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Music

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Analyzing Westlife Music Group
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

Westlife
General Information
Westlife is composed of group of five men all coming from Ireland. They are Nicky Bryne, Bryan McFadden, Shane Filan, Kian Egan, and Mark Feehily (“Westlife”,2015). Out of the five members of Westlife, Shane was the first one to engage in music. He began his singing career at the age of 12 after performing at the Hawkswell Theatre in Sligo, Ireland. Coincidentally, Shane, Mark and Kian are all from Sligo and they became friends through acting while they were students at the Summerhill College (“Westlife’s History”, 2015).
While still in college, Shane was strongly motivated by the success of Boyzone which made him have a strong desire to start doing pop music (“Westlife’s History”, 2015). Shane first thought of starting a four member singing group called SC4 but then went ahead and joined a group called IOU which comprised of Derek Lacey, Graham Keighron, Mark and Michael Garrett (“Westlife”,2015). The group released their first single called “Together Girl Forever”. However, this was the only song that was done by the group.
The determination to music prompted Shane’s mother to intervene and ask Louis Walsh, the manager of Boyzones if he could sign Shane (“Westlife”,2015). It is Loius who first signed Shane, Mark and Kian into the first group. Bryan and Nicky later joined their group hence forming Westside band. The group was co-managed by Ronan Keating and Louis (“Westlife’s History”, 2015). They first public performance became famous making them to win the Tour Award. Upon realizing that there was a group in America calling itself Westside, the group changed its name to Westlife. They then released their first song called “Swear it Again” in April 1999 (“Westlife”,2015). This song performed excellently dominating the musical charts in the UK (“Westlife’s History”, 2015)
.
The success of the group did not stop at their first song. All their consecutive five songs went straight to number one in the musical charts winning them awards every year (“Westlife”,2015). The group broke the records of recording five consecutive hit songs in the UK making them to be listed in the Guinness book of Records (“Westlife’s History”, 2015). Finally, the group split up after spending 15 years together.
Musical Style
Westlife performed pop music. They had a strong desire to do pop music even before starting their singing career (“Westlife’s History”, 2015). They had a signature style of performing their music. There is always a piano introduction for the first verse of their songs. This is then followed by drum beats to introduce the second verse. A kind of a gospel like choir then follows where all the members sing a chorus together. This kind of style made the group outstanding in the musical arena, perhaps the reason they won multiple awards throughout their 15 year career.
Apparently, Westlife did not write most of their music despite being successful in their career. They heavily relied on external composers. A good example is their hit song “Fool Again” which was composed by the trio of David Krueger, Per Magnusson, and Jorgen Elofsson. Though various numbers of composers wrote different songs done by Westlife, Steve Mac and Wayne Hector were the two famous persons to have composed different hit songs for the group. This includes the songs Swear it Again, Everybody Knows, Flying without wings, I Don’t Wanna Fight, Moments, and That’s What’s It’s All About done in 1999. The typical Westlife music included most of their hit songs like Solidad and My Love which was released in 2000, Fool Again which was released in the year 1999, and the Queen of my Heart released in 2001.
Objective Analysis The success of Westlife in the music industry is actually due to their unique style of music. They had well orchestrated music that followed all the rules of music including a balanced tempo. For instance, the hit song My Love had an excellent choice of tempo at 73. This was perfect match for the song whose moods communicated emotions. The accompanying beat also matched well with the tone of the song. The time signature for the song (4/4) is also an example of how creative the group was. Additionally, Westlife members had attended a music college perhaps the reason their music revealed a practical application of the correct style in their music. Westlife boost of selling at least 50 million records across the world. On top of that, the group also made history for dominating the UK music charts for a record 14 times during their 15 year group music career! Their dominance in the UK pop music
The Good Things and the Worst about Westlife
The Good Westlife revolutionized the Pop music industry with their entry in the late 90s. They brought in a beautiful style and a blend of nice love songs. Their slow but charming words are sweet to hear. Westlife were hard working and focused. They managed to dominate the music charts fourteen times during their fifteen year career. This not only shows how the group members were talented, but also how hardworking they were. They rose from a very ample beginning to outshine some of the established rivals within a very short time. The combination of the members of the group was very perfect. Everyone had a role to play in their music. westlife’s combination of voices was also perfect. It was really a complete group.

The Worst About Westlife Despite dominating the pop music industry in the UK for 15 years, Westlife were never a big name musical group in the USA. The group only focused in outshining their domestic rivals rather than extending their music to the US where they could have established a huge fan base. Westlife also relied largely on external composers. They did not compose most of their greatest songs. Their work was mainly limited to singing rather than coming up with their original songs. This is not a good thing for a group that was as popular as Westlife. In my opinion, the inclusion of a few ladies could have made the group complete and even popular than it was.

References
Encyclopedia.com,. (2015). Westlife – FREE Westlife information | Encyclopedia.com: Find
Westlife research. Retrieved 13 August 2015, from http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3495100085.html
Sunsetgrl.tripod.com,. (2015). Westlife's History. Retrieved 13 August 2015, from
http://sunsetgrl.tripod.com/westlife4ever/id6.html

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