basic rules. The first of his rules is a commercial song must have a strong hook or memorable chorus. The definition of a hook is ‘A catchy chorus or repeated instrumental passage in a piece of popular music’ (Oxforddictionaries.com, 2015). The audience and listeners need to know the name of the song otherwise they cannot buy it, find it online or request it on the radio. In Bo Burnham’s song ‘Repeat Stuff’ he sings about how popular love songs used to be so beautiful but now, thanks to marketing teams and many pop stars, they have changed quite a lot. However, focusing on the chorus of this song “America says we love a chorus but don’t get complicated and bore us; though meaning might be missin’, We need to know the words after just one listen so repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff…” (Burnham, B. 2013) He explains the point Fiero is making perfectly; once you have listened to this song just once then you know the name of it and you won’t forget it. This is true even more so for this song because it is making fun of the fact that to make a memorable pop chorus all you have to do is repeat simple words or phrases constantly. Just one of many very famous songs that follow this formula would be Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’. In just 10 seconds of the song he manages to say “Baby” 9 times. (Bieber, J. 2010).
Rule number two is that a commercial pop song will always have a good melody. A melody is the result of playing notes in different pitches and some notes are repeated one after the other in an organised way. (Clavijo, C. 2014). Taylor Swift and her songwriters are masters of this they seem to be able to choose or create the most perfect melodies especially for songs such as ‘Shake It Off’, ‘Blank Space’ and ‘Style’. These three songs have either been number 1 or in the top ten in only the past 10 months; this proves they are doing something right. Good melodies are also one of the secrets to commercial hip-hop for success as Fiero says in his article: “What can the top-selling hip-hop acts of the last 10 years (Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Eminem, and 50 Cent) attribute their success to? Good melodies (not cool beats) that increase the commercial value of their music…thanks largely in part to the king of modern hip-hop melody, Dr. Dre.” (Fiero,G. 2013). For example most popular modern rap songs by artists such as Eminem and B.o.B have people featuring in some of their songs that sing a very memorable or catchy chorus that has a great melody. This seems to be the part of the song that gets stuck in your head. Pop music must be well produced, rock bands don’t utilise or value producers like R&B acts do but they should as R&B acts are usually assigned specific producers to enhance the performance and production of the songs using their experience with other similar artists. This makes commercial music more enjoyable to listen to and more commercial as they sound like the last artist that their producer had. (Fiero,G. 2013).
A Commercial song must have appealing and relatable lyrics. “The lyrics don’t have to be profound; people just have to be able to relate to them” (Fiero. G, 2013) explains Fiero in his article. In the song ‘Repeat Stuff’ the second verse compliments and agrees with Fiero’s statement about the lyrics:
“But now I need to make every girl think this song’s about her…So I describe my dream girl as really really vague, like I love your hands ’cause your fingerprints are like no other, I love your eyes and their blueish brownish greenish color”. (Burnham, B. 2013)
In this song Burnham is saying that in order to sell and reach as many people as possible you need to relate to as many people as possible. Saying every eye colour possible and unarguable comments such as “’cause your fingerprints are like no other” will relate to almost every girl who will listen to the song. Fiero’s penultimate rule is to keep the songs short. He says this because he believes that “A song that is well written makes people want to hear it again, and again, and again. The longer the song is, the less likely that will happen.” (Fiero, G. 2013) However, a different point of view to this is that of Drum (2010) and he believes that “most popular music simply doesn’t have the complexity to sustain itself beyond a few minutes.” (Drum, K. 2010). This is because most of the melodies and lyrics are fairly simple and will get overused and tedious after a few minutes. Fiero’s final rule is that commercial songs should be well-performed. He explains that “A good song that is well-performed gives it an edge” (Fiero, G. 2013). The biggest and best song writers such as Dr. Luke look for outstanding vocalists to perform their songs as Dr. Luke says in this interview with ABC News “I’m looking for voices that are distinctive. That’s the most important thing to me.” This is because something has to set all these commercial songs apart and it seems to be that the performers are the only thing that can accomplish this.
As Fiero said previously one of the most important components of a commercial songs success is the melody. But how is a good melody written and put together? According to hit songwriter Jason Blume, the audience needs to connect emotionally to the melody otherwise the melody hasn’t done its job; therefore keep it singable and short. For example “it’s easier to remember ‘I love you’ than ‘I want you to know that there’s no doubt in my heart whatsoever that there’s a feeling i want to share with you and you can always know that no matter where I am I love you'”. (Blume, J. 2008. p103-104). It’s a lot simpler for the audience to remember and repeat the one line melody rather than a rambling sentence. How does music theory fit into this? Blume (2008) believes that it is acceptable to write a song or catchy, memorable melody that uses less than 11 notes. Because if the song has a range of considerably more than an octave and a third then only the highest standard of artist such as; Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Josh Groban would be able to perform it. (Blume, J. 2008. p107-108) The shape of a melody is also important as Smith (2007) says “A melody will normally follow a pattern of up’s and downs, and tends to flow. If it just climbs up the stave, or descends down the stave, it’s going to sound more like a scale than a melody.” (Smith, S. 2007) He continues to say that this just does not work for core melody as they need an up and down pattern of some sort. One of the most overused melody patterns in pop music is used in ‘Viva La Vida’ by ‘Coldplay’ and this melody only using 6 different notes; C, D, B, A, E and F. These are all of the notes on a scale apart from a G so it’s vital that they have an up and down pattern rather than being played in a scale. ThatSongSoundsLike (2012) shows that this melody is also used in songs such as “Tonight” by ‘Reamonn’ and “If I Could Fly” by ‘Joe Satriani’ among many more.
