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Think about where your favourite songs are ‘located’ and develop your understanding of setting within your GCSE and A-Level texts.

  • MUSIC FOCUS: Trophy Eyes; YUNGBLUD; Something Corporate; FEVER 333.
  • ACTIVITY FOCUS: You will explore the settings at the heart of some brilliant songs. Your analysis of these location choices will then allow you to make a deliberate decision about the location at the heart of your own creative story.

It’s easy to listen to the songs you’re listening to without really thinking too hard about why they’re located where they are! But it’s always important to think about setting. Our feelings, our ambitions, our understanding of the world – all of these things are fuelled by the experience of the places in which we find ourselves…

SOUND OF PEN’S LOCATION SERIES: PART 1

Watch the video for ‘Don’t Feel Like Feeling Sad Today’ Why did YUNGBLUD choose to shoot his video in a busy area of London around rush hour time? Think about the fact that he is a young person from Doncaster. What is he trying to show about himself? About ‘his people’? About the times we live in? About the valuable things in life?

Now, think about the fact that Trophy Eyes singer, John Floreani, grew up in Sydney. Why does that make Lavender Bay so significant for him? Why does this record feel more poignant coming from a singer who knows the area in the way he does? Watch the video and think about why a singer from Sydney getting such a positive response from Sydney audiences might be particularly special.

What about Something Corporate? Why do they mention New York City? Poughkeepsie? San Diego? Arizona? What do these places symbolise?

Whatever your answer to the above questions, hopefully you’ve reached the conclusion that the writers don’t set their ideas in these locations by accident. Understanding the significance of the respective settings helps us really get an insight into what the writers are feeling and the ideas they’re trying to express.

FEVER 333‘s ‘INGLEWOOD/3’ absolutely has to be located in Inglewood, California if we’re to understand the significance of what Jason Aalon Butler has to say.

What do we need to know about the real Inglewood? How does knowing these things underline the significance of what FEVER 333 are feeling?

ACTIVITY 1

Plan for a piece of creative writing. You might start to build ideas regarding character and plot, but the main thing you want to decide is where your story will be set. The location will inform how your main character acts, thinks and feels.

Now, have a go at Part 2 in the series!