My work is about the anxiety experienced when attempting to be yourself, an individual, living in a world full of political, religious, family, and lifestyle influences. These influences can be overwhelming and sometimes even consume our daily lives. People often never discover themselves or find out what they can do because they become consumed by these influences. The debate of nurture and nature comes to mind. In a sense, our nurture can be overshadowed by our nature. For example, someone raised in a conservative environment where religion and social status is very important could affect their choice in occupation and religion. In this case, I think being your own person can invoke anxiety.
My layout resembled a person chaotically and quickly channel surfing on an old-timey radio. I thought the act of channel surfing represents a metaphor for someone experiencing the external influences that present themselves in their life. So, my song is a mixture of fast pasted radio surfing
Software: Garageband Essentials
Utilizing Grageband Essentials To create tension and more anxiety, I inserted a low rumble from the Wave Space instrument periodically throughout the track. This instrument acted as a filler as well. I used pan in several different areas of my track. Such as at 50 seconds, the water sound pans. I wanted the listener to experience anxiety or an overload of sounds at the beginning of the song and then suddenly crash, being submerged in an underwater space. This submersion represents a breakdown or panic attack. Also around this time, I added the Airy Vox Synth and Wave Space for tension with pan. Lastly I panned the Think for Yourself lyrics at the beginning of the song, because I wanted them to come across as voices in the mind. I used loops to reiterate points about individualism, overall to send the message “Think for yourself”. The last plugin I used was echo on the laughter at 15 seconds and later. This was to help create a feeling of space and breaks brought on by the anxiety from “channel surfing” through life.
I used pan effect on the water sounds, Airy Vox Synth, Wave Space, some lyrics from Rag’n Bone Man to create an illusion of space. Some spaces are chaotic, while others are calm. Lastly, I used echo on the laughter sound effects and Kesha lyrics.
I used high-end sounds mostly in my sound effects, to grab the listener’s attention. Such as the car screeching to a halt at 47 seconds. Sometimes I repeatedly grabbed their attention with high-end sounds, attempting to add to my chaos theme, such as at the beginning of the song. Then I would bring either lyrics or sounds down to mid-range, helping create these breakdown moments. I then used a combination of mid-range sounds and low-end sounds during this period. An example of this can be found at 50 seconds.
Critical Thoughts
I enjoyed the introduction part of my song, I feel like it truly grabs the listener’s attention. Also, I feel like I accomplish my goal wanting to communicate this feeling of chaos and anxiety throughout the song.
I feel like I could find more sound effects or possibly speeches that add to the overall message I am trying to communicate. Along with strategically placing these sound effects/speech to further clarify or add to my message. Lastly, picking a title is super tricky, I still feel as though I could edit this.
This website provides information about both sides of nature and nurture. I focused on the nurture qualities of this article. Such as what effects exposure, experience, and learning have on an individual.
LINDI 