Case Study by

To-Do 1 : 26/09/22

sydneydejoreymusic — 2022-10-14 07:39:57 UTC

I have selected artists such as Tracy Chapman, Lewis Capaldi, Elton John and Ed Sheeran who's career paths resinate with my journey currently, they all began their careers either as street performers or gigging in local venues/pubs, something that I currently am doing. Musically they all differ from each other however their work ethic and journeys are all based around putting in a lot of hard work.

I believe writing a case study will give me a deeper knowledge of the journeys my chosen artists have taken and perhaps give me a clearer idea of the journey that I am on in a more longer term way and inspire me with some new ideas to apply to my strategy.

I'm aware of what the final assessment is expecting from me, however I need to ensure that I forward plan so I don't go off-topic and that I display my work in an understandable clear and concise format.

I think that YouTube is going to be a strong research tool for me with my case studies as it will have videos from when the artists started out and they're journeys up until now. Making use of the online Falmouth library will help me to seek out things such as biographies written by the artists themselves as this will be a reliable source and their own truth of their journeys. The internet to have a look at their websites.

Elton John - Songwriting. 3/10

sydneydejoreymusic — 2022-10-14 09:39:15 UTC

Elton Johns Career began with Bernie Taupin as his songwriting partner and it has been noted as one of the most iconic pairings within the industry since 1967, they still collaborate on songs now with Elton John writing the music and Bernie Taupin as lyricist. The pair collaborated on one of their most successful hits ‘Your Song’, and the song first charted on the 23.01.1971 which eventually landed at no4.

In 2010 the song charted again as it was re released by artist Ellie Goulding, the song reached no2 and remained in the top 100 for more than 20 weeks between 10.11.2010 and 02.04.2011.

Gouldings success with the song, in my opinion, kept the song current and boosted John’s popularity amongst the 00’s youth, I believe this as my first memory of discovering Elton John was when Ellie Goulding released your song. I recall both versions being played on radio and the Freeview Music Channels.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=GlPlfCy1urI

https://youtube.com/watch?v=D9AFMVMl9qE

Ed Sheeran - Songwriting 3/10

sydneydejoreymusic — 2022-10-14 09:40:15 UTC

Sheeran has had huge success within both being a performing artist as well as a songwriter for other artists. His notable songwriting appearances include writing for artists such as Olly Murs, Taylor Swift and Hilary Duff. All of Ed Sheeran’s personal releases have been his own writing, except on the occasions that he has performed covers however, these covers aren’t used on his album and appear to only be used for social media content. I believe this technique is to draw in fans of the artists who’s song he is covering. After some thorough research on YouTube, google and other platforms, I couldn’t find any notable covers of Ed Sheeran’s Songs released by other UK famous artists, however other artists have used his songs performing live, including country sensation ‘Luke Combs’ who collaborated live on stage with Sheeran himself on his song ‘Dive’. Ed Sheeran travelled to London to perform this song live on stage with Combs. The cover has reached 5,311,380 YouTube views as of today (2nd October 2022). On June 9th 2021 Combs took to the song solo reaching 6,040,420 YouTube views.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=StWygkPN92E

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rf8PPxc7L4A

Chosen artists strengths/weaknesses and my own.

sydneydejoreymusic — 2022-10-14 09:41:44 UTC

Elton John fought with substance abuse and problems dealing with his sexuality for 2 decades of his career. His strengths are resilience and overcoming personal problems, he came back to his career with vengeance after it almost led him to his death by overdose. John’s weakness’ throughout his career tend to revolve around his personal emotions and the inability to keep these separate from his career. If he had sourced a therapist or replaced his manager to someone with a different way of guiding him, this may have improved his overall health wellbeing and made his path to being one of the worlds most renowned musicians a lot smoother and easier.

Ed Sheeran’s main strength is his ability to song write, both independently and co-writing along other artists this means Sheeran owns songwriting rights to most of his songs, this keeps more of his revenue coming back to him, as well as earning off of songs written for other artists. This also gives him a flare over some other artists who don’t have access to creative control over their releases due to other people writing their songs for them.

Looking at my own path and music career, my strength is songwriting and the creative side of the process. My technology skills are flawed and this is something I am trying to improve on, I can self mix to an ok level however this takes a long time for me to achieve. As my artist profile develops I may need to consider using professional level mixing and mastering services.

