In the past month that I have been at Smith, I have been extremely conflicted about my presence here. I am not only extremely excited to spend my next four years here, but I have a never-ending feeling of content, seeing how blessed I am to attend such a prestigious institution and play my favorite sport at the collegiate level. On the other hand, however, I could not be more homesick and unhappy with how I have been handling my academic and athletic lives at Smith. I have been restless trying to convey these feelings verbally, but I tried to avail. With my Unit 1 project, I aim to capture the essence of these feelings and why I’ve been feeling them to the degree that I have been.
The idea that I landed on for this project encompassed my inspiration and allowed me to take creative liberty with the way that I arranged my source materials. I chose to write a song (made of other songs) that translates my conflicted feelings about starting and continuing college, while also discussing the fear of becoming less relevant as you grow older. My source materials, all pieces of work from some of my favorite artists, correlate in one area: I have walked across campus with one playing in my headphones at least once. I love a good walking song, and these seven songs quenched my thirst for good background music while I walk from my house to my field hockey practices. The songs I chose to compile are as follows: Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield, Girl, so confusing by Charil XCX (featuring Lorde), Swag Surfin’ by Fast Life Yungstaz, Shut Up and Drive by Rihanna, Headlock by Imogen Heap, Ribs by Lorde, and Dreams by Fleetwood Mac. Additionally, these songs all remind me of various parts of my home life, whether it be singing along to Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield with my high school field hockey team or listening to Dreams by Fleetwood Mac on a long car ride with my best friends. In addition to finding the songs that individually convey messages that I agree with, I had to research different song structures in accordance with what would be the most suitable for the song I was trying to create. I cycled through many different rhyme schemes on Masterclass until I found the perfect one: ABABCB. For the bare bones of the song, however, I decided to follow the Verse / Chorus / Verse / Chorus / Bridge / Chorus model. While I stuck closely to my song’s original structure, I shifted away from the ABABCB rhyme scheme in order to keep aesthetically pleasing lyrics and messages.
These songs have played pivotal roles in shaping my idea of music and my diverse music taste, something I take heavy pride in. In my opinion, my piece is a plagiarism, simply because my source materials gave me the inspiration and raw substance to continue and compile them together into a new song. I believe that in the aspect that my new song has a completely different angle and meaning; it is original in that sense. It also maintains originality because the individual lines of lyrics, as short as they are, amalgamated into a completely new viewpoint and work of which the message came from my own mind and emotions. Its form has shifted, yet the original work and intent behind the words that I used linger when I look at my song’s composition. It may not be utter and complete plagiarism, but it still has the elements that could make it seem like one.