In commercial pop songs there is always a chord pattern underneath the melody. The Australian musical comedy trio ‘The Axis Of Awesome’ show how common a particular chord pattern shows up in pop songs with their song “4 Chords”. The chord pattern they show is I-V-vi-IV and the chords for this are D, A, Bm and G. This song consists of 73 different popular songs with the same chord progression. This doesn’t mean that they all use the same chords as ‘The Axis Of Awesome’ have changed the key of the songs to make them fit these 4 chords. The chord progression could hold the key to commercial success because so many popular songs use the same or similar chord progressions; some even use the exact same chords. Owen (2011) demonstrates this theory: The video starts with him saying “It’s all the same song, Eminem doesn’t even hide it within 1 album. Both singles are note for note the same.” He then goes on to perform parts of ‘Love The Way You Lie’ and ‘Not Afraid’ which contain the exact same piano parts and are both from the ‘Eminem’ album ‘Recovery’. (Owen, B. 2011). In a report by Dave Carlton; (Carlton, D. 2012) he analysed the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns and found that 26% of the songs he analysed are in the key of C (and its relative minor, A) and after that there is a trend of key signatures using less sharps and flats. Carlton also looked the number of chord progressions that used specific chords; 73% of songs use G and F and 68% and 56% with C and Am respectively. So this asks the question: are all commercial songs so popular because they all simply sound the same? In an interview with ‘The Daily Mail’ Researcher Martin Haro, of Pompeu Fabra University, said: “Nowadays, it is more about relaxing, you don’t want to think about what the music is telling you.” So this could be the answer to why most modern pop songs sound the same compared to the 1950s and 60s the popular music seemed to be more artistic and tried to get messages across about politics and war. (Macrae, F. 2012).
The structure of a song is also very important to commercial success as Blume (2008) describes “There are a limited number of song structures commonly heard in hit songs. These structures can easily be learned and used effectively.” (Blume, J. 2008. p3). According to Blume (2008) the majority of songwriters who are not involved with the artist, recording or producing of the track will employ one of four basic structures or a variation of one. These four structures are “Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus, Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus, Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus and Verse-Verse-Bridge-Verse.” (Blume, J. 2008. p3). Performing songwriters also use these structures most of the time, but as they are performing the songs themselves, they can add and subject parts as they ultimately have more artistic input because they are performing and recording the song(s). Why are these structures so successful? Blume (2008) says “using song structures… helps us deliver our melodic and lyrical ideas to listeners, enabling them to more readily feel those feelings that we hope to evoke” (Blume, J. 2008. p3). Therefore keeping the verses and choruses short will grab the listener’s attention and a catchy chorus every 30 seconds will keep audiences listening to the whole song. In most pop songs there is some form of introduction (intro) which usually contains melodic elements that resemble the chorus or the riff. (Tattoni, G. 2007). The verse is the part of a song that tells the story as May (2014) explains “verses are still used to take the listener on a journey. You can have each verse of your song tell a part of your story, or have each verse tell a different short story, all tied together by your chorus.” (May, J. 2014). As Fiero (2013) explained a chorus is the part of the song that the audience will remember. Lyrically a chorus ‘is the summary of your song’s story.’ (May, J. 2014). Some other common popular parts of a song are the bridge (middle 8) and the outro. A middle 8, according to May (2014), is the section of a song that gives the audience time to reflect on the story and they usually occur in the middle of the song. Songs do not need an outro; they could just end abruptly but some songs have them and there are many different things that could possibly make up an outro such as “you can repeat your intro, chorus, or a refrain as an outro, or you can add something similar to a bridge (with an instrumental solo).” (May, J. 2014).
Who puts all of these components together and creates the massive commercial hits? It is the songwriters, composers and producers. Whilst researching some of his favourite songs; Boyinaband (2014) came across a pattern in the songwriters of his favourite songs. The same name that kept appearing was that of Max Martin. Max Martin is a Swedish songwriter; composer and producer who is responsible for writing and co-writing 19 Billboard Hot number one singles and 37 other top 10 hits in the past 20 years. (Huey, S. 2015). Max Martin has a music production company called ‘Maratone’ and the website (Maratone.se) shows us that Max Martin has a partner he seems to work with frequently under the name of ‘Shellback’. Shellback is also a songwriter, composer and producer and has worked alongside Max Martin with artists such as Britney Spears, Kesha, Usher and Taylor Swift. ‘Lukasz Gottwald’ (better known as Dr Luke.) is also a songwriter, composer and producer that has produced or co-written over 30 Top Ten hits since 2004; most of them with the help of Max Martin. John Seabrook of The New Yorker describes their relationship as “If Luke is the Skywalker of pop songcraft, Max is the Obi-Wan: the reclusive master.” (Seabrook, J. 2013). How are these people perfecting the art of writing commercial pop songs? The CEO of Big Machine Label Group Scott Borchetta says in an interview with thedailybeast.com: “Martin’s success comes from his understanding of the zeitgeist, a skill he says echoes past musical successes.” (Klein, D. 2014). The definition of zeitgeist is “The defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.” (Oxforddictionaries.com). This means that Max Martin is very good at understanding what is trending in the world and what is popular at the point in time when he is writing a song; he can and will always stay current for every artist he writes for. Whereas, Dr. Luke admits to Popkin (2011) in an American Songwriter article “Dr Luke is not a lyric guy” (Popkin, M. 2011) and he enjoys producing songs that excite his ears with drum fills full of rapid solos across the kit and sax players holding high notes. “This, to Dr. Luke, is what makes people go Wow. This is what makes a hit.” (Popkin, M. 2011). With songwriters come lyricists: the people that write the songs. These could be the artists themselves, someone bought in or even one of the songwriters or producers. Some people such as Kyle Tran Myhre on (reviler.org) believe that lyrics are the most important part of a pop song as thousands of artists have come up with amazing melodies and tremendous voices but “What truly separates genius from “pretty good,” however, is what you’re saying, not how you’re saying it.” (Myhre, K. 2010). Jon Behm responds in the same article with: “If lyrics were the one true key to music then techno would be universally reviled, rap needn’t bother with beats, and no one should ever bother