Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

Vignette 4.5
Gary, 15, wanted to sing the moment he set foot in the music therapy garage.
He improvised feely and told me how to play, often complaining that my
piano playing did not sound sad enough. For three weeks in succession he
sang his own song called ‘Breathe’. He was probably inspired by Taylor
Swift, the country singer, whose song with the same name had just been
released and ‘Breathe (2am)’ by Nalick, the American singer-songwriter. He
took the theme as his inspiration, directed my part to be improvised on the
piano and together gave the song a new melody and he wrote the verses.
These are a few lines from his song:
‘All the people, can you help me, I’m alone out here
But am I, I can find you my baby
Breathe. Hope. Yeah.
Open my heart
And you breathe. And you breathe.
People can you see me, I’ve got no one
People can you hear me, I can only see you
Breathe, oh breathe.
Open your eyes towards a freedom…’
4.4.4.1 Rap (DVD clip 10)
In contemporary culture, rap is very popular. Rapping is very attractive to adolescents
because the words are usually provocative, edgy and include a lot of swearing. It is
also the music of marginalised youth and often associated with gang culture.
The tenth video example (4.4.4.1) shows Gee who is 13. He raps about The Centre
School, his time in London and then his move to a village called Waterbeach. He has
shown me how to beatbox and, satisfied with the beat, continues with his song. At the
end he did not acknowledge the difficult issues he had just sung about, but talked
about how much he had enjoyed creating music together.
! *&!