Musical Analysis #2 Bring Me to Life
Musical Analysis #2
Bring Me to Life
by Evanescence
Music can be a way to tell a story, whether it be a made-up one or one based on real-life experiences. More often than not, the ones based on real-life experiences have more emotion and have a greater impact on the listener, and make for better music in general. A band that demonstrates this musical feature amazingly is Evanescence and more so in the first song they ever made Bring Me to Life.
Evanescence’s musical style is generally classified as
Gothic Alternative metal and hard rock. Their
unique musical style also branches out into classical music, alternative music,
heavy metal, industrial music, and electronic music. This unique combination of sound is due to
Amy Lee’s (lead vocalist) desire and love of combining contrasting sounds. She loves taking soft, peaceful, and dramatic
music and throwing in some heavy guitar riffs and heavy drumbeats. This unique sound and the pain from her real-life
experiences made her first song, Bring Me to Life, a success.
Lyrics
Amy Lee wrote the lyrics for this song when she was 19 and
she based it on an abusive relationship she was in. The lyrics she wrote describe how she felt
like she was missing out on life and how she needed to wake up and experience what
happiness life truly has to offer. When
you listen to the lyrics you can hear her begging someone to wake her up from
her fake life and to stop feeling so numb.
Wake me up
Wake me up inside
I can't wake up
Wake me up inside
Save me
Call my name and save me from
the dark
Wake me up
Bid my blood to run
I can't wake up
Before I come undone
Save me
Save me from the nothing I've
become
As you can see from the lyrics, she put so much emotion into
her lyrics because she lived them. In
real life, she stayed pretending like everything was ok until a friend (now
husband) asked her if she was ok. This
sparked a realization that she couldn’t feel anything and that she was numb to what
her life currently was. Thus, begging
for someone to “wake her up” and save her from the place she was trapped in.
Melody
While this song sticks with the common 4/4 time, the melody
of the song transitions from slow to fast, back to slow, then back to fast
throughout the whole song. This kind of
melody gives the listener an interesting perspective of the song. The song starts off with a soft piano making a
peaceful song melody. But Amy adds in
the lyrics and suddenly the peaceful melody changes to a soft painful piano and
then you are bombarded with a heavy rock melody. This style perfectly describes Amy Lee’s
intentions of making her song show the light and dark, the soft with the heavy,
and the calm with the loud within life. This
unique sound that she makes is the reason her first song, Bring Me to Life,
reached the #1 spot in Australia, Chile, Colombia, Italy, Scotland, and the UK. And top 5 in many other countries.
Timbre
Throughout the entirety of the song changes from peaceful,
to loud and emotional, to piercing, and back to peaceful. The timbre at the beginning and end can be
called peaceful due to its slow and calm piano tones accompanied by Amy’s
peaceful vocals. Without warning, Amy
changes pace and uses a loud and emotional timbre, accompanied by Paul McCoy as
a male vocalist. This load and emotional
timbre help show the pain Amy encountered in her abusive relationship and how
she was begging for help to escape her hell.
As the song continues, she
returns to a peaceful timbre to show how much help she needs to stop being so numb
and to move on with her life.
Form/Introduction
The introduction to this song begins with a piano playing
soft tones. This helps add soft timbre
and helps start the song off with some emotion.
Emotion is a key characteristic of Evanescence songs, which helps
listeners relate to the lyrics more. Since
Evanescence is classified as a rock band, the use of classical music helps set
the tone for the pain Amy is describing in her lyrics. As I stated before, this style is why Evanescence
became so successful so early on.
Range
Amy Lee is very well known for her vocal range throughout all
of her songs. A great example of this can
be seen by comparing the introduction of the song to the chorus of the
song. The introduction is generally her
normal vocal range, nothing significant other than how she harmonizes certain
words. But in comparison to the chorus,
she shoots up to a higher range which gives her music a better sense of the
pain and emotions she was going through.
Work Cited
“Evanescence.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29
Sept. 2024, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evanescence.
Hi !
ReplyDeleteI love this song, it is not anything I listen to often but when I hear it, it reminds me of my grandma who loves Evanescence.
I think dynamics could have been fun to look into with this song. I feel like the singer uses very different dynamics to portray different feelings throughout this piece. From very loud to pretty quiet and calm.
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