When You Were Mine

• When You Were Mine, Cyndi Lauper, 1985
• Form: this song is definitely strophic, it does come back to a chorus. You could sing along to it, although some of the notes that she hits are not realistic for a pedestrian music-goer. The lyrics and beat are not too demanding to sing along to.
• Origin: this is a more contemporary piece. It is a cover of Prince song from the early 80's. It has a contemporary sound, as a synthesizer(?) is fairly prominent throughout.
• Lyrics: Cyndi reminisces of the time when she was with her love, and says that now that they're apart, she loves him even more. The lyrics help give the song a contemporary feel: "you were kinda, sorta...", "I know you're going with another girl" these phrases incorporate modern phrases and slang as well as capture the informal way of colloquial talk.
• Instrumentation: Percussion, synthesizer, electric guitar, vocals (lead and backup).
• Melody: What sticks in my head after listening to this song is "I love you more, I love you more, I love you more than when you were mine." The song is very repetitive, so it is not hard to get stuck in your head.
• Texture: This song is not particularly rich. It does not have many different instruments, and the ones it does have serve the purpose of setting the beat and backing up the vocals. The vocals are certainly not rich either. The back up singers do at a layer to the texture, but I wouldn't call it rich.
• Range: Aside from the one, sudden high note sung by Cyndi, the range explored in this song is very limited both in the instruments and in the vocalists.
• Tempo: The tempo is moderate, and very steady. The percussion helps to keep the beat very neat and consistent.
• Volume: The biggest distinction in volume seems to be Cyndi's voice over the instruments and back up singers. At times it sounds like she is shouting out.
• Meter: It seems to be a 4 beat meter.
• Personal: Personally, I am not a huge Cyndi Lauper fan. I do enjoy "Girls just wanna have fun" from time to time, but overall I don't find her style enjoyable, especially the way it is showcased in this song. She almost sounds like she is whining more than she is singing. I was impressed with the sudden high note she belts, however.
• Other: In the song, Cyndi seems to be addressing a bisexual relationship. However, the song does not speak strictly to bisexual relationships. The feelings the singer expresses are easily related to a heterosexual relationship as well. In this way, the song presents the idea that relations that aren't heterosexual are not so foreign.