with listening to music in another language.” (Behm, J. 2010). This brings up the point of YouTube’s most viewed video and one of the most popular and commercial songs “Gangnam Style” by ‘PSY’. Gangnam Style currently has 2,331,419,703 views on its official video but how? All the verses to this song are sung in Korean which makes it impossible for the majority of the world to relate to and understand. Hollis (2012) believes that it follows Fiero’s (2013) first rule of song writing “The rhythm is simple and repetitive.” (Hollis, N. 2012). There is no doubt that the song is very catchy and repetitive but so are most commercial songs therefore there must be other components to this song that make it stand out. The video could be one of the main things that makes this so popular as it helps the Western world understand the lyrics by giving a visual aid interpreting the lyrics which also involves a now phenomenally famous dance routine. Arwa Mahdawi from The Guardian bring this point up in an article; “Gangnam Style’s lyrics may be in Korean, but its visuals are in clear American. It is a pastiche of pop video clichés so familiar you almost feel you know what Psy is singing.” (Mahdawi, A. 2012). Unlike the hit-makers such as ‘Max Martin’ and ‘Dr. Luke’, Psy wasn’t looking to write a hit that would take over the world; it was basically an accident as he explains in an interview with Woo (2012) “it never occurred to me that people outside the country would listen to my music. I didn’t even have overseas fans. When I wrote the song, I had only one thing in mind — to create a fun song.” This shows that songs can become very commercial by complete accident due to the Internet and videos going viral.
Society plays a huge part in what is popular and what becomes successful as Brian Longhurst (2007) discusses a theory held by American socialist George Ritzer which was that the dominant form of the organisation of social life is not bureaucracy but a similar type of rationalisation that is carried out by the fast food restaurant chain ‘McDonalds’. (Longhurst, 2007. p11) He also says that lots of other industries such as sport, education, and health also follow the way this organisation works. The idea behind this for McDonalds is that the burgers and rolls are the same size and taste exactly the same in restaurants all over the world. German Sociologist Max Weber has argued that these processes of rationalisation are applicable to pop music and his argument suggests that “the value of musical rationalization is the transformation of the process of the musical production into a calculable affair operating with known means, effective instruments, and understandable rules.” (Martindale and Riedel, 1958). Goodwin (1992) explains that there are a set of rules to music making in Western societies, just as capitalist societies need to organise production in order to create new commodities. As a result to define music, it is necessary to have a universal notational system and a precise measurement of tonal and rhythmic differences. (Goodwin, A. 1992, p76). This enhances the idea that the Western world is only limited to a certain number of chords so it is only right that after so many years of producing music, we have found the perfect formula for a genre of music that can be mass produced and still get away with sounding different enough to almost never run out.
Throughout the most part of the past century there has been a trend between the economy and the tempo and subject of the popular music at the time. Nixon (2010) says, “Studies of U.S. music preferences across a half-century found that tough times make listeners prefer tough songs and tough artists. But healthy economies nurture cheesy pop.” (Nixon, R. 2010). Examples of these “tough” artists are that of the Black Eyed Peas with their dark and repetitive dance song which was number 1 in 2009. Nixon (2010) explains “While some may wish to interpret its tempo as a sign of economic optimism, or even an outlier of a general trend, the mature-looking faces of the band members pronounced chins, thin cheeks and small eyes may also have influenced listeners.” According to the study this could be because in tough times we tend to be drawn towards friends, lovers and even performers that look like they could be emotionally stable. The music industry will always try to match performers with the right songs according to what they think the consumers’ preference is. For example Pettijohn says “If you have Miley Cyrus sing a political song, it just doesn’t make sense” (Nixon, R. 2010).
Once all these songs are written, performed and produced, how are they targeted at the right people and exposed to the world in order to get success? Marketing is the key to this. Marketing involves “allocating resources (time and money) in order to achieve your objectives (a fair profit for supplying a good product or service).” (Welborn-Nichols, J. 1993). Taking an article Joseph (2013) wrote about Katy Perry for example, he writes about how her music is pretty much the same as every other pop song ever. The only difference being it has her own twist on it like every other pop artist puts their twist on their songs. “The magic comes from the marketing…It’s the marketing that’s making her successful, and she is quite good at it, eclipsing her “competition” at the moment.” (Joseph, J. 2013). He goes on to say
“Pop music fulfills a very special place in our pop culture, social and personal lives. I think it’s safe to say that those of us who enjoy it really ‘need’ it. We need it to lift us up. But the trick here is that we ‘want’ Katy Perry. We ‘want’ her form of pop music and the experience that she delivers along with it.” (Joseph, J. 2013).
The difference between products and brand is that we need products, but we want brands. The Guardian journalist Tom Ewing backs up this by saying “indeed, pop seems to do intuitively what brand managers work for years to learn. It creates vivid images; it distils profound ideas into single hits of feeling, it projects larger-than-life symbols and icons on to the screen of reality.” (Ewing, T. 2010). What Ewing (2010) is saying is that the people that create pop music seem to be able to hide the simplicity and repetition of the music by creating these huge unique pop stars such as Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Rihanna. These commercial pop stars have massive fan bases and this is mostly due to the marketing team creating these “larger-than-life” symbols.
In conclusion there is not just one thing that makes pop music successful, it takes many different components to make a hit. However, this decade’s pop music may not be the same music that is popular in 10 years time as over the years we’ve seen many different genres make it too the top. The 1990’s had grunge and hip hop whereas the late 1990’s and earlier 21st century Nu-metal become popular. The past has shown us that anything can be the next big thing so it is difficult to predict what will become the next popular brand of music. However the production of music may stay the same; pop music all sounds the same and it sells so it is feasible that the next style of music will follow the same method.

