Our Track

After a lot of discussion, contemplating, and listening, we chose 'Teen Spirit' by SZA.

   


Key points about the song and why we chose it:

• It fit our shared desire to make a video for a slow tempo but powerful track containing emotion - we could envisage creating a video for it
• Slow but intense beat, soulful vocals, ambient, atmospheric sound, and artistic lyrics fit our idea of a style heavy on concept with loose narrative
• It is of the R&B subgenre known as 'PBR&B', containing elements of R&B, hip-hop, soul, and aspects of dubstep, which we felt was what we wanted for our track
• We felt there was a gap in the market for a British PBR&B release (see 'Our Artist' post)
• Potential for strong female identity and vocal performance, working to a strength of our group, having Yssy as an aspiring actor who is capable in front of camera 
• The track has sections of building up, breaking down to only vocals and ambient sounds, and dropping into its beat, lifting the track and providing us with scope to work with, allowing for changes in mood and narrative without becoming repetitive

In relation to the actual task:

• We were able to edit the censored, clean radio version over the split second where the song's only profanity is
• Teen Spirit is a non album single song with no chart performance
• It is contemporary and within a popular alternative genre, and of a marketable culture (see 'Our Audience' post)
• Hiphop, alternative R&B, dubstep and soul, the genres it breaks down into interlink with what would feature on our record label (see Record Label post)
• Long intro and outro that do not vary much make it easy to cut slightly into the beginning and fade out into the end to keep within 3 minutes

Lyrics (taken from RapGenius, where the meanings are broken down):

Verse 1:

Ice under my heels, I hear it breaking

Under my heels, I hear it cracking

Foolish of me to think I had it

Emmanuel, how foolish of me!

To think I had it..

I hear your voice behind me

Moving up my neck

I hear you talking

Creeping on my shoulder

I hear you breathing

In my head I hear you screaming

Just do it..

Hook

Yeah yeah, I feel you talking

Yeah yeah I feel you moving

Yeah yeah let's do it already

Yeah yeah..

Verse 2

Chipping away at boulders

I conquer fire

40 days 40 nights

No New Star

Fuck your Third Eye!

I be the One

Neo of the Sun

Give me simplicity

To lonely seems like real fun

I feel you

Creeping up my leg I hear you talking

Moving on my shoulder I hear you breathing

In my head I hear you screaming

Just do it

Bridge

Don't come close

Don't come close

You don't even know me, know me

Don't come close

Don't come close

Pre-Hook

You don't even know me

You think you know me

Yeah yeah, I feel ya talking

Yeah yeah, I feel ya moving

Lets do it already

Mmhmm yeah yeah

Yeah yeah, I feel ya talking

Yeah yeah, I feel ya moving

Lets do it already

Mmhmm, yeah yeah

Dont come close

Dont come close

You dont even know me, know

Come close, Dont come close

You dont even know me

You think you know me, yeah

You dont even know me

You think you know me, yeah

You dont even know me, know me

You think you know me

Yeah yeah

Yeah yeah

Yeah yeah

Aww yeah



Our choice became dictated slightly by the choice of artist, but not to our detriment. One of our original song ideas was The Weeknd's cover version of Michael Jackson's 'Dirty Diana', however despite the fact it was a cover, the stardom-type nature of the song made it slightly inappropriate for the task, especially since the artist had vocals at times indistinguishable from the original version. We were led by our decision to find a track sung by a female artist, and our group had a strong consensus over Teen Spirit.


Copyright

The artist SZA technically has ownership of the track, as it was released prior to her signing to Top Dawg Entertainment, rather than after this. Josh took the initiative to attempt contact SZA asking for permission to use the track, for the sake of the task's rules:




This was attempted on Facebook also. So far we have received no reply.