{"id":61,"date":"2018-12-02T16:17:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T21:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-02\/?page_id=61"},"modified":"2018-12-02T23:38:56","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T04:38:56","slug":"musical-plotlines","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-02\/musical-plotlines\/","title":{"rendered":"Musical Plotlines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Party and the After Party\u201d is a song that follows a musical and lyrical plot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"responsive-video\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"755\" height=\"425\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yI-zb_aP0So?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first part of the song is \u201cthe party.\u201d This section is very melodic, has a faster tempo, light percussion, an organ sounding synth, and a sample from the pop duo Beach House\u2019s song released in 2006, \u201cMaster of None,\u201d which guides the first half along, (Green 1). This is supposed to resemble Tesfaye at a party, finding a girl and wanting to bring her up to a bedroom. \u201cThe party,\u201d is light and smooth, and has an uplifting sound as the synths and his voice are all in high ranges. \u201cThe after party,\u201d is the second half of the song which has much less percussion, a slower tempo, and more raw vocals.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Listeners can hear his breathing and the sounds his mouth makes when singing since the texture becomes so thin. This part is supposed to be Tesfaye alone with a girl doing drugs and having sex with her. His vocals are more strained as most of this part is in the higher range. He sings longingly just over an acoustic guitar riff which highlights the private moment Tesfaye is having with this woman. There is a clear distinction between the smoother, and upbeat sound of the \u201cparty,\u201d while the \u201cafter party\u201d is more alluring and feels more intimate as there is much less production. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This mirrors some of the tactics used in Michael Jackson\u2019s, \u201cBillie Jean.\u201d In her article, \u201cFrom Cautionary Chart-Topper to Friendly Beverage Anthem: Michael Jackson&#8217;s \u2018Billie Jean\u2019 and Pepsi&#8217;s &#8220;Choice of a New Generation&#8221; Television Campaign,\u201d Joanna Love introduces \u201cBillie Jean\u201d as a \u201c&#8230;cliched tale of the celebrity who falls prey to a dissatisfied ex&#8230; which evokes betrayal and lies through a skillful pairing of poetic lyrics with harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic instabilities,\u201d (Love 184). The switches in modes and keys create a nervous tension and mimic the \u201ccontradicting testimonies between Jackson and his accuser,\u201d (Love 186). Jackson has specific musical elements corresponding with the plot of the song just as The Weeknd does. The nervous energy of Michael Jackson\u2019s, \u201cBillie Jean,\u201d resembles the buoyant spirit of \u201cthe party\u201d and the intimate energy of \u201cthe after party.\u201d Their music feels more like an experience as the energy builds and changes throughout their songs reflecting their story lines. Michael Jackson\u2019s impact is apparent in The Weeknd\u2019s plot inspired lyrics.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe Party and the After Party\u201d is a song that follows a musical and lyrical plot.\u00a0 The first part of the song is \u201cthe party.\u201d This section is very melodic, has a faster tempo, light percussion, an organ sounding synth,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4272,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-61","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}