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Bullet For My Valentine- No Way Out (Review)

I was just scrolling through my YouTube subscriptions to see that welsh 4-piece Bullet For My Valentine have just released the lyric video to a song from their upcoming album ‘Venom’ . Bullet for my Valentine were one of the first bands that got me into liking and listening to metal; this was in the days of ‘The Poison’ and then ‘Scream Aim Fire’. I felt like they went down hill after that only having a few songs i liked on the following album but I guess thats because I don’t like it when my favorite childhood bands grow up. This track ‘No Way Out’ sounds very mature and to me it sounds a lot better than the last two albums. It starts with screaming vocals shouting the title of the song as a fast, heavy and pretty epic guitar riff comes in setting the pace of the track. You instantly know this is gonna be a very heavy Bullet For My Valentine song. The verse is is full of screaming depressing lyrics (or classic BFMV lyrics if you’re a fan), heavy metal riffs and quite a simple drum beat which is the only disappointing point so far. The guitar riff disappers during the pre-chorus revealing cleaner plucked guitar as they soften the sound of the song before the sing-a-long anthemic chorus rips in. Matt Tucks (Lead Singer) voice sounds incredible all throughout the song but his clean vocals in the chorus could be slightly louder. After the second chorus the song strips down to just hi-hat hits, arpeggiated clean guitar chords and distorted feedback. This is before the vocals come in and a high pitched guitar riff comes in leading into the quite slow first half of the guitar solo which quickly picks up speed as both guitars come in sweep picking together. The song ends with Matt screaming “Oh my God is this really the end?” as the final drum is hit. If you’re a fan of 2005-2008 BMFV i’m sure you will like this song! Also if you’ve never heard of them you should check this song out and their first two albums.

