Philosophies about life and love and happiness and adventures are as vast and varied as we are as individuals. Figuring them out, deciding how you want to look at the world, and how you want the world to look at you, is an integral part of the search for identity. Googling quotes about those things may provide a glimpse into something worth exploring, so start there if you wish, but remember--we are, for better or worse, a gang of intellectuals. And to that end, we shall explore to depths a quick glance at quotes would never allow.
Many of you use music as a gateway. To sanity, to serenity, to solace and/or to solitude. Music, to many of you, is an escape from the harsh realities of teenage life.
So, now it is also going to be a tool in which you come to a greater understanding of how you see the world, and how you see yourself. I'm trying to ruin music for you--quite the opposite, actually. I am kind of hoping you'll get a clearer understanding of why you like music that you do.
Think about all the music you love to listen to. Specifically, think about the lyrics to songs you love. Now, I want you to pick one or two songs that adequately encapsulate how you feel about life, your life. Of course, like a quote, nothing can COMPLETELY "sum up" your entire life--I understand that. But many songs, either through explicit or implied messages in lyrics, can at least provide a concrete example of either what you want out of life, what you want out love and how you want to be perceived, taken, understood etc.
So, your task this week is to tell us about a song, copy a few of the refrains/chorus/passages, and explicate their meaning(s) to you.
First, try to look at the song objectively--from a purely lang-intellectual standpoint. That is, identify metaphors or imagery, hone in on concrete and abstract language and try to analyze how the songwriter put together the lines to tell a story. Why does one lyric come first? Then talk about what the song means to you, specifically. Try to pick ones that have some depth and that will provide a deeper understanding of your innate beliefs.
My eyes bled as they read the post. The fonts I like are: Arial, Times New Roman, Nosifer, Chewy, Butcherman, Cherry Cream Soda, Luckiest Guy, and Fredericka the Great. I hate to say it, but size 10 Veranda makes me angry, although I do admire the change in scenery.
ReplyDeleteSo, anyway, I picked a relatively recent song, considering my taste in music. It was released in 1991 on Pearl Jam’s debut album and is titled “Jeremy”; the first lyrics are as follows:
“At home, drawing pictures of mountain tops, with him on top. Lemon yellow sun, arms raised in a V, and the dead lay in pools of maroon below. Daddy didn't give attention...to the fact that mommy didn't care. King Jeremy The Wicked ruled his world. Jeremy spoke in class today.”
The song was inspired by a real life boy, named Jeremy, who shot himself in front of his high school English class in 1991, and by Eddie Vedder’s (the main singer’s) relationship with a classmate, named Brian (almost just like me!), who ended up shooting up a room in middle school. Jeremy was always described as troubled and quiet, hence the “Jeremy spoke in class today”, and Eddie Vedder read about the shooting in a small newspaper article and decided to write a song about it. The song does not describe my life, as I am neither troubled nor quiet, but does describe life in general.
The first lyrics are placed in a certain order to surprise the listener. “Drawing pictures of mountain tops...”: that is nice; the kid likes nature; “...with him on top.”: the kid might have some sort of ego, or feels as though he has to control nature by being “on top of things”; “Lemon yellow sun…”: the sun is high up in the sky and the day is nice, although a little sour (Vedder uses imagery to describe the sun as “lemon yellow” to show that, although the sun may look bright and positive, it houses a secret sourness that may go unseen by many). “...Arms raised in a V…”: the boy is happy to be controlling nature and, therefore, his life. The shock comes with, “the dead lay in pools of maroon below,” where the listener realizes how troubled the kid is despite appearing perfectly fine just moments ago. Next, the reader can put together the facts that Jeremy is troubled and that he has control over his life to find that if things get out of hand, Jeremy always has the final say in the direction that his life goes.
Eddie Vedder wrote the song to tell a story that otherwise would have went untold; he did describe the newspaper article about the shooting as “short”. Vedder attempted to make people care more about not just school shootings, but suicide in general, by describing both the classroom and Jeremy’s family life. After Jeremy shoots himself in the song, Vedder shouts (because he sings grunge music, and in grunge, everything is shouted), “try to erase this from the blackboard,” to show both that one cannot erase the past and to give a gruesome visual of whatever may have landed on the blackboard after the shooting (Jeremy shot himself in front of the classroom). Moreover, Vedder describes Jeremy’s family life by, again, shouting, “and the boy was something that mommy wouldn’t wear”, to explain the disappointment Jeremy’s parents felt towards him, which certainly did not help his mental state.
Thus, Vedder describes (shouts about) suicide, school shootings, the affect family life can have on a child’s state of mind, the ignorance people have regarding the feelings of others, the shock life has on everyone when things can take a sudden turn for the worse, and perhaps the role guns have in society (Jeremy lived in Texas) in a single song that describes life. However, “Jeremy” does not describe my life as much as many other songs I could have chosen. Perhaps, “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath best describes me, but that song is very straightforward, so it would be a little boring to analyze it.
The song I have chosen to depict my life is written and rapped by Hopsin and is called “Fly.” Hopsin is one of the few rappers left who do not rap about money, drugs, or weed every song. I have been listening to Hopsin since 2012 and every song he has written was a life journey. His songs “enlighten you, and just let your brain drift” (8th line in Fly). He is the rapper that keeps me thinking intellectually outside of this class. I apologize in advance, for he has a very colourful vocabulary, but the first verse always seem to grab me and listen to the full song:
ReplyDelete“I was taught that education is the only way to make it
Then how’d I get so much money inside my savings?
My teachers never saw the heights that I was f*cking aiming
Did the man who invented college, go to college? Hm, okay then
Am I the only one that noticed humans on the same sh*t?
Y’all thoughts are sailing on the same ship
And if that’s the case, then that’s the reason that you ain’t sh*t
Let me enlighten you my n*ggas, just let your brain drift.”
The song was written for his marketing class in college. Hopsin claims that “the best type of marketing is the marketing that doesn’t feel like marketing,” and then goes on to provide evidence:
“It’s why players are good and getting chicks
It’s why Nike is good at selling kicks
It’s why Disney is loved by all the kids
Why McDonald’s owners are super rich, we too blinded to ever see ‘em pitch.”
Another reason why I love this song is because not only does it get you to think, it also sprinkles a little bit of marketing information (well at least how Hopsin perceives it). But the real reason why I find this song related to my life is because of the chorus:
“I really hate to break it to you but your life’s being played with
You have not witnessed the world cause you’re stuck in the Matrix
Everything we have been taught is all a lie
Open your eyes, open your mind, and fly.”
Ever since 8th grade, I’ve realized what the matrix is. The matrix takes part in everyone’s life. It controls everyone life. I cannot word the definition of a matrix correctly so here is the dictionary.com definition: “something that constitutes the place or point from which somethingelse originates, takes form, or develops.” Now let me give you a huge example of the matrix: buying something as seen on TV or as seen on someone else. Cop’ing (buying) the new released jay’s or “cop’ing a gold watch” (also from Fly) is accurate examples of the matrix for our generation.
In this next verse Hopsin illustrates a pyramid scheme we all play a part in:
“Man, can’t you see we’re robots who know not what we are doing, we got no shot
In the real world until we climb out of this ice cold box
Your whole life has been part of a whole plot
To keep you at the bottom while they on top, stay quiet, then they won’t stop
They always tryna show us what we don’t got
They do it to all of us ‘til we finally break and go cop a gold watch
Knowing we need the cash for rent
My ass is sick just thinking about how rich and powerful all these b*stards get.”
This verse is an accurate explanation of the society we live in today. But Hopsin has taught me to branch out, to follow myself, and not what “they” want me to do so that I can fall into their plot. Before listening to Hopsin I always wondered what if this society is a whole bunch of bullshit. What Hopsin did is simply exploit it. He confirmed I am not the only one who thinks this way. And I am positive, knowing that Hopsin has a pretty big fanbase, him and I are not the only ones that think this way.
To build off my last sentence in the previous paragraph, what I do not like about modern rap is that people like Chief Keef and Fetty Wap have a bigger fanbase than Hopsin. Chief Keef and Fetty Wap only rap about “f*cking b*tches,” “money,” and, “weed.” Both those rappers are no different from gang bangers. Why do they have such big fanbases? It’s just a whole bunch of bullshit. Hopsin deserves the whole fanbase of Fetty Wap and Chief Keef because of how much effort he puts in. Compared to everyone else, he is a small-time rapper. Hopsin raps about the journeys he goes through while we can’t even understand what the hell Chief Keef is saying. His dreads cover his eyes, his songs are stupid, and he is made fun of. And that is a successful rapper in the present. It amazes me honestly.
DeleteP.S - Sorry for the rant in the end
I wish could say my song for this week’s blog is Gasoline by Halsey but unfortunately I’m not a bad bitch. I have as much of a bad bitch in me as Bubbles, from the Powder Puff Girls. Which is what led to my choice of a much more depressing song. I have chosen Between the Bars by Elliot Smith. Some people may have heard it in the popular movie Stuck in Love, but I will never forget scrolling through Tumblr two years ago and listening to the lyrics. The heartrending words over the subtle guitar strumming definitely intensified the moment.
ReplyDeleteBetween the Bars could be confused for another simple love song, but it holds a greater complexity than that. The entire song is a metaphor between a man and his alcohol addiction. Abstract language is laced through every lyric in the song such as, “Drink up with me now, forget all about the pressure of days, do what I say and I'll make you okay.” Alcohol has the floor with this song and speaks to Elliot.
The first lines of the song say to drink, although his potentials shot out. Afterwards the second verse beings with drink once again this time to relieve the pressure, the pressure of not going to his true potential because of the alcoholism. The chorus comes in next which is the part that really hits home, the alcohol soothes Elliot by telling him the former people he was that he hates now won’t exist if he just drinks them away. Every problem Elliot has can be fixed by the alcohol.
As stated above the lyric I truly relate to is, “People you've been before that you don't want around anymore.” I didn’t take this line in context with the song, I heard it alone and zoned out for the rest of the song. Those lyrics made me think back to the time I think a lot of people had. It made me think of the person I was long ago that I never want to see again. I never wanted to be the person that hated themselves again. Thankfully I can’t fully connect with this song due to the fact I’m not an alcoholic.
You said that many of us use music as a gateway. I guess I’m one of the few who don’t, and I’ve always been like this and I’m not really sure why. I could never understand the way people connect to music the way they do and my sisters used to bug me about it all the freaking time. I listen to music, yes. I like it, sure. I usually am okay with whatever is on. Even though I have never personally connected to music, I have kind of accepted that people can and do because I’d feel odd if I didn’t understand. I will never understand why people can connect to a song they are singing to or cry when they listen to a freaking Miley Cyrus song about a mountain.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, a blog is a blog so I went to my spotify and hit play and the first song that came up was Love Yourz by J. Cole. Let’s start off by saying that changing “s” to “z” is so genius!!!!!! WOW!
Ok, well let me lang the heck outta this without copying the lyrics that use the n word :)
“It's beauty in the struggle , ugliness in the success”
Antithesis!! Well, these contrasting points help the flow of the song and also point out an idea that isn’t necessarily known. People strive for success because they see beauty in it, but J. Cole sees it differently. He’s struggled and succeeded, but he’d rather struggle. I guess he’s kind of being a hypocrite since he isn’t loving his success.
“For what's money without happiness?”
J.Cole asks a couple rhetorical question in this song and this one was my favorite. We all strive for money because we think it will bring us happiness, but what if it doesn’t? What if you have all this money and no happiness? These questions make you want happiness and want to love the things that make you happy rather than strive for monetary items. Maybe it is because money has never really the most stable income in my household, because my parents gamble and all, but money has always been something that I was forced to worry about. Whether or not we had it or not determined their mood and our lifestyle. So I pushed things like money aside which I do with most things when they bother me. This, though, wasn’t a bad push. I began to focus more on the people and things around me and making sure those people were okay. I love them. Every stupid ugly person I have in my life. (They aren’t stupid or ugly, I just hate giving compliments.)
I love what’s mine so freaking much. I will put any person before me which explains why every off period (including culinary and AP chem, but whatever) I have I am always tutoring someone or always talking to someone with my sucky advice. I will drop any stupid assignment that I know is going to take me all night to answer anyone’s text or call when they need it. (Especially Teagen, love you)
This song doesn’t encapsulate my whole life story from the bad days to the good, but rather explains everything that I want to feel, understand, and do. Inspired by the allegory of the Cave (Plato’s Cave), “The Cave” by Mumford and Sons depicts the return of an escaped prisoner who tries to convince the other prisoners to leave. The scenario of the cave consists of people who, from childhood, have been shackled to face a wall with chains on their neck and feet, so that they can’t see anything next to them or behind them, only in front. And as a fire burns behind them casting shadows of objects passing by, all they can see are the shadows, which are all they know to be real in the world. But when one person is set free, everything he knows is a lie and he has to leave the cave in order to discover the truth for himself. And when he comes back he tells his fellow prisoners that they have to put their fears behind them and enlighten themselves with everything under the sun.
ReplyDelete“It's empty in the valley of your heart
The sun, it rises slowly as you walk
Away from all the fears
And all the faults you've left behind
The harvest left no food for you to eat
You cannibal, you meat-eater, you see
But I have seen the same
I know the shame in your defeat
But I will hold on hope
And I won't let you choke
On the noose around your neck
And I'll find strength in pain
And I will change my ways
I'll know my name as it's called again
‘Cause I have other things to fill my time
You take what is yours and I'll take mine
Now let me at the truth
Which will refresh my broken mind
…
So come out of your cave walking on your hands
And see the world hanging upside down
You can understand dependence
When you know the maker's land
…
‘Cause I need freedom now
And I need to know how
To live my life as it's meant to be
…”
There is a lot of abstract language and deeper meanings in the lyrics of this song because it’s meant to tell a story of a prisoner yet act as an allegory for discovery, both self- and truth. The lines go in a specific pattern to illustrate the story for the listener. The writers use abstract language in many ways in order to allow the song to fit for anyone. By using it to state the lines “Now let me at the truth/ Which will refresh my broken mind” the band states how it is only the idea of finding a truth that will heal all the insecurities and uncertainty in an inexperienced mind. Not just knowing all there is to know but knowing what is the absolute truth. Plus, as the band sings, “‘Cause I need freedom now/ And I need to know how/ To live my life as it's meant to be,” the word “freedom” can refer to many different things for many different people. Which is why the story being told doesn’t have to be just about the prisoner in Plato’s Cave but rather about anyone who listens to the song. It can be about me and whenever I listen to it, it is.
Growing up and even now I’ve always wanted to know who I really am and find myself through self-discovery. I never really sought to find the truth about myself because I was always one to go through the motions and agreed on what others agreed on. I was and still always scared and afraid of many, many things. Being shot down. Feeling mentally and physically isolated. Not truly knowing the important things in life. Missing opportunities. Whenever I used to feel sad I would listen to this song because it perfectly embodied everything that I want. What I want to feel. “And I'll find strength in pain/ And I will change my ways/ I'll know my name as it's called again.” What I want to understand. “You can understand dependence/ When you know the maker's land.” What I want to be able to do. “But I will hold on hope/ And I won't let you choke/ On the noose around your neck.” What I want in general. “‘Cause I need freedom now/ And I need to know how/ To live my life as it's meant to be.”
I love music, you’ll always catch me jammin to some random song since I think I can sing, actually, I swear I’m the next taylor swift but it’s lowkey af. Anyways, I listen to a variety of different genres, rap, gospel, tap, water, and justin bieber are my favorites though. But the thing is, I don't have a favorite song. I love to listen to music but I never really connect to any particular song. Probably because my life is crazy and constantly changing, I should have my own TV show but it's whatever. But honestly, I don’t really connect with songs, I like lots of songs, but I usually just will like the beat or the way the person's voice sounds but that's about it.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite song is always changing but throughout the years my number one has got to be “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira. Considering I can’t dance or speak spanish, I do not connect to this song at all. I just really like the beat and her vocals. I also like the song Crazy Rap (Colt 45) by Afroman but then again I do not connect to it because I don't sell drugs and have sex with random women I find in different countries. Another song I really like but really don't connect with is, “It wasnt me” by Shaggy. I have never been “caught on the counter” or “bangin' on the sofa” and overall, I wouldn’t cheat on my mans so I just like this song because it's funny.
As you can see, I like lots of songs, I don’t connect with them though. So I’m just going to talk about my current favorite song that I kind of connect with I guess. So as I previously stated, one of my favorite genres is Justin Bieber, yes I consider him a genre. I would sell BOTH of my big toes just to meet my mans JB, and considering you can’t really walk correctly without a big toe, it's pretty serious. I just love him. He just recently came out with a new album and I love every song on it and they are all so beautiful but the best song on there is definitely “Love Yourself”.
This beautiful song kind of reminds me of how I view people. “Cause if you like the way you look that much. Oh baby you should go and love yourself.” My mans is utilizing euphemism by saying “go and love yourself” instead of “go and f*** yourself”. He has a way with words, I know. People who are full of themselves literally make me want to jump out of a window. Just because you’re cute doesn't mean you are a great person and you should get over yourself because when you’re 80 you will just be wrinkly and mean, no cuteness there. People who think they are better than everyone else (Donald Trump) is the reason why world hunger is still a thing so get over yourself.
DeleteMy other favorite line is “My mama don't like you and she likes everyone” which is hyperbole because his mom doesn’t exactly like EVERYONE but you get the point. I don’t know if it's just my FOB mom but she can spot out a fake friend before they even walk in the door. She always tells me if she doesn't like one of my friends and before you know it they aren't my friend anymore. She's probably psychic or something but that doesn't surprise me. But my mom seriously likes 99% of my friends even though she doesn’t know half of their names.
So yeah, I like music I just never find myself deeply connecting to a song. This could either be due to the fact that I listen to the same songs 97332 times a day, am half deaf and don’t even listen to the words, or that I just don’t understand the lyrics. Either way, music is music, I connect with pizza more.
