Musical Assignment due 5th Sept 2008
Musical Assignment: 5th September 2008
Backstreets Boys – As Long As You Love Me
So, here’s the audio of this once-upon-a-time hit song and now playing on Gold 90.5 FM. Shows how old we are huh? -,- I couldn’t get one w the gorgeous faces of Backstreets Boys on their MTV, so this one will have to suffice.
Below, is an excerpt of the sheet music that I have of this particular song, but it was also photocopied, so I don’t have the actual publisher and arranger of the song.
The song has a very basic I- IV – V- I and repetitive style to it. A typical boyband tune, with an almost too repetitive melodic line as well, until it comes to the chorus, which luckily, breaks the monotony as well. I suppose that is why it gets so popular. Because Pretty Looks + Easy catchy tune = Megahit!
I felt phrasing was in S, S, S, L in the chorus bit, and generally L, L. for the verses.
Upon hindsight, I am quite surprised that this became such a big hit, and I wonder if someone else less popular were to do this particular piece then instead, would it have been so popular? Food for thought I suppose. 
September 13, 2008 at 8:42 am
heyheyheyyy~ i dun see the image. lols errr… are u able to view it?
September 14, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Hello~!!! I’m finally here to comment!
I agree with you regarding the phrasing in the chorus being S-S-S-L, but in my opinion, the verse is made up of antecedent and consequent phrases.
My music analysis of the above chorus starting from bar 25 would be I – IV – I – vi – V, and it repeats again. So it sounds like its still hanging there waiting to be resolved back to the tonic chord.
I found the full song sheet here – http://pianomusicsheet.blogspot.com/ (you might wana check it out, LOTS of songs! and its FREE *blink blink* haha) and found out some interesting stuff about this song. Like what you have said, its very repetitive, having the verses repeat four times with the same chord progressions of vi – iv – V – I , with the harmonic phrase model being (T) where I take chord vi as a tonic substitute – PD – D – T. The start of the verse uses anticipations which is something new that I have not seen before.
The chorus repeats itself with a new chord progression of iv – I – vi – V7 which is actually sang on the same note except for the last part of the chorus but the song is still able to move on smooth due to the harmony on the other parts, giving us a sense of familiarity though not boring us with the same notes being sang.
The bridge has a mixture of materials from the verses and chorus where it is also repeated twice with a chord progression of vi – I64 (3rd inversion of Chord I, sorry I don’t seem to be able to use superscript!) – iv – V, back to vi – I64 – IV and lastly a vii7/V which acts as a chromatic chord to repeat back to the front part of the verse. After which the song ends with a round of chorus.
The rhythmic patterns of this song is quite similar, and that is how it retains its “jumpy” mood with the frequent starts on the up beats and weird rhythmic patterns. Most parts of the piece do not start on the first beat, last quaver tied on to the quaver on the first beat and some notes are stuck in between beats creating a “want to continue” feeling. (don’t know how to describe. Haha)
Hope i’m commenting the right way… if there’s a right way. hah~! alright, cya arnd in the school! =D