History of Your Life in 4 Objects

Childhood: Traditionally not the music you would associate with many childhoods, Cher’s ‘Believe’ CD is the object I have chosen to represent my younger years. ‘Believe’ was manufactured in Germany and released on 13^th October 1998 by Warner Music UK Ltd, the CD featured ‘Believe’ which became number one on 2^nd March 1998 making Cher the oldest female artist to top the charts. In the United Kingdom ‘Believe’ spent seven weeks at number one and became the biggest-selling single of 1998, selling in total 1,672,000 copies to date contributing to the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording at the 42^nd Grammy awards, where it also received a nomination for Record of the Year. The CD featured ten songs written by a collaboration of individuals including Brian Higgins, Stuart McLennen, Paul Barry, Steven Torch, Matthew Gray, and Timothy Powell and produced by Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling.

‘Believe’ is a dance-pop song that incorporates elements of techno and house music and samples the songs ‘Prologue’ and ‘Epilogue’ by British Rock group Electric Light Orchestra from their 1981 concept album Time. It also uses heavy amounts of Auto-Tune which has since become one of the song’s most notable features.

Looking back the music of Cher was not life changing in any sense but is just a simple reminder of the things I have in common with my mother and the things we equally enjoy. At a younger age the lyrics meant very little but the significance of just general pleasure singing along with my mother is what makes this particular CD special to me.