My first true love was a song that I automatically fell head over heals for in 2009 while sobbing my eyes out saying goodbye to Hannah Montana. For anyone who knows my name, not even me, probably knows I live by the song “The Climb” by the one and only Miley Cyrus. The passion I have for this song is everlasting. It's my bible, my comfort zone, my confidence, my performance, my motivation, I could literally go on forever. Before every game, I have to listen to “The Climb” or at least sing it. I wouldn’t feel right and yeah it's a superstition but it was something I ‘ve done ever since 7th grade but when I got to high school, it was all seriousness a must. Of course, along with my skittles, until I decided to go on a diet. I cry--almost--everytime I hear it. Just the first beat, I will go nuts. Sometimes I refuse to listen to it when I’m with a bunch of people or having a good time with my friends because either I’m wearing makeup or I don’t want people looking at me weird, actually just kidding everyone looks at me weird I don't know why I wrote that. Shout out to class of 2017 for making me literally sprint away from Alfonso at Semi as soon as the song started. You guys are the real MVPs, made me hysterical. I have so many memories but I have 2 of my favorites and they both happened this year. Cedar Creek decided to play us on their senior day field hockey game, 10am on a saturday. All of their teams were playing that day, shout out to the cross country team for beating them that day too!! Football was playing later at 1, so everyone was on the Cedar Creek University Campus watching the D1 sporting events. That game was the most intense game ever. We were winning 3-1 all the way until the last 5 mins when they scored another goal. 3-2. I was freaking out because I did not want to lose. The last 30 seconds they had a perfect opportunity to score but then, at the football stadium, The Climb started to play and it echoed over to out field. I don’t think I ever sprinted so hard on a field a day in my life. I remember looking at Maren and back to Coach Toy and just start screaming crying while running around frantically. We won the game 3-2 and I never felt so strong. The song is such a blessing. Part two is when my best friends, Abby Leigh Silver and Jessica Lynn Ketschek performed The Climb at Cabaret Night. I was crying about 12 acts ahead of theirs, so that explains it all. By the way, you both did amazing sounded just like the actual song love ya girls <3
ReplyDelete“There's always gonna be another mountain
DeleteI'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side
It's the climb”
In all seriousness the entire song is a consisted of imagery and a giant metaphor. It is comparing life problems to legit climbing a mountain, no matter what you fade or what you're working towards, that challenges you face getting to your goal are the most significant part. It's like the saying “ You might not win the war but you won the battles”. The mountains represent basically life, the hard times and daily issues we face, which leads to the climb. The climb is getting over your problems and learning. Every lyric in this song is so beautiful and meaningful. You could pause the song at any time and be like wow thats a good quote. The first lyric is “I can almost see it, that dream I’m dreamin’” and if you don’t automatically love it I don’t know what to tell you. It’s like God sent this song to our lives for us to believe in yourself, past all of our doubts. I cannot imagine my life without this song. I remember the first time I heard in the radio, radio disney of course, and I was ½ way over the 9th street bridge in Ocean City. I almost flung myself off the edge. This song is so meaningful to me. I’m probably going to walk down aisle to it. It’s my senior quote, it's going on the top of my cap for graduation, and my first tattoo will be a sunflower and along the stem the words “It's the Climb” will be inked onto my skin forever. I wrote this so quickly I forget what I’m even saying or if I’m repeating myself. Just know, Life’s a Climb, but the view is great- TRAVIS <333
Also take note I cried writing this.
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ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteOut of all the songs to choose from in my iTunes library, “The Scientist” by Coldplay really stuck out to me. Choosing a song for this blog became a difficult task when I realized the wide range of music I listen to. From rap to classical, I love all music. Except for screamo because while some call it music, I call it noise. Screamo holds no musical or instrumental value to me so therefore, I don’t care to even attempt to appreciate it. Plus, it causes ear trauma. Anyway, “The Scientist” came to mind because I can play it on the piano. It holds lyrical as well as instrumental value. The Scientist reveals a lot about life and especially relationships. The song starts with revealing the boyfriend’s mistake.
Come up to meet you
Tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are
I had to find you
Tell you I need you
Tell you I set you apart
The boyfriend made a mistake and apologizes to his girlfriend. He wants her to know that although he messed up, he sets her apart from everyone else and she holds a special place in his heart.
As the boyfriend apologizes to his girlfriend, he fantasizes about the beginning of their relationship when everything seemed so easy and effortless. Then, the boyfriend concludes that him and his girlfriend will never see eye to eye.
Running in circles; coming up tails
Heads on a science apart
This metaphor and reference to tossing a coin adds a better understanding for listeners. When a couple “flips the coin,” they both land on tails and never on heads. Heads represents “a science apart” or more simply, agreeing that their sciences don’t match. The couple both draws the same conclusions each time they “flip the coin” and they can never land on heads or an agreement.
As the song continues, the boyfriend reflects on his relationship. He realizes how hard a relationship can be and wishes he could restart but unfortunately, it is too late.
After the boyfriend reminisces on their relationship, he searches to find reason and logic to where the relationship went wrong. He becomes “the scientist” because he attempts finding an answer for their falling-out. Then, after discovering nothing, he concludes,“Questions of science, science and progress, Do not speak as loud as my heart.” In other words, science can only make sense of so much. Science rarely explains feelings, love or relationships in its entirety, with all of its components. The boyfriend finally grasps that relationships do not make logical sense. After accepting the relationships’ failure and incompliance with science, the words “I love you” take him right back to the start. No matter what his logic or science tells him, the relationship haunts him. He has no choice in his feelings; they demand to be felt.
This song relates to almost every relationship. All relationships have problems. All relationships take work, compromise, attempts at finding a common ground, and far more than science can explain. A lot of times when we offer our outside, logical advice to other people in relationships, they never seem to take it. People in relationships often listen to their hearts and not to their brains. Feelings and emotions affect our behaviors and since our feelings seem uncontrollable and sometimes irrational, it leads us to do irrational things. Overall, this song reveals the complexity of relationships. This song exhibits the phases of most relationships: the fantasy beginning, the turbulent middle and finally, the end. Although there is an end, this boyfriend feels that no matter what, the words “I love you” take him right back to the beginning. Feelings suck.
The song I have chosen for this week’s blog is called, “Mess is Mine” by Vance Joy. There are various reasons why I chose this song. First off, I really like the melody and the beat of Vance Joy’s style, it’s not like what I usually listen too. Another reason why I chose this song is because of the message it’s sending, it may sound as if it’s talking about two people in a relationship, but that all depends on specific points-of-view. I hear this song as saying, “I’m here for you, no one in particular, but you can count on it that I’ll be there for the people I care about.”
ReplyDeleteTherefore, with that said, one line of the song states, “When you think of love, do you think of pain?” This line represents antithesis by contrasting the word “love” and the word “pain” in the same line. Since the word “love” isn’t supposed to correspond to the word pain, Vance Joy is using antithesis even if he doesn’t know it.
Another literary term Vance Joy uses in his song is connotation, for instance in the lines: “Hold on, darling, This body is yours, This body is yours and mine, Well hold on, my darling, This mess was, yours, Now your mess is mine” Vance Joy’s claim is that he’ll be here for you and he’ll take of your problems as if they are his. But the warrant, or underlying meaning, is a strong and affectionate and a caring feeling that he has for someone, a feeling so strong that he’ll do anything for that person or for those people.
Vance Joy also asks a rhetorical question when saying, “You know you gave me all the time,
Oh, did I give enough of mine?” He may be second- guessing himself, but if he is writing lyrics such as, “This mess was yours, Now your mess is mine”, then you can infer that he did the best he could in sharing his help, especially to the people that matter to him.
This song also portrays a lot of imagery throughout its entirety, like songs usually do. However, while listening to this song you can visualize the lines in your head like they’re movie scenes, at least I can. Vance Joy illustrates imagery mostly by his use of abstract language, his lines aren’t specific in what the messes he helps with, and he also isn’t specific in who he particularly helps. This might have been Vance Joy’s goal because he wanted his audience to think this song on a more personal level, by having his audience decide the messes.
There were a lot of songs that I was contemplating over, but this song by Vance Joy ended up to be the one I wanted to talk about in a more lang-intellectual standpoint.
Whenever I listen to music, I don’t really pay attention to the lyrics. I listen to songs based on their sound and vibe. Just like Taylor, I don’t have a deep emotional connection to music, so this blog is a little hard for me to write. However, this past week I’ve been playing Jealous by Rozzi Crane repeatedly because her voice is just so beautiful (Adam Levine actually started his own recording label just for her). I can relate to bits of the song when you take the lines out of context.
ReplyDeleteBeen sleeping, sleeping, sleeping right next to my phone
And I've been staying, staying, staying, staying, staying alone
These two lines are kind of self explanatory. I am a sloth. As all my friends know, I rarely respond to my phone at home because I’m always taking a nap. It’s terrible and I don’t know why I need so much sleep. Sometimes I will push off my homework to go to bed early but somehow STILL feel tired in the morning. Poor Wiesner has to put up with my grumpy face all morning during gym, which I sleep through btw. Also, I’ve been staying, staying, staying, staying alone since ‘98.
Driving, driving, driving all night in my car
You know I've been singing all day to forget who you are
Then you run in my rearview mirror
When I've been trying to get my vision a little clearer
Okay, this is a metaphor that represents her mind. Rozzi has been trying to get over her ex, trying to clear her vision and live life without constantly think about the ex. However, something happens that makes her think about her ex and the times that they had together. Because I don’t have an ex, I see it as a moment of weakness. With every goal, there’s always going to be temptations to quit or stop.
You're like a cigarette
A bad habit in my life
Like a glass of red
I'm 'bout to drink it all night
I'm a habit, you're such a habit
A fucking habit
And I just can't fight
This is a metaphor that explains her willpower to stop thinking about her ex. She knows it’s bad to get back with her ex, but she can’t stop because she’s so used to being with him. For me, this is talking about the struggles to achieve what you want. There are goals that are really hard to achieve because of the amount of control and self-discipline they require, and trying to achieve it will be like a tug of war of weakness and success.
I love music; I really do. It’s another way for a person to express their thoughts and unleash their inner creativity. Not to brag or anything, but I can play a mean “Mary Had a Little” on the ukulele. The UKULELE. Other than, I suck at anything “music” related. One of my favorite songs is “Smile” by Mikky Ekko (the guy who sings Stay with Rihanna). It has a nice beat, and just genuinely makes me happy whenever I hear it. His voice isn’t too shabby either. “Smile” is definitely a positive song, one of those “bringer-uppers” (AKA “brightens your day” or “picks you up when you’re down”). I highly recommend this song if you’re feeling lost, or if you just like pop-indie-rock music!
ReplyDeleteSo the song starts off like this (AKA the chorus):
“Smile, the worst is yet to come
We'll be lucky if we ever see the sun
Got nowhere to go, we could be here for a while
But the future is forgiven, so smile”
In a way, it’s like a reminder to the listener: smile, even through all the bad. The only “langy” thing I see here is personification. Ekko sings, “But the future is forgiven”. The future is not a person, nor is it a corporeal object that can be touched. But because Ekko has the “is forgiven” part right after it, the line implies that the “future” had done something that upset (or “will upset” since it’s the “future”) the listener. And typically, humans are disappointed most by other humans.
The next verse goes:
“We're trying so hard to get it all right
But only feel lonely at the end of the night
And I wanna be somewhere away from this place
Yeah, somewhere just a little closer to grace”
I feel like this is true for everyone. We work and work so hard to please everyone. Everyone but ourself. We are told that the future, our future, will only be good if you work your butts off NOW. So we work and countdown our minutes. And we cry and hope and pray for everything to just stop. The stress, the talking, the anxiety-- we want it all to go away. Once it does, and we’re free, only then will we feel sane.
Skip to the last verse:
“And time will eventually knock on my door
And tell me I'm not needed around anymore
But he'll hold me so close at the end of the day
When I'm quiet I can nearly hear him say
Smile, the worst is yet to come
We'll be lucky if we ever see the sun
Got nowhere to turn, and we've got nothing but time
But the future is forever, the future is forever, so smile, so smile, so smile”
Another personification is used here, but this time, with “time” (HA see what I did there). Ekko has that “Time will knock on his door” and “tell him he is no longer needed”. In a sense, he will no longer be of essence to Time. And that’s only because he’ll be dead. He doesn’t need to keep watch over Time (or the time) anymore. He doesn’t need to worry about the future. Afterall, that IS his future. Death. So instead of “slaving”, might as well be happy and smiley while doing something great. Something you love.
Overall, this song is basically about loving every moment you are given and not caring about what is to come. I worry so much of my future, especially nowadays, it’s crazy. And I don’t even realize it! Colleges, getting good SAT scores, grades-- everything. It was just like yesterday I started high school! Before this song (before this blog post tbh), I thought every little bit mattered. But it doesn’t. In ten years time, I might be a pediatric nurse. Or I might be a cashier at Walmart. Or I might be in Africa running a marathon, WHO KNOWS! Nothing is ever certain in life. Therefore, you just gotta take things day by day and enjoy it. You only get one life, yes. But “The future is forever”.
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ReplyDeleteBeing the boring person I am, I do not really have many favorite songs. Sure I listen to music but it is usually music with no words in it. For example, I like to listen to music composed by the classics like Bach or Beethoven. I listen to those soft tunes when I do my homework or whenever because it soothes my already stressing day. Yeah I know, I am boring and weird but whatever. If I had to choose a favorite song, it would be probably be “We’re All in This Together” from High School Musical. High School Musical was my life back then. I always imagined high school being like East High depicted in the movie but sadly my dream was shattered the minute I stepped into high school on the first day of freshman year. My favorite part would be the chorus because it is just so catchy.
ReplyDelete“We’re all in this together
Once we know that we are
We’re all stars and we see that
We’re all in this together
And it shows when we stand
Hand in hand
Make our dreams come true”
The chorus is my favorite verse because this song teaches us about teamwork. For me, the lyrics are saying that if we work together we can achieve our dreams because working as a team can be better than working alone. Even though I first watch this movie in 2nd grade, I still remember it til this day. It is the song that motivates me whenever I’m feeling stressed. Another part of the chorus goes like:
“We’re all in this together
When we can reach
We can fly
Know Inside
We can make it
We’re all in this together”
Well the only “langy” (thanks to Jasmine for that word) that comes up in this verse is the part where they sign “We can fly,” which is a hyperbole because we all know that humans cannot fly. The songwriter is exaggerating because what it actually means is that when friends are together, nothing is impossible to achieve. This verse creates an image in my mind, that whenever my friends and I are together, we can achieve whatever we want. I imagine as if we can fly through
any obstacle in our way.
The songwriter writes the song as if he/she is trying to say that things are more enjoyable whenever we do them together. This can be shown in the verse:
“Together, together, together everyone
Together, together, come on let's have some fun”
Even though people might think I am weird but this one of the songs that have stayed in my head since childhood. Whenever I am with my friends, I randomly start singing this song and my friends look at me like I am crazy but I am still in love with this song from 10 years ago.
I don’t think that I can come up with a song that sums up my whole life. But Otis Redding’s, “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” is sort of a fit. The song is basically about a man who spends his life fairly lonely. He sits on a dock of a bay by himself and just watches what is happening in front of him. The man left his home and doesn’t have any other talents so he just figured that he would sit on a dock for the remainder of his life. He is literally just, “Wastin’ time.”
ReplyDeleteI see this as sad, however I can relate in some ways. First of all, many times I find myself, when I’m not in the company of friends, sit back and watch what is going on and stay by myself. I guess its poor social skills, I’m not really sure. This is stretching the meaning slightly, but I can also see the man as a person who simply likes his alone time and works well by himself. In this way I relate to the song so much. Outside of school I hang out with friends, but I enjoy my alone time. This is the few hours a week that I get to sit down and relax, maybe watch some tv or listen to music.
I am also a person of doing things myself, and it I can, I will do what needs to be done by myself. Whenever there is something that I need to do, such as a project around the house, I will prefer to do it myself. I could ask my dad or brother to help, and this would save me so much time, but I don’t work well with other people. It’s probably my fault though, I’m an asshole, know-it-all when I’m working, and I rarely accept other people’s input, but I’m normally right anyway. So I prefer to work by myself because it’s hard for me to work with other people, and it’s hard for other people to work with me. So as you can see I can normally find myself, “sittin’ on a dock on the bay.”
Life can be described accurately with a few words or thousands. That’s why it doesn’t come easy to me. I want to describe what life is, what it means to me, but knowing that an endless amount of words can be used just as effectively as a minute amount of words intimidates me. That’s where music plays a role. Music kind of helps put everything into words and it’s limitlessness coheres with the limitless amount of words that can be used to describe life. I think that’s why most people rely so heavily on music. It’s nice to have someone else put your thoughts into words, sometimes. It gives all of us a sense of belonging, the sense of acceptance and normalcy that we sometimes feel deprived of. It’s good to feel understood, that’s all.
ReplyDeleteBeing asked to provide only a few songs that sum up what life as a whole means to me helped me realize that I tend to choose songs based solely on their relevance to the present. Right away, I thought of a few songs like “Let it Go” by Kaleo and “5 am” by Amber Run themed in the chase for independence from a bad relationship. I thought “perfect!” but then realized that these songs don’t describe what life as a whole means to me; they only sum up how I currently feel. Thus, I kept searching.
Next, though, I faced another realization. So many songs, their genres all unique, sum up what life means to me. I mean, probably hundreds that I could orally recite in a memorized list. Again, it’s more difficult than you’d think to chose just a few.
Usually, when I reach barricades like this one, the inability to chose, I try to think outside the box in the hopes of reaching some higher level of understanding and awareness and creativity. I decided, ultimately, that wordless songs can also be used to sum up what life means. For instance, “Life and Death”, composer Michael Giacchino’s orchestral piece used as a recurring theme song in the show “Lost”, ironically and fittingly paints an image of life as a whole; at least, life as I see it through my own eyes. The song, containing both positive and negative chords, represents the unstoppable and definite ups and downs of life. The song’s title alone incorporates more about life than most any lyrical song: In life, in fact beside life, death occurs. And this does exclusively mean physical humanly death, rather loss in general: loss of love, loss of oneself, loss of finances, loss of a specific feeling, loss of an opportunity. Constantly, death works with life to create a beautiful balance, and that’s what the song really says though it technically “says” nothing at all. It’s capability to draw inconsolable tears of both joy and sadness perfectly represents, in beautiful sound, life’s capability to do the same. Even in the show that it debuted in, it was used for scenes depicting both life and death, further strengthening its representation. Upon this realization, I deemed “Life and Death” by Michael Giacchino my top answer. However, I recognized that the question I face asks specifically for lyrics from an outside person that describe, identically, how I feel about and view life so I continued searching for words.
