WHERE TO STREAM/DOWNLOAD: Bandcamp SoundCloud Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, and Deezer Amazon And available pretty much everywhere else LYRICS: Verse 1: Kid, don’t you know what matters Is just another number See, we’ve got a way to judge you Every weakness, every value So satellites can claw their way to the stars Kid, don’t you know there’s no choice But to follow my voice Regurgitate for the score’s sake For your grades, acronymic names Do what you can to grasp what’s been inflated Chorus: But surely something’s gotta change From us, from you, and from me Before another lost soldier Is spit out from the machine Verse 2: Kid, tell me what’s the matter Do you now like when your mother Insists you need to work harder Wishes you were a little smarter ‘Cause your best is never gonna be enough Kid, let me whisper you the tried plan To sacrifice all you can No time for mental health or sleep Or just time to learn to be No time to breathe if that is what it’ll take Repeat chorus Bridge/outro: We’re all to blame, we’re all to blame We’re all to blame I bear the shame, but you do the same We’re all to blame if something’s gonna change BACKSTORY: MUSIC-WISE I wrote this song starting from February 16th, 2019 to the 18th. Since this song was written for a project in my English class (more on that in the next section), I assumed that it would be easiest to just perform it live for the class as I had done the year prior for another English project in which I wrote an original song. However, on the 20th, when I asked my teacher about how I should go about turning this assignment in, she requested that I record it so that she could show it to future students. My mind immediately began racing, and I thought to myself, "You know what this song needs? A viola part." I spent the rest of the school day composing a solo viola part, and I practiced it when I got home. I also recorded the guitar and vocal tracks that very same day--as always, in my bedroom. I recorded the viola part the next day during my study hall period in which I aided for my orchestra teacher. Speaking of, when I showed him the completed song, and it got to the viola solo after the second chorus, he exclaimed, "Screw guitar solos! Go viola solo!" Anyway, concerning music theory, I utilized a lot of non-diatonic harmony in order to get that ~spooky~ sound, i.e. create an overall disconcerting atmosphere. In particular, one of most important chord changes is from an F major chord to an A major chord (in the first part of the verses and repeated in the bridge/outro). I started out with this particular progression because I know that the motion of going from a major chord up a major third to another major chord sounds pretty ~spooky~, presumably because it hints at the relative harmonic minor? Regardless, I later realized that fluctuating between an F and an A is pretty fitting for the topic of this song! On that note, that serves as a nice segue to the next topic of discussion: BACKSTORY: CONTENT-WISE
First off, it is important to note that my English teacher from senior year AP lang is very much so an antiestablishmentarianist, as is not too uncommon within the breed of English teachers. As part of our study for the AP exam's synthesis essay, we--as a class--chose to focus on the topic of the American public education system, particularly the pitfalls in its current structure. The "synthesis essay" requires you to form an argument while utilizing different sources given to you, so we watched videos, read articles, etc. about the education system. This unit culminated in writing a synthesis essay using these sources and a prepared prompt, but my teacher, being the nontraditionalist that she is, also gave us the choice of creating our own prompt or choosing a different mode of expression other than than an essay. Of course, me being the songwriter that I am, chose to write a song--the song that became "Education." In order to actually write it, I first brainstormed the different points that I wanted to convey into one discombobulated list--AKA my main gripes with the education system. Some of these points (verbatim) included:
Regarding the first point, personally, I'm someone who tends to work well in the public education system; I score well on standardized tests, I've always gotten incredibly good grades, I get fours and fives on AP exams, etc. However, I recognize that this is a system that does not benefit everyone, and honestly, I began to enjoy education more when I changed my mindset from focusing on getting good grades and such to focusing on actually enjoying learning and the content itself. I absolutely hate the culture that surrounds all of the "numbers," even as someone with objectively great numbers, and how that is encouraged by parents, family friends, and the other people in students' lives to be the primary focus of going to school. Regarding the second, I see in myself and in others the toll that school can have on our personal lives. I myself have certainly had mental breakdowns over school, and almost everyone else that I know has had some, too. Regarding the third, I think that it is incredibly important to recognize the multi-faceted accountability at play. Yes, there are issues with the education system itself, which are exacerbated by the culture surrounding education, but students often don't realize that even in a society with fairly clearly laid out guidelines, you still have free will. You can choose the way that you view education, as I finally did in late high school, and you can choose which direct actions that you take in your life. Because, at the end of the day, societal change first can only come from individual change.
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mae-mae hanI'm the singer-songwriter and musician behind this site (and almost everything of my music). I hope you enjoy both my songs and this blog! latest videoarchives
April 2021
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