2021 Exam Paper-Ordinary Level

Identify your favourite type of music and write the text for a podcast which you hope will encourage more people to listen to this type of music. In the podcast you should: describe some of the features that make your favourite type of music unique or special, introduce a couple of well known performers in this musical genre and explain why you think your listeners would enjoy this
type of music.

Hi everyone and welcome back to Music Matters, with me your host, Shane Enright. On tonight’s podcast we’re going to talk about rock music and in particular 90’s rock as we see the bands of the past emerging once again among our young and not so young. 

In last week’s podcast, we discussed the re-emergence of heavy metal and we’ve had a huge response over the past week with listeners tuning in to Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath and being pleasantly surprised with what’s on offer.

So this week, we’re urging you to try out 90’s rock, which is my favourite type of music and on this show, we’re going to discuss some of the top performers from that era, namely Oasis, Greenday and the Foo Fighters.

Songs like ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger,’ ‘American Idiot,’ and ‘Best of You,’ brought audiences from around the globe to their feet and provided the lyrics that represented the change in society that we saw in the 90’s. A more carefree ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude was personified by the lyrics of these bands.

“Is it worth the aggravation to find yourself a job when there’s nothing worth working for? It’s a crazy situation but all I need are cigarettes and alcohol.” These are the lyrics from the famous Oasis song Cigarettes and Alcohol, which typifies the attitudes of Oasis and wider society at the time.

I would also encourage listeners to familiarise themselves with classic hits like Champagne Supernova, Don’t Look Back in Anger and She’s Electric and I can guarantee you’ll be wanting to hear more and more from the Manchester brothers, who are now sadly estranged. 

Across the Atlantic Ocean, Greenday made their debut just as the 90’s ushered in a new era. Their classic albums like Nimrod and Nookie put them on the map and their popular song Good Riddance became the graduating anthem for students with the catchy lyrics, ‘I hope you had the time of your life.’

Greenday’s unique style and guitar solos captured the hearts of listeners on both sides of the Atlantic and the band are still producing classic hits to this day. Check them out on spotify and you won’t be disappointed.

The final band that I want to discuss this evening is Foo Fighters who were founded after the dissolution of Nirvana following the death of Kurt Kobain. Dave Grohl, who was Nirvana’s drummer, set up Foo Fighters who carried on the Nirvana tradition.

Classic hits by the Seattle based band include, ‘The Best of You,’ and ‘Times like These,’ which are still popular to this day.

What I love most about these bands are that they can provide easy listening tunes to relax to and earth shattering shout out loud anthems, which bring back memories of electric atmospheres in Slane, Oxygen and Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

We’re almost out of time on tonight’s Music Matters but before I go, I want you all to give 90’s rock a chance, listen to the brilliance of Oasis, Greenday and Foo Fighters and I guarantee you will not be disappointed. Thanks for listening and join me next week where we will be looking at the 90’s Brit pop revival.