Then, randomly, I remembered the alternative-ambient song “I’ll Be Good” by Jaymes Young. I tried for at least twenty minutes to chose just one phrase, just one stanza, but I couldn’t because the whole song, each word, describes how I view my own life on a personal, not secular, level. So here are all the lyrics:
DeleteI thought I saw the devil, this morning/Looking in the mirror, drop of rum on my tongue/With the warning to help me see myself clearer/I never meant to start a fire,/I never meant to make you bleed,/I'll be a better man today/I'll be good, I'll be good/And I'll love the world, like I should/Yeah, I'll be good, I'll be good/For all of the times that I never could./My past has tasted bitter for years now,/So I wield an iron fist/Grace is just weakness/Or so I've been told./I've been cold, I've been merciless/But the blood on my hands scares me to death/Maybe I'm waking up today/I'll be good, I'll be good/And I'll love the world, like I should/I'll be good, I'll be good/I'll be good, I'll be good/For all of the light that I shut out/For all of the innocent things that I've doubt/For all of the bruises that I've caused and the tears/For all of the things that I've done all these years/Yeah, for all of the sparks that I've stomped out/For all of the perfect things that I doubt/I'll be good, I'll be good/And I'll love the world, like I should/Yeah, I'll be good, I'll be good/For all of the times I never could.
I never really wanted to be a good person until last year. I was really selfish, in all actuality. And angry. I had already lost everything that I never expected to lose by the time I was nine, and, up until that point none of it was my fault. But after that point, I chose to take, not wrong, but darker paths. Along the way, I hurt and lost a lot of people that I never intended to hurt. Amidst my own bad decisions, though, some people still took advantage of me and hurt me too. Each time I let myself care, all that i cared about slipped away from me. While I am to blame for my own self-destruction, I take no blame for what others did to me that left me broken, in a seemingly unfixable state.
“For all of the things that I’ve done all these years, for all of the sparks that I’ve stomped out, for all of the perfect things I doubt”. Those words over the rest really speak to me. All I’ve done combined with all that’s been done to me lead me to ignore the good in everything and doubt its presence. Now, though, “I’ll be good, and I’ll love the world like I should”, which I decided not even a year ago. I still have enough time to make up for all the time I lost. I can still feel like a worthy, decent person. I can still be a good person. Anyway, that’s a large and persistent conflict in my life so this song really embodies that more than any other song.
Now, as far as a second song, I reached even further outside the box. I saw this cute little animated clip of a short poem (that I thought was a song clip) that went like this:
Delete“In order to be happy in life you have to learn to let the pain go/Some people never get to see the beauty of a rainbow because they’ve yet to let the rain go/You have to stop feeling sorry for yourself and living in misery/ and stop giving all your time and energy to negativity.”
Here’s a link to this artist’s instidy, a type of lyrical pinterest board: http://instidy.com/visionarymemoires
I never heard of this guy before. His name is Londrelle and he’s pretty great. Anyway, someone told me recently that it’s okay that I’m not okay right now. It’s normal for me not to be okay considering the situation I’m currently involved in. However, I’ve also been told that I should stop feeling sorry for myself. Understand first that these two bits of advice came from two entirely different people: the first from a loving source and the second from a non-loving source. Maybe there’s a percentage of bias, then, but either way both pieces of advice can be categorized as good advice. In fact, I’ve always understood that one day I’d have to “let the rain go” completely. This advice just pushed me to understand that that time happens to be now.
Honestly, I’ve never felt weaker than I do right now. I mean, “right now” as in this general time in my life. I think it’s easier to ignore painful shit now because I can look forward to leaving in a year but even when I go, if I don’t overcome all of this first, leaving won’t do a thing. I’ll still feel this way even thousands of miles away in Hawaii. I believe Londrelle’s words. In a way, this idea has always dictated my life. “Just let go” people tell me. “You’ll be okay tomorrow”. And even though depression doesn’t work that way, I believe them. What else can I do?
In order to be happy, you do have to let go of pain. Until you do, pain will blind you from all the good that presents itself to you. While you stare down opportunities, and merely the world’s beauty, wait for you to look up. Those who never look up, never see the beauty of it all; the possibilities and endless miles of unexplored ground. Much like a parasite, pain seeks hosts. There’s no shame in becoming a host, but there’s no reason a host can’t take steps to rid itself of that deadly bug. And, much like the idea of demons, pain only gets in if you let it in. Feeling sorry for yourself will expand the time period in which pain will consume you. You gotta just ignore it sometimes...just tell it to fuck off and tell yourself that you’re strong and you can get through everything just fine. I mean you can’t give time and energy to negativity because, then, it will only eat away at you more. In all reality, the world is beautiful. All you have to do is blow your nose, wipe your tears, and look up.
Life is funny. There’s always hope. There’s always something good to look at to distract from the bad and eventually eliminate it altogether. And there’s always tomorrow.
I've loved music since the first grade and started singing in the second grade. Since then, music has been one of the only things that makes sense. When it comes to music describing my life, I can go from Drake, to Sam Smith, to Lupe Fiasco, to Alessia Cara, and then back around again. Whether it's Paramore or Kacey Musgraves, I listen to everything there is because SOJO 104.Haley doesn't always cut it. Honestly, catch me in the hallway bumping Ella Fitzgerald or Cody Simpson on Pandora. WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, TRY TO BUMP SELENA GOMEZ ON MY AUX. WE EXERCISE THOSE DEMONS. Regardless, I've always been able to escape from reality through two plastic headphones with my volume turned all the way up, even though my head usually hurts before hand.
ReplyDeleteBecause I've never been in love, most love songs don't relate to me. And that's fine because even though some of the prettiest songs are break up or heartbreak songs, the experiences before hand are ugly. The song I've chosen to best describe me is "Daughters" by John Mayer. Now this is a put-Bre-in-her-freakin-bag song. I'm not frequently in my feels because I don't usually have those but when I am, I'm probably listening to John Mayer or some other slow music. This particular song, short but strong, is not just a simple love song. Yes, Mayer is talking about how, "I know a girl,
She puts the color inside of my world." But he goes on to talk about how she's different and she starts to change, and then Mayer realizes that he is not the problem and that he's not the reason she doesn't know how to love. The chorus goes on to say, "Fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too."
Mayer is saying that without parents that mold their daughters, when your dad turns his back and your mom works too much, your daughter won't know how to love. So be good to your children.
As he progresses, Mayer writes,
“Oh, you see that skin? It's the same she's been standing in, Since the day she saw him walking away, Now she's left, Cleaning up the mess he made.” In saying this, Mayer is giving the word mess a connotation. The mess could be broken beer bottles, or the shattered pieces of her heart.
Through metaphors, Mayer implies that you can break boys down to toughen them and build them back up again, but boys aren't shit without the love of a woman.
This song hits home for me because it is not the fact that I don't want to love anybody else, I'm just pretty sure I physically can't and that's why I am so afraid of dying alone. I don't know, but there's something about a father who comes in and out of your life and a mother who you only see for about two hours that makes you feel alone and cold. There is a percentage of me that hate my parents for what they've done to me. I'm not physically abused or anything crazy and they don't knowingly make me feel like I can't do what I set my mind to, but they make me angry. Now I can't be normal. And all I want is to be normal.
All in all, this song is about John Mayer encouraging parents to care for their children because one day, there'll be a point where they'll have to love themselves and another person, but you can't do one without the other. Teach your children how to love so they can be loved properly by their future mates and themselves.
When it comes to music, I always think back to my awkward preteen-self and it makes it me cringe a little. That’s because during my preteen years I didn’t listen to music that kids my age typically listened to. Because of that, I thought I was so cool. I thought I was special for not listening to music that no one knew about. I thought it made me better than others. I’m cringing just thinking about it now. This is the reason why I get really annoyed when others judge people by their taste in music. How is your music taster better than anyone else’s? Music is music. A song that you think is stupid could hold a lot of meaning for someone else. Even if that song doesn’t hold meaning and the person just likes the song, who are you to judge? Your choice in music does not make you better than another person just because another person likes music that you don’t.
ReplyDeleteNow that I’m older my attitude towards music is whatever. I listen to music all the time. I listen to it in the car, on the bus, and while I’m doing work. Even though I listen to it a lot, I’ve never had a deep connection with it. I know people who really love music. Like really love it. But I can’t do that. I can’t connect to a song because of its deeper meaning or lyrics. Whenever someone asks me what kind of music I like I just go “Everything…”. I don’t have a specific genre I just listen to whatever I like. When I like a song its mostly because I like the sound of it honestly. I don’t really care about the lyrics much but if it has good lyrics then that’s just a plus.
It was really hard to find songs because of my disconnection with music but I finally came up with a song, Heal by April Nhem. For this song I didn’t choice it based on the entire message of it. I chose it for this one part of the song
And you know as time goes
You’re going to heal
You’re going to feel
And you’ll see, we’re not meant to be
Just let it go
Just let it go
If you look up the song, to others it’s about love but to me it’s about healing. I fell in love with this song freshman year probably around winter. I remember this because for some reason I get really depressed during winter. I don’t what it is, maybe the lack of sun, but I get really depressed. Anyways, I came across this song on sound cloud and decided to listen to it. At first it came off to me as any other love song but I liked how it sounded so I immediately downloaded it to my phone. I don’t know when but I started seeing the song as more than a love song. I fell in love with those lines because it expressed the emotions of healing and saying that as time goes, you’ll heal and feel better. You just have to let it go first. In a way that song saved me. It’s honestly the first song that has ever emotionally affected me.
ReplyDeleteChoosing a song to analyze was more difficult than the actual analysis because there’s so many good songs that more or less “encapsulate” my life. In the end, I chose “Lithium” by Nirvana. I never fully understood my love for this song until I actually took the time to examine the lyrics. I found that the opening lines accurately convey the general message:
“I'm so happy because today
I've found my friends
They're in my head
I'm so ugly, but that's okay, cause so are you
We've broken our mirrors
Sunday morning is everyday for all I care
And I'm not scared
Light my candles in a daze
Cause I've found god
Hey, hey, hey”
In order to fully understand the depth of these lyrics, some points of general information are required: 1) As a teenager, Kurt Cobain lived with various family friends and relatives. At one point, he stayed with a very devoted Catholic family, who inspired this song. 2) Lithium is a drug commonly used to treat Bipolar disorder, a mental disorder in which patients experience mood swings that can range from depressive lows to manic highs.
Throughout this song, Kurt Cobain compares living in a strict religious environment to having Bipolar Disorder. He constantly contradicts himself to demonstrate the false hope that religion provides him with. “I’m so happy because today/I’ve found my friends/ They’re in my head”. The “friends” Kurt is referring to are actually God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit; entities that supposedly provide unconditional love and forgiveness. Kurt feigns happiness and loyalty (“Sunday morning is everyday for all I care”) to the Catholic faith to please those around him, but secretly thinks religion is a hoax; something people believe in to make them feel better about death (“And I’m not scared”).
The last lines of the stanza, “Light my candles in a daze/ Cause I’ve found God”, show how brainwashed and hopeless Kurt feels. He is in a “daze” of confusion because he’s surrounded by people telling him how to think and what to believe. He is unable to form his own beliefs as a result, and sarcastically remarks that he has “found God” because that’s what others want to hear.
I personally enjoy this song because Kurt illustrates the feeling of passionate ambivalence. “I’m so ugly, but that’s okay, cause so are you”. He says that he hates himself, and then embraces this thought as he realizes that he hates society as well. Does he hate himself because he hates society? Or does he hate society because he hates himself? He feels so deeply that he finds it hard to continue to feel. He perfectly characterizes the idea of having really powerful feelings, but at the same time not having any feelings at all.
The following line, “We’ve broken our mirrors”, is my favorite. Kurt’s talking about society’s standards, the “mirror”, and how he has failed to meet them, along with everyone else. He exposes not only himself, but also the people living in society, because he knows that no one is perfect; everyone has their own insecurities and doubts and feigns conformity in order to “fit in”.
This post was a lot deeper than I anticipated I’m sorry music puts me in my feels.
I wrote half a blog post for “Dreaming” by Smallpools but then I changed my mind so “Half Light” by Banners it is! I’m definitely a music person, with music being a “gateway” if you want to get all fancy like that. I chose “Half Light” because it was playing during the season finale of “The Royals” last Sunday and I couldn’t get it out of my head for a week, but the song was also unreleased so I couldn’t find it anywhere until now.
ReplyDeleteThe song starts out startling the listener immediately with the singer singing, “It makes me feel nervous/you have that look in your eye” and obviously there’s worry and anxiety behind those lines. But then he sings “Oh what takes over/what is it that holds you tight?” and he’s asking this question but at the same time it feels as though he knows the answer. And he’s personifying this person’s struggle as “holding them tight” to show the power that this situation over this person he’s singing to. But then he continues, singing “and you could tear it up/oh no one tears it up like you/oh you can rip it up/oh no one rips it up like you” and once again by personifying the struggle into something that can be easily ripped and teared, the singer empowers. Except this time, instead of giving power to the situation, he gives power to the person in the situation.
The singer continues to plead with this mysterious person, with the chorus going “when you’re in the half light/it is not you I see/and you’ll live a half life/you only show half to me.” Evidently, this is a plea for the person to open up and stop living half-in and half-out. The “half-light” shows that this person is torn in half. Darkness being associated with pain, and light being associated with clarity, it’s obvious that this person is struggling to find order, yet still finds himself/herself in a situation they can’t escape.
The second verse has the singer trying his best to help, with him singing, “Sometimes I join you/let you wash over me/when we’re in the darkness/only the blind can see.” The singer somehow reverse-personifies the person he’s singing to. By saying that he lets them “wash over” him, it gives them a quality of viscosity and shakiness. They’re not sturdy and firm; they’re flimsy and can slip easily through the fingers. In a way, the singer is showing that by helping, he can see even more clearly how broken this person is. And then the paradox of “When we’re in the darkness/only the blind can see” shows that no one can really “see” the struggle that another is facing. The theme of “half-light” plays in again, because on the dark side, the singer can’t see what’s really wrong. Only the blind, who feel through voice and emotion, can possibly discern in the darkness.
The bridge is more personification, in which the singer asks, “what possesses you/can you shake it off” giving the darkness more power. My favorite line in this song is “can you shake it off” not just because it gives me serious Florence + The Machine vibes, but because there’s something so innocent in asking someone if they can just shake a darkness off. Overcoming hardships is not easy, but when the singer simply asks if it can be shaken off, it feels that easy.
"Love of mine
ReplyDeleteSomeday you will die
But I'll be close behind
I'll follow you into the dark
No blinding light
Or tunnels, to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of a spark
If Heaven and Hell decide that they both are satisfied
Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark"
From strictly a Lang stand point, there are multiple accounts of personification in the song "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie. For example, Ben Gibber sings about Heaven and Hell being satisfied. Neither Heaven nor Hell can be satisfied because they are places, not a living thing. In addition, another verse uses "soul embarks" to resemble the love of his life dying and her soul moving onto a better place. This is another form of personification because someone's' soul can't really take a journey like described in the song. Death Cab for Cutie also uses imagery when describing Heaven. He describes it with a "blinding light" and "gates of white." These characteristics help us picture Heaven as a very bright, welcoming and glamorous place.
The band puts certain lyrics before others because the song tells a story of different events that happened in this couples life. This stanza makes sense to talk about the couples vast travels before they go to sleep.
"You and me have seen everything to see
From Bangkok to Calgary
The soles of your shoes are all worn down
The time for sleep is now
It's nothing to cry about
Cause we'll hold each other soon
The blackest of rooms"
I love this song so much because it shows the perfect couple, in my opinion. A couple that traveled the world together and would do anything for each other. I want to be as devoted to a human being as much as this couple is. I mainly picked this song because this is what I'll strive for when I get older. To go to the ends of the Earth with someone and still be in love sounds like the greatest thing imaginable.
"Catholic school, as vicious as Roman rule
I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black
I held my tongue as she told me, son
Fear is the heart of love, so I never went back"
I can relate to this stanza the most because I actually did go to catholic school up until the 3rd grade. It was a lot stricter than public school is, but it had its perks. It taught me discipline, how to sit up straighter and how to walk in a straight line. I never got my "knuckles bruised" by a nun like the man does in the song; but if I feared the nuns at my school I wouldn’t have went back either.
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ReplyDeleteI don't choose this song because it relates directly to me, but the meaning of this song means a lot to me. Keep your head up by Tupac Shakur. This song is about women, about how women need to keep their heads up with all the things they have to endure. Pac goes into the suffrage of women .. Opening up with
ReplyDelete"I give a holler to my sisters on welfare
Tupac cares, if don't nobody else care
And uhh, I know they like to beat ya down a lot
When you come around the block brothas clown a lot
But please don't cry, dry your eyes, never let up
Forgive but don't forget, girl keep your head up
And when he tells you you ain't nothin' don't believe him
And if he can't learn to love you you should leave him
Cause sista you don't need him
And I ain't tryin to gash up, I just call em how I see em"
... Hes basically saying how women need to be strong because men, other women, and just society puts women down. How you look as a women how you act as a women you will be put down. Thats the way it is and it sucks.
"And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don't we'll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can't make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So will the real men get up
I know you're fed up ladies, but you gotta keep your head up"
..This part talks more about mainly how men need to respect women. All the disrespect men have for women, but seem to forget they wouldnt be alive without them. A women made you and carried you inside of her for months causing pain, and gave you life and everything you need to live and you are going to disrespect smh.
"I huffed and puffed about my curfew and broke the rules
Ran with the local crew, and had a smoke or two
And I realize momma really paid the price
She nearly gave her life, to raise me right
And all I had ta give her was my pipe dream"
Hes going into how his mother deserves everything. And his bad actions effect her and he knows she deserves only good things because thats the women who blessed him with life.
"Cause I think we can make it, in fact, I'm sure
And if you fall, stand tall and comeback for more
Cause ain't nuttin worse than when your son
Wants to kno why his daddy don't love him no mo'
You can't complain you was dealt this
Hell of a hand without a man, feelin helpless
Because there's too many things for you to deal with"
You will deal with terrible terrible things in life, but youll make it, you have to stand tall. This song is motivational in a way.
