Don T Worry Be Happy Case Study

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In this case study, we are going to look at two divergent songs that heavily differ by their musical aspect and lyrical content. I chose to compare ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’, composed by Bobby McFerrin in 1988, and ‘Hurt”, written by in 1994 Trent Reznor, frontman of the band called Nine Inch Nails. An early noticeable difference between the songs can already be heard at the very beginning of each one of them. Where one starts delivering a whistled happy melody the other starts saying the words ’I hurt myself today’. Musically, the tunes were made using different songwriting concepts. ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ is a simple pop-reggae a cappella song, in which all the parts are entirely made by recorded vocals and instruments are not involved. In this regard, Litweiler (2016) argues that ‘McFerrin was perhaps best known for his spontaneity ……show more content…
He has become, almost by default, the central figure of the industrial music which is defined as an angry, distorted but at the same time accessible music (Trable Clef, 2013). The arrangement of the song in question was made by proper typical instruments of this genre such as drums, bass and guitars. In this case, the harmony structure can be divided into two parts: verses and choruses. During the verses, the chord progression has a minor sound that creates a melancholic feeling (VIm-I-IIΔ-VIm). In this parts, time seems suspended in a floating mental environment, where the arrangement consists of a dissonant arpeggio played with an untuned guitar. During choruses, the chord progression changes to a more major sounding one (V-VIm-IV-I), lifting the song to an ethereal sensation. Other ambient and mysterious sounds were added to the background of the tune in order the create more tension to the
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