Elton John

sydneydejoreymusic — 2022-10-21 08:38:24 UTC

Ed Sheeran

sydneydejoreymusic — 2022-10-21 08:53:19 UTC

Bibliography/ Other Reading

sydneydejoreymusic — 2022-10-21 09:03:02 UTC

Google.com. 2022. Google Search- Who was Elton John signed too. [online] Available at: [Accessed 27 September 2022].

Eltonjohn.com. 2022. Elton John. [online] Available at: [Accessed 27 September 2022].

Store.eltonjohn.com. 2022. Elton John - Official Store. [online] Available at: [Accessed 27 September 2022].

Eltonjohn.com. 2022. Elton John. [online] Available at: [Accessed 27 September 2022].

Ed sheeran latest news (no date) Ed Sheeran. Warner Music UK LTD. Available at: https://www.edsheeran.com/news (Accessed: October 19, 2022).

Who Was Elton John Signed To (no date) Google search. Google. Available at: https://www.google.com/search?q=who%2Bwas%2Belton%2Bjohn%2Bsigned%2Bto&client=safari&rls=en&ei=lfEyY97BEqOUhbIPwd6UgA8&ved=0ahUKEwie4JG2gbX6AhUjSkEAHUEvBfAQ4dUDCA0&uact=5&oq=who%2Bwas%2Belton%2Bjohn%2Bsigned%2Bto&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBQghEKABMggIIRAeEBYQHTIICCEQHhAWEB0yCAghEB4QFhAdMggIIRAeEBYQHTIICCEQHhAWEB0yCAghEB4QFhAdMggIIRAeEBYQHTIICCEQHhAWEB06BQgAEJECOgsIABCABBCxAxCDAToLCC4QgAQQsQMQgwE6EQguEIAEELEDEIMBEMcBENEDOggILhCxAxCDAToKCAAQsQMQgwEQQzoECC4QQzoECAAQQzoICC4QgAQQ1AI6BwguELEDEEM6BQgAEIAEOgQIABANOgYIABAeEBY6CAgAEB4QFhAKOgUIABCGAzoGCAAQHhANSgQIQRgASgQIRhgAUABY8CVgqihoAnAAeACAAZwBiAG8F5IBBTE3LjEzmAEAoAEBwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz&safari_group=9 (Accessed: October 21, 2022).

(no date) Elton John. Official Website. Available at: https://www.eltonjohn.com/ (Accessed: October 16, 2022).

Elton John Store (no date) Elton John. Available at: https://store.eltonjohn.com/?utm_campaign=EltonJohn20200422&utm_content=&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=Website&utm_linkurl=EltonJohn.lnk.to%2FEltonJohnStore&utm_board=virgin-emi-records-uk&utm_country=GB&utm_referrer=www.eltonjohn.com%2F (Accessed: October 16, 2022).

Wells, L. (2019) Does Ed Sheeran write his own songs?, Showbiz Cheat Sheet. Available at: https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/does-ed-sheeran-write-his-own-songs.html/ (Accessed: October 21, 2022).

Wolfson, A. (2022) Grammy winner Ed Sheeran is worth an estimated $200 million - but he's a fan of this penny-pinching savings hack (and psst: Pros say you may want to do it too), MarketWatch. MarketWatch. Available at: https://www.marketwatch.com/picks/grammy-winner-ed-sheeran-is-worth-an-estimated-200-million-but-he-still-uses-this-penny-pinching-savings-hack-and-psst-pros-say-you-may-want-to-do-it-too-01661185365 (Accessed: October 19, 2022).

Western, D. (2022) Ed sheeran net worth, Wealthy Gorilla. Available at: https://wealthygorilla.com/ed-sheeran-net-worth/ (Accessed: October 19, 2022).

Western, D. (2022) Elton John Net Worth, Wealthy Gorilla. Available at: https://wealthygorilla.com/elton-john-net-worth/ (Accessed: October 20, 2022).

See, S. (2022) Elton John's net worth in 2022, ClutchPoints. ClutchPoints. Available at: https://clutchpoints.com/elton-johns-net-worth-in-2022/ (Accessed: October 20, 2022).

sydneydejoreymusic — 2022-11-13 08:49:36 UTC

Formative Assessment

sydneydejoreymusic — 2022-12-02 10:22:00 UTC

Please find attached my formative assessment.