Making an Interpretive Leap

     When I was choosing a song, it wasn't that difficult for me. I love Ed Sheeran, and "The A Team" is arguably his most popular, if not best, song. The video starts out with a woman crying over a frozen body. It seems as if the woman was very close with the one lying in front of her, who appears to be dead. Then, the camera immediately cuts to the very same girl who appeared to be dead waking up on a park bench. This is a flashback, and eludes to the girl being homeless. Then the music starts: "White lips/ Pale face/ Breathing in the snow flakes." It sounds like Sheeran is setting his song in winter. But in the video, that is not the case; it looks to be in the late summer or fall. So what could he mean? The next part sheds some light on this. "Struggling to pay rent/ Long nights/ Strange men." The girl is hurting for money, obviously, and it sounds like she is resorting to prostitution in order to pay the bills. Sheeran further documents the girl's struggle and downward spiral in the chorus. "But lately/ Her face seems/ Slowly sinking, wasting/ Crumbling like pastries." A few lines later, we hear, "We're just under the upper hand/ Go mad for a couple grams/ And she don't wanna go outside/ Tonight/ And' in a pipe, she flies to the motherland/ And sells love to another man." Now we finally know what is happening with this poor girl; she is hurting for money, so she starts to sell sex in order to make a quick buck. This sends her into a dark place in her life, and she turns to drugs. She has to get high ("Fly to the motherland") just to have sex now. Maybe this is what Sheeran was referring to when he sang "Breathing in the snowflakes." The girl was most likely inhaling some type of drug. A life like this would surely cause someone depression and unending harm, something someone would surely want to get out of. However, in the video, the girl is still roaming the streets, looking for money to be made. It's her way of life now. Not only is it her source of income for rent, but its the only way she can get her drug fix. The next verse starts off by showing us her living conditions; "Ripped gloves/ Rain coat/ Try to swim to stay afloat/ Dry house/ Wet clothes." It sounds like the money she has been making hasn't been enough for both her rent and drugs. This seems to be the case in the video, as she is found sitting out on the street. The drugs have her hooked now; getting high is a priority.
    The song comes to its climax here. "But Angel will die/ Covered in white/ Closed eyes/ Hoping for a better life/ This time/ We'll fade out tonight/ Straight down the line." He is actually referring to the girl as Angel here. She's "hoping for a better life" this time, and she inhales her next line. But it's also her last, as Sheeran sings "This time/ We'll fade out tonight/ Straight down the line." In the video, here it shows her getting in a car with another man. When they get to his place, they sleep together and she takes his money. Almost immediately we see that money go out of her hands and into another in exchange for drugs. She returns home, lights up, and falls back. When the song ends, instead of saying "Angels to fly" like he has previously, he says "Angels to die," alluding to us that Angel has died. Which is just what we see in the video, which takes us back to the first scene; Angel's friend crying over her dead body.

From Flappers to Rappers

  Why did the producers of "The Great Gatsby" choose to infuse current hip-hop into their movie about the Roaring 20's? They wanted to modernize the story, in a way; they wanted it to appeal to today's audience. The Roaring 20's were a time of scandal, a period of edginess and distinction. So why not infuse music that's about the same things in the movie? I personally thought it was a very good idea, and really enjoyed the soundtrack. The music in the movie seemingly takes us back to those days of craziness, but also provides us with a sense of familiarity by providing us with current artists that most of today's population have either heard of or listen to. This created a freshness that, for me, seemed to make a different story than the original, but one that was enjoyable nevertheless. It somewhat updated the story of "The Great Gatsby," but still kept true to the original. A song that I think really does a good job at modernizing the movie is Lana Del Rey's "Young and Beautiful." The song itself sounds like it belongs in a movie about the Roaring 20's, but her distinct familiar voice and the music accompanying her gives the song a sense of reinvention, which is just what the producers were trying to do with this soundtrack.
  Another thing the new music does is it adds a sense of excitement to the movie that original jazz music just couldn't do today. Yes, that was the music of that time period, but it has been almost 100 years since then. Twenties jazz music just could not get the sort of reaction and involvement that the music of today can get. For example, "The Great Gatsby" soundtrack features a song will.i.am, "Bang, Bang." When it starts out, it doesn't really seem exciting, it doesn't really seem like a song that belongs at a party today (however, that's exactly the type of music they had in the 20's). But after the first 30 seconds of the song, the tempo takes a dramatic turn, and your brought right back into the present, which is what the goal of this soundtrack was in the first place.

Process and Product

 When I normally write papers, I usually write from beginning to end. Other than a little correcting grammar and tweaking the body, my rough draft usually strongly resembles my final copy. But that wasn't the case with this paper. I knew ahead of time I needed two different rough drafts, along with my final copy, so I decided before I started that I would most definitely not write the way I normally do. And honestly, it helped. Knowing my first rough draft wouldn't be graded on quality, I kind of just put my thoughts about my commercial down on paper as soon as they crossed my mind. This made it easier to comb through my ideas, instead of just sorting through them in my head. After I organized my thoughts on paper, I was actually surprised at how legible my rough draft sounded. I really liked having to have my rough draft turned in a week before my final copy. This way, I really couldn't procrastinate until the last minute, and it gave me much more time to edit my paper. I also really enjoyed the workshops. I was a little apprehensive about them beforehand, but they really helped me see some things I do't think I could have without someone else's opinion. I can say I am more satisfied with this paper than I have been with any I've wrote in a very long time.