my slide with conceptual albums on it ⬆️

So, the last couple of days, I’ve been working on my own type of “TED Talk” for my Language Arts class. The one I wrote was about the power of song lyrics. I wrote about this because music is very special to me, and I love it a lot. I’ve always wanted to be a musician, so this was a good exercise for a look inside the music world. So, let’s talk about how I made it.

First of all, I needed a topic. I was originally going to do the power of nostalgic music, but there was already a YouTube video of my topic. So, I trashed that, and then I had an idea. I can still do something about music! Probably the deepest thing in music are song lyrics! So I chose my topic.

I then had to plan my slides. First off, I knew I needed pictures of albums, because I was doing a whole section on conceptual albums. Next, I would need screenshots of lyrics. I wrote them out and screenshotted them, and they looked pretty good! I put them on a slide and finished it up. I then finished writing my script, and that was about it!

But I’m not done yet. Research was one of the hardest things to do because I needed to pick good songs. First of all, I thought of two great genres that are super outspoken: Rap and Punk. After picking those, I found artists from each genre that were very political and outspoken. I was going to put Kendrick Lamar in my presentation from the start, so obviously that was one of the first people I thought of. I also thought of Green Day’s American Idiot, a super political album the rocked the world of 2004, and John Lennon’s Imagine, an Anti-Capitalist anthem. So, next I had to think of some conceptual albums, because I was doing a whole section on those. The first that came to mind were of course, Green Day’s American Idiot (again), good kid m.A.A.d city, and Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. I did some more research, and found Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” Dream Theaters “Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory,” The Who’s “Tommy,” and finally, David Bowie’s “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,” the (arguably) most crazy conceptual album ever. And you know I had to put “The Dark Side of The Moon” in there, because that album references topics such as depression, existentialism, and insanity. So, after that, I screenshotted a bunch of album covers, and yeah. For the last slide, I used a lyric from Kanye West’s song Hey Mama, because the first time I heard that song, I’m not even going to lie, I cried. Manly tears. However, that’s besides the point. It was a good lyric. And for the very last section, I talked about Bob Dylan. My man, this dude won a NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE. That’s crazy to me! I’m impressed. Anyway, after that, I was finished, and ready to present.

This was a wonderful experience to do, and I would love to do another TED Talk. I was super nervous, so next time, if there is a next time, it would be cool to see if I improve.