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Ideas & Inspiration

In order to begin the process of creating my song, I wanted to gather ideas from a variety of songs to gain a sense of what style and direction I would like to achieve. This will enable me to be creative and experimental when developing my song in Logic Pro X.

I first began developing my ideas by listening to various songs in the current charts so that I could gain a sense of what music is like today in terms of style, genre as well as the instrumentation that is used. Many of the songs are genres of Pop and Hip Hop, however, one song that stood out to me in particular was a song called ‘1999’ by Charli XCX and Troy Sivan which is inspired by 90s pop.

The song is clever in the sense that its lyrical content talks about the 90s and also uses recognisable musical elements/instruments from 90s Dance Pop such as: a catchy bass guitar, piano, electronic drums, synths and more.

Below are some of the ideas that I have written down from what I have heard from 90s Dance Pop songs and these ideas will prove useful in the construction of my track.

These ideas have also led me to further research into 90s Dance Pop with songs such as ‘Waiting For Tonight’ by Jennifer Lopez, a hit song from 1998 (Harrison, 2011, p.11). This has inspired me to try and create something similar in terms of its structure, considering the melody, chord sequence and instrumentation to produce a love song that you can dance to.

Furthermore, other songs such as ‘Pump Up The Jam’ by Technotronic and ‘Be My Lover’ by La Bouche are other examples of stylistic elements I would like to use in my song.

From these findings, my main aim is to somewhat bring 90s Dance Pop elements to my song, but to also add modern Pop elements to my piece which will be explored further in the process.

Reference List:

Charli XCX. (2018). Charli XCX & Troye Sivan – 1999 [Official Video]. [Online Video]. 11 October 2018. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-v1b9waHWY. [Accessed: 3rd March 2019].

Harrison, T. (2011). Music of the 1990s. California: ABC-CLIO.

Jennifer Lopez. (2009). Jennifer Lopez – Waiting For Tonight. [Online Video] 23 November 2009. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_66jPJVS4JE [Accessed: 3rd March 2019].