Can Descending Chords Ever Sound Happy?
Descending melodies and progressions often sound sad, but one of the most resoundingly happy songs ever, Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” begs to differ.
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Chartmania!! I Broke Down Every Song That Reached the Billboard Top 5 in 2017
Alright songwriters and song-guzzlers alike, strap on your boots for a knowledge voyage with more divergent rectangles than the NYC skyline: that’s right, the top pop charters have now become 2017’s top pop graphed. The Top 40 song charters that is, but why 40? Well, besides this number’s significance in pop music as a result of…
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Just Because Eminem Was Freestyling, Doesn’t Mean It Wasn’t Musical
Tons of hip-hop artists have come out against the actions of Donald Trump in recent months, and many have even included stings in their verses. Eminem’s turn at the wheel came earlier this week in a Detroit, garage-set freestyle that aired on television during the BET Awards. And he showed, undeniably, that even when he’s winging…
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Longing for Simpler Times? Why the ‘Good Old Days’ Ain’t So Simple This Time Around
Have you heard Macklemore and Kesha’s recent duet, “Good Old Days”? It’s got a main theme everyone can relate to: “why, oh why, did I take those days gone by for granted?” The video features some pretty universal moments as well, just driving through the woods in a van at various states of chill along…
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Trap Rap Has Been Around for a Minute Now – So Why Does It Keep Working?
+ Learn the nuances of producing beats, arranging tracks, and creative sampling, drawing on the rich history and influence of hip-hop in Soundfly’s acclaimed online course, The Art of Hip-Hop Production. If you walk down the street of any major city and open your ears to the cars driving by, there’s a good chance that the music roaring out…
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5 Fierce Creative Femmes With Swagger That Empowers
By Jhoni Jackson Identifying as femme is a revolt against the patriarchy in itself; it is an inherently political act. The prevailing cisgender white heteronormative world in which we’re all prisoners tells us that femininity equals weakness, that no matter your gender, femininity as a quality means you’re less than. Even within the LGBTQIA community…
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How Taylor Swift Turned Right Said Fred’s Body-Positive Hit Into a Revenge Fantasy
+ Soundfly helps curious musicians meet their goals with online courses like The Creative Power of Advanced Harmony and Pop Vocal Production. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe for unlimited access. Last night, Taylor Swift released a new single, and it’s already blowing up. That in and of itself is about as unsurprising as…
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The Musical and Sociopolitical Evolution of Kanye’s Use of Soul Music Samples
+ Learn the nuances of producing beats, arranging tracks, and creative sampling, drawing on the rich history and influence of hip-hop in Soundfly’s acclaimed online course, The Art of Hip-Hop Production. Between the old-school sound of his debut album, College Dropout, in 2004 and the ultra-synthesized feel of his most recent album, 2016’s The Life Of Pablo, there…
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5 Examples of Artists Tastefully Using Auto-Tune
+ Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. Disclaimer: Before all you purists out there start typing up angry comments about how Auto-Tune is killing music, just hear us out. By now, I think we can…
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Take These Words Home and Think ‘Em Through: The Legacy of Mobb Deep’s Prodigy
In the years since Mobb Deep‘s 1996 hit “Shook Ones (Part II)” was released, the song has attained legendary status among hip-hop listeners due to its many unique attributes, such as its darkly timbral, sonic world full of police sirens and impossible amounts of lingering reverb, and its equally rugged linguistic play, equipped with menacing threats…
