As I mentioned at our choir retreat I really really really
love Troye Sivan. For everyone who does not know him, he is a twenty-one year
old, South African singer and songwriter, who lives in Australia. He recently
came out with a new pop album called Blue Neighborhood and literally every song
is fantastic and I highly recommend everyone checks him out. My obsession with
his music started out slow, but then I soon just fell head over heels in love
with it. I started wondering why all of I sudden I seemed to care so much about
it and it made me realize that it is not only the music itself, but his personality
and connection to the audience. I really love the lyrics in his songs because
they are, at least for me, very relatable because they are about experiencing
what it is like becoming an adult and testing your boundaries in unfamiliar
terrain. And since I’m going off to college soon (yikes), I feel the same uncertainty
that he describes. He also sings a lot about heartbreak over boys, and love and
relationships. Also, he and his team write all his music so it feels even more
from the heart. Additionally, when you watch him sing on stage he feels so
genuinely passionate about his music and happy to share it with the audience
that you can’t help but smile.
I think there is a real difference
between being a singer and a performer, which really comes across with Troye. A
singer may hit the right notes and have good rhythm (which is critical don’t
get me wrong), but a performer brings the passion behind the song. Not only
does this make it more fun for the artist, but the audience can really connect
as well. I think we should bring this dynamic into our choir. Essentially, the
point I am trying to make is that when we work on a piece in class we should
not only think about the notes in the song, but what the piece is trying to
convey. Obviously it is easier to connect to a modern song about heartbreak
than feeling no cares and envy as we watch our flocks (How Merrily We Live),
but what I’m trying to communicate is that the more we understand the piece,
the better we can communicate the message through vocal dynamics and stage
presence, and the stronger we will be.
(This is a link to my favorite song called Fools! Everyone
should listen to it!!! But warning there is a little bit of swearing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfD96yRT8cs )
I totally agree that having passion and performing the song is just as crucial as hitting the right notes. Another artist that puts passion behind his performance is Bruno Mars. Personally I really enjoy his music because when you are watching him on stage, you can tell that he is enjoying himself as well as performing with passion. Even if you are just listening to one of his songs on the radio you can still hear how much emotion and passion he has for each song.
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of relatability, some of his songs like Lazy Song are pretty relatable especially being a high school senior.
Being a good performer and singer is definitely a win win situation. I mean think about, Micheal Jackson, Beyonce!!!! Elvis and probably a bunch more were all great performers and singers and that contributed to why their fans loves them till today. Most singers that we listen to and watch tend to do very minimum movement because they are so focused on the singing part, and unless your an amazing and chill giving singer then you should really add something interesting for the viewer to look at and not get bored. Singers such as Beyonce and Micheal Jackson,put on such great preformances, it is fun watching their youtube videos or seeing them live because its always a mystery as to what there going to perform for us, and therefore making the video/concert memorable as well as making them memorable for the viewers/fans.
ReplyDeleteI agree, a lot of what makes songs popular is the relatable quality that they have. I feel like to a certain extent though, pop music artists have taken advantage of this, writing lyrics that are so incredibly vague that they are relatable to literally anyone who hears them, like Taylor Swift's "We are Never Ever Getting Back Together." Also, the performer vs. singer idea is so true! I was just thinking the other day, about how some of my favorite artists like Mitch and Scott from Pentatonix, Ariana Grande, Nick Jonas among many other pop singers, did theater before they were famous. And Beyonce, who has been dancing just as long she has been singing. In that way, I feel like people who become famous singers/popstars, have been training to do this their whole life, and if you haven't taken dance lessons since you were five and and singing before you were talking, you're not cut out for the business. Which leads me to the question, that if you start singing later on in life, can you still make it into the industry? Is a performance presence experience based, and something that can be learned over time, or do some people just "have it" and others simply don't? These questions are open to discussion as I'm not sure, but I personally believe that anything can be learned with a lot of hard work and dedication.
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