Review of the module

photo taken from innovationfactory

So this is the last day of my Online Project. Funnily, I sit in my bed with my laptop, ill again, and edit all my posts. Jim is either e-mailing me what to do or I just read some hints for improvement of my blog on his blog. This is the studying at a university in the 21st century.

I can't say it enough: I really enjoyed this module. It was definitely the best one I have taken at this university. It was a lot of work, but it did not really feel like work. It was just so much fun. In the last two weeks I ended up posting every day. I was so busy but I made a lot of progress as well.

I have learnt so much about the internet, blogging, social networking sites and I also got to know more research tools that will probably be useful all my life.

At the beginning of this module I was most scared about the group blog. I am not good working in teams. I always say to myself: If you want something to work, do it on your own. However, I was really impressed with the result. The blog wandersee is so different from what I planned to do. It gave me more confidence and improved my English.

The group blog and feature task were the highlights of this module. Analysing a song each day was hard work but a lot of fun as well. It took me up to four hours to do my research, develop an opinion, interpret and write everything down - each day. But I didn't mind.

I really want to continue one of the two. Either I try to find some people to continue the wandersee-project or I just start a new blog and continue my feature. I won't have time to post each day, but maybe once a week is realistic.

First, I need some holidays - and another essay to write. But when I come back for the next semester, I hope I will still be motivated to continue one of the two blogs. But we all know how it is like: We all want to do so many things, but we never do it. I wanted to improve my guitar skills, learn how to play the keyboard better, I wanted to read more books, write more songs, learn French and now I want to write regularly. But I think this time, I am really going to do it.

Online Journalism as a future career? Not so sure. I have always seen myself in the print media. In online journalism you have to be so fast, edit your story every couple of minutes...I have seen so many typing mistakes in online articles, because journalists were in such a hurry. That is ridiculous.

However, Online Journalism has got a new dimension. It also gives you the opportunity to write more creative. When I think about it - that is actually how I started to consider becoming a journalist. I always loved to express myself but never thought I'd be good enough to write novels and earn a living with that. So I thought, I'd try to be a journalist. Now it is actually possible to write in a more arty way in a commercial blog. I could imagine doing that later - as a sidejob.

Angel by Sarah McLachlan

photo taken from 121musicblog

It would just be wrong finishing this series of features without mentioning Sarah McLachlan. Even though she is Canadian, she is a reasonable competitor to Paula Cole, Jewel, Tori Amos and Aimee Mann. That is why she should definitely be mentioned here.

Sarah McLachlan sounds like walking alone through the dark night. She sounds like a peaceful day out on a cemetery. She sounds like drinking wine out of a bottle. She sounds . . . like an angel.

Michelle Goldberg wrote in her feature on McLachlan's music: "It's like the best friend who hides out with you when you're at your lowest, the friend who makes you tea, puts you to bed and takes care of everything while you sob into a pillow."

She hit the nail on the head. Especially Sarah's song "Angel" is often used in emotional scenes in films such as "City of Angels" and TV- series such as "Dawson's Creek" and "Alias".

Sarah performed the song at Live 8 in Philadelphia in 2005 and on "Concert for Linda", a concert in memory of Linda McCartney.

I have mentioned the song in my post about "wander" in my group blog wandersee, but I want to go into more detail this time.

The song is musically very simplistic. Broken up piano chords and her voice singing a thought out melody with many variations is all the song consists of. It is fascinating that it does not get boring. It never does. Not after listening the song thousands of times. The singer just puts so much emotion in word and melody that you can't help but get goose bumps.

There is no official music video for this song, but the most watched is a life version of her singing the song. The video is as simple as the music, but by seeing her emotions in her face and her eyes, this video can't get boring.



The lyrics are one of the saddest in the world - but cheer you up at the same time. They tell you that even when your life is at its worst, you can still escape in "the arms of an angel".

How this angel looks like varies from person to person. On the internet platform SongMeanings, people share their feelings and memories of past ones that they think of when they listen to "Angel". They imagine that they will be taken by their dead loved ones when they feel bad and spend some time with them as a comfort.

Even the day dream of such a thing happening can be the angel, Sarah Mchlachlan is talking about. For me, the angel is a day dream - a dream world where you go in your imagination when you can't handle reality anymore.

Sarah McLachlan herself explained that the song was about Jonathan Melvoin, the Smashing Pumpkins' touring keyboarder, who died in 1996 due to an overdose on heroin. What Sarah meant by the angel was obviously heroin - another way from escaping from the real world.

As so often this week, here I conclude again that a song can mean so many different things to different people - which are the beauty of well-written lyrics as they seem to be written just for you.

photo taken from Neverlend

Wise Up by Aimee Mann

photo published in The Independent

We all have bad habits. People smoke too much, drink too much, get too moody all the time or don't want to let go of people, even though they are long gone. Most of us are aware of our bad habits, but it is so hard to stop them. Often it is a vicious circle and suddenly all your life is related to this one problem you have got. It determines who you are. Aimee Mann gives a solution to that problem, singing: "It's not going to stop, so just . . . give up."