"Dying inside, but outside you're looking fearless
While tears, is rollin down your cheeks
Ya steady hopin things don't all down this week
Cause if it did, you couldn't take it, and don't blame me
I was given this world I didn't make it
And now my son's getten older and older and cold
From havin the world on his shoulders
While the rich kids is drivin Benz
I'm still tryin to hold on to survivin friends
And it's crazy, it seems it'll never let up, but
Please... you got to keep your head up"
The overall meaning of this song, it doesnt have to be towards just women. People in general, unless you are one lucky duck, will go through rough times in life, and you just have to push through. No matter gender, age, anything, you have to believe in yourself and stay strong because you are worth it. "You got to keep your head up" :)
The song I chose is "You Be the Anchor That Keeps My Feet On the Ground, I'll Be the Wings That Keep Your Heart In the Clouds" by Mayday Parade. (Painfully long title, I know).
ReplyDeleteThis song is filled with different lang-intellectual examples.
"All my sand castles fall like the ashes of cigarettes". I could argue that this line is actually two different things, simile and symbolism. This is an example of symbolism because when he says "sand castles", he does not mean actual sand castles. He means his hopes, emotions, and happiness are shattered because of his recent heartbreak. This is also an example of a simile. He compares these sand castles or emotions to the ashes of cigarettes. It's not unknown that cigarette ashes fall very easily, almost without touch. He is saying that his emotions, hopes, and happiness fell as quickly and as easily as cigarette ashes.
He puts these lyrics and lines in a certain order that tell a story between him and the person that left him. In the beginning of the song, he is begging this person for answers on why they are leaving him. Over the course of the song he begins to accept it more that this is what happened and there's not much he can do about that, though he still is not over here. He believes that this person still loves him. He says "Tell me once again that you will love me till' the death and should I die you swear that you will come for me." He is saying that he cannot make them stay, but that if he were to die that they should meet him after death where they can be happy together.
This song means a lot to me because when I listen to it I feel like I can understand his pain through the lyrics. That is also why they are my favorite band because every song they sing seems so pure and true and not only the lyrics tell the story, but their voice and how they present the song does as well. I feel like at one point in my life I could relate to this song, but now, not so much. I don't see that as a bad thing, though because at that point I was probably very upset and now I am different. I look back on songs I used to listen to and I can automatically remember what I felt like when I used to listen to that song regularly, whether it be happy or sad. This is one of those songs that brings me back but also makes me grateful for the past, even though it wasn't always the best.
Growing up my favorite song to listen to was, “Who Says” by Selena Gomez. It was very inspirational to listen to especially because through the teenage years everyone starts bringing one another down about how different they look, or if they’re not skinny, or pretty, or popular. I’m sure this song helped a lot of teenage girls get through their adolescent years.
ReplyDelete“I wouldn't wanna be anybody else.
You made me insecure
Told me I wasn't good enough
But who are you to judge
When you're a diamond in the rough
I'm sure you got some things
You'd like to change about yourself
But when it comes to me
I wouldn't want to be anybody else”
This line in the song is the primary focus. It was also my favorite because a lot of us growing up have experienced bullying or especially not feeling good enough due to mean things that people would say about you. Some people are insecure to be who they are because they’re embarrassed or because they’re afraid they’re going to get made fun of if they don’t fit in. A lot of people feel the need to live up to the standard society has set for beauty, and if they don’t they don’t feel worthy. People are all built differently and you’re built the way you are for a reason, even if you haven’t found out what that reason is yet and this song always helped me remember that. I’ve never been the skinniest girl in my group of friends and when I compare myself to others I always find tons of stuff I wish I could change about myself. She also incorporates bullying into her song for those who were struggling. Since Selena Gomez is famous and a lot of people look up to her, she wanted them to know that it was okay for them to be confident in who they were and what they looked like or even who they liked. This song gave me hope growing up that more people would stop worrying so much about other people. I also hoped that people would personally stop worrying about having to fit in and had to look like everyone else. That would get boring if everyone looked the same and acted the same. No one should ever let people hold them down or label them or feel the need to change the way they look to please themselves or others around them. They way society is can really make some people question themselves and that makes me sad because everyone is good at their own thing and different in their own way. Sometimes you just need a catchy song written by a pop artist to help you remind yourself of that.
To truly understand this song, all the lyrics must be read. Each lines ties into the next and one part doesn’t do the story justice.
ReplyDeleteLittle boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
Theres a pink one and a green one,
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And theyre all made out of ticky tacky,
And they all look just the same.
And the people in the houses,
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes,
And they came out all the same.
And theres doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And theyre all made out of ticky tacky,
And they all look just the same.
And they all play on the golf course,
And drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children,
And the children go to school.
And the children go to summer camp,
And then to the university,
Where they are put in boxes,
And they come out all the same.
And the boys go into business,
And marry and raise a family,
In boxes made of ticky tacky,
And they all look just the same.
Theres a pink one and a green one,
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And theyre all made out of ticky tacky,
And they all look just the same.
Walk Off the Earth - Little Boxes Lyrics
These boxes represent my life. Little boxes are the houses that the people live in, described as made out of ticky tacky. This means they are no different than one another. Sure they may be different colors, but their inside it’s unnaturally robotic. There is no individuality. At times I feel like that’s so. I grew up with my grandparents, in a little neighborhood called Misty Pines. Many of you live there now. Riding my bike through the neighborhood until late at night when I was younger, I noticed one thing. Each and every house had its own character on the outside and along with it a unique family inside. The architecture differed in each sense, the layout, the smell, the garden, everything. When I moved to Victoria Point, everything was so uniform, one could not put up a fence without permission let alone make a garden their own.
As time passes and I grow older I take every chance to sit in the silence and stare mindlessly at everything going on around me. We all worry about the same things. Relationships, grades, college. Less and less do we ask ourselves or consider our happiness. Everything is towards one goal. It’s confining and unchanging. Change is something to be frightened by not something to prevent. The little boxes represent me and the people around me. They do everything exactly the same, their houses, their education, and their personalities. It’s like they’ve been brainwashed. The lyrics say that they may have different jobs thus different goals but we all just want a stable job and etc. But we never look at the little things that are joyful because we are so focused on this interminable cycle. School, sports homework, sleep and repeat. And when we get a job it’ll only get worse. The song shows that one way of living, unchanged, only continues this never ending sequence.
ReplyDeleteThe little box is a place confinement where everything is neat and orderly but oh so boring. There may be a variety of colors which show difference on the exterior but within nothing has individuality. I hope my life isn’t just filled with ticky tacky little boxes, I want choices and options that free me from order. The song “Little Boxes” originally written and composed by Malvina Reynolds in 1962, the cover by Walk off the Earth is an extended metaphor about the upper classes. The little boxes are the houses on the rich hill, their colors represent the “individualistic” outside appearances but their actions convey they are all one in the same. Everything is very stereotypical, the women stay home to cook, cleans and take care of the children while the men get a job to provide for the family.
I read recently that this song was originally set up as a protest song for the rich upper class stereotypes. But in many ways the song relates to the modern young life we live at the moment. We are faced with these difficult life choices that a 40 year old couldn’t make alone, yet we at the tender age of 17/18 are pressured into deciding. Of course, nothing is permanent and nothing will be if you choose never to settle. I choose to never settle for anything, however choices like these can’t be avoided and are costly mistakes if they are chosen unwisely. Everything in school is uniform and formatted and to me that’s the best and worst thing my life could ever to be. I could live happily in a world filled with color coded sticky notes but they would mean nothing if I didn’t have someone willing to change the order or worse removing them. I like order because others like chaos. But I need the two to differentiate each. Otherwise my straight lines will always be a little curved compared to all the others.
Ive grown up on country music, my father drinks beer, my neighbor has a twang in her voice. I rode dirt bikes as a kid and always enjoyed spending time outside. My whole family hunts my cousin who is only a year younger then me deer hunts like a pro. Their lives revolve around family and working hard. So naturally country music comes with all the backwoods attitudes. Many of my favorite songs don't necessarily describe my life but they bring me back to the good times. When I was a kid drinking juice watching my mom garden in her cow girl hat or my dad buying a whole house. It gives me a comfortable feeling. Like everything will be alright. One of my favorite songs is “When the Stars Go Blue” by Tim McGraw. It was my parents wedding song and I just think its so pretty. I don't really connect to it but Ive grown up listening to it. Its basically about a guy asking a girl to let him in and love him. That he wants to love her and care for her. its kind of cute. The best line of the song is , “I follow you when the stars go blue” he's using imagery to say the the girl is sad because her stars are going blue. As I've grown up I've met people that have introduced me to different genres of music, when I was young my mom never let me listen to rap but now I blast in the car knowing very lyric and she can only handle about four verses before she starts yelling about respect and I start laughing because she makes this funny face when she's mad. This summer you could have found me at Fetty Wap and Nikki having the time of my life rapping lyrics to songs my mother hates. One of my favorites is “Trap Queen” because well…most of you probably know haha. its just funny to me. its a dumb song with no real meaning other then him saying she's his bitch but ill still scream the lyrics at the top of my lungs. the best line is “married to the money” Fetty over here swearing he's the shit. Of course he's just using verbal irony here because he's not actually married to it just in love with having it. But I think my all-time favorite artist is Wiz Kalifa. he has this song out called “See You Again” and I swear I cry every time. I cry especially hard when Alfonso plays it on the piano and sings it. I cry really really hard, and I cry that hard for a long time. I think it gets to me so easily because it came out like a week after my horse died, and I would listen to it and cry. The song was written for Paul Walker for the end of the last Fast 7 movie but, Im sure you all know the back story. The song really just makes me very emotional and when it comes on I tell everyone to shut up and I wont let anyone speak until its over.
ReplyDeleteI don't listen to music very often. If my phone worked properly, then I could use headphones. But because it doesn't, I can't listen to music without disturbing others. Mini-rant over. It's weird, though. Music has always been a huge part of my life. My Mom is a Piano Teacher, for Pete's sake! I guess I just don't need to find serenity in music nowadays because even in the rare occasions that I am overwhelmed with responsibilities, I just tell myself that the stress will be over at the end of the day. It tends to keep me sane. Though, I do remember putting some of my favorite songs on my first MP3 Player when I was in elementary school. I was, and still am, a big fan of The Beatles. I listened to their albums on the way to and from school each day as a little girl. In fact, my Dad gave me a large case filled The Beatles CD's for my birthday a few years back! Nowadays, I am too busy to listen to music for enjoyment. I remember listening to Pandora Radio maybe once or twice while taking care of some landscaping in the summer. Other than that, I just sing a lot. I am fortunate to be part of the Women's All State Choir, in which we learn the music on the spot. We are required to take the piece of sheet music and "sight-read" it. It's quite fun once you get the hang of it! But when you start adding in the SJ Chorus music, the Select, Mixed, and Gospel Choirs here at Oakcrest, and our musical: The Little Mermaid, there is a lot of music to remember. Because of my involvement in multiple programs, I listen to the music I have to listen to in order to practice. Shoutout to Erynn for doing it all with me <3.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I fell in love with my most favorite song happened after I watched a commercial for Winnie the Pooh, in which the song plays in the background. I remembered hearing the song even before I watched the commercial and the deja vu made me curious. I searched it up on YouTube, and adored Somewhere Only We Know, by Keane, ever since. My sister and I even went to Keane's concert in Philly because of that song. The way Tom Chaplin, the lead singer, pronounces each word clearly in his awesome British accent, the way the music sounds, and the imagery of the words are a few of the many reasons I love this song. The first few lines of the song are:
I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet
Sat by the river and it made me complete
Oh simple thing where have you gone?
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin
I came across a fallen tree
I felt the branches of it looking at me
Is this the place we used to love?
Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?
The stanza above reminds me of the most exciting vacation in my entire life. I am fortunate enough to have traveled with my family to Yellowstone National Park, in the Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho area. I was astonished at how naturally beautiful the nature is. Each day, our family of five explored something new. Whether it was watching Old Faithful erupt, swimming in hot springs, or hiking to beautiful waterfalls, we enjoyed being in nature. My favorite moment of the trip was on a 5 mile hike to a waterfall. On the way back from the waterfall, my brother decided that we should go off the trail and check out a hidden geyser. There were no signs of danger and there were no people around. No one else was looking at the geyser that day, and therefore "I walked across an empty land." The geyser was GORGEOUS! It had rings of rainbow colors tracing the rim of the water. Towards the deepest part of the water, there was a spout of hot steam and water that erupted every few minutes. It was so serene, so untouched by mankind. And it was all for us to enjoy. I took off my socks and sneakers and ran around in the dirt like the maniac I am. "I felt the earth beneath my feet", so to speak. After an hour or so, the five of us took a seat on a log, or "a fallen tree" and ate a few snacks. I sat by the bright blue water of the Imperial Geyser and "it made me complete".
ReplyDeleteMy favorite song relates to the simplicity of nature in the line, "Oh simple thing where have you gone?". Our lives revolve around technology/machinery that we depend on everyday. In the line above, the singer is speaking to nature and asking it: "Why isn't life simple anymore?" As a matter of fact, in the music video, the singer, drummer, and pianist are located in a vintage-looking forest with a river flowing beside their feet. Occasionally, black, wispy, ghost-like creatures appear out of the woods and listen to the performance. Next, Tom Chaplin sings the lines: "And if you have a minute why don't we go? Talk about it somewhere only we know? This could be the end of everything. So why don't we go. Somewhere only we know?" During that time, the video shows a dark leaf slowly falling from a tree. The singer stands up and sings to the leaf, which transformed into one of the wispy ghost-like creatures, which represent nature. This is evidence that the lyrics are directed at nature. The words are telling a story about a walk in the woods, in order to give the listener an image of the scene, and then leads into a series of rhetorical questions that are meant for "nature" to hear.
This song has been my favorite for a long, long time. Shoutout to Ms. Bunje for asking us to analyze songs because it made me love this one that much more!
Now this isn't one of my favorites songs to listen to but the message that is enticed into the song is so powerful to me and helps me remember that I should be thankful for what I have. This song is called "I won't complain" by Paul Jones and my dad actually introduced me to this song a long time ago when we were coming home from church one day. This is a gospel song but I think anyone who listens to it will feel renewed after hearing it. The chorus goes...
ReplyDeleteI've had some good days
I've had some hills to climb
I've had some weary days
And some sleepless nights
But when I look around
And I think things over
All of my good days
Outweigh my bad days
I won't complain
When I read the first two stanzas of that line I can automatically relate becuase I myself have bad days and days where I just want to give up but this song helps me remember that there is good days and there's people less fortunate than me so I shouldn't be complaining. Also it reminds me that I'm not alone and that every human has bumps and bruises in the road but it's important that we overcome them. As the song goes on it talks about how much God has blessed him and all the great things he did for him so far and that also makes me think of how blessed I am and all of the opportunities God has made for me. The message of that song is to be thankful with what you have and remember that even when times are hard it still could be a lot worse.
Throughout the song Paul Jones uses analepsis which is when you repeat a word or phrase for effect. He repeatedly says "but thank you lord" at the end of the song so the people listening can really understand the message he is trying to send to be thankful even when things are bad
I am absolutely in love with Twenty One Pilots, “Stressed out”-- just look at the name of the song and try to tell me the song doesn’t encapsulate how I feel about my life. I’ve reach a time in my life, that you guys are also at right now, that were treated like children, but expected to act like adults. Since we’re not one or the other to most people, we often flip flop from acting childlike to acting adultlike. I find myself struggling with this all the time. Although I’m obviously not an adult, I’m turning into one faster than I want to. I’m stressed out ALL THE TIME, I can’t go a day without hearing how I need a job, and I care too much about what people think. This song fits me perfectly. Fun fact-- Jaime and Bernard's Cabaret Night act got me interested in Twenty One Pilots and I just recently found this song and fell in love with it.
ReplyDeleteThis song means a lot to what is currently happening in my life. Tyler Joseph, lead singer of the band Twenty One Pilots sings, “I was told when I get older all my fears would shrink, But now I’m insecure and I care what people think” and I couldn’t agree more. When we were younger, we would be scared of the silliest things, which we then grew out of, and now I’m stuck being afraid of what other people think, just as he puts it in the song.
He later sings in his song, “Wish we could turn back time, to the good ol’ days,
When our momma sang us to sleep but now we’re stressed out” and guess what-- ME AGAIN. More than not, I’m always reminiscing and always wishing to be a kid again. Things in my life are changing for the worse at this point in time and it’s got me stressed about and all I do is wish it was the way it used to be, when I wasn’t stressed. The “good ol’ days” are the days I had very few worries, very few responsibilities, and I wasn’t being forced into being an adult. The “good ol’ days” when I didn’t have to stress about SAT’s and college essays quickly approaching, and college in general where I’ll be all on my own. My mom used to be able to make my pain and fears go away, as he says in the song, but now things are different and it’s just not that easy.
And for the work thing, I’m an AP student, I go to school five days a week for seven hours, I come home and have to do at the very least three hours of homework, make my own dinner, do my own laundry, pack my own lunch, work out, shower-- I DO NOT HAVE THE TIME FOR A JOB RIGHT NOW. But, since I’m almost an adult, I’m constantly nagged about it. “Get a job,” “how are you going to pay for gas,” “you have to pay for your own insurance,” “pay your own cell phone bill”-- should I just pay the mortgage while I’m at it? No thanks. Tyler Joseph in his song perfectly describes this point in my life. He sings, “Used to dream of outer space but now they’re laughing at our face, Saying, “wake up, you need to make money,” and let me tell you, he’s right. We used to imagine and pretend and play thinking there was no limits in life, that we’d all have whatever we ever wanted in life because the sky's the limit, but unfortunately, I’ve reached that point in my life that it’s not that easy. I’ve never heard a song so relevant to my life, that honestly speaks to me. I’m guilty of a couple, “HELL YEAH’s” and “word-you-right’s” and “I feel you” when I heard this song for the first time.
