Going back to how I would listen to Ariana Grande, her albums definitely had the pop mixed into R&B, soul, hip-hop and EDM. However, Grande had songs such as "My Everything," https://youtu.be/HxWSDUC-KTU and "Just A Little Bit of Your Heart'' https://youtu.be/OVOhs_TSwsQ from her sophomore album, My Everything, where the undertune had more of a sad melancholy rhythmic density that lacked EDM and hip-hop as a danceable track. Grande also achieves this sound more in her albums Sweetener and Thank U, Next that was created after Grande went through a traumatizing event during one of her concerts on her Dangerous Woman tour. Where a bombing happened that killed and injured fans of Grande who were attending the concert. She brought her original tunes of pop and R&B into a vulnerability that has more of an emotional sound to it. The emotional and vulnerability comes from Grande suffering from PTSD as well as celebrating herself and showing that authenticity of her, which had one-hundred percent of my interest connecting on an emotional level with an artist. I further noticed with my choices of Jess Glynne and Olivia Rodrigo is their authenticity and vulnerability in making their music more emotional that deals with heartbreak and ownership, similar to Grande.
The vulnerability and authenticity of Jess Glynne isn't what I was familiar with at first as Glynne as an artist. I was familiar with one of her singles "Rather Be" https://youtu.be/EMN3N6oyDv0 as Glynne was a featured artist with an English band, Clean Bandit off of her debut album, I Cry When I Laugh. Where this track has production of pop that involves dance and electronic music. The instrumentation includes a violin, chiptune style, synth blips, a slow bass, piano and vocals. Songs I later found that have a different sound than "Rather Be," is what has the authenticity and vulnerability that gained my attention in this artist, such as the songs "Take Me Home" https://youtu.be/aHnE3h1jc_w and "Insecurities" https://youtu.be/hEa2OZWyIdM. "Take Me Home," includes Glynne's vocals as well as piano accompaniment that captivates the tone of the lyrics as an emotional song that includes drums. The drum accompaniment creates the beat with the piano, Glynne's vocals and violin mix together. "Insecurities," includes piano accompaniment and Glynne's vocals. For songs that have an undertone of vulnerability and emotion such like these songs make me want to dance. These songs both put me in a good mood as well as good songs to cry to when I am sad. When it comes to showing songs to my friends with my personal style as a variety as a whole that happens to include emotional songs, it almost makes me feel embarrassed. One of my best friends, I'll name her Katie for the sake of this essay. When I often show her new songs, sometimes I feel that she's ashamed of me of a completely different genre to her preference. However, Katie often finds music off of TikTok, a social media site that I don't care for. I don't care for this site because of the idea of trending topics, where I see people who use this social media site like Katie to only like certain videos with dances and songs just because it's trending.
A lot of new singers and songs have become popular because of this social media site. In one way I am grateful for TikTok, because one of the artists who rose to fame from this site, Olivia Rodrigo, blew up on TikTok with her debut single, "Drivers License." However, when it comes the way I find new music is that I take it on as a personal level, where it is my choice that is what I feel TikTok lacks. This is where my music identity is shown, as to what I personally think of music using the aspect of 'personal' rather than entirely social. Personal being the sense of choice and what makes us individual. The two mixed together on a social and personal level does make me feel insecure about myself, although when it comes to my best friend and I, we do share songs with each other that we both enjoy as well as dislike. What we don't share together is our love for certain artists, an artist I like that Katie doesn't is Olivia Rodrigo. I also didn't find Olivia Rodrigo on TikTok, I found her off of YouTube when she released the music video for "Drivers License." Rodrigo's genre of pop does mix into rock, indie, alternative, and ballads. My interest in authenticity, and vulnerability Rodrigo consists of these themes in her music in such songs as, "Traitor," https://youtu.be/6tsu2oeZJgo, "Drivers License" https://youtu.be/2PRvp-mP_q0, "1 step forward and 3 steps back" https://youtu.be/w-HfMiue7-k, "Deja Vu" https://youtu.be/fWgboQNNfB8, "Enough for you" https://youtu.be/AqRXiQkyxvI, "Happier" https://youtu.be/AqRXiQkyxvI, "Favorite Crime" https://youtu.be/AyX_LL9nWSE, and "Hope Ur Ok" https://youtu.be/ZLlsmB1D4Q0. Rodrigo's theme in her album, SOUR is about a heartbreak she went through that has been reportedly said in the media she was dating a co-star on the Disney + show, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, who cheated on her with another girl, speculating to be Sabrina Carpenter. Out of my interpretations of her album was not to buy into the drama that's shown in the media.
