Alright so I decided that instead of just leaving this as it was, that I'd re-write it and expand to make an actual art commentary about this piece...so here goes!
So when you first listen to this song your response probably includes something about it being fun and goofy, etc. which it is. I don't feel like I need to analyze that side of the piece very much because its obvious: it's a song about different types of cereal (sorry Dr. Grant that they don't include fruit loops). But beyond the goofy topic and the fun melody, the song is pretty technical and challenging.
Listen to the harmonies. On the main hook of "milk and cereal, cereal and milk" the high harmony is just some version of a moving third (not all that complicated) but whenever they go to the big chord around 1:10, I hear at least 5 voices being layered which is very complex. Although I'm sure this song is a studio creation and it probably isn't performed live by G. Love very often, the idea behind the song is genius.
Now let's move to content. Types of cereal, cool! Now maybe G. Love was just stoned and came up with this song, but even some of the rhyme schemes in here are well crafted. The verse about Wheaties is really well thought-out. Although they are all perfect rhymes (I'm counting wheaties-needy as a perfect rhyme although technically it's a subtractive rhyme), the important thing about rhyming is that the words all match the content and the hot-spots make sense. A hot spot is the last word of the phrase and if you can read those and determine the subject of the verse, etc. then the hot spots are done well. In this case its wheaties-needy-greedy-myself. That makes sense to me, you guys can tell me if you think its a good rhyme sequence!
So there's my analysis! The most important things for me in a song are whether its well crafted, well sung, and interesting. I think this song definitely embodies that (although G. Love's pitch is somewhat questionable it totally works for the style of the song). Oh and I think the tag at the end about grandma and her bran muffin is hilarious!
Hope you guys enjoy the song as much as I do! Here's the clip:
I was going to counter with "Hot Cookin'" (avail on youtube), but the video is lousy and the harmonies are so much more fun on Cereal. But no mention of Fruit Loops!
ReplyDeleteSo why waste so much technical mastery on such a pointless song?
ReplyDeleteDo we have a species of (modernist)abstraction at work here?
Or (let's see if I can get some arguing started), how can the meaningless but beautiful(?) sound here be compared to the attempts to recapitulate nature's sounds in Whitacre's "Cloudburst"? Are these two compositions up to the same thing in terms of sound and beauty, or are they different projects with clearly distinct agendas?
It is only pointless if you think it is, I think the lyrical content adds to its technical mastery. Just because the topic isn't serious or moving or intense, doesn't mean that the song is pointless.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to look at it closely, you can probably see a very unintentional modernist abstraction, I doubt G. Love is that intellectual though.
Non-nonsensical/goofy and meaningless are two very different things. As far as your point with that paragraph goes, I'm not sure that I'm getting it. Can you explain it in a different way?