Introduction

Music is the universal language that surrounds us, music is anything producing sound (yes even your dishwasher can be considered an instrument)! In this course you'll research the many concepts and terms that are included in music and will be able to identify instruments, pitches, tones, rhythms, and etc. Being open minded, appreciating the art-form, and being mindful of the composer behind the sounds is always an important when learning more about music. 

Signature Assignment

Listening Guide: Bipp

0:01 The song opens up with a metallic drop, something similar to a big raindrop coming from a mustard bottle.
0:17 Sophies vocals come in with the lyrics “ I can make you feel- I can make you feel”  A sort of repetition happening within the vocals.
0:33 The musical upbeat comes in and Sophie begins to sing “I can make you feel better” she sings very softly and intimate with her lyrics
2:05 The pitch drops in the music and the synthesizers become more intense as they drop back into the song.
3:17 There are different parts of sophie's vocals overlaying on top of each other, creating a sort of harmonious sequence. 

Listening Guide: Is It Cold In The Water?

0:00 there is a slow electronic beat fading in.
0:16 Sophie’s vocals fade in creating a whisper tone, she says “I’m burning.. I’m freezing.. I’ve left my home”.
0:48 Sophie then begins to say “Is it cold in the water” but when she says “cold” there is a melisma happening and a dragged out word.
1:50 the melisma stops and Sophies normal vocals come back in.
2:30 The repeat of Sophie’s “Is it cold in the water” begins happening at two different times but both having Melisma's at the same time. This created a harmonious feeling and leaves the texture of the song feeling humbling. ​

Listening Guide: I (Getting Near)

0:01 The song begins with a loud buzzing sound, almost like a bee but spraying some type of liquid out of a tube.
0:09 Nicola’s vocals come in as she expresses “Gave you, a little too much.” She is singing in a whisper intensity style
0:39 Nicola’s vocals then become a melisma as she says “I—” A prolonged I before her next set of words
0:55 the pitch and beat drops, causing a buzzing texture as well.
2:11 A bell type of chime comes in, a dynamic between them can be comparable to a wedding bell. ​
My name is Masio Sangster, and I will be talking about Sophie Xeon, who was an experimental/electronic artist that made an impact on the LGBTQ+ community. You will discover who Sohpie is and the artistry talent that she produced in her music, a fresh new sound. 


  • Sophie was born on September 17th, 1986. Hailing from Glasgow, Scotland Sophie spent most of her childhood growing up here. Her father would often play electronic cassette tapes, in which resulted in Sophie falling in love with electronic music. Once Sophie obtained a keyboard for one of her birthdays she began experimenting with the instrumental notes and the instrument itself, then at age 10 Sophie exclaimed that she did not want to attend public school anymore which her parents were not onboard with. During her teenage years Sophie would often spend her alone time in her bedroom exclaiming she would not do anything else unless she produced her first album, later she was asked by her half sister to DJ at her wedding. Sophie agreed but once the event was over she made it aware that it was her first time DJ’ing and did not know what she was doing, her half sister thought otherwise. Around this time, Sophie later learned how to both produce and be a DJ which she would do for a very long time.  Sophie official music career began when she joined a band named “Motherland” which was based in the UK, Sophie was a part of this band from 2007-2008. 
  • In 2011 Sophie scored the short film “Dear Mr/Mrs”, two years later she began working with Berlin DJ Jeffery Sfire which then opened doors for her in the PC music genre. She then is introduced to A.J Cook who is also an electronic producer and songwriter. A.J helped Sophie build her platform and helped produced some of her songs. 
  • Sophie is a transgender woman, when her first two songs “Bipp” and “Nothing More To Say” released she began doing live DJ shows all while concealing her identity. She was often seen wearing an all black mask and all black non revealing clothing. When Sophie released her first music video for “It’s Okay To Cry” she revealed to the world that she was a femme trans woman, a lot of her supporters were quick to say she was appropriating femininity, but as time  passed those claims against Sophie were forgotten and people began to love her as the woman she is. 
  • On January 30th, 2021 Sophie died due to a fall she took when climbing on top of a roof late at night to look at the super full moon in Athens, Greece. On June 16th, 2021 it was announced by the International Astronomical Union on their bulletin that the minor planet “1980 RE1” was given the permanent name change “Sophiexeon” in honor of Sophie’s death.  Many were influenced by Sophie’s music and her legacy continues on in the genre of other hyper-pop artist. 
  • Sophie’s debut album titled “Product” was released in 2015 which featured songs such as “Just like We Never Said Goodbye” and “Vyzze”, later the album was discontinued and so Sophie released each song individually due to record label issues. The album scored a 78 out of 100 on the Exclaim! music review site, this opened up many doors for Sophie because it was a generally good album. Charlie XCX and Sophie have went on tour together and Sophie even produced one of her albums. 
  • One of Sophies song “Lemonade” was featured on a McDonalds commercial back in 2015. Though Sophie has a few released songs, a lot of her discography and productions are all unreleased tracks from her DJ sets and can be found on SoundCloud simply by searching “Sophie”. There are about over 70+ unreleased tracks by Sophie. Some of her songs like “Burn Rubber” or “Take me to Dubai” have been one of Sophies popular songs. 
  • On October 19th 2017, Sophie released her first music video titled “It’s Okay To Cry” which reveled her face for the first time. This video obtained millions of views and in the video Sophie can be seen nude with a greenscreen of the sky and space projecting behind her. On June 15th 2018 Sophie released her first album “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” this album was nominated for best Dance/Electronic category at the 61st annual grammy awards.  This means that Sophie was the first openly transgender woman to walk the red carpet or to be nominated for a music award. 
  • Something about Sophie’s music makes you want to keep listening to her more, it has a childlike play to it and the experimental process behind every song of hers is amazing. This song opens up with Sophie’s vocals, the whole song plays on different octaves being used and a portamento as well. The texture of this song can be described as something like “sticky”.
  • Is It Cold In The Water was mostly performed during Sophie’s DJ sets and is fairly a slow song. The ambience behind the song creates a haunting atmosphere as if she were a ghost wailing for someone to love her.
  • Potion is an unreleased Sophie song that features vocals from Nicola Roberts, and has many different sounds to it. 
  • Thank you for reading this presentation!

Reflection 

Being insightful is something that is rare to find, within this course you will find all the accessible resources to effectively learn and think about the topics that are thrown at you. The critical thinking skills are applied when you are subjected to listening homework assignments. Trying to identify textures, sounds, dynamics, harmonious tones, pitches, and etc. is a sensory that is a basic function when navigating as a human. This project applies to SLCC's general education requirement and can be applied into our real world usage by learning how to effectively communicate through artistic lens and finding new ways to communicate.Identifying these terms can be applied to how you communicate with others and finding how navigate as a multidimensional human, using textures and dynamics.  Feeling confident in my powerpoint, I should be able to effectively apply what I learn into the general education requirements.