Nothing Else Matters

2 Pages 616 Words

The selection I picked for my essay is a song written and performed by Metallica titled “Nothing Else Matters”, which is actually their remade version that includes performances by the London Symphony Orchestra which offers a refined “twist” to Metallica’s ordinarily heavy sounding, hardcore, “heavy metal” genre. I will be giving my analysis of the instrumental music of the song, although the vocals are also quite dynamic. The beginning of the song creates a somber feeling which captures and settles your attention with a one minute guitar introduction that sets the stage for a classical style melody which blends full orchestra, electronica, and all the instruments of a “modern rock” band, all which add their own color and texture to this musical masterpiece. After the initially long introduction, there are several changes in the melody with the addition of the heavy beat of the bass drum, which keeps the song within the “metal” context that makes Metallica a “must have” in any hardcore listeners library, and then the introduction of an electronic synthesizer, which is quite stimulating to the auditory cortex, adds a new sound in the blending of these instruments for the remainder of the verse, which will also be reintroduced at a later part of the song. Now this is when the dynamics start to build, with the drums beating louder and the orchestra starting to respond in harmony with violin and flute, the tempo is increased along with the volume at which point the guitar changes its pattern to a strum which adds contrast and rhythmic variation. The increasing tempo also brings with it a heavily distorted guitar that can be heard in the background playing a muted melody that helps to add weight and counterbalance to the verse. The heavy distortion of the guitar definitely reminds us that we are listening to a rock song although the classical overtones would lead us to believe otherwise. The climbing melody and vari...