"Wise Up" by Aimee Mann is best known through the American drama film "Magnolia". The film connects stories of nine different people that all have a problem, either a drug addiction, guilt or the inability to forgive.

The song plays an essential role in this movie, as the characters start to sing it, when they realize that their problems are not going to stop - until they wise up.



To be honest, I am not into Aimee Mann's music at all. I do not like her broken lines, she sings as if she is about to fall asleep, the lyrics are too straightforward and her voice annoys me. "Wise Up" still sounds like Aimee is speaking in a clipped manner, the text is as simplistic as "Knocking on heaven's door" and song consists of one piano pattern. However, the piano is a musical device, Aimee Mann does not use in other songs. Most of her songs are dominated by a guitar. But in "Wise Up" Aimee Mann is just accompanied by a piano, which I prefer to her guitar sound, because it is more emotional.

The reason why I like this song is because I love the lyrics. They might be straightforward, but so true. Since I am suffering from depression for more than six years now, I know how hard it is to give up.

Being depressed becomes something you get used to. It's like lying in bed and not wanting to get up and start the day. I feel more comfortable with my self-pity.

The second verse goes like this:

You think
One drink
Will shrink you 'til you're underground
and living down
but it's not going to stop
'til you wise up

This is an allusion to Alice in Wonderland. She was on this adventure, discovering a new world. What she found out was that grass is not greener on the other side. I felt like Alice in Wonderland when I came to England. But, of course, it did not take me long to realize that I can't run away from my problems. So I had to wise up, give up running away, give up my self-pity and change the way I think and the way I was.

Giving up, letting go, forgiving - no one says that this is easy. You don't do it once. No, you have to do it over and over again. Aimee Mann's "Wise Up" gives me the power to give up every day. Because she is right.

Taxi Ride by Tori Amos

photo taken from Amazon

People listening to Tori Amos are not really listening to the music, but to the lyrics. Even though this singer-songwriter is a great pianist, who can play on two pianos at the same time, the songs are all about the lyrics. Tori Amos' poetry is not straightforward, but twisted. They are puzzles and riddles.

The beauty of her songs lies in the mysteriousness. They seem to be like a crossword puzzle, impossible to solve. It sometimes takes years to understand the lyrics. It only dawns on you how deep a song goes if you are in a certain situation that is described in a Tori Amos song.

On the internet platform SongMeanings, Fans discuss the meaning of songs very enthusiastically. By following up some of the comments, it soon becomes clear that the lyrics are so open that it can mean different things to different people.

"Taxi Ride" from the Album "Scarlet's Walk" is my personal favourite. That is maybe because it can applies to feelings I often have, especially after parties. For me this song is about loneliness.

I do not have many friends, which does not mean that I do not go out. In today's society you have to be sociable. You often have parties with people that you don't really care about, or they don't care about you. It is all fine when you get drunk and have fun with them, but when you sit in the taxi on your way home, you have got time to reflect on your night and it is then, when you realize that you are lonely.

A fan commented on the lyrics, that you can get the feeling of the song easier when you sit in a taxi in New York. She then said: "Tori songs are more feelings than real words."

Some people assume that the song is about Tori's gay friend, the make-up artist Kevyn Aucoin, who died in May 2002 due to brain cancer, as she sings: "just another dead fag to you, that's all". One interpretation is that Tori settles up with Kevyn's mother, who couldn't care less about her son. Others say it is just Tori's way to deal with the funeral and the aftermath of his death in general.

At the end of the day that does not matter. Tori's songs are written so that they fit into everyone's life. She seems to do that on purpose, which is probably an art in itself.

Tori Amos never produced a music video for this song. However, she let other people make one for her within the context of a contest called "Taxi Vision". The winner video seemed to have disappeared from the internet, but there are a lot of other films out there that did not win but are still great.

My favourite "Taxi Ride"-video is featuring an old woman in an old people's home. She seems to be really lonely and in her rocking chair - in her mind on that Taxi Ride, she realizes that she has got no one after all these years she attend this party called life. The nurse notices the old woman's sadness and takes care of her.

This is my interpretation. The video got very good comments, but people also said that it was not related to the song. I think it is. People were also mentioning that it was more an allusion to other Tori Amos videos.



Here again, it is up to the audience to decide. I have to admit that I do not even like the voice of Tori Amos and most of her songs are far too slow. But still, she is one of my favourite musicians, because she has got the ability to write magical songs. It is always so much fun to interpret so many different things in her songs.

