Unit 14 - Task 1 ; Musical Analysis: Life on Mars?

Life on Mars? by David Bowie is a rock song on his album Hunky Dory. It's best described in terms of genre (style) as a "glam/art rock song", featuring exaggerated flamboyancy and unconventional ideas from its structure to its tonality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v--IqqusnNQ

Unit 14 Task 1

Rhythm

Rhythm is a strongly present sequence of repeating beats. The rhythm of the song features a constant simple 4/4 time signature (as opposed to compound). This time signature is easy to follow (at least for a Western audience), which allows the listener to more easily follow Bowie’s complex surrealist lyrics.

Life on Mars? is at 60BPM tempo, which is quite slow compared to most modern music, but because the song is complex it achieves an impressive amount in each bar. For example, Wakeman on the piano voices chords in more complex ways than you might expect with fragments of melodies and moving up and down octaves, maintaining rhythm. There is a clear virtuoso to the musicians involved as tempo also expertly slows down and speeds up to express emotion, such as in the parts before and after each of the choruses. Verse 1 features nothing but Bowie's voice and Rick Wakeman on piano, with bass strings coming in towards the chorus. In this state the song's rhythm is only communicated by Wakeman's arpeggios. This part of the song sounds much like a ballad, though Bowie has said it's somewhat of a parody on this style. It might be a parody, but it does an excellent job of matching the style. I feel however that the piano part doesn’t really develop much as the song goes on; perhaps it should have started off with a little simpler and increased in flourish until by the end of the song it’s doing somersaults. As it stands, the piano part stars off really interesting but doesn't progress from there which isn't very dynamic.

I haven't found any official metronome markings or tempo instructions for piano in this song, but if they existed they might be something like lento for the verses; slowly; and allegretto for the choruses; moderately fast. This contrast makes the song fun to listen to.

Melody and Harmony

A melody is a sequence of notes that is the focal point of a piece. The sung melody of the song climbs up and down the natural scale corresponding to each of the chords played, which allows the song keep a bold sense of tonality even as it undergoes multiple modulations. When the bass strings enter and drama increases, the melody gets higher and higher towards the climactic chorus. The first guitar solo experiments with using the same note across multiple chords; first it’s A, and then it’s alternating between B and A. Bowie here is pushing music to its limits by demonstrating that simply changing chords and alter the surrounding context of a single note. I think it manages repetition without monotony. The melody of the song throughout - voiced usually by Bowie’s singing but twice by guitar - is to the beat, with the exception of his trill on the end of “Mars?” that is syncopated. This little touch of interest brings focus to the centrepiece of the song, a technique helping it achieve hit status by way of memorability.

In the second part of each of the verses Bowie’s voices is complemented by a harmony of the same melody moved up an interval. I like this effect as it plays into the pastiche-classical theme and a whimsical nature. In Verse 2 a mellotron recorder also lays a very joyful layer atop the vocals. The song might have been supported even better, however, by a real recorder. I appreciate an attempt at mixing sounds of different contexts (in this case electronic with orchestral), but I think here it just wasn’t used in the best way-- perhaps because the song is imitating classic ballads, which wouldn't feature such a sound.

The song’s tonality is in the key of F Major, but the choruses modulate to A Major. The transition from F to A is done by using a dominant Db7 to make the listener expect a resolve to F# (met instead with A), launching us into the chorus. The song then transitions back into F Major with a subdominant Bbm. The large amount of modulation contributes a great deal to the highly dramatic tone of the song by keeping the listener in suspense.

Melodies in the verses are regular sequences of short eighth note values, while the chorus is more irregular, made partly of longer notes like half notes (“Sai-lors”). The centrepiece of the song, where Bowie sings “Mars?”, spans two whole notes in duration. These factors distinguish between the verses and choruses thematically. 

Timbre

Bowie’s voice is unusual as ever in timbre, cracking and wavering, only just reaching some of the notes in his own song. This lends a very genuine quality to the recording which pairs well with the childlike innocence evoked by some of the lyrics and the gentle piano accompaniment. However his diction is not perfect so you can't always hear what he's saying. The strings are very sharp, cutting their way into the mix in the buildup towards the first chorus. This creates a dramatically contrasting texture.  After introducing themselves with a rude awakening the strings die down for a moment before the climax, playing whole notes in legato articulation. This whole section raises up and up through the semitones in a clever way that fits into all of the chords Bowie climbs through.

Throughout the chorus there are romantic glissandos on the strings. These are very interesting but unfortunately lack presence in the mix; this would be made better without the drums. The drums, arriving at the chorus, have a sort of washed-out sound made partly by gated reverb popular at the time. the drums follow a constant kick-snare pulse typical of pop and rock music: kick on the first beat, snare on the third. They also have strong delay to them which with the mellotron in Verse 2 add to the overall dreamy atmosphere of the song. I feel like the drums are only included though because that’s the 'done thing to do' rather than in order to serve the song, and it would have been better without them; the stripped-back 2016 mix confirms this for me as the beautiful harmonies and voicings on strings are more audible there. 

In terms of dynamics, Verse 1 is soft and quiet, Verse 2 is louder (including drums) and jubilant-sounding, while the choruses are loud full-on rock ballad sections. The song cohesively strings these extremes of dynamics together by introducing elements one at a time; for instance, the powerful strings in Verse 1 prepare the coming climax, while the mournful guitar solo at the end of that section brings the mix back down to steadiness again. The ‘epilogue’ features a quiet lone piano with lots of added reverb, interrupted by a ringing telephone. This tells a story through sound like waking up from a dream.

Ultimately I love this song because it’s really unique and there’s something surreal about the tune, style and lyrics. It’s filled with chromaticism and modulations that give the whole song an outlandish feeling, but there is something so genuine about it all— linked together by Bowie’s filterless voice. The dramatic chords instil many contrasting powerful emotions from joy to sadness.