Music As an Artistic Expression
The Arts is an integral part of any culture that encompasses a broad discipline, which includes the visual arts, the literary arts and the performing arts. Whatever the genre, whether it be classical, country, rap, rhythm and blues (R&B), hiphop or pop, music is an art. In fact, it is a type of performing art.
In performing arts, the artist is a performer, who stages an act or showcases his talent before an audience. He uses himself, meaning his facial expression, his body movement, his very presence to aesthetically appeal to his audience.
Like any other type of art, music is an artist's means of self-expression. The composer/ songwriter expresses himself and his emotions through song. This does not only take skill and talent; it takes heart as well. Composers/songwriters have revealed time and time again how they have to be inspired in order to be able to write a song. Some said they have to be in love, happy, exuberant to be able to compose a hit song while others said they have to be sad, lonely or heartbroken. Whatever the case, the emotion has to be genuine and the expression, honest and sincere.
Composers and songwriters convey their emotions through the melody and lyrics of a song. Whether they were happy, sad, lonely or in love when they wrote the song should be reflected in the song's melody and lyrics. The audience should be able to understand the emotion conveyed by the song. When happy, the song may have a fast rhythm coupled with lyrics that emphasize positive, joyful thoughts. When heartbroken, the song may tend to be more soulful, slow in rhythm and the lyrics could depict hurt and pain.
Hence, both the melody and lyrics are important. For a recording artist or singer to do justice to a song, he has to master both the tune or the melody and the lyrics. The singer has to learn to enunciate the words clearly so the audience will understand each word. Otherwise, a good song can turn into waste. It will have no meaning.
In fact, in an effort to preserve the meaning of their songs, contemporary musicians have gone to the extent of making the lyrics of their songs easily accessible to the public.
Besides mastery of the melody and lyrics, the singer also has to effectively convey the emotion, which the composer/songwriter originally intended the song to convey. Just like a poem, a different interpretation of the song can confuse the audience and worse, change the meaning of the song.
In other words, the singer has to be able to project the right emotion and connect to his audience. His facial expression, his movement, his body language should convey a single message, a single emotion. The best Jason Derulo pictures do just this. His early training in theater arts and the opera makes him good at his expressing emotions and thus, a better singer than many.
The singer is just as much an artist as the composer/songwriter. Hence, a song is a work of art; the artistic masterpiece
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