ReplyDeleteTyler Joseph uses hyperbole throughout his song to build emphasis. He uses hyperbole when he sings, “It’d be to my brother, ‘cause we have the same nose” and “We would build a rocket ship and then we’d fly it far away” because they don’t actually have the same nose, that’s impossible, and we all know you can’t really build a homemade rocket ship and fly away in it-- especially as a child. By using this form of figurative language, he creates a better visual for the listener to explain what his song is really all about-- being an adult sucks. Adding onto his Lang techniques throughout his song, he strategically placed each like where they are. He starts off by saying how he wishes to be better, and then explains how when he was younger he was told that when he grows up all his fears would go away. He does this at the very beginning of his song because it adds emphasis when he then sings about how now that he's older he's insecure and wishes he could go back to the “good ol’ days” when his problems would be subsided by his mom, but now he's just stressed out because none of that happened now that he's grown up. In the middle of the song he reminisces on his childhood and how the scent of things bring back childhood memories and how they used to play like normal children do and he does this here in the song because at the end he talks about how he's stressed out as an adult. He explains how being an adult is totally different than being a child and how he's bugged by his family to make money, but he'd rather be a child. Then he ends it by wishing back the old days when he wasn't a stressed out adult. If he didn't place the lines in the order he did, the song wouldn't have much meaning or close to the amount of meaning it has.
This is probably one of my favorite songs, not just because the person who sings it has a bomb voice but it just simply holds a lot of meaning that I would say relates or has related to almost every female. The title is “Treat Me Like Somebody” by Tink.
ReplyDelete“Somebody real is hard to find
Somebody worth all your time
Somebody who can tell you the truth
Someone who loves you for you
Someone who knows all of your flaws and
Doesn't impose, try to control them”
She begins the song with repetition to put emphasis on her point that she needs to find that “somebody” who brings everything necessary to the table. However, that “somebody” is not easy to find, from what she has been through all the men have been the same which obviously wasn't good experiences.
“I just want somebody
To treat me like somebody
Won't be like everybody
All you got to do is love me for me baby”
…
“Cause he just wanted one thing
And I just wanted something to smile at, and live for, and hug on
I'd rather have quality than quantity
Oh I just want someone that'll keep it real with me”
To sum it up, all she wants is for a man to treat her how she deserves to be treated, basically how every other woman feels. We (woman) all know of that guy that we have once met that we have regretted meeting because of how selfish and inconsiderate they were. Still I don’t know why most guys have that mindset. The mindset of carelessly hurting females and only going for that one thing. The mindset of continuously lying straight in their face, I mean I never got the memo that that was cool. Not personally, but I have watched some my friends ball their eyes out because of what boys have done to them. This song just sums together everything a woman desires in a relationship and wishes to hopefully experience. My favorite part of the song is when she sings “I'd rather have quality than quantity” because although it may seem so simple it actually says a lot. She is implying that it doesn’t matter how much she receives in the guy whether it be materialistic or not but it is the quality of the relationship that means the most.
It’s not that I don’t use music as an escape from reality, I do. For some reason though it is very hard for me to choose a song right now. I have no idea why. I have been pacing back and forth in my mind between this song and that song and the other song that I heard and I just can't seem to come to a conclusion. I am so conflicted, or I was.
ReplyDeleteAs I was writing my first paragraph, I heard a little kid rapping. Now before I had opened my google docs I made sure that my itunes playlist was on and it would shuffle through my songs. Somehow though, my playlist started playing the videos I had bought previously and I didn't mind it because it didn't bother me as long as it was music I was fine. However this kd talking caught me off guard and suddenly I turned my volume down but it disappeared, I turned my volume back up and this little kid was rapping. Now if any of you have seen the video for Mac Miller's “Best Day Ever” song you'd know what I am talking about. If you haven't though then just know there is a homevideo of Mac Miller rapping when he was younger. ( I bought this video because I cannot take the cuteness that was Mac Miller when he was a little kid, he still is cute though). Okay so past Mac Miller and how cute he is into the actual blog.
Now Mac Miller doesn't exactly use any similes or metaphors and if he does he curses. I will now insert some of those lines but I will make sure to bleep out the bad words.
Similes- “only laughing like a child”, “Rock like Aesop” However these two and all of the other ones that he had in his song werent too complex so i'm not going to spend too much time on those. Later on in the song he personificates “life” by saying he “wherever life takes me..” Obviously in the real world life wouldn't be able to take you anywhere. Throughout this song Mac Miller tells this story, he work day and night he stays up all night, he does all these drugs and makes sure to still make it big. Although I see no real correlation in this song and I don't believe Mac Miller is truthfully telling a story he does have a sequence to it. He starts talking about how he “breaks the sweat off” of some people or other rappers. Later on in the song he comes back to talk about how before he was big he was humiliated and now he works hard for what he gets. He talks about working hard and later on talks about knowing that he would soon move out of his mom's house into his own house. Mac Miller's song honestly has no sequence to it as I stated before he just uses phrases that sometimes are parallel to each other. However only people that are really interested in him would know how they relate back.
“No matter where life takes me, find me with a smile
Pursuit to be happy, only laughing like a child
I never thought life would be this sweet
It got me cheesin' from cheek to cheek
And I ain't going to wait for nothing
Cause that just ain't my style
Life couldn't get better
This 'gon be the best day ever”
The chorus is my favorite part of the song. He talks about how he will always be happy and that’s how I want to be someday. I want to make sure that I will always be smiling and thankful for what I have. The second line talks about laughing and honestly I don't know when I don't laugh at anything. I Laugh at anything and everything and it is honestly the best feeling in the world. “Life couldn't get better” my life as it is right now could not get better. It is the best it's been in years and I don't want anything to change I am in love with my life currently and hope for it to stay that way for a while. Some people try to put me down about the decisions I make and honestly I have learned to ignore it. I feel like Mac Miller has learned to ignore what people have to say about him and we are probably going to get married because of that. “This gon be…” I am hoping that Mac Miller meant for that line to represent everyday because that's how I interpret it. Every single day will be the best day ever.
I LOVE MUSIC! not more than art but I love the lyrics a song has. I listen to music for the lyrics and of course it has to have a decent beat but I can’t listen to a song without words, like dubstep music. I want to relate to a song. I have many songs that I love that I can just listen to all day like it’s my job!.. fr though. Music is one of my escapes from the world (the other is art). It’s like I pause my life, for the minutes I’m listening to music, reflecting on my life while the lyrics speak to me. I’m always listening to music in my house. You may not catch me with earbuds on in public a lot because I’m afraid of running out of data for the month, which will happen in just one day I I do because of how long I listen to music and I mostly listen to music from Pandora. I’ll listen to all types of songs but I love the ones with a deeper message; an inspirational one. I have a so many songs that I live by and most of them were written years ago. I’ve realized that I tend to like more music from the early 2000's for some reason. I'm old school.. but the songs back then are some of the greatest hits to me. I can’t seem to narrow the amount of my favorite songs that truly mean a lot to me. But I will talk thoroughly about my #1 song.
ReplyDelete“Breakaway” by Kelly Clarkson is my #1. This song impacted my life in so many way. It makes me emotional every day that I listen to it; like Teagen and her bible, “The Climb”(that song is amazing by the way). Not a day goes by where I don’t listen to this song. When I feel so alone, I listen to this song; when I feel like I wasn’t good enough, I listen to this song; or even if I’m feeling like I need a boost of confidence at that moment, I listen to this song.
“Trying hard to reach out
But when I tried to speak out
Felt like no one could hear me
Wanted to belong here
But something felt so wrong here
So I pray
I could breakaway”
“Breakaway” relates to my life 100%! Especially, in my middle school years…. I guess that means I would be disagreeing with Bunje. Anyway, this song has a inspiring message of shedding your past and becoming a new person; starting fresh again.
This is the part that lifts me up from the past:
“I'll spread my wings, and I'll learn how to fly
I'll do what it takes till I touch the sky
And I'll make a wish
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway
Out of the darkness and into the sun
But I won't forget all the ones that I love
I'll take a risk
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway”
In the song “Breakaway”, there's repetition of the word “here”; "wanted to belong here, but something felt so wrong here.." and “out”; "trying hard to reach out, but when I tried to speak out..."
"Out of the darkness and into the sun" is a metaphor for living more positively. Same with "I'll do what it takes till i touch the sky.." Kelly also uses imagery; “get on board a fast train... sit under the palm tree, feel the rush of the ocean…” to show the listener examples of breaking away and forgetting the past.
UGHHH I love this song so much!! This is my therapy song; my go-to; my “bible” (as Teag says for hers); my “breakaway”.
Here's a list of all the other songs that I live by that means something to me in a special way, lifting me up as a person:
1. “Keep Holding On” by Avril Lavigne
2. “Eyes Open” by Taylor Swift
3. “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus
4. “Here” by Alessia Cara (S/o to my girl, Breyonce, for killin it singing this song at Cabaret Night ;))))
5. “Vagabond” by Misterwives
6. “How to Save A Life” by The Fray
7. “Where’s The Love” by Black Eyed Peas
8. “If I Were A Boy” by Beyonce
8. “Dear No One” by Tori Kelly
there's actually more songs that I have that I couldnt think of bc I have bad memory:/
DeleteMusic is so incredibly important to me and all the music I listen to has very special meaning to me. The lyrics either express things that I cant or they just give me some sense of hope or purpose. The music today is okay but nothing beats the oldies. My all time favorite song is Vienna by Billy Joel, it gives me chills every single time I listen to it. I cried when I got to hear is on vinyl for the first time because I had been searching for the album it is on for about 5 years. I've showed that show to many of my friends before and it never really meant anything to them and it was just another old song I liked that they didn’t care for, but that was alright because they just don’t understand it the way I do.
ReplyDeleteEvery lyric in that song means something to me but I cant write all of the lyrics here so ill just pick my favorite ones. I'll start with the songs opening lyrics they are as follows:
"Slow down, you crazy child
You're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart, then tell me
Why are you still so afraid?"
These lyrics mean a whole lot to me because I just relate to them very well. Bill Joel starts off the song with the message to a juvenile, he is telling said juvenile that there is no need to rush anything because in life we have so much time to accomplish all the things we want to. Joel doesn’t want the child to be afraid of what's to come because everything happens for a reason and every thing has a purpose. This has been my favorite song since I was a little girl but it never meant anything to me until I got older and I actually decided to make something of the lyrics. As soon as I really listened to the song it made its own special place in my heart. He chose to call the song Vienna because his father lives there and also because old age is anticipated there as oppose to it being feared here. The repeating lyric in the song is "When will you realize, Vienna waits for you," he is telling everyone no matter the age that there is plenty of time in life to accomplish everything and we have no need to rush anything because our age will make no difference if we really want to do something.
"… you're so ahead of yourself the you forgot what you need
Though you can see when you're wrong, you know
You can't always see when you're right."
As we all know I have some type of problem with giving myself credit for things and for "forgetting" the things i should be doing for myself and these lyrics literally describe me. And now for my favorite lyric in the song, "Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true." Although Joel is telling us to go out and achieve our dreams and to not be afraid he also wants us to know that though we can have big aspirations we cant expect them to all come true because that would just be unrealistic but to still dream big. I don’t think this song has any figurative language in it, everything he sings is very literal.
This song means as much to me as it does because it always reminds me that to slow down and focus on myself and the things happening in my life and that its never too late for me to do something I set my mind to. It also sounds really pretty and I love Billy Joel, if you've never heard this song you should really listen to it, Bunj. It makes me cry sometimes, its amazing.
I could honestly write you an entire book of the songs I love and why I love them but im not going to do that for obvious reason so another one of my favorite songs is "I Hope you Dance" by Lee Ann Womack. This song is full of figurative language. One of the lyrics is, “Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens” which is an allegory. The "door" is representing opportunity. There is an idiom in the lyric, "you get your fill to eat but keep that hunger,” she is telling the intended listener that even when they are “full” they still have the availability to grow and further themselves. This song means a lot to me because to reminds me that I should take every opportunity presented to me and that I shouldn’t let other people dictate how I feel when it comes to thinks I find important. My favorite lyric in the song is, "I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean," to me this lyric means that if we begin to succeed and accomplish many things that we should always stay humble no matter what. This entire song is just about not being afraid of taking chances and doing things for yourself and I think that those are very important things when it comes to growing as a person. The lyrics, "Livin' might mean takin' chances but they're worth takin', Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin'," are very important lessons to me and I think people could learn a lot from this song.
DeleteI think these two songs do kind of sum up my life and the things I want to accomplish. If you know me and you listen to these two songs then you'd be like "wow this is literally Jennie."
This was tremendously hard for me. I have specific songs for how I’m feeling and what kind of mood I am in. But, this week, I am in a very loving mood and a mood that makes me feel joy. So, without further ado, the song I am choosing is: Photograph by Ed Sheeran. I know- I know, Ed Sheeran, but I love all of his songs. Each song says something else and relays a different message and I absolutely love it. I am in love with this song and every that is in it. I love the way he worded it, the way he sang it, the message it has in it. “Photograph” talks about how pictures can hold so many memories without broken hearts, without broken smiles, without all the hurt, and where time stands still. It talks about that no matter where a specific person is, there will always be a picture that will be close to them. This relates to me so much because I love taking pictures. I love keeping memories, keeping people’s smiles, keeping their appearance, keeping their heart. Taking pictures will always be a huge thing in my life. I can look back and see all the wonderful and amazing memories I’ve made.
ReplyDeleteWe keep this love in a photograph
We made these memories for ourselves
Where our eyes are never closing
Hearts are never broken
And time's forever frozen still
These are my favorite lines in the song. I love how he put, “eyes are never closing”, first because, when you look at a picture, they’re people usually smiling. Looking at photos you always see the person’s eyes and see what love they have. You will never see, “hearts are never broken”, in photographs. You don’t see their hearts breaking or their hearts heavy with emotions, you see happiness. Photographs are meant to see the good in life and to keep memories. The last line, “and time’s forever frozen still”, means that no matter what is going on in your life, you can go back and look at the picture where everything was perfect. In that time the picture was taken, the time was perfect. I love this song so much. As I explain my perspective on it, I love it even more.
I don't have favorite song or a song that I can relate to, at least not one that I can think of. I'm not really a person who goes to a song for help to placate my emotional wounds. If I am emotionally struggling, I just sit down and think things through. I rather find out and understand why I feel emotional and hurt instead of letting the songs change my mood and "help" with my negative emotions and thoughts. I'm the type who wants to know things and solve the problem. I dislike being lied to, as well. I rather know the truth than dither in the dark. I don't know how well I used that vocab word there, but what I know is that I drifted away from the subject at hand.
ReplyDeleteSo, as I said, I don't go to songs for "help" when I'm sad or in emotional confusion, but I do go to them when I'm in a good, hyperactive mood for some "fun." When I'm in a good mood I usually like to sing along, to my best capabilities, while the songs play. And I have certain songs specifically downloaded on my phone for this reason. I play songs that are "hype" and very dulcet, which I very much "jam" to. The following are some of the few songs that I very much enjoy: "In the End" by Linkin Park, "I Need Your Love" by Calvin Harris, and "Rude" by MAGIC!. Don't judge me, okay? I just know the lyrics to these songs and enjoy the beat they all produce (and jam to them). There is no reason to list these songs, except that they just hype me up and get me going. I have no other way to explain my choices.
From all this, I assume that I like to keep positive almost always and want to keep being positive. There are so many things/people in this world that will envelope me, and everyone else, in negative atmospheres that keeping positive will be the only way to survive (just like a little spark in a dark room). In addition, I know myself to be completely aware of problems that concern me and I want to understand them all. I don't want songs distracting me from my problems because learning about what one's problems are and how they came to be becomes a great tool for understanding oneself. At least that's what I strongly believe in and find very true. That's why I usually stay away from listening to songs because most the time I'm tired or not in the mood for listening to anything and just want to get my work done. (By the way, I said that I assumed those things about myself because I still don't know myself 100% and still am in the process of learning about myself. After all, I'm still a teenager).
P.S.
I also like a silly song called "I'm a Pretty Girl" which was designed by Schomoyoho, a group of people in the YouTube industry, for the most popular YouTuber, PewDiePie. Don't judge me, okay?! I like me some PewDiePie videos and I enjoy that "song" very much. I'm a silly person and that "song" is a way to express some of that silliness. (Everyone is silly in some way or another, so I don't actually care about being judged about this). :P
The song I have chosen that has so much meaning to my life is Never Would've Made it by Marvin Sapp. This some has been apart of my life since I was a child and always seems to be the song that pops in my head when I'm thinking about certain things. Sapp wrote this song as a tribute after his father died. This is a gospel song that has so much meaning to my life and I can relate to in so many ways.
ReplyDeleteNever would have made it
Never could have made it without You
I would have lost it all
But now I see how You were there for me
And I can say
Never would have made it
Never could have made it
Without You
I would have lost it all
But I now I see
How You were there for me
And I can say
I'm stronger, I'm wiser
I'm better, much better
When I look back
Over all You brought me through
I can see that You were the One
I held on to
And I never, never would have made it
(Never would have made it)
Oh, I never could have made it
(Never could have made it without You)
Oh, I would have lost it all
Oh, but now I see
How You were there for me
This song I chose is pretty straight forward. There's nothing buried deep inside in these lyrics. With this song, I feel like Marvin out one lyric after another because no one would understand if he put them a different way. He put one lyric before the other so this song could be straight forward and you can understand right from the jump. This is honestly a song that makes me happy and sad to listen too. This song to me relates to my dad, mom, and sister in different ways. I never would've made it to where I am now without any of them because they impact my life the most. The lyrics "I'm stronger, I'm wiser I'm better, much better" relates to my dad. My dad has taught me to be a strong and wiser person in this world. He's taught me to stand up for myself and to think in ways I would of never thought of. "Never would have made it, Never could have made it without You" reminds me of my mom. Without my mom I never would have made it. She's my rock and without her pushing me to be the best I can be, I wouldn't be the person I am today. She pushed me to do my best, never give up, and be confident in what I do because if you know me, you know I lack a whole lot of confidence. Everyday I ask her if she's proud of everything I accomplished and when she says yes, I tell her it's because of her that I accomplish these things. When I come home and complain of how badly I want to quit cheer, dance, and track&field, she pushed me to not quit it knowing I would regret it. She pushes me to not give up on something I put my heart in and I thank her for that all the time. Lastly, "I would have lost it all
But I now I see, How You were there for me" goes to my wonderful sister. She's the other half of my life, without her I would not be complete. I'm not saying this because she's my sister and everyone is suppose to live their sister but because she's more than that. This girl is my absolute best friend and I wouldn't trade her ANYTHING. She's there for me through the good, the bad, happy, and the sad. I probably would have lost a lot if she wasn't there to pull be back into things. This song has so much meaning to me and gives me a lot to think about. It makes me appreciate them so much more than I already do.