Neck Deep- Can’t Kick Up The Roots (Review)

Pop Punks great-grandchildren ‘Neck Deep’ are back this year with only their second album. Neck Deep are a 5-piece pop punk band from Wrexham in North Wales. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I discovered their song ‘Part of Me’ whilst vigorously searching through YouTube for new music to make me happy. Time has flown by in the past year but anyway; Neck Deep have released the lead single from their 2nd album (Coming out August 14th) ‘Life’s Out To Get You’ and it’s called ‘Can’t Kick Up The Roots’. The song starts with quite a heavy fast paced rhythm guitar riff with a top layer of a higher pitched lead guitar riff (pretty standard for modern pop punk). The guitar slows down for the verses just playing single sustained powerchords and a lead part of just a few notes. On this record the drums and guitars sound great and on this single the lead singer Ben Barlow’s voice sound a lot cleaner and easier to understand the lyrics than the previous album in my opinion. The chorus is a standard fast paced sing along ‘Neck Deep’ chorus; Anyone who is a fan of them will know what I’m talking about. Despite this song being under 3 minutes they manage to get a ‘Sum 41’ style breakdown and a short ‘A Day To Remember’ crowd sing-a-long part of a chorus. The lyrical content seems to be based on being stuck in your hometown and trying to find any way out possible. Luckily for them they started a band that got a bit of fame and have managed to escape. This song being released has got me very excited to be seeing them at Slam Dunk North Festival on May 23rd. Check out this new song! (If you have never heard of them before then I seriously recommend that you buy their album ‘Wishful Thinking’ or listen to their track ‘Part of Me’)

