Nostalgia

For this song, I chose to remake "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid, which was my favorite movie as a child. I took the song and changed it from a classic Disney ballad to fit an indie pop/rock genre. I chose indie as the genre to translate it to because it seemed to translate the best to a modern sound. I had initially thought to go the simple "pop" music route, but I still wanted there to be some softness and thoughtfulness to the song, which I found more in the indie genre. I took an audio track from YouTube of Halle Bailey's vocals singing "Part of Your World" and put it into Soundtrap, and began by playing around with some of the effects we learned to implement in class. I wanted her voice to sound a bit more spacious, like she was singing in a cavern, so I played around with a few different vocal effects to achieve that. Then, I started adding some of the loop tracks that fit the genre (guitar, soft drums, etc). I then added in my own drumbeat to help with the build up toward the end, and chopped up some of the vocal track to fit the tempo of the song better. It came out different than I had initially envisioned it to, but I think in the best way. It is still simple, the supporting tracks center around the vocals, which captures exactly the part of the song that I love.

"Another Thing" is a play on "One Thing", the title of one of my favorite One Direction songs from 5th grade. This song was introduced to me by my older sister during her One Direction phase, and it's not only associated with our connection but wonderful summer memories from our childhood. This particular piece was a bit more of a challenge, as I had to change the tempo of the song. I wanted to turn it into an alternative pop piece, with a slower tempo, synths, and drums. We had already learned how to change the tempo of a track, but I still came across some challenges in fitting the other tracks to match the new tempo. After a while of trying and retrying, I managed to put in some new drums, ethereal synths, and some nice little effects on top to bring it all together. I really liked making this song, not only for the fun challenge but also how well the product turned out. It's short and sweet, but it keeps a much more "reminiscent" feel to it than I had anticipated. I also enjoyed making an alt pop song in a major key, since most of them are written in minor keys, it felt much brighter and more soothing than the alternative pop I'm used to hearing, which was refreshing.

This last piece was partly made with the help of my classmates, as it was a group work assignment initially. I wanted to include music from my theater kid background, and planned to combine songs from musicals that I liked when I was young with musicals I like now. During our class unit on "genres" we did a group assignment where we had to take a song from one genre and make it fit another, and our group was assigned broadway. We took "The Phantom of the Opera" from Phantom of the Opera and made it into a hip hop beat by adding a beat drop, sound effects, and lots of drum beats. When I took it over to include it in my project, I kept "The Phantom of the Opera" (since it was a favorite musical of mine when I first started performing) and the hip hop adjustment, but added in a song from a musical I love now, Bonnie and Clyde. I added the end of "Raise a Little Hell", where Clyde hits an insane high note, to the beginning of the song to then transition into Phantom. I also included parts of the Clyde track into the hip hop beat of Phantom. This was definitely a very different piece from the first two, but it still keeps to the nostalgia theme. I was able to incorporate music from musicals I like now and back then, plus changed it into a style I like now which is hip hop.