Billie uses his songs to express his political views and his opinions on world events. The album American Idiot was the first album to show this with the songs like “American Idiot” and “Governator” are some of the songs that he writes to show his new views. “American Idiot” was one of the most strongly opposed song in the album because of the lyrics in the song like “Well maybe I'm the fagot America / I'm not part a part of a redneck agenda.” These lyrics show his attitude towards George W. Bush's administration and to the formal president himself. Many people believed that this song was anti-American with its harsh lyrics calling the American people idiots but really, the song is very patriotic. Billie is basically telling the American people to not let our government take away our individuality and to not let the media brainwash you into believing what they tell you. This song also states to not let the government and media tell you how to view a person’s sexual preference. Billie takes strong offense to that because when he was growing up, he had a gay uncle and he wants people to stand up against discriminating against other people sexual preference.
The next song that talks about Billie’s political view is the song called “Governator”. This song talks about the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The reason for writing this song was due to the fact that Green Day was not happy with how the voting for Governor went. They thought people only voted for Arnold because he was a famous actor and not because of his political views. They say that he is like the role he plays in Terminator, a brainless killing machine, who suddenly ran for Governor.
The next song in the album, “Are We the Waiting” has two meanings behi...
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... “son of rage and love, living on a diet of soda pop and Ritalin.” Jesus said how he had a messed up life but that it does not bother him at all. As the song goes on, Jesus would go on to describe how people do not care about anyone anymore besides themselves with the lyrics “Lost children with dirty faces today no one really seems to care.” This would show the nice side of his personality. He is tired of being alone and not fitting in and he just wants to break free. He wants to find a new life worth living so he runs away. The story move on the song “Holiday” where Jesus arrives at a city. He is on holiday and is starting his new life where he thinks that he is now free. The next song is “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” which is called the “hangover song” to “Holiday” because this is when the excitement is over and Jesus finds himself alone on the city streets again.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is a “musical tragicomedy” (Wikipedia) directed by Joss Whedon in 2008 during the Writers Guild of America strike. It was originally released as a web series with three 14 minute episodes. The film centers on Dr. Horrible, a super villain with “a PhD in horribleness” (Whedon) who desires to get into the exclusive Evil League of Evil commanded by Bad Horse and alleviate the “misery of the human condition” (Wikipedia). At the same time he is striving to win the affections of Penny, a girl who is the embodiment of good, as his alter ego Billy as they meet at the Laundromat each week. Rounding out the trio is Captain Hammer; a brawny, self-centered superhero who, to Dr. Horrible’s chagrin, is well-loved in the city of Los Angeles. The three main characters create an incongruous love triangle with the ne’er do wrong Penny at the center. This film is chaotic and ironic as it challenges the common roles taken by superhero and super villain in most classic and modern movies. At the same time, it has an undercurrent of unrequited love reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin films. The conflicting genres that Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog encompasses reflect Dr. Horrible’s own character duality.
Can you recall the very last night that you spent with your high school buddies before packing your bags and leaving for college? The films American Graffiti and Dazed and Confused bring you back to that through the recreation of those great experiences. American Graffiti is based on a closely-knit group of teenagers who will all be leaving each other the next day for new adventures. This gang of teenagers, despite their differences, all goes out together and share their last memorable evening. Throughout the night, friendships are strengthened, conflicting struggles arise, and romances are created and disrupted. Dazed and Confused dealt about life during wartime – the wartime of high school, where the faculty is irrational, the parents are
Woodstock became a symbol for a whole generation by the coming together of the political environment, the pop culture, and the current events of the time. The ‘baby boomers’ were searching for ways to separate themselves from their parents’ generation and see themselves as a more loving, compassionate, tolerant group of people. Woodstock came at a time of the youths desperation for authority and gave them beliefs they could live with. They wanted to revolt against the political chaos that they had been enduring during this memorable decade, and Woodstock was a symbol of this for the youth.
While the songs written for the American Revolutionary war were somewhat speculative, and depending on the song, poked fun at their enemies. The songs written and sung about the war in Iraq were anything but. They outlined the issues and say everything that they feel is true regarding the situation the United States is in. For example in the song written by Neil Young "Lets Impeach the President." The lyrics in this song are deep and correlate directly with the feelings of many American citizens. For example “Let 's impeach the President for lying and misleading our country into war” (YouTube) these lyrics as well as the video depict a propaganda style. Following life changing events, such as a new life experience or a national crisis, songs are written to show and demonstrate its impact. Whether it is in the 18th century or the 21st century the premise is still the same and can be seen throughout the
The song “Most People are Good” by Luke Bryan, describes a theme of hope and seizing the day. This song is clearly directed to an adult audience for it could not be relatable to a younger crowd. The song offers words of wisdom and a recollection of youthful times gone by. The song is told in the first person and portrayed by an ageing man or woman who is expressing their beliefs and personal morals through their experience of youth and forgiveness. The hopeful lyrics are informal but provide bright ideas expressed with a buoyant attitude.
