When I think of "an early 1900s love song," the sound of "How Deep is the Ocean?" is precisely what comes to mind. It has a very traditional love song sound. The lyrics are full of meaning. The melody is repeated throughout the song, but still grasps the listener’s attention. There are minimal instruments in this song, making it very different from what is considered “popular music” in the twenty-first century.
A hook in this song comes in the forms of the questions asked. It seems uncommon for a song to be so full of so many questions. This song is unique in the way that a very few number of lines end without a question mark. This evokes a thoughtful feeling to the song. It provokes the listener to ponder for themselves the answers to the questions. How deep is the ocean really? How high is the sky? How often do I think of the person I love? The thought that Irving Berlin put into the lyrics leads the listeners to a similar level of thought.
Bing Crosby puts a beautiful amount of emotion into this song. His voice adds an aspect to the song of love and curiosity.
I love this song! I have never really listened to Bing Crosby's regular music before, mostly just his Christmas songs but when I listened to this sonf for the first time I absolutely fell in love with it. I definitely agree with you when you said that his voice adds love and curiosity to the tone of the song. His voice just reminds me of listening to Christmas music as a kid so when I hear his voice it feels almost nostalgic even though I wasn't alive when he was extremely popular.
ReplyDeleteI had never even heard of Bing Crosby until I heard this song. I also liked the use of questions throughout this song, it gave the song a sense of uniqueness and made me think about the questions he was asking in the song. Great song choice and excellent insight for the lyrics and music.
ReplyDeleteI also love this song! I really think that Bing Crosby adds something special to this song through his crooning. His soft and sweet voice really adds to the love of this song conveys. The questions in this song are also very thought provoking. I also think that the hook comes from the beginning of the song being in a minor key it makes it pretty mysterious.
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