Walk Off The Earth Review

Canadian Youtube stars ‘Walk Off The Earth’ (most famous for their Somebody I Used To Know cover; where 5 people played 1 guitar) are back with their new album on June 16th and I can’t wait! They have released 2 songs from the new album so far ‘Sing It All Away’ and ‘Rule The World’. I recall hearing them perform ‘Sing It All Away’ at The Ritz in Manchester when I saw them last april but I completely forgot about it until today. Anyway, as the name of the song depicts it’s a sing-a-long song. When I first heard it a crowd 2000 strong that had never heard it before either were all singing along loud (with a chorus as catchy and as simple as ‘Oh Oh Oh Sing It All The Way my darling’ repeated it’s not that hard to learn the words). There are also beautiful soft verses; with the 3 lead singers Marshall, Gianni and Sarah taking turns singing them (with harmonies obviously! Every Walk Off The Earth song has incredible harmonies).

At the end of March they released their lead single from the album ‘Rule The World’ and also the video to go with it. In typical Walk Off The Earth fashion they’ve gone all out on their music video with a 360 degrees camera and lots of epic effects and colour (it’s very easy on the eye). This song is another great sing along anthem but I do have one problem with it. The verses are sang by Gianni and Marshall and it sounds like they have effects on their voices and then Sarahs voice comes through for the chorus and it just slices right through everything. However, the trumpet solo in the middle of the song completely makes up for that!

Go Pick up their album ‘Sing It All Away’ on June 16th and catch them when they tour as their live shows are fantastic! Also check out the video for ‘Rule The World’ below.

Twenty One Pilots- Tear in my Heart

The 2nd single from the album i’m eagerly awaiting came out a few days ago! I reviewed the previous single which wasn’t much to my taking but this one is a massive improvement. I’m not too keen on the way they’ve used the ‘Should I Stay or Should I go melody and chord pattern at the start and in the bridge. Unlike their previous single ‘Fairly Local’ there is pretty much zero rapping in this which i’m quite sad about as I think Tyler Joseph is an incredible rapper. The lyrics really don’t compare to their previous albums and I hope they will improve when I get a chance to listen to the full album when it comes out. This song isn’t boring though unlike ‘Fairly Local’ I found it had a huge ‘The Killers’ sound to it and a late killers feel with a synthesiser throughout the chorus and I had never noticed before but Tyler’s voice is very similar to Brandon Flowers of The Killers.

You need to check this band out if you have never listened to them! Every song they do is different, they never stick to 1 genre which I find great because they never get boring. It’s hard to review a band that are forever changing and never do the same thing twice so my only advice to you is to listen to them yourself!

Tim Minchin is just incredible.

I’ve been a Tim Minchin fan for a few years now and at the moment I love him more than ever after finding out he had a documentary. I must have watched it every night in the past 4 days. It follows his journey from being an unknown musical comedy performer to being one of the biggest musical comedy performers in the UK and Australia. Showing the ups and downs of show business and his very fast rise to fame this documentary is well worth a watch!!

Pierce the Veil and Issues- Live at Nottingham, Rock City (7/4/15)

After finally getting in to Rock City after waiting for half an hour; half a kilometer away from the venue in a predominantly pre-pubescent queue, I could tell 14 year old girl’s screams were gonna destroy my hearing tonight. So after getting my over priced coke and finding a spot at the back for the support band ‘ISSUES’ intro began. ISSUES are a 6 piece metalcore band from Atlanta, Georgia. The stage went dark as a very low bass frequency filled the room and shook everyone standing. The band came to the stage and exploded in a rage of glory as the crowd we’re singing back and cheering every time one of the lead singers asked for noise. As i hadn’t heard much of them before I didn’t quiteknow what to expect but I am definitely checking them out and listening to them now I’ve seen them live as the blend of an angelic clean vocalist and an angry screaming vocalist they have is absurdly good. Also despite being quite a heavy band they still have a lot of songs that you can sing a long (or shout a long) to.

