Music Examination For my presentation today I would like to examine and go over the religious band group called Creed. By Todd Tanner

The Band Creed and how it all began Took root in 1995 from Tallahassee, Florida. Founding members Scott Stapp and Mark Tremonti. Later added a Brain Marshall as their bass and Scott Phillips as their drummer. The group started out as being called Naked Toddler. Scott and Mark went to high school and college together at Florida state. Mark dropped out of law school to focus on music with Scott. They changed their band name after Brain suggested the name Creed, getting it from his previous band called Mattox creed.

Creed and how they became famous. They spent $6,000 on their debut album “my own prison” in April, 1997. Made it to the top album in 1998. The song “One” on the album, my own prison made it to number 70 on the charts. Their second record was released in 1999 called human clay. This album included the songs “Higher” and “Arms wide open”. My own prison was released through blue collar records, and moved up to number one in sales with 4 million copies sold by 1998. Their start was helped as Sony made a deal with blue collar to sell the album, My own prison. The second album was another huge hit for creed, as the songs “higher” and “arms wide open” raced up the top 100. The album and the song: “With arms wide open” made it to number one on the charts by the year 2000. Their song “with arms wide open” won a Grammy in 2000.

Other hits by creed. My Sacrifice, released in February of 2002. One Last Breath, released in September of 2002. Overcome, released in September 2009. Rain, released in October 2009. Their album weathered, released November 2001. My Sacrifice made it to number 4 on the top 100. One last breath made it to number 6 on the top 100. overcome made it to 73 and rain made it to 99 on the top 100. These songs and the others are some of their more well know songs. The album weathered made it to number one on the charts and stayed there for 8 straight weeks breaking many records for a rock album.

More of creeds timeline. In 2002 Scott Stapp suffered from a car accident. After the accident he got addicted to drugs. After two years of drug problems they officially announced the breakup of creed. After the accident they cancelled all their tour dates in 2002. In 2004 Once the drug addiction got so bad that the fans noticed during a show where Stapp was obviously intoxicated and high, they wanted their money back. The tour ended in Chicago once Stapp once again heavily on drugs and intoxicated laid on his back performing a song, not very well, during a concert. This and problems within the band due to the drug addiction quickly lead to the breakup of Creed.

Creed and their first three hits. With arms wide open, released in November 2000. One, released in April 1999. And Higher, released in July 2000. These are the three songs that I would like to review as they have a little bit of everything creed has to offer. The song “One” shows where they started and how they needed work. The song “with arms wide open” and “higher” shows some of their best music. They have some of their harder rock within the songs but they also a lot of their softer tones and rhythms.

One Verse 1: 0:00-0:50 Chorus: 0:50-1:27 Verse 2: 1:34-2:09 Chorus repeated 4 times: 2:09-4:13 This song has very little real change to its melody or rhythm. I choose to review this song as it gives a sense of where creed started and you can tell what they improved on over the years. This review will not have to much detail as the song is really the same throughout, with a lot of guitar and drums to fill the gaps. this explains the gap of time between the first chorus and verse 2. It also explains why I stopped the song at 4:13 when really it lasts for 5:00 minutes. I did not include the last part of the song as it is their guitars strumming and fades into what I feel is them having a jam session.

Verse one & Chorus 1. Verse One: A little upbeat lead guitar. Drums added a little later. Lead singer starts. Chorus 1: Singer changes timbre. Song crescendos and has a fortissimo. Verse One: Guitar has some nice chords and the drums add a nice pitch to go along with it. The singer has a nice pitch with the message he gives. A very relaxing part of the song. Chorus 1: Continues the same as the Verse one in timbre and melody but emphasis near the end with a little more sole from the singer and becomes a little louder.

Verse 2 and Chorus repeated 4 times Same beat as verse 1. Gets louder and faster near the end. Chorus repeated 4 times: Each chorus a little different. Has breaks between choruses. Verse 2: This is really a political part of song of hate and love. They use the singer as a way to try to emphasis parts by getting louder with the singer but the instruments staying the same. Chorus repeated 4 times: So this is a little repetitious I feel, but they try to make it better by using the guitars and drums between. I really feel like they just needed to stretch the song with instruments. But it seemed to work as they did make it in the top 100 with a debut album, which is not an easy thing. The choruses do have some very nice Singing to go along with the guitars and drums. I also feel that this was trying to tie in older rock with solos to the newer faster rock creed was used to doing.

With arms wide open. Verse 1 0:00-0:44 Chorus 1 0:44-1:08 Verse 2 1:08-1:40 Chorus 2 1:40-2:35 (Guitar solo) 2:35-2:49 Verse 3 2:49-3:15 Chorus 3 3:15-4:18 I have broken down the song into what I feel are its choruses and verses. An important thing to know about this song before you listen to it is that it was written because Scott Stapp and his wife were expecting a baby. It is a very transcending song, and one of my personal favorites from creed. I really like when a song has personal meaning to the artists as you can tell they really care about the song, as you can hear in this song.

