Lyrics - Valentine

Love, it's a special day
We should celebrate and appreciate
That you and me found something pretty neat
And I know some say this day is arbitrary

But it's a good excuse, put our love to use
Baby, I know what to do
Baby, I...
I will love you
I'll love you, I'll love you

Love, I don't need those things
I don't need no ring
I don't need anything
But you with me
'Cause in your company
I feel happy, oh so happy and complete

And it's a good excuse, put our love to use
Baby, I know what to do
Baby, I...
I will love you
I'll love you, I'll love you

Yeah, it's a good excuse, put our love to use
Baby, I know what to do
Baby, I...
I will love you
I'll love you, I'll love you

So won't you be my honey bee?
Giving me kisses all the time
Be mine, be my Valentine

So won't you be my honey bee?
Giving sweet kisses all the time
Be mine, be my Valentine

Oh, be my Valentine

Lyrics - Better Together

There is no combination of words I could put on the back of a postcard
No song that I could sing, but I can try for your heart
Our dreams, and they are made out of real things
Like a, shoebox of photographs
With sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer,
At least for most of the questions in my heart
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and
Sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together

Mmm, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, we'll look at the stars when we're together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

And all of these moments
Just might find their way into my dreams tonight
But I know that they'll be gone
When the morning light sings
And brings new things
For tomorrow night you see
That they'll be gone too
Too many things I have to do
But if all of these dreams might find their way
Into my day to day scene
I'd be under the impression
I was somewhere in between
With only two
Just me and you
Not so many things we got to do
Or places we got to be
We'll sit beneath the mango tree now

Yeah, it's always better when we're together
Mmm, we're somewhere in between together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

Mmm, mmm, mmm

I believe in memories
They look so, so pretty when I sleep
Hey now, and when I wake up,
You look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time,
And there is no, no song I could sing
And there is no combination of words I could say
But I will still tell you one thing
We're better together.

The group of us also liked this unique cover of the song. In my opinion I would like to use a female voice to star in our final official music video.

Lyrics - Set Fire to the Third Bar

I find the map and draw a straight line
Over rivers, farms, and state lines
The distance from 'A' to where you'd be
It's only finger-lengths that I see
I touch the place where I'd find your face
My fingers in creases of distant dark places

I hang my coat up in the first bar
There is no peace that I've found so far
The laughter penetrates my silence
As drunken men find flaws in science

Their words mostly noises
Ghosts with just voices
Your words in my memory
Are like music to me

I'm miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
I, I pray that something picks me up
And sets me down in your warm arms

After I have travelled so far
We'd set the fire to the third bar
We'd share each other like an island
Until exhausted, close our eyelids
And dreaming, pick up from
The last place we left off
Your soft skin is weeping
A joy you can't keep in

I'm miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
And I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms

I'm miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
and I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms

Diary Entry 5 - Choosing a song

Today me and tyra are planning what song to use in our music video. We are working on separate computers to make the whole process a lot quicker. This time round, we are both looking for more unknown artists, for example, some of those on YouTube so we can come up with unique and original ideas.

Timeline of Music History

1807 - Beethoven completes his Symphony No. 5, which many consider to be the most popular classical work ever written.

1860 - The slave trade introduces West African rhythms, work songs, chants and spirituals to America, which strongly influence blues and jazz.

1896 - Ragtime, a combination of West Indian rhythm and European musical form, is born.

1936 - Electric guitars debut.

1958 - Billboard debuts its Hot 100 chart. Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" boasts the first No. 1 record. Elvis Presley is inducted into the U.S. Army

1963 - A wave of Beatlemania hits the U.K. The Beatles, a British band composed of John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, take Britain by storm. The Rolling Stones emerge as the anti-Beatles, with an aggressive, blues-derived style.

1967 - The Beatles release their break-through concept album, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Psychedelic bands such as The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane enjoy great success during this period with songs celebrating the counterculture of the '60s.

1970 - The Beatles break up. By the end of the year, each member had released a solo album.

1977 - Saturday Night Fever sparks the disco inferno. Elvis Presley dies at Graceland, his Memphis, Tenn. home. He was 42.

1981 - MTV goes on the air running around the clock music videos, debuting with 'Video Killed the Radio Star'.

1982 - Michael Jackson releases Thriller, which sells more than 25 million copies, becoming the biggest-selling album in history.

1984 - Led by Bob Geldof, the band Band Aid releases 'Do They Know It's Christmas', with proceeds of the single going to feed the starving in Africa.

1988 - CDs outsell vinyl records for the first time.

