Stars:3.5
For my first audio assignment, i went with the “Greatest Hits Storytelling”. My memory of the Smiths assignment i did came to me and i was automatically excited. With this assignment, we need to collect a minimum of 5 songs from a band that tell a story. A little intro to my decision, one of my favorite bands growing up was Green Day. I never understood why, but their 90s stuff really got me. Since i’ve already played with 80s alternative music, i figured i should spice it up with something different. Green Day’s songs have so many different stories and ideas that it was hard for me to be set on a solid story, but i finally figured it out. So i’m going to talk about the story i created and how the songs come in to play.
Story
With Green Day’s earlier songs, they really focused on growing up and becoming an adult. I mean, all bands have that stage, right? The first song that i chose was “Welcome To Paradise.” In this song, Billie Joe Armstrong (lead singer) goes on about him leaving his home. He’s grown up and moved out. But life isn’t what he thought it would be. Yeah, you’ve left your house and you have this new freedom but where will that take you? He describes all the problems with his house, referring it to garbage and so on. So the story starts out with that. Now that he’s left him home, what is he to do? That’s why i picked “Longview” as my second song. In this song, and the segment that i chose, he describes himself just as moping around. He has no idea what he’s doing with his life and is stuck at home. He lacks something in his life. Those two songs really painted the picture of growing up. I then decided to shift to the idea of a relationship. That’s basically what the rest of Green Day’s songs are. A good song to set this up is “She.” It’s all about him arguing with a girl. Their relationship is obviously in a rut and god knows what’s going to happen next. Well, like most relationships, it ends. That is, until you find the “right one”. So for the next song, i chose “When I come Around”. This one of their most popular songs. In this song, Billie Joe Armstrong talks about him reflecting on what just happened with his girlfriend. I wanted to connect this song with “She” so i matched the up part where he says “I heard you crying loud” to tie it in with the beginning of the song “She” where he says “She, she screams in silence.” Hopefully i haven’t lost you yet on this whole story. Finally, the relationship has to end, right? I chose, what i think, is the best song to finish this off. “Good Riddance”. You’ve heard this song millions of times and you can relate to it in so many ways. This obviously ties in with the story because it’s when he’s bitter about a relationship and finally letting go. So, all in all, that’s the story. Just to do a quick recap so you actually know where i was going with this: He moves out. Now he’s clueless as what to do. He’s in a relationship that’s in a rut. They take a break and he re-evaluate it. The relationship is over. Believe it or not, it took me a while to find 5 songs that fit into a story, but i did it!
Process
The way i made this audio wasn’t very difficult. With my past audio assignments, i was familiar with how to mash-up songs. The one part i forgot how to do was converted the mp3’s to AIFF files so i could open them in Audacity. After that, i cut and mixed the songs into one file. If you’re stuck on this part, check out my past assignment here for all the details! NOW! what you’ve all been waiting for. The actual audio! Tell me if you can catch the story or not.
