Blog Assignment #5

For this song deconstruction blog I chose to compare Heartless by Kanye West to the cover version done by Kris Allen. I tried to think of an original song and cover that were done completely different while keeping some similarities through out. Kanye’s version has a tempo between moderate to allegro depending on either verse or chorus. He seems to sing the chorus slower than the verse because he is “rapping” the verse where as the chorus he is singing. The rhythm is coming from the beat if the drum, which I would guess, is from a synth.  The groove is very soulful and but intense at points. From what I can tell the instruments are synth based and there isn’t really a variety of them. The structure is  pretty basic the there is an intro/ chorus then verse 1- chorus-  verse 2- chorus- bridge- chorus.  The emotional architecture follows the organization because the emotion gets stronger through the chorus and drops again during the verse.  There isn’t very much height in this song because the pitch stays steady through the verse and goes up only a little in the chorus. As far as the width there is slight panning but nothing extremely noticeable. The depth is very boring because there isn’t any as far as instruments because they stay the same and the volume doesn’t change a lot.

            The version I like more of this song is Kris Allen’s cover. The tempo is andante to moderate. The source of rhythm comes from the backbeat of the drums, and the groove is very rhythmic and soulful but a different soulful than Kanye’s. The two prominent instruments are drums and guitar. However, there is a subtle violin in the back that gives it more depth. The structure is the exact same as the original but the emotional architecture is a little different because Kris gives it more emotion in the intro and verses. There is much more height and depth in this cover as well, which is the main reason I like it better! The original is too boring for me because Kanye doesn’t use height or depth, which makes the song less emotional and relatable.