I listen to various types of music, so you think this blog will come easy right? Ha. I had to think for quite awhile. Suddenly I forgot every song I ever heard or liked. As I scrolled through, I found one that makes me wish I could sing. Of course, I sing along anyways and make everyone’s ears bleed in the process. The song that represents me (in a way) is “We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off” by Ella Eyre.
ReplyDelete“The night is young, so are we
Let's just get to know each other slow and easily, oh, oh”
I just turned 17, yes I agree I’m still young. We have all the time in the world with each other so what’s the rush? Slow and steady wins the race.
“Take my hand, let's hit the floor
Shake our bodies to the music
Maybe then you'll score, oh, oh”
I don’t necessarily need to see your dance moves. I just want us to open up to each other and be silly and goofy while not giving a fuck. Once I know that we’re both comfy, “maybe then you’ll score” (having me as a gf lol)
“We don't have to take our clothes off
To have a good time, oh, no
We could dance and party all night
And drink some cherry wine, oh, oh”
There are endless activities/date ideas we could do to have a good time. Ella Eyre spits facts tbh. No student in this school is yet of legal drinking age, but we can still drink juice :-)
_
I had to pick another song because I felt a connection to the lyrics as well. Since it’s a song from High School Musical 2, it might not be taken as serious. I never took it seriously either until I actually looked at the lyrics and finally comprehended them. The song I picked is “Bet On It” sang by Zac Efron.
“Everybody's always talking at me
Everybody's tryin' to get in my head”
Society’s cruel words will always try to mess you up. They want to move up, so they bring you down in the process. You can’t let them get in your head or else you’ll let them win.
“(Did you ever?) Lose yourself to get what you want
(Did you ever?) Get on a ride and wanna get off
(Did you ever?) Push away the ones you should have held close
Did you ever let go? Did you ever not know?”
Zac asks some rhetorical questions that I never had the need to think about, always sang along to though, until now. I have lost some ethics of responsibility (for school work, stuff at home, and such). I have pushed some people away that I should’ve kept close. I stopped caring, a good and bad way. I still do not know. I feel Zac so hard. He’s just confused as I am.
“(Did you ever?) Blame the world but never blame you”
Yes lol. I’m not too proud of it. Catching myself do it twice now, I realize stress causes me to panic and blame the other person. I know now to not point fingers and just accept that I am wrong. Sure, it’ll make me feel worse at that moment but it’s better than blaming someone else when they’re not the only one at fault.
“Will I end up on top?
You can, bet on it, bet on it, bet on it, bet all you can
Bet on it, bet on it, bet on it, bet on me”
Hell yeah I’ll end up on top of a nice hill with a big house and four cars. I will make sure of it. Well…. maybe not the four cars part, but you get the idea. After high school, I plan to graduate college then get a job right away. Once I save up, I’ll start off with an apartment in the city and of course a black Mercedes-Benz. Then a year or so later, when I make more money, I’ll travel Europe. I’ll make sure to send everyone post cards. Bet on it.
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DeleteSurprisingly, to some people, I grew up in that country lifestyle just like my girl Samantha. All I ever heard was country music and all I ever knew was when I would do away people always asked me if I came from Texas or Tennessee, thank goodness I grew out of that accent I had. Anyways, I was never really a music person but I always loved listening to country music with my dad. A day on the boat blasting Kenny Chesney or sitting by the campfire when we went camping with my dad was always my favorite. I don’t have a “connection” with music, but I do like it, and some songs do really hit home. I am strongly and embarrassing admitting that I still listen to country music and I love it. Most country songs tell a story that anyone could relate to and that is my favorite thing about that genre. I do like the traditional “freak hoe” music too- don’t worry.
ReplyDeleteI’m not a huge music person, I don’t cry if I forget my headphones at home when I am at school. I usually listen to music when I’m really sad or really happy, so if you are to ever see me with headphones on in school, look out. I don’t know which mood is scarier- my sad ones or my extremely hyper happy ones. The country songs that I listen to usually remind me of someone. Like “There Goes My Life” reminds me of my dad because he sings it to me every time it comes on, “Red Solo Cup” reminds me of my Aunt Kim when she sings it every time she had a little too much, and “Sunny and 75” reminds me of my ex-boyfriend James who drove a lifted pick-up truck and rode dirt bikes and bought me my first beer.
The first song I would like to draw to attention is “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw. Tim McGraw tells a story of a man who was just told horrible news about his health, and instead of worrying about his ending and feeling sorry for himself, McGraw sings about everything the man decided to do with his life like sky dying, hiking, loving deeper and living life better. McGraw says, “and he said someday I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying.” The man doesn’t actually wish death on Tim McGraw but he wishes that he will life every single day to the fullest and that is why I love this song so much. Sometimes, actually too much, I let the little things bother me and forget to realize that tomorrow isn’t promised. This song always reminds me to go that extra mile, appreciate all the little things, and don’t take anyone or anything for granted.
For my second song, I was going to go with a different genre, but as I was listening to my last song on youtube, another one of my favorites popped up so of course I had to pick that one. “Something Bad” by Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood. This song is a mixture of country and I guess you could say “pop” which I hate that combination but I just love this song. People always think my friend and I, Kayla, are always up to no good- which I don’t know why we give people that impression. Actually I do, but going into that is for a different day. Anyways, this song just always reminds me of Kayla and I and the badasses we can be sometimes and it makes me happy in such a weird way. I don’t like getting in trouble, which I usually never even do, I just love having a partner in crime type of friendship and that’s exactly how Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood are. Kayla and I were both raised the same way, she could come to my house and go hunt with my dad, and I could go to her house and hunt with her dad, and I think that’s what brought us so close. No one got us, but us. Miranda sings, “Now me and that girl that I met on the street
We’re rolling down town in the new Orleans
Got a full tank of gas and my money out the mattress
Got a real good feeling something bad about to happen.”
This reminds me of Kayla and I because we never exactly know what’s going on, we just know we are thinking the same thing and always hand and hand. I know I was supposed to pick two songs that relate and shape to my crazy life somehow and I also know it seems like this last one can’t exactly shape to my life but it can. I would not be the person I am today without Kayla, she has always been there at my best and worse and vise versa and I would not want it any other way. Considering I grew up with her, and our fathers’ listen to the same type of music, music has a dent on both of us the same way. For anyone that hates country music, or says their ears bleed when they hear it, I ask you to please just listen to the right country music- I promise you will like or connect to at least one song.
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ReplyDeleteMusic has played such a vital role in my life. I listen to music wherever and whenever I can. For the most part, it tunes out the world and isolates me into my own mind. A place where I can speak freely and truly be at peace without all of life’s distractions. Instruments like the piano, guitar and ukulele help me express how I feel and provide an environment/circumstance/situation where I feel the most at home.
ReplyDeleteThe song I chose is Allen Stone’s, “The Bed I Made.”
“I flew to the moon
But it wasn't far enough away from you
Cause all our problems, they follow me”
Allen Stone’s use of, “Flew to the moon,” is a metaphor. He means to say that he tried his best to get away from his problems. The problems that he had with someone else. Notice he changes from “our problems” to “me?” If he and his significant other both carried those problems, wouldn’t he say “follow us?” In the end, all of the problems were actually his own. Problems that he made himself.
“And every night, I close my eyes
And all my troubles fade
And every morning when I rise
I'm just sleeping in this bed I made”
At the end of the day, Allen Stone sleeps like every other man. For the duration of his sleep, he has no issues. He could be somewhere else altogether—in his mind. Wherever he is, he is away from all of his problems. But when he wakes up, he knows that he is where he is and has all the problems that he has because of the decisions he made. The beautiful part is: he doesn’t seem to regret his decisions. He just acknowledges them.
This song relates to me in almost every aspect. Like Allen Stone, sometimes I try to run away from my problems instead of facing them. Especially problems about love. And the sad part is, mine are also self placed. Most of my love has been unrequited and it’s always been me, my mind, and isolation (not recently though). From participating in unrequited love and preferring to tackle problems on my own, most of my problems are all on me, and were made by me. Again, like Allen Stone, I don’t regret most of my decisions. I acknowledge that they are there and I try to learn from them.
I do not remember a time when I didn’t like music. It might be something in my latino blood. My grandparents listened to ballads, and my parents danced with their friends to salsa. We don’t all like the same genre, but all Hispanics enjoy music. If you don’t enjoy music, you are missing out on culture and heritage, and without music, you lose dancing too.
ReplyDeleteSo going off my latin roots, I want to analyze a popular song from when my parents were teenagers in Colombia (attending a Catholic school, yikes), “Es Por Ti” by Complices. It’s a great song for when you are in your “feels” so to speak, or simply if you just want to sing our heart out.
*I will put in the original lyrics and translate on the side.*
Beginning:
Es por ti que veo rios [It's for you that I see rivers]
Donde solo hay asfalto
[where there is only pavement]
Es por ti que hay oceanos [It's for you that there are oceans]
Donde solo habia charcos [where there were only puddles]
Es por ti que soy un duende [It's for you that I'm a sprite (elf, golbin, etc.)]
Complice del viento [partner of the wind]
Que se escapa de madrugada
[that runs away at late night]
Para colarse por tu ventana [to slip through your window]
The song starts out with metaphors. The narrator is presumably talking to their significant other about how they see the world in a more optimistic way because of the love they have. I’m a serious romantic at heart, and I hope to one day find a person to share life with in good times and in bad times. No doubt that whoever I end up marrying will hear this song on repeat.
Then the second half of the verse personifies the wind. The wind helps the narrator always find their love. Typically, people are at least somewhat scared of the night, whether due to monsters under the bed, serial killers, or just the mysterious dark. The narrator wants to comfort their significant other so they don’t have to face the night alone.
Alright, let’s look at my other favorite part of the song.
DeleteEs por ti que soy un duende
(It's for you that I'm a sprite)
Complice del viento (partner of the wind)
Que se escapa de madrugada (that runs away at late night)
Que se escapa de madrugada (that runs away at late night)
que se escapa de madrugada (that runs away at late night)
y decirte (and tell you)
tus labios son de seda (your lips are made out of silk)
tus dientes del color de la luna llena (your teeth are the color of the full moon)
tu risa la sangre que corre por mis venas
(your laugh is the blood that runs through my veins)
tus besos la tinta de mis versos (your kisses are the ink of my verses)
que siempre te cuentan (that always tell you)
And then we go right back to the part above with rivers and pavements, etc.
Before singing the next verse, the narrator repeats the last line of the chorus. At first look, it was probably put there for the rhythm and musicality of it, not to mention at this point everyone is feeling the song and a normal audience usually remembers only the chorus so this gives the audience a chance to really sing/yell/screech their heart out before going into the verse. However, this surprising repetition also creates suspense. The beat builds up excitement in order to hit the verse with full force.
The first part of the verse focuses on the significant other’s physical beauty. The narrator compares her traits to things one normally wouldn’t associate with the human body. While physical beauty is only one component of a relationship, hearing compliments can’t help but make you go “aw” and blush intensely.
Now what could be argued as the sweetest line in the song, “Your laugh is the blood running through my veins”.
The narrator talks in metaphors the whole song, but this is the one that really gets me. He wants to let his love know that he lives to hear them laugh. I want to love someone like that, where we never get tired of each other and we both work really hard to live a better life together.
“Your kisses are the ink of my verses that always tell you …(into chorus)”
The love between the narrator and his significant other is inspiring to him both emotionally and creatively. After hearing this song, the narrator is definitely the type of person to shout out their love from rooftops. I can already see myself as this type of person once I fall in love.
At first, I learned the lyrics to this song playing karaoke with my family in Colombia. I had to prove I kicked butt in karaoke, but they weren’t getting the big picture with the American pop hits I picked. I knew the rhythm and general melody, so I decided to go for it with my mom as a backup. Ever since this song is one of my top songs for karaoke night and I associate this song not only with falling in love but also with spending quality time with my family in Colombia. I wouldn’t say this is my favorite song by any means, but it is a song that holds great meaning while also reminding me of my family and heritage. It’s safe to say this song will hold a special place in my heart for a long time to come.
For anyone who knows me well enough, I’m not an easy case to crack. With that being said, I like to describe myself as confusing and rather unique for lack of better diction, which also makes my taste in music absolutely impossible to evaluate and depict. I like EVERYTHING, not all of every genre, but if you were to skip around through my playlist, you would be absolutely puzzled.
ReplyDeleteOkay it is no secret I am a Nicki Minaj fan, like a major one, I even scored getting on stage with her this past summer; for that reason people think I associate myself with vulgar lyrics of rap. Whatever. I like music for music, for its compatibility with me and appeal. So I picked 3 yet totally different songs that fit me and can give you a peak into my life.
My first song is “Under Water” by The Pretty Reckless:
“There's not a time, for being younger
, all my friends, are enemies
And if I cried unto my mother
No she wasn't there, she wasn't there for me...”
First hearing this song at age 13, grant you a very confusing, stressful, and depression filled year, this song seemed to complete my emotions that year. It isn’t very hard to see and figure out that my mother and I are not close at all. When this song first introduced itself to me on Pandora, it made me cry, made me feel bad for myself. After a few months of playing it over and over again, I realized that it was my way to let my mom know how I felt and almost every car ride I squeezed in that song blasting on the radio…being the dense woman she is, she still hasn’t caught on. But it made me feel like I had a voice for once in my life and that was the most satisfying thing to me.
“Ill Mind 7” by Hopsin:
“Is heaven real? Is it fake? Is it really how I fantasize it?
Where’s the Holy Ghost at? How long it take Man to find it?
My mind’s a nonstop tape playing and I can’t rewind it
You gave me a Bible and expect me not to analyze it?...”
Well Hopsin is one of my favs simply because he tells it like it is. I like that, to be blunt. I respect religion don’t get me wrong, but I do not follow it. Again this is another song that made me feel like I had a voice. That I am not the only person who believes or thinks this way. This song also gave me a new perspective on the way I thought about religion. For a song to have that kind of impact I think it is worthy to be a part of my perception of religion and who I am in terms of it.
“Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi
“We've got to hold on to what we've got
It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not
We've got each other and that's a lot for love
We'll give it a shot
Woah, we're half way there
Woah, livin' on a prayer
Take my hand, we'll make it I swear
Woah, livin' on a prayer
Livin' on a prayer…”
Lastly, who doesn’t love a little Bon Jovi, right?!? But, well this song hold a dear place in my heart. In 2009 my family and I lost it all, everything. The only way my grandmother attempted to cloud the path of depression and sadness in my eyes, she used music as her gateway. This is our song. Whenever we argue, cry, fail, get hurt, we always play it and it seems to cheer us up. Every time I hear it cheers me up. She’s always held my hand when we were scared, or upset so “taking her hand” was my idea of relief. Now that imp older, and well, sadly we don’t spend as much time together, we still always even rooms apart blast our music and talk through song.
Music itself shapes who I am and I whole heartedly agree that it is an escape from reality although there are times it can also clarify our blurred thoughts. As for me, music is my voice that I always wanted and intend to have.
Music is my life. My life is music. Music takes me to some other place. For four minutes I am no longer suffering. It’s like my mind is completely healed and everything that ever went wrong in my life disappears. It takes me somewhere far, far away from here. Because I am a singer, music is the most important part of my life. I cherish every word of every, which is the reason I refuse to listen to dumb rap songs that lack any sort of meaning whatsoever. Music is healing. It heals my mind, calms my anxiety. Every word, every note, every melody accentuates my soul. I would not be alive if it wasn’t for music. Plain and simple, I really would not be living. Music keeps me alive. It;s powers overtake me and have saved me. I find myself listening to sad slow songs more than anything. Songs should mean something. They should reach things deep in a person’s mind. They should tell a story with a beginning, middle and end. Songs that just shout out dumb curse words and random versers that have absolutely no meaning will never be important to me. But slow songs with a story, that show a fight, that kind of music is the music I cherish. It is the music that kept me alive during my worst times. Like I said I love music. It defines me. Even though I know and love so many songs, The song “Warrior,” by Demi Lovato will always hold a special place in my heart.
ReplyDeleteAll the pain and the truth
I wear like a battle wound
So ashamed, so confused
I was broken and bruised
Now I'm a warrior
Now I've got thicker skin
I'm a warrior
I'm stronger than I've ever been
And my armor, is made of steel, you can't get in
I'm a warrior
And you can never hurt me again
Out of the ashes, I'm burning like a fire
You can save your apologies, you're nothing but a liar
I've got shame, I've got scars
That I will never show
I'm a survivor
In more ways than you know
This song is Demi Lovato telling her story. Her story of being bullied as a child and the battle with depression she dealt with growing up. When Demi says “I’m a warrior,” she is using a metaphor to compare herself to a warrior. She went through so much and survived through it all, so she now calls herself a warrior. “And you can never hurt me again,” is symbolism for the fight she went through and how no one can get in the way of her progress anymore. The entire song is made up of metaphors to show Demi’s fight. Demi words her song in this way to help tell her story. To show how she became who she is now.
This song saved my life. And I am not saying this as a metaphor either, it literally saved my life. This song reached out to me in ways I never thought music could. It is a sad song. It does make a person upset. However for me, it represents fight. It represents inspiration, hope. I cannot even express how much I love this song. It is just beautiful and contains such a beautiful message. In my years where I experienced depression, this song was my outlet. I listened to it every day. it is just beautiful. Beautifully written and sung. Just Demi’s voice alone you can hear the pain, the struggle. This song will forever be the song that pulled me out of darkness.
Perhaps my favorite artists in a chronological list are: Sara Bareilles, Justin Bieber, Drake, Selena Gomez, and Taylor Swift. Of course, my favorite song is by Sara Bareilles called Manhattan. I’ve sang it four times, and I never get tired of it. I fell in love with the notes. I fell in love with the beautiful, but heart-wrenching lyrics. It’s about a girl who loves/ loved someone so much, that she let him/ her (I’m not gender specific XD) have her favorite place, Manhattan. I think that this is such a beautiful sentiment. Read some of the lyrics:
ReplyDeleteYou can have Manhattan
I know it's for the best
I'll gather up the avenues
And leave them on your doorstep
And I'll tip toe away
So you won't have to say
You heard me leave
You can have Manhattan
I know it's what you want
The bustle and the buildings
The weather in the fall
And I'll bow out of place
To save you some space
For somebody new
You can have Manhattan
'Cause I can't have you
This song literally gets me EVERY DAMN TIME. It gets me in my feels, which I know I shouldn’t be, considering the plausibility of why I chose the song. I didn’t realize that this person was the reason I had picked the song, until after I had sang it, but it made real sense. Let’s call this person… Lonely Boy (@ me if anyone gets the reference ahah). Well, Lonely Boy had completely cut himself off from me. Right after a certain school dance, and left me feeling as if I did something wrong. But no, when I had asked about it, I got some crap excuse. It still made me feel a little remorseful over the fun times that I had, and how he always made me laugh. And then later on, I find out that he’s dating someone else. Coolio. I could’ve retaliated so hard, but I just decided to be the bigger person and leave everything to him. Ah, brooding me.
