My Frith Rhetorical Analysis

Frith Rhetorical Analysis Overview:

This is the second major writing assignment we had in this English 5: Accelerated Academic Literacies Class. This paper in rhetorical analysis, where I related the song "Pearl Fountain" by Yung Lean, Bladee, and Black Kray to the ideas presented in Simon Frith's essay "The Voice". The ideas he presents in this essay state voice in music is more than just words or sounds. Instead, voice can take on a number of characteristics, such as being able to be described as a musical instrument, as a body, as a person, and as a character. In approaching this assignment, I looked at the fact that my song choice, "Pearl Fountain", doesn't have one consistent vibe or tone throughout itself. Instead, such vibes and tones fluctuated and changed based on the voice and delivery of each artist. Specifically, Yung Lean and Bladee's voice and delivery created soft, relaxed, and atmospheric vibes in their verses. In turn however, Black Kray presented himself in a more aggressive and pumped-up manner by the way his voice and delivery were more masculine and hard-hitting. Realizing this, I related "Pearl Fountain" to the ideas in "The Voice" by saying that Yung Lean, Bladee, and Black Kray all used their voices as musical instruments. Furthermore, I also argued that "Pearl Fountain" is a roller coaster of vibes and tones based on the different ways each artists sounds throughout the song.

Positive Aspects of This Paper:

Comparing this assignment to the literacy narrative I had written a few weeks prior to this one, I showed noticeable improvement in a number of aspects where I fell short on my literacy narrative. The areas where I improved my writing and cohesion skills will be explained below:

The biggest positive aspect of this paper is how I maintain cohesion in this paper's main argument. My main thesis in this paper is how the song "Pearl Fountain" by Yung Lean, Bladee, and Black Kray, is a roller coaster of vibes and tones. I describe the song this way because the differing ways in which each artist sounds, combined with the order of their verses, doesn't allow for a consistent or predictable vibe to the song. When it came time to write, in order to keep my overall thesis relevant, I consistently alluded back to this statement as I broke down the structure of the song. Specifically, by alluding to a roller coaster analogy, I was able to put the "roller coaster of vibes and tones" into perspective with the way I described how each artist sounded throughout the song. The instances when I alluded to such analogy are listed below:

This vibe is further supported by the heavy use of autotune and his voice being smooth and operatic. Considering how this song is a roller coaster of tones, this part can be described as the beginning of the roller coaster, where it goes up the tracks before descending (Paragraph 8)

Tying this back to the roller coaster analogy, Black Kray’s verse serves as the descent right after the ascendance. The speed of this part of the ride ties to how his voice excites and pumps up the listener. (Paragraph 9)

He drags the last words of his lines to create an atmospheric sound. This shift in tone is similar to another ascendance in the roller coaster. This shift in tone transitions into Yung Lean’s second verse. (Paragraph 9)

Yung Lean’s second appearance serves as the continued ascendance in the roller coaster, which Black Kray helped set up for him through the way he ended his verse. (Paragraph 10)

His voice’s energy increases and eventually hits a peak and falls. This part serves as a small descendance in the roller coaster by the way it creates suspenseful feelings as to what might come afterwards. The song then turns onto Bladee's verse. (Paragraph 10)

Tying this to the roller coaster analogy, the fast ascendance has led to a slow descent that signals the ride is about to be over. (Paragraph 11)

This ending takes the place of the end of the roller coaster ride, where it slows down before reaching its starting point on the tracks and stopping. (Paragraph 12)

As it can be seen, I alluded to this analogy numerous times throughout the structural breakdown of "Pearl Fountain". Ultimately, thanks to the constant mention of this roller coaster allegory, I was able to obtain full credit on this assignment, showing my effort and innovation as a writer in terms of arguing and supporting a thesis statement.

Areas of Improvement and Development From My Literacy Narrative:

First Area Where I Improved - Introduction Of Sources:

Taking a step back, one of the main problems in my literacy narrative was that the way I introduced and explained sources wasn't very descriptive or elaborate. In my literacy narrative, my descriptions of sources simply listed the name of the source, the author, and a brief explanation of the ideas or argument talked about by the author in their work. Furthermore, another issue on top of this is that in that assignment, I didn't do a good job in explicitly stating the goals or purposes of the sources I was citing. Realizing that this type of introduction was vague and hurt the credibility of my source and my writing's overall cohesion, I pursued to try and introduce sources and other material in a more detailing fashion. This pursuit is present and noticeable in this rhetorical analysis. Here, when I introduce "The Voice" by Simon Frith in the first paragraph, I make sure to be elaborate by providing a background on who the author is, stating the argument of his written work, and inserting a quote from the text to support that argument:

