I would like to discuss a Post Malone song, because I believe that he uses almost all of the musical elements that we have learned. Post Malone writes his songs with such passion as if he is telling us a story through his songs, and he is my favorite artist of all time. The song I want to go into detail about is “I Fall Apart” off of his Stoney album. The reason I chose this specific song is that I feel like it is the best one to point out each element. The genre of music that Post Malone writes is a mix of hip-hop, rap rock, and contemporary r&b.
With the rhythm of the song, starting with the duration of the song it is 3 minutes and 43 seconds. Following that, be sure to notice is the meter, as it is a quadruple four beat per measure, and opens the song with a strong beat, then to a weak beat, next to a medium beat, and finally to a weak beat again. An important feature of rhythm is the tempo, and the tempo is the speed of the beat, which in this case, is allegro that a fast/happy pulse in the music. One more feature for rhythm that I heard in this piece is rubato, a free and expressive change in the temp, that is not just slowing down or speeding up, but a mix of both.
The dynamics of the piece is what relates how loud or how quiet the music is, there are several levels that are included, but in this piece, I only heard about three out of the six that are commonly known. The first level that shows up in the song is fortissimo (ff) which is very loud, the second level that shows up in the song is mezzo-piano (mp) which is moderately quiet, and the third level that shows up in the song is fortissimo (fff) which is very loud but louder than the original fortissimo (ff). I also believe that there is some form of accent in the song because Post Malone does not gradually get louder or quieter, rather than leaning into a note harder to temporarily emphasize the note.
127 our experts are availableright now
Melody is considered to represent the pitch, in order to make it memorable for the audience to comprehend. Specifically, in this song, it is written in A minor on what I believe to be the whole tone scale, in order to complement the singer voice, as well as the instruments that are used to pull the entire piece together. I would call this a conjunct melody due to it being smooth and easy enough for the audience to sing or even play. I do not think I mentioned the certain instruments that are being used in this piece, which include the piano, an electric guitar, an electric bass, and a drum set.
In harmony, it uses pitch to turn them into chords. It is said that the chords are organized to be sentence-like arrangements that are called chord progressions. Which is seen in the sheet music of this particular song, there are several places that a chord progression can be seen. There is a type of harmony that is depicted depending on the harshness of it, and in this case, it is consonance, which is a smooth-sounding harmonic combination. One last term that can describe the harmony of this piece is tonality because I would say that the song focuses on one key center, and not jumping around from key to key.
The tone color or also known as timbre is based on how the instruments and voice coincide with each other and being able to distinguish them from one another. With that established, now to think about how tone color/timbre work with this piece. The different instruments include a piano, electric guitar, electric bass, and a drum set. All of which can be heard in parallel with Post Malone’s voice. The piano gives a softer feel, the electric guitar and electric bass give a grungy feel, and the drums giving it a from the heart type of feel. In this song, being able to identify the instruments as well as the voice, and how they work together is important because it is able to help the listener to understand the purpose of this song.
Dealing with texture, that it takes the separate melodies and even the way they interact with each other. There are several types of textures that all contribute to different types of music/songs. In this piece, the texture that is being used is homophonic because within the music there is two or more notes that are creating a sound at the same time and that is supported by a less sophisticated harmony accompaniment that is playing underneath the lyrics with the instruments. The musical form that is represented in this song is considered to be the binary form, which is that there are repeated marks throughout the song that all together form contrast for the song to have more depth in it.
In this song written by Post Malone shows me that there is more than one form of showing how music can several elements in the modern period that we all know to this day. I feel like he could have done better in trying to incorporate more elements of music, even though I did mention all of the elements that I thought were in the song, does not mean that there were actually all of the musical elements in the song. In my opinion I believe that Post Malone did use most of the elements, but even with me active listening to the song, I feel like I may have added or missed some musical elements that were a part of the song. Either way, when I listen to this song it makes me feel the pain that I can hear within his voice.
This song is about a heart break that he went through in high school, and honestly, I understand the feelings he is trying to portray. He uses his lyrics in the perfect way to portray his feelings while he was going through this time in his life. I love that he admits that he did love the other person but comes to the realization that heartbreak is a part of life that we all have to deal with in our own ways. This song made a huge impact on me in way I never thought a song could. “I Fall Apart” is a song I listen to when I need reassurance that everything is going to be fine, not only when I am going through a break up, but rather whenever I am going through a hard time in general. Not only does this song make me feel like way, but the entire “Stoney” album gives me the same feeling. I listen to it whenever I am feeling anxious or just sad, even though most of the songs are sad, it makes me feel better about me.