Down So Long by Jewel

single cover taken from Mattcdsingles

A cute, young voice is singing poems to simple guitar rhythms. That is exactly how Jewel sounds like. Her name puts it into context: Very simple - but brilliant. When you hear the first guitar motif of "down so long" with a "budubiduda"-fill in, you just know that it is a Jewel-song.

In the song Jewel describes her depressive state of mind and how bad she is feeling. She has literally been down too long and is fed up with it. In the chorus she thinks much more positive, hoping that her misery will soon be over, when she sings: "I have been down so long, that the end must be drawing near."

The lyrics of the song are very straight forward, but poetic at the same time. Jewel uses many comparisons such as "my pocketbook and my heart both just got stolen, and the sun acts like she don't even care," or "it feels like someone's face is stuck to the bottom of my shoe".

The cheery guitar rhythm that makes you whistle to the song and wiggle your hips seem to be a contradiction to the content of the song. In the music video you can even see Jewel dancing to the lines "I have been down so long".

But rhythm and melody play a central part in the interpretation of the song. "Down so long" is not another depressing song that we listen to when we are lovesick and cry our eyes out. The song should give hope and send out the message that there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

In the second verse Jewel sings: "I looked to everybody but me to answer my prayers, 'til I saw an angel in a bathroom who said she saw no one worth saving anywhere." These lines, together with the mood of the song, tells the listener to take destiny in his own hands.

We can either lay down in bed and feel miserable, or do something about it, get up and be happy about the amazing time that is coming, because: There is always light at the end of the tunnel.

The music video is quite dull as it just shows her sitting, lying or playing with the band. Like other Jewel-music videos it just about her singing in front of the camera. But that doesn't matter that much, because the music as well as the lyrics are great.

I Don't Want To Wait by Paula Cole

photo taken from Amazon

It was because of the teenage series Dawson's Creek that I found out about my role model Paula Cole. "I don't want to wait" did not only become the hymn of my favourite series, but soon also my obsession. I was covering that song and it was part of many gigs I have been doing in my early music "career". Still today, people call me up, saying: "Hey, I just listened to 'I don't want to wait' by Paula Cole on the radio and I could not help but think of you. So how are you doing?"

The song is best known as the opening theme of the teenage series Dawsons’s Creek. Thanks to this the second release of the Album This Fire became a #11 pop hit single in 1997.

The text is a homage to carpe diem. The message is to live in the present and not in the past. You should not look back as life is too short to live in the past and think about every step you take.

"I don't want to wait" starts with the singer’s appeal to “open up your morning light and say a little prayer” for her. The use of piano chords makes the beginning very gentle.

The mood of the song then changes, when the drums start to play a forward pushing rhythm. Paula Cole paints a picture of a woman in 1944, waiting for her husband to come home from the front. She is using a monotonous melody to keep the verse in a story-telling style.

This then leads to the chorus that has a carpe diem theme: “I don’t want to wait, for our lives to be over.” To emphasize the change, the singer uses her head-voice, which shows more emotions than the verse.

The second verse is coming back to the illustration, telling the listener what happens when people wait: The man has returned from war – as a grandfather- , but the war still lives inside him, which makes it so hard “to be gentle and warm”. The chorus starts off again, telling you that you are better off not waiting.

Suddenly the mood changes completely and the use of blue notes portrays anger. That is typical of Paula Cole, as she is not afraid to sing “badly” to show her emotions. Paula Cole’s music is sometimes not nice and gentle, but hard and ugly, because her music always goes with the lyrics.

Her music is often not easy to listen to. Especially her newest album is more jazzy and a bit twisted. This makes her work really arty, which is probably why that artist is only known as the woman who wrote the Dawson's creek theme.

"I don't want to wait" is an exception. Apart from the few blue notes and the anger in the middle of the song, the melody is simple and it is easy to listen to. The art here lies more in the lyrics and the structure of the song. It might be one of Paula's easiest songs, but the structure is brilliantly thought-out.

The music video is sophisticated as well. It features Paula Cole as the story-teller in the beginning and then continues showing her in different times with different men. All men die. Pictured as an immortal creature, the protagonist has enough authority to give the advise to seize the day to their listeners as she has lost so many loved ones. She experienced that everthing has to come to an end and knows about the importance to live a life, instead of thinking about it.

Introduction to my Feature

photo taken from Lauren's blog

In the next five days I am going to publish a post each. Every feature will deal with Noth-American female singer-songwriters such as Paula Cole and Tori Amos. I did not want to end up writing a biography each. I also thought it would be too risky to review an album of each of these musicians, because I did not want to end up describing every single song - which would be boring.

That is why I decided to pick a song of each of these women for each day and analyse the lyrics, the music, the video and why this is a typical song of the musician.

I will also provide a youtube video and picture each as well as discussion boards or other blogs if available.

A day, a song has a similar concept. The blogger, even though he got stuck in 2008, was posting quite regularly in 2007 - a post each day. Each post was about a song and why the blogger likes it.