Verse 1 and Chorus 1. Verse 1: Starts with a soothing guitar intro. Followed by the lead singer. Ends with a crescendo and some bass. First Chorus: Crescendo and guitar fade away. Then leads into a bass guitar and drum background with the lead singer. Finishes with an even bigger crescendo then verse 1. Verse 1: Starts off with the guitar which slowly gets louder then introduces the lead singer but no other instruments, yet. The lead singer starts off telling a story of angles hearing news that would change his life and he cries tears of joy. While singing this his voice has a vibrato with the guitar playing some chords to go along with the vibrato. giving it a strong sense of emotion. Chorus 1: This is the shortest section of the song, besides the guitar solo. It really gives us an idea of how this song is going to play out. It does this by a small crescendo, then the bass guitar and drums make their introduction into the song. Giving the singer a chance to have a heavier vibrato in his voice without being overpowering. It also helps move the story within the song along as it introduces this new person to the sunlight and how he is going to show them everything.

Verse 2 & Chorus 2 Verse 2: Starts with just the guitar. A few seconds later lead singer joins. Chorus 2: It has the same crescendo from Chorus 1. Starts to get softer about half way through. Has guitar, bass guitar, and drums throughout. Verse 2 This verse has more of a soft feel to it as it really just gives us more pieces to the story. This section is mainly just the lead singer and lead guitar kind of giving how the parents feel. This section also gives a lot more of their feelings as parents, and that the life they have created is a daughter. The way they do this is with the a soft under tone and a slow melody. Chorus 2 This has a lot of emotion within it, the lead singer and the instruments uses the chords and pitch the play to bounce off of one another, in my mind they kind of go back and forth as one gets louder the other gets softer trading back and forth. This part of the song invites the new life that has been created to sunlight and love and other things that he is going to show them with his arms wide open. Here they have some more of the same melody as chorus 1 but they use some different chords and timbre to go with it.

Guitar Solo & Verse 3. Guitar Solo: Really gives a nice break in the song. Gives a natural connection to Chorus 2 and Verse 3. Verse 3 The lead singer comes back in with the lead guitar and a little druming. It softens back to the timbre that the rest of the song sits at. Starts to soften near the end. Guitar Solo: Now some may think this really doesn’t have any value to the song, but I would disagree. It really helps me as a listener to be able to have a break from the lyrics, and it is a necessary transition from the softer part of the song to the harder and louder part. Verse 3: Here is where you can start to feel the song to begin to conclude, as the singer is starting to slowly fade away and is repeating what was said in the beginning sections. Then the guitar retards with the pace of the singer but lasts just a little longer then the singer.

Chorus 3. Chorus 3: Crescendos just a little. More drums and guitar. Slowly fades away. Chorus 3: They kind of give the start of this a kickstart, with a little crescendo in voice and guitar but then smooth it out. finishing the song by retardation near the end and lets the guitar finish off with some very slow chords and harmony which you can find in a lot of creeds music.

Higher Verse 1 0:00-1:00 Chorus 1 1:00-1:38 Verse 2 1:38-2:14 Chorus 2 2:14-3:18 Bridge 3:18-3:54 Chorus 3 3:54-4:57 In this song they do a much better job using instruments between sections, compared to the song “one”. You will also find within these choruses the use pre-choruses before and even once after a chorus. I also really like how they use a bridge in it, that’s not something creed is really known for doing.

Verse 1 and Chorus 1. Verse One: Starts with just instruments. Really nice intro to set up singer. A very soft timbre. Chorus 1: A little faster Gets louder near the end. Verse One: I really like the melody of this song due to the instruments and how well the singer plays off of them. You really get a good sense of that in verse one with how the instruments have the same timbre melody and pitch. Chorus 1: This Chorus is a little shorter, but later on they use a pre chorus to really help it. I like how it starts off slow but then the guitar starts to play chords faster and louder and the singer follows that, giving it a great lead into Verse 2.

Verse 2 and Chorus 2 Verse 2: Mellows out from chorus one. Stays very smooth and soft. Chorus 2. Has a pre-Chorus before and after. Adds some amazing depth to the songs harmony. Verse 2: This is where the song really takes shape. The guitar still plays the same chords but the singer gets the spot light as the guitar takes a back seat. They stay on the softer side giving you a break from the more intense parts of the song. Chorus 2: By far my favorite part of the song. It really just has a great sound to it, as the singer and instruments have similar harmony that speeds up and gets louder at the same time. Getting softer after the first pre-chorus leading into the chorus but then right after the chorus they do the pre-chorus again really giving this song some amazing timbre and harmony. I also feel that because of how they play the pre-chorus it really adds some nice harmony to this chorus.

Bridge and Chorus 3 Bridge: Only heard once in the song. Really gives this song a different melody then others. Chorus 3: Drops to be very soft. In the middle they increase in speed and sound. Finishes the melody very well. Bridge: The difference between a Bridge and verse is that verses normally repeat themselves with similar melodies or words, as a bridge is completely different. This bridge connects two choruses who both use pre-choruses. This bridge is started by a build up by the guitars and drums then started with some louder singing that softens and goes to the normal pitch of the song for awhile then soften to almost nothing then my favorite part of the song it jumps back up to where the bridge began in pitch and really finishes of the bridge nicely. Chorus 3: Right before Chorus 3 they soften the pitch and the loudness and lead into a soft and sweet melody. Which then sets them up to build up to the main part of the Chorus, which really give this last chorus a lot of power and some amazing timbre. It then gives an amazing melody to finish the song off and really ends it with spectacular quality.

References. http://www.billboard.com/artist/299751/creed/chart http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/creed/biography http://www.allmusic.com/artist/creed-mn0000782768/biography http://teamrock.com/news/2015-08-19/creed-wrote-10-songs- during-reunion http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/465280/creeds-my-own- prison-to-turn-15-with-live-concerts