All Posts Tagged orchestral pop

Part of the verse vocal melody to Sam Smith's 2016 Golden Globe-winning song Writing's on the Wall (released September 25, 2015), which served as the theme to the James Bond film Spectre, is similar to the verse vocal melody to Canadian singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes' top-ten hit Stitches (released May 5, 2015). Compare the melodies for the lines for WotW's "I've been here before," with Stitches' "[I thought that] I've been hurt before." Whereas WotW's ascending pre-chorus vocal melody has been compared with the ascending pre-chorus vocal melodies in both Michael Jackson's Earth Song (released November 27, 1995), and One Night Only from the 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls. Compare the relative melodies (all harmonic minor scales, beginning on the seventh degree) for the lines from WotW ("This is something I gotta face") with those from Earth Song ("The crying Earth/The weeping shores"), and One Night Only ("You really don't have the time"). Finally, WotW's dramatic orchestral arrangment (a la original Bond composer John Barry) has been compared to Austrian drag artist Conchita Wurst's Rise Like a Phoenix (released March 18, 2014).

Writing's on the Wall (:16) VS Stitches (:29) [VERSE]

Writing's on the Wall (1:00) VS Earth Song (2:30) [PRE-CHORUS]
Writing's on the Wall (1:00) VS One Night Only (:39) [PRE-CHORUS]