Another song that has had me comparing it to my life, has been Purpose by Justin Bieber. I feel that to Justin Bieber it’s more of a spiritual song, while to me, it’s important people who give my everyday life a purpose. Read some parts of the lyrics:
Feeling like I'm breathing my last breath
Feeling like I'm walking my last steps
Look at all of these tears I've wept
Look at all the promises that I've kept
I put my heart into your hands
Here's my soul to keep
I let you in with all that I can
You're not hard to reach
And you bless me with the best gift
That I've ever known
You give me purpose
Yeah, you've given me purpose
Now, I know that this might sound like more of a prayer to God, but I envision it to be sung to my friends and my teachers (who are also kind of my best friends). :)
I know I can come to my friends however I am: broken-down, angry, or melancholy. I know that I can tell them anything and let them in without judgement. I also know that they will always be there for me (and vice versa). Their “gift” that they’ve #blessed me with, is their friendship. And finally, to end, they give me a reason to come to school; and even try in anything. For that I am forever grateful. <3
*Thanks go to:
Elena Castillo
Kassia Doukhnai
Melissa Vargas
Samantha Haley
Mr. Tinsley
Mr. Clark
Mr. Prince
Ms. Bunje
Erynn why did you have to get me all up in my feels? I'm going to have to watch Gossip Girl now and listen to your cover on repeat <3
DeleteAhhhhh! I'm starting season 5 and it's pulling me every which way 🙊🙊
DeleteThank you Melis, it always means so much when you comment on my posts 😘💗
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMusic is the language of everyone. Music is one way for me to just escape and leave the world for a little bit. If that’s from listening to Scenario by A Tribe called Quest or The Climb by Miley Cyrus. Whatever the song may be, I’ll listen to anything. But my top five genres are hip-hop, r&b, funk, soul, and jazz. I like some Funky Drummer, but at the same time, I like Sexual Healing. Certain songs stand out to me, not just for the lyrics: but for a certain tone and vibe it brings to the song.
ReplyDeleteJohn Mayer is one of my all-time favorite artists, and his song Age of Worry truly speaks to me. My favorite part of the song is the chorus,
Alive in the age of worry
Smile in the age of worry
Go wild in the age of worry
And say, "Worry, why should I care?"
Mayer uses personification to embody the emotion of worry and how it can affect the daily lives of people. People go through life dwelling in the past or panicking in the future. While you should embrace the unknown with an open heart and hope for the best. That’s all you really can do.
Know your fight is not with them
Yours is with your time here
Dream your dreams but don't pretend
Make friends with what you are
In this part of the song, Mayer is explaining that you shouldn’t dispute or fight over little things. He symbolizes people with the word them. Mayer is telling us that life is short and we should focus on the things more important than what others say or think. The last two lines show that whatever you dream of doing or becoming or having, don’t change yourself because of other people’s perception of you and be yourself when you meet new people.
This song fully connects to me. I often feel as people are judging me and criticizing for who I am, the main reason for this is that I am very insecure. I may not seem like it from the outside, but deep down I am. This song through the years has helped learn to channel my confidence and be who I want to be. I don’t have to worry about the things in life that aren’t truly important. It’s what I choose to do, and I shouldn’t let anyone change my decision. I can be myself and not worry about what people think of me. I can live in The Age of Confidence.
Music was made for entertainment for both the audience and the performer, healing, religious reasons and many other reasons. Music is the best escape for so many people. Everyone loves music because the lyrics are usually your known or unknown feelings. The music speaks to you and evokes emotion. Music can go either way, it can hype you up for the best day ever or really really put you in your feels. Personally I like music for both reasons. There is not a single day that I have ever gone without listening to music. I am either jamming out in the car with my friends or maybe even lowkey in my feels with my headphones in. That is the beauty of music that it can go either way. The song I picked you may hate it or think I’m nuts, however to make one this clear the song I picked is not a song I listen to on the regular in fact I have not listened to it in years.:)
ReplyDeleteI'm sexy and I know it
Girl look at that body
Girl look at that body
Girl look at that body
"I'm sexy and I know it" by LMFAO. I picked this song one for my love of the word sexy however I like it spelled sexi. Also the deeper meaning is because the best feeling in the world is feeling confident in your own skin. Self esteem is a big thing that I personally have gotten better at. When I was younger I was really self conscious about my body and being lengthy while also not having curves. Around the time of highschool I started to feel more confident within myself. I have learned to not care about what others think of my own body because it is mine and to feel confident with the type of body I have because everyone has a different shape. Some may be blessed with the perfect body while others have to work for the perfect body. From a lang perspective “I’m Sexy and I Know it” is pretty weak with literary devices however it does have a few. The first is an allusion to the famous action film actor, martial artist, Bruce Lee,
This is red foo with the big afro
It’s like Bruce Lee rock at the club
Also in that same lyric is a simple simile comparing Bruce Lee to someone with a big afro at the club. The only other possible literary device that this song contains would be repetition to get this song stuck in your head for days. Some of the lyrics also create a picture in your mind, although it may not be such a pretty one,
When I’m at the mall, security just can’t fight ‘em off
When I’m at the beach, I’m in a speedo trying to tan my cheeks
Giving descriptive actions creates a rather funny image in the audience’s mind. Although this song is a terrible throwback it does mean something. The lyrics show the confidence that LMFAO has. The song continues to “gas” themselves. The lyrics show that the singers are confident in their skin. Having confidence does not mean only feeling good in your skin on prom night or your wedding night, it is more than that. You should feel good on both good or bad days. There are always going to be days like when you are dying or practically dying with the flu where you feel ugly and sick. However on the days where your hair is in a bun or you are dressed “bummy” you should still feel pretty and confident in your skin. Feeling confident in your own skin means you are contempt with how you are and if you are not happy with how you are then just change so you are happy with yourself.
O Children by Nick Cave
ReplyDeleteI first heard this song watching the Harry Potter movie The Deathly Hallows Part 1. This song plays for about a minute while Harry and Hermione are dancing and I loved that scene. So much so that I decided to look up the song. I could not for the life of me understand a word the singer was saying. I looked up the lyrics and loved them. A lot of them pertained to me and my life at the time. The song used names of people that were in my life and emotions I was feeling at that time. It literally could have been background music if my life was a movie. This movie came out in November 2010 which means I was 11 at the time. So, this song brings me back to middle school.
The Lang view:
“Hey little train! We are all jumping on
The train that goes to the Kingdom
Hey, little train! Wait for me!
I once was blind but now I see
Hey little train! Wait for me!
I was held in chains but now I'm free
Hey little train! We are all jumping on
The train that goes to the Kingdom
Hey little train! We are all jumping on
The train that goes to the Kingdom”
Anaphora-the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clause
“Pass me that lovely little gun
My dear, my darling one”
It is possible that the ‘lovely little gun’ is the speaker’s way to get out of what he did or helped do in the past.
The entire O Children song is a metaphor for the holocaust and the events that took place. The singer is remorseful over what took place.
“We're all weeping now, weeping because
There ain't nothing we can do to protect you”
Anadiplosis-The repetition of the last word of one clause or sentence at the beginning of the next
My view:
Delete“Forgive us now for what we've done
It started out as a bit of fun”
I feel these lyrics could relate to any teenager. We do things that start out fun and innocent but turn ugly. We get in trouble all of the time for situations that just went wrong and didn’t pan out how we planned.
“We're all weeping now, weeping because
There ain't nothing we can do to protect you”
My middle school was a small private Christian school. It was connected to my elementary school and also a high school. Some teachers don’t believe in public schools at all. So when they found out that half of my class was going to go to a public high school, they wanted to get us to stay. They told us about how there are always fights and how dangerous public schools are and nobody can protect us in public schools. (Two years later and all of us are fine and enjoying public school.)
“Hey little train! We are all jumping on
The train that goes to the Kingdom
We're happy, Ma, we're having fun
And the train ain't even left the station”
In these lyrics, I feel that the metaphorical train could represent hanging out with friends. In those moments, when you're about to go somewhere like ice skating. But before you even leave, you're laughing and having so much fun before the real fun even starts.
“Hey, little train! Wait for me!
I once was blind but now I see
Have you left a seat for me?
Is that such a stretch of the imagination?”
This is the first year ever that I haven't had to put my stuff down to claim my seat in the lunch room before I wait in line. Even though I sat at the same table every day, no one ever really saved me a seat. (Still salt about it)
“Hey little train! Wait for me!
I was held in chains but now I'm free
I'm hanging in there, don't you see
In this process of elimination”
Nowadays, there are many teenagers taking their own lives because certain terrible things happen. All of us are really hanging in even through the bad situations.
“Hey little train! We are all jumping on
The train that goes to the Kingdom
We're happy, Ma, we're having fun
It's beyond my wildest expectation”
There are many times when I don’t think I am going to have any fun going certain places. Going over my cousin’s house is no exception to this. But this Christmas, it was very fun and my family enjoyed themselves which we normally don’t. This surpassed every expectation I had on going over their house.
It's been six years and I still love this song so much and my interpretations constantly change.
I was excited to write this blog when I first read it because I had so many songs in mind. However, as I listened to some of them again, I realized I couldn’t really relate to most of them. They were great songs and I understood what the artist was trying to say, but I just couldn’t fit it into my life. But eventually, I found an old song that was hidden in my music.
ReplyDeleteNow, I warn you this song is just flat out depressing. I promise you there’s nothing wrong with me; I’m not depressed or unhappy or anything like that, and there’s a good reason why I picked it. I’ll explain that later. The song is Jesus Christ by Brand New.
I was introduced to this song a little more than a year ago. I instantly liked it when I first heard it just because of the way it sounded. Then, I fully read the lyrics and began to understand what the song was about. Although, I wasn’t really a fan of the band itself because I felt like their music was the type I listened to when I was in my emo stage in middle school.
To summarize the song; the artist is talking to Jesus Christ. In the song, it could be implied that he’s begging for forgiveness, but he doesn’t think he deserves it. He talks about how he keeps making bad decisions, but he doesn’t do anything about it. He doesn’t try to change because he doesn’t want to. All in all, he knows that he’s a piece of shit. He asks Jesus to forgive him because he’s a bad person and he’s aware of it, but he can’t do anything about it. The song also deals with his fear of not being accepted into heaven.
“This ship went down in the sight of land
And at the gates does Thomas ask to see my hands?”
The ship, metaphorically speaking, is him. The artist is dying with sin and he’s unable to get into heaven no matter how hard he tries. Afterwards, he asks Jesus if Thomas will look into the artist’s hands before he enters the gates. St. Thomas was one of Jesus’s disciples who didn’t believe in Jesus’s resurrection, until he saw the holes in Jesus’s hands. The artist is afraid Thomas will be at the gates waiting for him to inspect his hands. He doesn’t want this because he thinks Thomas will reject him because he won’t see any signs of sacrifice in the name of Jesus.
“Or do I divide and pull apart
Cause my bright is too slight to hold back my dark”
Although the artist shows signs that he’s trying to improve himself (his bright), his bad habits will still take over (his dark).
I relate to this song because I’m aware of who I am. I’m not saying I’m a big sinner and that I’m a bad person, but I constantly make bad decisions and I don’t do anything about them. I pick the wrong choices, even when I know they’re not good for me. I feel as if I’m not trying my best to be a good person. When I make bad decisions, I feel like I’m letting people down. I know I should better myself, but I don’t.
I don’t know many American songs. Most of the songs I know are either songs that I hear everyone around me talk about or are trending on youtube. I don’t listen to rap because most of those songs have to do with sluts, money, or drugs. I am really sorry if I somehow offended you by not knowing many songs from old bands. That being said, I picked the song, “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor which is an 80’s band. It is one of the most inspirational songs ever with many interpretations. This song was in Rocky III. The entire song is a narrative about a fighter/survivor being compared to a tiger.
ReplyDeleteRisin' up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance
Now I'm back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive
So many times, it happens too fast
You trade your passion for glory
Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive
The first stanza is saying that one should not turn back from something despite how arduous it is. One should keep trying and not give up. In Rocky III, it is talking about how Rocky came to be a heavyweight champion. “Did my time” is a euphemism that usually refers to going to jail. The second stanza talks about how sometimes people rush to pick their dream and end up picking a dream where glory is achieved but passion is nowhere to be seen. The last line is a play on words regarding Rocky Balboa. He literally and figuratively have to fight to keep his glorious dreams alive.
It's the eye of the tiger
It's the thrill of the fight
Risin' up to the challenge
Of our rival
And the last known survivor
Stalks his prey in the night
And he's watching us all with the
Eye of the tiger
This is the main part of the song and it appears in the song three times as stanzas three, five, and seven. “Eye of the tiger” refers to the keenness a tiger has. Someone with the eye of the tiger is someone who can see everything around him/her and is wise. “The last known survivor” is metaphorically compared to a tiger who “stalks his prey in the night”.
Face to face, out in the heat
Hangin' tough, stayin' hungry
They stack the odds
Still we take to the street
For the kill with the skill to survive
The first line compares and describes the everyday situation of a fighter and a tiger respectively. A fighter faces his difficulty, his opponent, while a tiger faces the difficulty of staying in the heat without shelter and food. The second line again compares them by stating the difficulties both face. A fighter hangs in the ring against a strong opponent until he achieves his goal which is to win. A tiger stays hungry out in the heat until it achieves its goal which is to find and hunt food.
Risin' up straight to the top
DeleteHad the guts, got the glory
Went the distance
Now I'm not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive
This explains what happens to the fighter and the tiger when they achieve their goal. The second line can be interpreted in two ways: the fighter had the guts to finally beat the opponent and achieve the glory, or the tiger got its prize, the guts of the prey, and the fighter got his, the glory. Now that they “went the distance” to achieve their goal, there is no point turning back.
The eye of the tiger
The eye of the tiger
The eye of the tiger
The eye of the tiger
The last stanza repeats the same line over and over again for four times for emphasis. The author/singer wants the reader/listener to know that the eye of the tiger is essential to achieving a goal, and also to remind him what the song is about.
This song was implemented into Rocky III during a montage of Rocky fighting and training. That and the catchiness of the song made the scene one of the most memorable.
Of course, now that you have asked me to pick my favorite song I cannot find one. I swear, this happens every single time. Whenever I’m looking for something it is never there, but of course when I’m not looking for that specific thing it magically appears. I looked at this blog at least four times since yesterday, and it wasn’t until this given moment that I finally chose a song.
ReplyDeleteSo a little background about myself:
I have a very “unique” playlist.
I can go from Justin Bieber, to G-Herbo, to Drake, to Sam Smith in a matter of seconds. I listen to songs from my grandparents time all the way up until now.
I also listen to almost every genre of music, except Metal Rock (I think that is what it is called).
My music corresponds with my different moods.
For example, I can go from shooting up shit in Chicago, to drinking’ “dirty soda sprite” (not really b/c Jeneé would beat my ass), to being “in my feels”, to Jersey Clubbin it up!
As I previously mentioned, my choice in music typically corresponds with how I feel at that given moment. I do not think my choice in music actually tells a story about my life, but, it definitely shows the different aspects of me.
Okay, so as you all know, I have confidence issues. That is nothing new. The song I chose is J Cole’s “Crooked Smile”. That’s my jam (as my mom mom Reneé would say). I honestly wish I could copy and paste the entire song in here, because the entire song is straight fireeeeee.“Crooked Smile” is MY national anthem.
I love this song so much, that I listen to it at least once a day. Also, this song serves as a reminder to me that I should “embrace my flaws and love my quirks”. I have a hard time doing this. I notice that I never give myself the credit I deserve. I rarely ever compliment myself. And, I am so hard on myself. Why? I don’t know, but thanks to my mans J Cole, I am slowly, very slowly, getting through my ultimate life struggle.
DeleteSo, I will point out a few of my favorite lines, which are also literary devices:
“ We don't look nothing like the people on the screen. You know them movie stars, picture perfect beauty queens.”
J Cole compares himself and people of the “real world” to the celebrities they see on TV. (simile) He uses this device to prove to his readers that money and fame hasn’t changed him. He is still the average Cole, and he ensures his listeners that he will remain that way. Cole also includes the comparison in his song, because he wants his audience to realize the falseness in advertisement.
“ A perfect smile is more appealing but it's funny how. My shit is crooked look at how far I done got without it. I keep my twisted grill, just to show the kids it's real. We ain't picture perfect but we worth the picture still.”
The purpose of J. Cole’s entire song is to talk about how successful a person can be without fitting into the media and society’s standards. The word “smile” is a metaphor for all the physical attributes of a person that have no impact on their character. J Cole, also struggled in life, because people constantly talked about how fucked up his teeth were. However, people’s negative comments never prevented him from pursuing his dreams, because now “ [he] got smart, [he] got rich, and [he] got bitches still.”
“Killing yourself to find a man that'll kill for you.”
J Cole also includes hyperbole in his song. He exaggerates the fact that women put themselves through so much to impress a man. So basically, Girls are “killing” themselves by wearing uncomfortable shoes like heels which squish their toes and cause their back and feet to hurt, and going under the knife for cosmetic surgery – all in order to impress a man that will “kill to have her”, rather than for the sake of their own self esteem.
I may not have had fucked up teeth like J Cole apparently had, but I still understand where he is coming from, and the lyrics within this song have true meaning. Wait, nope I lied. My teeth were fucked back in middle school, but almost everyone in my grade had braces at the time, so I felt pretty comfortable. Anyway, I can relate to the song, which is why I enjoy listening to it so often, and it actually does help me temporarily cope with my confidence issue.