The way each artist uses their voice to create distinct vibes is best explained when considering the ideas in Simon Frith’s essay “The Voice”. Simon Frith is a British socio-musicologist, critic, and writer who specializes in popular music culture. He is also a professor emeritus of music at the University of Edinburgh. In his essay “The Voice,”  he argues that the use of voice in music can take on a number of characteristics. He argues that “We have, therefore, to approach the voice under four headings: as a musical instrument, as a body, as a person, and as a character.” (“The Voice” pg. 187). (Paragraph 11)

As it can be seen, this description is much more elaborate than those present in my literacy narrative. I provide a smooth transition from introducing the artists of the song "Pearl Fountain" to presenting "The Voice" and Simon Frith. Furthermore, I provide a background on Simon Frith by saying he is a musicologist, critic, writer, and a former professor at the University of Edinburgh. Lastly, I explained the main goal of Frith's essay "The Voice" is to argue that voice in music can be classified under a number of characteristics. Such characteristics which include being described as a musical instrument, as a body, as a person, and as a character. Overall, this elaborate introduction to "The Voice" and Simon Frith helped pave the way for me to write the remainder of this assignment as it served as an assertive, direct, and solid start to my thesis regarding the about "Pearl Fountain".

Second Area Where I Improved - Quote Usage

Although briefly touched upon in the first area of improvement above, I also improved in the way I utilized quotes in this assignment. My utilization of quotes was another issue that affected by literacy narrative. In this assignment however, I did a good job in implementing and explaining cited quotes in a smoother, more cohesive manner. This is present in the quotes listed below.

The way each artist uses their voice to create distinct vibes is best explained when considering the ideas in Simon Frith’s essay “The Voice”. Simon Frith is a British socio-musicologist, critic, and writer who specializes in popular music culture. He is also a professor emeritus of music at the University of Edinburgh. In his essay “The Voice,”  he argues that the use of voice in music can take on a number of characteristics. He argues that “We have, therefore, to approach the voice under four headings: as a musical instrument, as a body, as a person, and as a character.” (“The Voice” pg. 187). This quote is a general summary of the main points of Frith’s essay. (Paragraph 1)

In the piece of text provided above, I do a good job in seamlessly including a quote from "The Voice" onto my explanation for the article as a whole. This quote from Frith helps in establishing a framework for understanding how the voices of Yung Lean, Bladee, and Black Kray create distinct vibes in their collaboration on "Pearl Fountain." By approaching each artists' voice through Frith's four categories for voice, which are musical instrument, body, person, and character, we can get a better understanding on how the artists use their voices to shape the vibes and tones of the song. 

When considering the feelings evoked by the song along with Frith’s ideas, it is clear that the voices in “Pearl Fountain” best fit the category of voice as a musical instrument. To further explain this characteristic, Frith says: “Voice can be used, like any other instrument, to make noise of the right sort at the right time” (pg. 187).  The quote provided lets us know why exactly the voice can be looked at this way, which is because the voice has a sound. This sound can be used to make noise with different pitches and tones, which are both things instruments can do. (Paragraph 2).

In this other piece of text, I also do a good job in providing a smooth introduction/transition to the quote provided, where state that the voices in "Pearl Fountain" are best classified as musical instruments, due to the song's nature as well as Frith's ideas. After the quote is stated, I also do a good job in putting Frith's ideas about voice as an instrument into simple terms. I do this by saying that voice can be considered a musical instrument because it has sound, which can be used to create different sounds, pitches, and tones, which are all things normal instruments can do. 

Conclusion

This assignment was a really big improvement to my literacy narrative, which is reflected on how I received full credit for it. The aspects in which I fell short in throughout my narrative were greatly improved in this rhetorical analysis. In particular, these aspects were the introduction of my sources and the use of quotes. In this assignment, I introduced my sources in a much more descriptive, elaborate, and detailed manner that showcased a background of the author and their main argument in the work. Furthermore, I also utilized quotes in a smoother fashion, using lead-up sentences to offer clear transitions between by words to the quote's introduction. Also, after stating such quotes, I made sure to provide proper explanations and comments for them. Overall, my improvement in these aspects demonstrates my desire to want to become a better writer through the way I improved drastically in a short amount of time. This short-term improvement also highlights the way I progressively abandoned "perfectionist" mentality in this class. To me, the way I focused on cohesion throughout this assignment served as a step towards finally this mindset.