This shows how the little boy looks at his father in complete awe and thinks that he can do no wrong. Christ is God-like too many people and the boy puts his father on the same level as Christ. The Brewery cops could only “watch in drunken disappointment,” could be viewed as all of the Christians who watched as Jesus was freed from the struggle which is known as life on Earth. The last line of the poem, “I searched my father’s hands / for a sign of the miracle” indicates that he looked for the wounds that Jesus was said to have had on his hands from being nailed to the cross. This connects to the theme of racism because the hole in the father's hands would have been the only thing that directly connected him to Christ. Which would have explained why the father was able to tolerate the unjust cruelty that he faced every day due to being a victim of racism because it is said that Jesus was able to get through any and every hardship thrown his way. In the second stanza, the narrator says, “in 1964, I had never tasted beer, / and no one told me about the picket signs.” This can be seen as
The Song “American Idiot” by Green Day uses techniques to engage the audience to interoperate the issues. Green day through their style of music convey issues such as the medias over powering effect on society, greed and the division of the United States of American over political issues. Green Day’s negative stance on the issues through these techniques conveys the audience to agree with the main issues being focused.
The song “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South”, may possibly portray Holiday’s sadness and experience during the Great Depression. The line “Homesick, tired, all alone in a big city” can be ...
The constantly growing and changing world is trying its best to sway and alter the minds of the common people by using as many influential platforms possible from ads on television, entertainment in the theaters, politics in the government, to music on the radio. The Dave Matthews Band sings about either issues in life or in love. To find a song that correlates to individualism is not a surprise. When singer Dave Matthews performs the song "Drunken Soldier" live, he puts an emphasis on the lyrics "Don't waste time trying to be something you're not/ Fill up your head/ Fill up your heart/ And take your shot/ Don't waste
American Pie is a song that is a very slow and deliberate song with a lot of thought put into it. This is a song that has over 850 lyrics that play for 8:30, the longest song ever to be listed as the Number one song on top hits charts. All these lyrics don’t just have the meaning of the individual words themselves, they paint a picture for the audience listening about what life was like and the events that transpired in the 1950-70’s, along with how Don McLean interpreted them. The lyrics of this song appeal to the youth of that timeframe in rhetorical ways of Pathos, Ethos, Doxa. Pathos is shown to try and emotionally connect with the audience; Ethos is used to show he knows what he is talking about by relating his real life stories and knowledge back into the essay, and lastly, Doxa is used very often in this in the aspect that Don was a huge Buddy Holly fan and he felt a deep connection to him.
The 1960s was the era of rebellion. It was a time when views of many people started to change dramatically as unexpected things were happening from the Cold War to the assassinations of nation’s leaders. So within this disturbed era, many citizens started to rebel and question the authorities saying that they were ruining the country. The younger generation, especially, stood firmly in front to lead the action to change the ideas of the older generation. One of the main methods they used to speak their opinions was through music and we can see the power it had on the people through one of the main protest anthems called “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969. The song speaks out to the elite controlled America and becomes one of many instances of the younger generation questioning and rebelling against the authority in the late 1960s. They send people a message that the citizens of United States do not live in a fair world and the authorities are not doing their jobs. By creating images through the comparative and descriptive lyrics such as who “waves the flag” , and “some folks are born with silver spoons in hand”, its repetition of the chorus “it ain’t me” and the instrumentation of the song which sounds like the cry of the working class to signify that the Vietnam War is a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight, this song by the Creedence Clearwater Revival shouts to the world that the elite-controlled America is unfair as it can get; and becomes a big part of the counterculture movement. However, contrary to the message of the song, challenges to authority and privilege did not come exclusively from the working class. Rather, members of the upper class were also involved in opposition movements, for instance vi...
You can interpret this song in more than one way. The song was mainly written about Billie Joel Armstrong’s father who passed away in September. He left his father’s funeral early and his mother tried talking to him about his father. But he kept responding with “Wake Me up When September Ends.” The song is also a military tribute to those who were serving in Iraq, and about those who lost their lives in 9/11. The music video for the song is about a couple. The girl finds out her boyfriend got drafted to serve in Iraq, and it shows the man fighting in Iraq, that is where the military and 9/11 tribute come into play. Even though these songs are completely opposite they have a few similarities and
In essence, this song carries various sociological concepts. It concentrates on the main idea about the social construction of reality and talking about how reality is changing. The song questions the actions and mentally of individuals violating the norms and values of society. The band takes into consideration various factors of why it is happening including the media and religion. As a result they talk about such influences taking control building and developing a sense of self. This is a great song about present day problems and how society changes with them.
The song “Accidental Racist” uses many cultural symbols that tend to create controversy in todays society. For example one of the main symbols mentioned in the song is the confederate flag. The context of the symbol in the song, is that the white man walking into Starbucks does not want people to miss understand his shirt which features the flag. He would like people to know that the flag is only featured due to its connection with Skynyrd and him being a fan (McKay 2). The reason a confederate flag can be related to a Skynyrd shirt, dips into the genres audience and the history of country music.
To understand this poem, one has to understand the impact that Christ had on the World. At the time of his birth, however, the known world was not stable; people worshipped many gods, and we get a full description of the way life was by the Magus who narrates his story of their journey to Bethlehem to witness the end of an era and the birth of a new one.