Finding songs for this blog was super hard. Only because some days I listen to Future, and then some days I listen to Milky Chance or Pink Floyd. To be honest I don’t even know what my taste in music is because it’s all over the place. But today I’m going to use two songs. The first song I decided to choose is “Stolen Dance” by Milky Chance:
ReplyDelete“I want you by my side
So that I never feel alone again
They've always been so kind
But now they've brought you away from me
I hope they didn't get your mind
Your heart is too strong, anyway
We need to fetch back the time
They have stolen from us”
Milky Chance employs only a few words to get straight to the point. And it seems like they use a shorthand, kind of like what you do when you’re texting. To be completely honest trying to think of this from a lang standpoint is kicking my ass because I’m not sure what to say. For me I would said “they” in the lyrics is drugs, and I’m 99.9% sure that’s what it means for Milky Chance also. But I choose this song because
1. I love the beat
2. I love their voices and
3. The opening stanza reminds me of my one older god sister Gigi.
Growing up I had/have two god sisters Gigi and Adrianna. I would say I always was kind of closer with Gigi then Nena (Adrianna’s nickname). But then Gigi got into drugs, first it started with “just smoking weed”, and then ecstasy, then heroin and I’m sure many more, but I don’t want to know. Slowly I started losing my sister. It crushed Nena and I. To see the Gigi we knew for our whole lives just fade away because of drugs. The end of my eighth grade year to almost the end of my sophomore year was absolute hell for me. My parents decided to separate, so we had to live with my god family. At first I was ecstatic living with them because I slept over almost everyday. But then it got annoying because I just wanted my own stuff, and my old life back. On top of it the house felt weird because Gigi wasn’t herself. I can’t get into the horrible and traumatic events that happened during those years, but just know it still kills me to this day. I was always the person Gigi talked to for everything, I was the other part of her heart. When I was losing her I tried to help her, give her an ultimatum; drugs or me. You can guess what she choose; drugs. I lost all hope with her, and I just wanted my sister back. Eventually my parents got back together and we moved to a brand new house in Mizpah, which I hate living in Mizpah. But then I really lost Gigi because now I wasn’t in the same house to even be able to see her for just two seconds. After really bad shit happening Gigi decided to go to rehab and now is almost a year sober and got her shit together. Whenever I hear getting back the time “they have stolen from us”, I think of the year's drugs took my sister away from me. The sad thing is when she went to Florida for rehab, I didn’t even say bye to her. This March my Aunt Kim, Nena, my Mom, and I are going to Florida to see her for her 21st birthday. I couldn’t be any more nervous but happy at the same time. I’m going to be seeing her for the first time in almost two years. And this time she’ll be clean.
The next song is “Here” by Alessia Cara:
ReplyDelete“I'm sorry if I seem uninterested
Or I'm not listenin' or I'm indifferent
Truly, I ain't got no business here
But since my friends are here
I just came to kick it but really
I would rather be at home all by myself not in this room
With people who don't even care about my well-being
I don't dance, don't ask, I don't need a boyfriend
So you can go back, please enjoy your party
I'll be here, somewhere in the corner under clouds of marijuana
With this boy who's hollering I can hardly hear
Over this music I don't listen to and I don't wanna get with you
So tell my friends that I'll be over here
Oh oh oh here oh oh oh here oh oh oh
I ask myself what am I doing here?
Oh oh oh here oh oh oh here
And I can't wait till we can break up outta here”
I first heard this song because Musah showed me it, and I instantly fell in love with it. The pulchritude of her voice and lyrics just spoke to me. For starters though, I don’t stand in a corner under clouds of marijuana, I hate drugs. “Truly, I ain’t got no business here.. But since my friends are here.. I just came to kick it but really.. I would rather be at home all by myself not in this room.” I really don’t like going out and being around new people. It gives me really bad anxiety and I feel like I shouldn't be there. I don't really know I feel like if I meet new people or if I go somewhere, people are like what is this fat girl doing here. Literally that is how I feel everytime. It’s pretty pathetic and I try to not be that way, but I fail every time. So when Alessia says “I ask myself what am I doing here”, it’s the epitome to pretty much my whole life. Her whole song she’s asking why she’s “here”, and that’s how I feel 95% of the time. (Sorry Bunj, but I really can’t think of ways to relate these two songs to Lang.)
Tell your sister to listen to "Clean" by Taylor Swift! I know not everyone is a fan of Tay-Tay, but the song clean is really light and rejuvenating. I think it would really make her think about how grateful she is for such a wonderful family! :)
DeletePart 1:
ReplyDeleteOver the last three weeks, I have honestly been feeling extremely doubtful, the reason for this is unknown to me. As life holds many questions that often perplex me I, at least, attempt to find comfort within music. The lyrics to some songs can either destroy any shadow of joy I have or cast out the darkness that often resides within my thoughts. As I have stated on numerous occasions whether actually speaking or implying through analogies, myself is a virus that infects the thoughts inside my head and resurrects the doubt that I subject myself to each day. The two songs that have encompassed the most recent events of my life are Doubt by Twenty One Pilots and Unforgiven II by Metallica, these songs are both very different than each other but happen to demonstrate the poles inside my brain and how even though they are very far apart from one another they manage to have the same cause. I must start off with Doubt by Twenty One Pilots because it’s the one that applies to my most recent thoughts. The song opens with the lyrics “Scared of my own image, Scared of my own immaturity” the song opens with these lyrics to already introduce the topic of fear because fear simply is the cause for any sort of self-doubt. The next verses are “Scared of my own ceiling, scared I’ll die of uncertainty” this explains that doubt itself is not debilitating but the limitations that coincide with it are, he discusses his ceiling which is his own limitations, being unable to rise because his doubt keeps him weighted down. To finish off the verse with “Scared I’ll die of uncertainty” talks about how doubt is suffocating, not allowing one to grow or explore, his uncertainty will eventually lead him to his death, whether physically or mentally I cannot say. My favorite lyric of the song is “shaking hand with the dark parts of my thoughts” simply because its placement in the songs fits its relation to doubt, doubt can be removed by casting away your dark or negative thoughts, even though it is difficult it is the only way to cure yourself of this illness. In order to allow doubt to control you, you must accept it, once you do that it determines all actions that exist in the present and future. Now I must discuss my second song The Unforgiven II by Metallica which I believe is a form of a love song. “Lay beside me, tell me what they’ve done, speak the words I wanna hear, to make my demons run” is how the songs starts off which I think is very interesting. “Lay beside me, tell me what they’ve done” is showing compassion for whoever the song is about, asking whoever to talk about the feeling of worthlessness and doubt that others have seemed to cause. That follows with “speak the words I wanna hear, to make my demons run” these words are not something like “the power of Christ repents thee” but instead ones of compassion and possibly empathy, the demons he talks about are his doubt and worthlessness that accompanied him after whatever emotional damage had occurred. Throughout the song he constantly mentions a door at numerous stages locked, cracking open, and being closed with some sort of entity that lay behind it determining whether or not they should open it for whomever. The chorus of the song “What I’ve felt, what I’ve known, turn the pages, turn the stone, behind the door, should I open it for you?” describes the pain of being emotionally abandoned by another and how the emotional destruction leads one to put an outer defense in order to protect themselves from getting hurt once again. The final verse I will talk about is my favorite of this song “Lay beside me, tell me what I’ve done, the door is closed, so are your eyes, but now I see the sun, now I see the sun, yes, now I see it” this talks about self-blame, closing any sort of pathway into the hidden feelings of compassion.
Part 2:
ReplyDeleteEyes are often viewed as portals to the soul, with eyes being closed shows there is no pathway to the soul or any sort of emotional connection between whomever and the writer. Following this, he talks about the sun, which could represent light, hope, or the discontinuation of self-doubt, but either way, it removes the darkness that has plagued the writer. Both of these songs have their meaning founded on relationships whether with yourself or others and how destructive they are when it comes to future relationships and acceptance of oneself. These are thoughts that I have dealt with for about two years, these songs have helped too, at least, give me a better understanding of why o think as I do and why I act as I do. I honestly wish that others and myself don’t forget about me, and even when I doubt myself I must ask myself “am I no good without you” this question honestly has helped me with a lot of the viruses that dwell inside my skull. Somedays I can only ask myself if I am “Unforgiven too”.
Once I read the second paragraph in the prompt might I just tell you that I can not even explain to you the rush of great joy that I felt. This is without question my favorite blog question of the year so far. Okay, so have decided to use “Honest Songs” by Noah Gundersen. This is one of my absolute favorite songs. This song mainly encapsulates the idea of making sure one is grateful for life in general and that they do not waste any of it. The first stanza catches just that.
ReplyDeleteAs we gather round the table
To say a prayer for those we love
All the words that will spoken
they will never be enough
to encompass all the feelings
that our brittle hearts can bear
all the storms that rage inside us
fill our organs up with air
Gundersen makes a very strong point when he sings this stanza that I know not many can disagree with. In today's society sometimes people feel like they can not get out exactly what they want to say, and their thoughts get lost. Leaving what they say not having been enough, leaving that person with regrets. That's so common nowadays that some do not even get angry anymore but with time the anger builds up when they are being heard or understood the way they had wanted to be, people can only take so much.
All the time spent catching raindrops
all the time we spent in bed
all the hours we have wasted
we will never see again
so be good with what you're given
for its all you have to give
we are only passing shadows
in a mighty wind
The flashback in the first four lines of this stanza were places here to make the listener think about the past for a moment it is a reflective tone with the intentions to get the listener understanding that they need to be grateful for what they have and what is to come because while making a person think about the past sometimes is positive they need to acknowledge that the past is the past and that time now is gone. Gunderson though makes the statement “We are only passing shadows in a mighty wind”, this metaphor relates us (the average person) to shadows. Doing this implies we are temporary nothing we do is permanent.
so though I tremble in the darkness
in the cold and frozen snow
I am grateful for winter
for the winter comes to show
that our trouble's never over
and our work is never done
but with the turning of the season
we will always see the sun
Noah Gundersen did a wise thing for placing these lyrics here, he first had to build up his point before he could truly get his message across. He uses imagery to show hard life can be sometimes, yet he does not stop there he hits his point about being grateful. Just because situations get hard there is and should always be a reason to be grateful for something/anything. My favorite part is the fact that he states “We will always see the sun”, there is always positive in the world. He uses a very reassuring tone.
Our hearts sing an honest song
This might just be one of the most accurate things I have ever heard. “Our hearts sing an honest song”. Everyone can interpret this short little quote differently but to me it represents the fact that our hearts tell us what we feel and what is true. Our heart is where our honesty lies, we know in our hearts what we want and how we feel, not in our heads where we over analyze things but our hearts.
This song means so much to me. It looks at life they same way I hope to, I am not always positive but I would like to be and I think this song helps me to acknowledge the fact that life is precious, it is a gift from God that I need to stop wasting. Noah Gundersen is a folk artist that writes about love, life, and past experiences. He is my favorite artist and I adore him beyond words can even describe the way he writes his songs with such emotion no care to expose anything nor any concern for what he may say. He writes fully and utterly honest, his music is elegant, soothing and quite pleasing. Listen to it for he is who I think I may admire most in life.
DeleteHere is just some of his amazing songs Family, First Defeat, Ledges, Dying Now, Ledges, Winter and the list goes on.
Ugh I don’t like this one. As i’m writing this little introductory paragraph i feel the need to write every blog, I’m listening to my spotify playlist endlessly because I still don’t know what song I am going to write about. This is most likely due to the fact that my music preferences consist of Trap/rap, music that gets me in my feels like Bryson Tiller and obviously Drake, (I prefer Bryson) and Justin Bieber. Yes, Justin Bieber because he is raw now, I still hate his music from years ago, but he is nice now. Now I find it hard to relate to these, because trap and rap is usually senseless rapping about drugs or having sexual relations with females with nothing but a lit beat to make it enjoyable to listen to, (with the exception of a few artists such as my mans Logic) I find it hard to relate to the music that gets me in my feels because i get no females, but I do get curved so occasionally I can relate *crying emoji* *laughing emoji.* I’m really good at stalling and just speaking for no reason.
ReplyDeleteI chose a song from one of my favorite artist, Logic. Here is me on my genius.com type stuff. This is the first verse.
I listen to a variety of music. Disco, pop, Classical Rock, Edm, Rap, and etc. It was quite hard to decide which one I should pick for this blog. So I picked a song that comes from a genre that I fell in love with when I was only 10 years old, pop punk. The song more specific is Mind Bottled by State Champs. I found out about this band last year and I instantly became a fan. I chose this song because it made me learn a valuable lesson on life and reminded me of my depression phase. The song describes a depressing man questioning things and searching for the answers. Only to find his answers by looking at life in general and realise no one should complain about life, but focus on making life matter.
ReplyDeleteIn his first verse:
Slept the days away
When I was waiting and no one was around
To be interesting
And I tried to find a way
To follow footsteps away from my hometown
I wasn't listening
I think of it as a man feeling depressed because he skipped most of his days by sleeping since he found no one interesting. He tried to go back and be himself only to not care. The verse accompanies with a sad tone. With losing track of days because no one interested him and he can’t become his old self, the man heads down hill.
Here is the second verse:
Counting down the days
Until we leave and move on to the next town
I'm in that state of mind
Where I bottle everything inside my head
And stare at the ground
But it's gonna be just fine because
My heart's beating so you know I'm alive
Don't hold back on your chance to decide
This verse implies internal conflicts within the person. The first stanza demonstrates sadness and anxious. The two lines can illustrate either the man knows what to expect and count the days until he is forced to leave or the man count the days because he wants to leave and move to somewhere new. I see it as the second one. At the same time, he is in a state of mind, where he has everything held up in his head and he can’t release it all. In the end, “it’s gonna be just fine because” he outlooks life because his “heart’s beating”. He then remembers that since he is alive, he can’t complain about it and no one holding him back or restricting him.
It reminded me when I was in that phase, I start to question things and to figure out if the things I do matters. I started to listen to Pop Punk bands like Blink 182, Green Day, and Fall Out Boys, then I felt like someone understood me. I believe music act as a gateway for expressing ourselves and we can learn from it. Everyone has different experiences with music and everyone has different taste. I learn that everyone has one life and we have to make the best it.
Okay now this how I'm feeling, lately I'm like the villain
ReplyDeleteCause while they on that other s*** I been posted, out here chillin'
He feels as though everyone thinks that he’s a villain because while they are worried about normal everyday stuff, he’s just chilling out doing his thing. In life, people will think bad about you if you are not struggling like they are no matter the reason.
Lord willin', I'll survive, but not like that 9 to 5
You know this that s*** that you bumpin' in your whip while you drive
He explains that he’s going to survive as long as the lord allows, but he is going to survive much better than someone in a normal 9-5 shift job. He supports this by saying that he is making a song that you are going to be playing in your car, so he in fact is making that shmoney and living life.
I've been living life, and I hope that you do the same
Cause if you ain't doing what you love it's only you to blame
He stresses that he is living life, and he hopes that listeners of this song can do the same. He stresses that if you’re not living life, you can only blame yourself because your own decisions led you to that point.
Come on I've been through the game, by that time they know the name
Logic expresses that through all his years in the “rap game,” he has succeeded and everybody knows his name. In life, when you stick to something for long amounts of time and deciate yourself, you will succeed.
Numb it down for the pain, this music my Novocaine
He relates music to Novacaine, a pain relieving drug. Everyone can get over pain differently, and not only are tangible things used, sometimes something artistic like music can help to overcome pain.
Lord Willin' we over came, it's time to get over man
I've been around the world and back and I swear it's all the same
Logic has overcome a lot in his life, but has overcome it. He has been all around the world and it’s all the same, so he believes it’s time to get over it. No matter what kind of hardships you go through, you can and NEED to get through and over it, because that is the ononly way you will progress in life.
And what I learned, A prophet don't do it for the profit gone get off it
He has learned that prophets do not do what they do for personal gain. Not everything in life has to be for your own gain, sometimes you must think of others or the greater goof of everything.
I don't know I've been at it on the low
Never did it like this here before
But I'm still here and I just hope I'll make a difference make a killin'
Logic does not know what’s going to happen with what he is doing, but he just keeps lowkey putting in work and he hopes that “lord willing” he will make a positive change. Sometimes you do not know what the end result of a task will be you just have to hope it is positive.
I chose this song, not only because it is just great to listen to, but because the lyrics have such a deeper meaning and it relates so much to real life.
sorry if this is hard to read i bolded the song lyrics in my google doc and thought it would bold on here but clearly it did not
Deletewhat are the odds Justin would split up my posts, I'm really messing up
DeleteThis question has me totally stumped. I value the words of every song I listen to. I know songs that fill me with love, songs that put me to sleep, songs that inspire me, songs that make me dance. With all the beautiful songs in the world that I tie so tightly to my heart, how can I pick just one? So instead of picking a song that I listen to, I picked a song that I wrote.
ReplyDeleteBefore I put any lyrics let me explain why I wrote this song. One night, last fall, my friend and I started talking about what would fulfill our life purpose. (The middle of the night always requires a deep conversation.) My friend’s answer was to achieve much success and for many people to admire and respect her work. It left me wondering whether or not that life purpose left space for happiness. I have said, a countless amount of times, that humans need love. It is the center of our existence and keeps this world spinning. My final thought was, “What is success if you have no one who cares enough to celebrate with you, no one who laughs with you or carries you when you can’t stand anymore?”
“You’ve worked your way through the crowd,
And they know your name
You found the fame.
But there’s no color, your black and white.
You don’t understand,
You’re like every man.
But you’ve come so far and you’ve worked so hard,
So you keep on your way.
People aren’t people they’re faces now.
Your pay check is all the love you get.
But you’ve come so far and you’ve worked so hard.
Don’t you know your heart?
Don’t matter where you are or who you’ve become.”
The song starts off with someone who thinks that the success that they are achieving is all they need. The fame gives a high that doesn’t last. As the song progresses she sees that the hard work separated her from relationships with others and she begins to lose herself in the process. The last two lines acts as her deep conscience tries to tell her that she took the wrong path that pulled her away from what she longs for, love. The beginning of the song explains the quick fame high and how cool it may seem at first glance. In contrast, the following lines compare a loveless life to a black and white world presenting the lack of happiness and realness this life would bring. In the end I want to convince the audience that it’s never too late travel down a different path that brings life and hope. The very end of the song says, “You don’t know this emptiness inside. You can’t see the tears falling from your eyes. Is this it? Is this all to your life?” Questions I asked myself in the past when I needed to make my own life choices that would determine how I live the rest of my life. What will fill me with joy? What is the one thing that makes life worth living? Love.