What music means to me

Childhood song1. Ciara – 1, 2 Step

2. Released 2004

3. Hip hop/ Dance/R&B

This song first appealed to me when I was my dance school, I was taught a dance to this song. At the time I was very into dancing so this song suited me well as I could dance to it. I liked the song because it was easy to remember the words and it was very catchy. Also my sister listened to a lot of Missy Elliot, who features in the song which made me like the song more as I looked up to my big sister. In the video Ciara performs a dance routine, this made me like her and the song more because I could copy the dance she did.

Ciara and Missy Elliot wrote the song and Jazze Pha produced it. It was released as the albums second single and reached the top ten in several countries worldwide. The song is heavily inspired by 1980’s electro music production.

Throughout the song, Ciara gives a description of how the songs beat feels as she demands partygoers to dance to the music.

The song was ranked 59th on Billboard’s Top 100 Songs of the Decade.

In the United States, the song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for seven weeks.

Other childhood songs

1. Britney Spears – Toxic2. Released 20033. Dance/Pop

1. Christina Aguilera – Lady Marmalade2. Released 20033. R&B/ hip-hop soul

Again like ‘1 , 2 Step’ these were both songs I could dance to. I preferred to make a dance up to the song ‘Toxic’ as me and my school friends we’re fans of Britney and liked most of her songs. The song attained worldwide success by reaching the top-five in 15 different countries. It also became Britney's 4th top ten single. I liked the music video to this because she wore lots of different girly outfits and changed the colour of her hair, which as a child was fun to watch. Similarly in the Lady Marmalade video all the four girls had very extravagant make-up. As I didn’t wear make-up at the time it was fascinating to see all the bright coloured eyes and accessories they wore. Again like all the other videos and songs themselves this was catchy and easy to dance to. I also liked the mix of voices in the song ‘Lady Marmalade’ as the four each had a solo. The video was very girly with all the background features being over the top.

Teen songs

‘Ego’ – R&B‘Sweet Dreams’ – Synthpop ‘Single Ladies’ – R&B/ Dance-pop

As a teenager I became more of a Beyoncé fan and liked most of her songs on her ‘I am…Sasha Fierce’ album, released in 2008, selling over 7 million copies worldwide. The album garnered eight Grammy Award nominations at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, eventually collecting a record setting six wins – the most awards won in one night. My favourite songs on the album were ‘Ego’, ‘Sweet Dreams’ and ‘Single Ladies’. At this point in my teens I still attended dance classes and these were all song that were in the dance genre. I had also learnt the dance Beyoncé performs in ‘Ego’ at my dance class.I enjoy all the videos to these songs. In each video Beyonce has her two back up dancers dancing alongside her, my favourite video was ‘Ego’ because of the costumes and it has an old fashioned feel to it. My second favourite was ‘Single Ladies’ because it was unusual, I hadn't seen a music video consisting of a constant dance routine before.

Current Song

At this point I wouldn’t say I have a favourite song, just a number of songs I like by artists I like. For example, Beyonce, Rihanna, Rita Ora, Iggy Izalea, David Guetta. However recently a song was released by a new artist I had never listened to before, Mr Probz ‘Waves’. His song was originally a slow song until it was released and a remix was made by Robin Schulz. I enjoy the remix version much more as it is more up to date and less depressing. ‘Waves’ hold the genres Hip-hop, R&B and soul. The video is relaxing being set on a beach which relates well with the song title.

1. Mr Probz – Waves2. Released 2013