Next up was the band I had been waiting for ‘Pierce the Veil’. Pierce the Veil are a 4-piece post-hardcore (or mexicore as I like to call them due to their mexican decent) from San Diego, California. I last saw this band at Slam Dunk Festival in 2013 before I was abruptly dragged away by my friend because we had to go home… Anyway the point is when I saw them there was many production faults, one of the main ones being the lead microphone didn’t work for the first 3 songs and no one had told the band so they just carried on. So I hoped this time would be a lot better. A white sheet with a silhouette of a woman on shrouded the stage before the lights went down. The sheet came down as they burst into ‘Hell Above’ which as heavy as that song is was hard to hear due to the onslaught of screaming girls. They played my favourite song by them second ‘Caraphernalia‘ which was incredible. The strobe lights and smoke blasted into the ceiling during the breakdown which made a great live experience. They showed incredible amounts of energy during the show especially the bassist ‘Jaime Precaido‘ who never seemed to stop moving and was definitely way more involved with the crowd than the rest of the band. They stopped and left the stage in silence for about 10 seconds in between most songs which I wasn’t a fan of as I believe you should never have dead air at a gig unless it’s for suspense, but they seemed to over do it quite a bit. 

The show went on and the tore through songs such as ‘Bulls in the Bronx’ and ‘Hold On Till May’ until it was just Vic left on stage with an acoustic guitar. I was hoping for ‘Kissing in Cars’ but he did a beautiful acoustic version of ‘I’m Low On Gas and You Need A Jacket’ which ended with him laying on the floor and the crowd singing the female part of the song and him standing up and finishing with the final chorus. Their penultimate song was ‘Bulletproof Love’ which involved one of the best and worst ideas to do live. They got a young girl from the audience up on stage so Vic could sing the opening lyrics of the song to her. This is a bad idea as no one in the crowd was going to say no to this opportunity and it was lucky the young girl that was picked didn’t have a panic attack. However, It’s also great as she got to meet one of the heroes and was almost in tears as she was sat down in front of him and then took off stage when the song kicked in properly. They ended with King for a day which features ‘Sleeping with Sirens’ lead singer ‘Kellin Quinn’ who joined them onstage to perform his parts of the song. Overall Pierce the Veil were great and I would recommend seeing them any day if you’re a fan or just generally into post-hardcore. It was definitely a great show that I won’t forget and they will definitely only get bigger and better!

Thank you to @chloeleigh711 on instagram for the photo

Frank Turner- Get Better (Review)

I’ve been a Frank Turner fan boy for many years now and even met him a few times, I was present at a very small acoustic show with only 8 people in the room, received free tickets to his show at Nottingham Arena and even played him at pool (I lost but that’s a different story). So due to this I will try my hardest to give a fair judgement of this new single ‘Get Better’. Just in case you don’t know who Frank Turner is, Frank Turner is an English folk/rock/Pop acoustic artist who performs with his band The Sleeping Souls.

As soon as the instruments kick in at the start of the track the rawness grabs you by the throat and the energy of the song rocks your soul to pieces. The beat is very hard and upbeat and the tempo keeps the energy of the songs flowing throughout. Now in my opinion Frank Turner is a lyrical genius and his lyrics and poetry will live forever in the hearts of everyone that listens to his work. This song does not change my opinion of that at all! The lyrics are great! Frank can really change your mood no matter how low you are feeling. With lyrics such as the main hook “We could get better because we’re not dead yet” and “May I always see the road rising up to meet me and my enemies defeated in a mirror behind” the message behind this song is no matter how bad things are and how low you feel things can always get better as it’s not the end of the world and you’re still alive. Also it could be interpreted as never settle for less always aim high and reach your goals no matter what gets in the way. Frank Turners band (The Sleeping Souls) always manage to bring Franks songs to life with beautiful instrumentation especially the great rock and roll piano and hard distorted electric guitars which have been implemented into this song perfectly.

Frank Turners new album should be out sometime this year and I can’t wait. If it’s anything like this song and his last 5 albums it will be well worth my money and yours!