1991 - Seattle band Nirvana releases the song 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' on the LP Nevermind and enjoys national success. With Nirvana's hit comes the grunge movement, which is characterized by distorted guitars, dispirited vocals and lots of flannel.

1992 - Compact discs surpass cassette tapes as the preferred medium for recorded music.

1998 - Death of Frank Sinatra. The song ‘I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing’ by Aerosmith becomes the first song by a rock band to debut.

1999 – Mariah Carey becomes the first and only aritst to have at least one number one song in each year of a decade.

2005 – Mariah Carey releases her 10 million selling ‘The Emanicipation of Mini‘, the best-selling album of the year worldwide, alongside the album's second single 'We Belong Together', the year's most successful single.

2009 – Death of Michael Jackson. Mariah Carey becomes the only person since the award was established to have two, and consecutive, Songs of the Decade – ‘One Sweet Day’ for the 90's and ‘We Belong Together’.

2010 - Lady Gaga's music video reaches on billion views.

2011 - Death of Amy Winehouse.

Conventions of a CD album cover

I have picked the album 'Awake my Soul' by Mumford and Sons as an example to explain the common conventions of a CD album cover.

Diary Entry 4 - DISASTER!

The group of us have decided to split into two separate groups, so now myself and Tyra are working on our own and Sophiya and Monica are working on their own. After a long group discussion, we realised that we work better in our separate groups as we had conflicting ideas about what we wanted to include and what we didnt want to include. So now myself and Tyra are looking forward, and are starting from fresh!

Album Digipack/CD analysis

The Beatles - Abbey Road

The first CD album cover I have chosen to analyse is ‘Abbey Road’ by the Beatles. I believe that this is a very eye catching photograph, presenting all the band members walking in a row, crossing Abbey Road. The name of the album cover relates to the ‘Abbey Road Studios’ where they had recorded a vast majority of their albums, so the picture not only looks appealing to an audience, but it also has personal connotations to the band members. The fact that they are walking away from the Abbey Studios suggest that they are walking away from their past, leaving everything and everyone else behind them. The fact that they are all walking at the same pace, with their feet the same distance apart shows the connection between all the band members. I also believe that as the road is fairly quiet and doesn’t have many vehicles driving, it has a sense of calmness and that they are in their own little world. Despite my personal opinions, some people believe that these band members are dressed for a funeral. John is the priest as he is dressed all in white, Ringo is the Paul bearer, George is the gravedigger and Paul is the dead one. The fact that they all have the same neutral facial expressions seems to make that opinion valid.

The King Blues - Save the world get the girl

The main themes apparent to me on this album cover are board games and superheroes. The fact that the album is called ‘Save the world get the girl’ suggests to the audience that a game has to be played in order to get the girl, and that game is by saving the world. The use of the chess board as the back ground image attracts the audience’s attention as it uses bright colours and cartoon figures. The cartoon characters also look as if they are flying out of the game, having connotations that they are flying out of the fictional world and therefore flying back into reality. The song is all about how badly behaved the world is and how no one cares, yet he believes he can sort out all the problems and issues ‘with just one second to spare, I will save the world’. This links in with the superhero cartoon characters on the front on the album that he will save the world.



Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here


The song ‘Wish You Were Here’ is about the detached feeling most people go through life with. It is a commentary on how people cope with the world by withdrawing physically, mentally, or emotionally and I believe that the album cover of this CD entwines with the meaning of the song perfectly. The fact that he is shaking hands with a replica of himself on fire, suggest that the artist is saying goodbye to himself, perhaps because he has given up on life. The use of the fire uses the ‘shock’ method to attract the audience as we all know as a human instinct that fire is very dangerous and has killed many people. Normally when people see fire they start to panic or call for help, however the use of the artists neutral facial expression suggests that nothing shocks him anymore and that he is used to the pain experience in day to day life. The man on fire also gives out connotations that other things control his life, rather than being in control of his own life, and now he has just given up. The fact that they are wearing black suits also gives out connotations of death or funerals, illustrating to the audience that he is saying goodbye to himself.

Diary Entry 3 - Choosing a song

Yesterday, we worked in our groups to get straight to the planning process and to decide what song to choose to use in our official music video. Sophiya and Monica worked on one computer and Tyra and I worked on another computer, working in pairs to write a list of potential songs. We then came together and discussed our options, and we came to the decision that we would use the song, 'Set Fire to the Third Bar' by Snow Patrol. However, after further consideration, we decided that this would not be an ideal song as it would be near impossible to contact the band for their permission to use their track. In addition, we also thought that we would be far too influenced by how they portray themselves and their 'star' image for us to come up with unique and original ideas. We now have to go through the same process of planning again, so we can come up with a more unknown artist to make a video for.