In this Guest OpEd, we explore the plethora of ways Chuck Berry tackled race and societal issues with humor and relatability in his lyrics.
Tag: popular music
3 Ways to Grip Your Listeners With Opening Lines
In today’s music landscape, attention spans are at an all-time low. Grab your listener’s attention right away with lyrical immediacy.
Did Lorde Rip Off George Michael?
Thoughts on Lorde’s new single, a familiar ’50s rock groove, and the hyper-litigious state of the music industry’s copyright law.
Re-Explore Your Teenage Years With Soundfly’s New Course: The Music of Boy Bands
In Soundfly’s new course, The Music of Boy Bands, we revisit all our favorite teenage hits and learn how they work musically as well!
Where Did All the Chords Go?
A sampling of single- and multi-chord progression songs between the 1980s and 2010s reveals a disheartening trend. How to fix it?
Who Run This Month? 9 Songs of Self-Love, Self-Worth, and Self-Expression
For Women’s Month, we put together a collaborative Spotify playlist that our whole community can add to, here are our 9 starter songs.
How The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” Takes Beethoven’s Ideas to #1
In this analysis, pop music theorist Ben Morss shows how The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” is built from four-note scale segments.
5 Vocal Techniques Kimbra Uses That All Singers Can Learn From
I’ve studied Kimbra’s vocal techniques for years, here are some of the things she does that all singers can learn from and improve with.
The Most Evocative Lyrics We Heard in 2020
We take a look back at some of the most powerful and poetic lyrics we heard in pop and hip-hop music in 2020.
A Lyrical Exploration of Fiona Apple’s Groundbreaking “Fetch the Bolt Cutters”
One of the most widely-acclaimed albums of 2020, Fiona Apple’s shimmering return to the limelight is filled with lyrical gemstones.