Twenty One Pilots- Fairly Local (Review)

So what do you get when you cross Indie, Pop, Screamo, Electronic music and 2 very talented guys from Ohio? ‘Twenty One Pilots’ is the answer. I got into Twenty One Pilots in the summer of 2014 when I was watching the Download Festival highlights. I hadn’t actually heard of them before but their song ‘Car Radio’ Instantly had me hooked and I was listening to both of their albums constantly and still do; Car Radio is one of my favourite songs of all time and always will be. However, ‘Fairly Local’ their new single which has been released 2 months before the release of their 3rd album ‘Blurryface’ shamefully doesn’t stand out too me. The lyrical content which is usually phenomenal when it comes to Twenty One Pilots is completely missing. Lyrics like “…this song will never be on the radio…” seem to be a lie as this song is very basic compared to their back catalog and it seems like all they are trying to do is get their song on the radio. One thing that is great about the track though is the beat, Josh Dun is one of my favourite drummers of recent years because even with the most simple beats he makes them sound tremendous and powerful. The same synth’s, strings and choral sounds repeat throughout the entire song but in true Twenty One Pilots fashion ‘Fairly Local’ does seem to get heavier towards the end.

‘Blurryface’ will be released on May 19th and I can not wait for that but I hope the rest of the album is a lot different to this particular single. There’s always hope as they have never really stuck to one genre as it seems they like to mix it up a lot.

Infinity Presents: Hollow Bodies, Crimson Tale and Others (Review) 25/2/15

As the most people i’ve personally seen packed into the Voodoo Lounge; Kane Coulson was the first of the 7 acts to perform tonight (Yes 7!!!). He kicked off the night with a solo acoustic set by banging out some solid covers such as ‘Folsom Prison Blues’, an Elvis Medley and my personal favorite ‘Knocking on Heavens door’. This was a great way to start the night but I would have liked to hear more original material. Next up was the future star Meg McPartlin with a blend of folk, indie and pop. Just from a quick 25 minute set I can tell that she has incredible talent and her original song ‘You’ was like food to my ears as it reminded me a lot of my favorite acoustic artist Frank Turner. She showed a lot of passion when performing a mix of originals and some very good covers and my only complaint would be that she wasn’t higher on the bill. Third on stage was the first full band of the night ‘The Magic Brownies’ who didn’t live up to their incredible name. The female vocalist was a great singer but the whole band need to up their stage presence, with the singer not moving much and the bassist with his back to the audience for the most part. However, their cover of ‘Bring Me To Life’ by Evanesence actually featured the male vocals unlike when I saw Evanesence live and there was an added solo which was great. Getting past the halfway point of this very long night came from Emily Acid who are a psychedelic 3-piece featuring a vocalist, keyboard and a drummer. Honestly, I had no idea what I watched; the musicianship was average but the vocals were pretty terrible and the lead singer looked like she was having a seizure on stage; which was quite scary to watch.
Taking us into the second part of the night was Maisie Tsunami And The Merchants. This was a tight 3-piece rock band with a female singer. It was great to see a female lead vocalist that could also do great guitar solos. They had decent stage presence and made me think that If Lily Allen was in a rock band they might sound similar. Penultimately was Crimson Tale and in their own words “We make noise; beautiful noise! We also look good too!” This was the opposite of what they did. They describe themselves as Glam/Theatrical Metal and by playing covers by bands such as The Misfits, The Ramones and The Darkness they didn’t really prove their Glam/Theatrical title. Due to the looks of a wannabe Black Veil Brides, a lack of stage presence and many unneeded high pitched vocal squeals I would probably never choose to see them again. Finally was the band of been waiting for all night Hollow Bodies. The lead singer Alex Waller starts off stage and in the crowd which had narrowed down a lot so late in the evening. His strong voiced mixed with the whole band’s great stage presence made a great live experience. The humour he added to the set with very unsubtle puns and wise cracking jokes which made everyone laugh. Their mix of hardcore and the few pop covers (especially ‘Heart Skips A Beat’ by Ollie Murs) was a great blend and something fresh to add the local music scene. Hollow Bodies are a young band who you should definitely check out and keep an eye on.

Photo by Sam Walton Photography