[tone]

Interesting analysis of Adele's song 'someone like you' and tear-jerkers in general.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203646004577213010291701378.html?mod=WSJ_Books_LS_Books_5

[flossie]

Thanks for that Tone,

interesting stuff...I'm going to give that a go, apoggiatura's at the ready!

Flossie
x

[djohnson1974]

Interesting artice, thanks for posting.

People have been trying to devise formulae for songwriting for centuries and it never seems to work without producing mountains of cheese!

[Schavuitje]

Hiya This is all very interesting

I posted a song somewhere on here... Probably in the bar, called Wah, Wah by George Harrison and I keep saying on these forums

how much I personally like dischord in songs. I the song Wah Wah every verse build to a terrific clmax where there is so much dischord,

and then that final release comes as it drops back into the main guitar riff. It's the same thing. When it finally resolves it is such a fantastic feeling.

Seriously. Have a listen and I'm sure you hear what I mean. Pure Genuis! George didn't really like this song at first and when Eric Clapton kept going on

about how good it was he almost gave it to Clapton for his album 

&index=28&feature=plpp_video

[jmacdon]

Start any song with an a-minor arpeggio and the vocal on C, and you have an instant tear-jerker......

[S.T.C]

Funny , i was just going to start a new topic about Adele's songs and i saw this one.
I`m totally inspired by here songs and keep watching them on youtube.i won`t buy 21...as i find i need the visual...(the power of video)...but i think if you want to discover the key to success you need to examine her stuff closely......theres nothing that complicated about them, yet they seem to hit all the right buttons,all the emotions......a singer and a piano......worldwide hit.

[tone]

It's funny you should say that about video. I have a little rule about video which is that if I don't find a song or some music interesting without video, then it's not really that great. If music can't move you on its own, then it's doing something wrong, right?

[The Corsair]

It's funny you should say that about video. I have a little rule about video which is that if I don't find a song or some music interesting without video, then it's not really that great. If music can't move you on its own, then it's doing something wrong, right?

I agree with you entirely but I can't help but imagine the following scenario:

Videos do add something to music, even though the music is meant to stand out on its own. After enough exposure to the video and not just the standalone music you come to find the music alone isn't as good.

Also, some people are just more 'visual-minded' and a video they find good will outweigh a song they find good in terms of what's better in their mind.

[S.T.C]

It's funny you should say that about video. I have a little rule about video which is that if I don't find a song or some music interesting without video, then it's not really that great. If music can't move you on its own, then it's doing something wrong, right?

I sort of agree........rolling stones song angie.......is great but it`s more with the video, but i would buy it....Adele is very good live, but basically i don`t want to spend a tenner on a cd and regret it...i got the stranglers greatest hits for £3, and they have a decent Thinlizzy compo for the same..i`m not really a female buying punter,although i got 2 smoke faries cds last yr......her music is great.perhaps when it`s £3 and the hypes over,i`ll buy it.

[estreet]

Thing is ... everyone has different emotional buttons that can be pushed, but I don't think that just because a song makes a lot of people cry it's necessarily good. Since when has mass popularity been an indication of quality? Several million people become emotionally involved over the X-factor.

I do agree that the octave leap is an effective, if irritating way of getting an army of sheep to become emotional though. I'm thinking here of gritting my teeth when Whitney does it in 'I will always love you' - ruining a really lovely (Dolly Parton is an underrated and great songwriter in my opinion) song in the process.

Tear -Jerkers? Personally, I cant keep myself together at all in Tom Waits' 'Ruby's Arms' - daren't listen to it in company lol. Or his lesser known 'Fish and Bird' - what a great lyric and sustained metaphor that is - I can't even type them after a few glasses without blubbing although you do need to hear him sing it first ...

"Fish & Bird"

They bought a round for the sailor
And they heard his tale
Of a world that was so far away
And a song that we'd never heard
A song of a little bird
That fell in love with a whale

He said, 'You cannot live in the ocean'
And she said to him
'You never can live in the sky'
But the ocean is filled with tears
And the sea turns into a mirror
There's a whale in the moon when it's clear
And a bird on the tide

Please don't cry
Let me dry your eyes

So tell me that you will wait for me
Hold me in your arms
I promise we never will part
I'll never sail back to the time
But I'll always pretend you're mine
Though I know that we both must part
You can live in my heart

Please don't cry
Let me dry your eyes

[HillbillyJim]

It's interesting! I think it's also worth saying that a lot of Beatles ballads (as an obvious example people agree are great!) are just swimming in these tricks.
Off the top of my head, quickly resolved dissonances:

'YESTerday / All my troubles seemed so FAR away...'
'ELEANor Rigby...'
'Try to see it MY way...'
'There are places I'll reMEMber ...'

Wide/Octave melody leaps:

I Saw Her Standing There ('held her hand in MINE')
Please Please Me (the chorus *and* the middle 8!)
She Loves You ('woo' just before the choruses)
I Want To Hold Your Hand (again just before the chorus)
Twist and Shout ('aah' etc)
All My Loving (right at the end)
Help ('Won't you PLEASE please help me!')
Hey Jude (just before the chorus bit comes in)
Let It Be (another one of those 'ooh' falsetto bits)
Oh! Darling (scattered around a few times)

Sudden Dynamic / Texture Changes:

Actually I can't think of that many of these... 'Yesterday' with the strings is the most obvious one
I suppose you can have 'Come Together' and 'She's So Heavy' as well even if they're not really ballads as you normally imagine them...

Surprises in general though, frankly you could come up with dozens in nearly every song, that's why they're The Beatles