I know it can be common in the music industry to have celebrities to reportedly date as a publicity stunt to promote their new album. However, I got more clarity of Rodrigo not just as an artist from how she made her album, but also know what type of person she experiencing heartbreak is by stating in her documentary, Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2 U, "If I put out the song, 'Deja Vu' that I'm playing into this drama, love triangle and let's hate on other girls' type of thing. I just did not want to do that. I never write any of my songs from that point of view, because that's not something that I feel." The way I perceived hearing this line after reflecting on SOUR in its entirety, is that Rodrigo created her sound and lyrics as a way of respecting herself and other women in the music industry when it comes to writing about a breakup. Rodrigo wrote and created the album based on her feelings within her vulnerability and emotion of going through a heartbreak as an adolescent. Into how she views her adolescent years, as being born into Generation Z in songs such as, "Brutal" and "Jealousy, Jealousy." Where "Brutal" https://youtu.be/pe6xAZJdF9o, has an angsty uptempo tone used with brash electric guitar and drums. "Jealousy Jealousy" https://youtu.be/AuEQC1siVS8, has an upbeat tone used with bass guitar, piano, synthesizer, and drums. The appeal of feelings within vulnerability and authenticity in Rodrigo's music I was captivated by especially because Rodrigo is young. I'm twenty years old and I like to dip my toe into listening to any artist of all ages, such as Rodrigo who is nineteen. Where I can as a listener think of different artists from ones who approach their lyrics that involve feelings and opinions to consider different interpretations from one to another.
The artists I thought of for this essay being about a genre of music that can best represent who I am was Ariana Grande, Jess Glynne and Olivia Rodrigo. These artists experiment in making music between production value from an upbeat and uptempo sound to further in emotional music. I wanted to focus on these artists having to do with an artist I looked up to as a young girl, Ariana Grande. An artist I found unexpectedly on YouTube, Jess Glynne. As well as an artist who has prominently made a new name for herself, Olivia Rodrigo. In my personal opinion, Olivia Rodrigo has revolutionized music as an adolescent making music about heartbreak and how she views her adolescent years, especially the success she's received so fast being on Billboard Hot 100's top ten with the singles, "Drivers License," "Deja Vu," "Good 4 U," https://youtu.be/o6Tf-xcVB_o , and "Traitor." The direction of music these artists wanted for their image is what I perceived to not think of them as bubblegum pop artists, only letting one genre describe them when they like to venture in the scene of pop as an artist who writes their own songs to show who they are. Since they write about their own feelings and emotions is how I am representing myself as a person who likes to take on topics some artists are afraid of, such as being vulnerable, because these artists made me both the type of listener and person to explore in music as for my personal self and social self. Myself socially and personally represents who I am from how I enjoy music as well as how I perceive it in myself emotionally. For my social self I can be having a good time at a party singing and dancing to an upbeat song, rather than my personal self I would engage in activities such as singing, dancing, exercising and doing homework, etc.. to an emotional song with less music production at home. Where this applies to all of the artists I discussed who have the upbeat production in songs to dance to and songs that have less production that has more to do with vocals that makes it emotional.
In conclusion, in this essay I discussed how the artists Ariana Grande, Jess Glynne and Olivia Rodrigo in the pop singer songwriter genre best represents who I am as an emotional, but experimental listener.
Works Cited
McIntyre, Hugh. Olivia Rodrigo Lands Four Top 10 Hits On Billboard's Global Chart As BTW Debuts At No. 1. 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2021/06/01/olivia-rodrigo-lands-four-top-10-hits-on-billboards-global-chart-as-bts-debuts-at-no-1/?sh=31dad1d42067.
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Music Identity
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