Theme and Symbolism in American Music
Music defines our culture. As Americans, we listen to music while we drive our cars, are at work, doing housework, studying, etc. We have songs for special occasions: Christmas, Hanukah, birthdays, weddings, parties, etc. We have taken songs from the various cultures that make us diverse: Arabic, German, Mexican, Native American, etc. We have many genres: country, hip-hop, rap, pop, blues, jazz, rock, heavy metal, etc. And although we may think of music as simple and easy, looking at all this makes one realize how diverse and complex our music truly is. Two things that contribute to this diversity are theme and symbolism.
Theme can be defined as the subject or topic of something. In relation to songs this would be the subject the author is concerned with in that particular song. By far, it is safe to say that the most popular theme in music is love. Whether it is finding love, the lack of love, lost love, or any other sub-topic of love, you will find countless songs dedicated to love. Interesting enough, the theme of love can be found in ...
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Show MoreWalmart is bad for America, as some say. The Globalization essay that was handed out in class had many good points. It states that Walmart puts many smaller businesses out of service. A recent study by David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine and two associates at the Public Policy Institute of California, "The Effects of Wal-Mart on Local Labor Markets," uses sophisticated statistical analysis to estimate the effects on jobs and wages as Wal-Mart spread out from its original center in Arkansas. The authors find that retail employmen...
Wal-Mart represents the sickness of capitalism at its almost fully evolved state. As Jim Hightower said, "Why single out Wal-Mart? Because it's a hog. Despite the homespun image it cultivates in its ads, it operates with an arrogance and avarice that would make Enron blush and John D. Rockefeller envious. It's the world's biggest retail corporation and America's largest private employer; Sam Robson Walton, a member of the ruling family, is one of the richest people on earth. Wal-Mart and the Waltons got to the top the old-fashioned way: by roughing people up. Their low, low prices are the product of two ruthless commandments: Extract the last penny possible from human toil and squeeze the last dime from its thousands of suppliers, who are left with no profit margin unless they adopt the Wal-Mart model of using nonunion labor and shipping production to low-wage hellholes abroad." (The Nation, March 4th 2002 www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020304&s=hightower).
Wal-Mart is a place where millions of consumers shop daily. When people shop at a huge retailer such as Wal-Mart it is evident to see they are helping the economy by keeping the largest retail chain in the nation for business. Wal-Mart supports the economy by having supercenters all around the globe, which creates stores, jobs, income, and profits. A chain of events occurs which benefits the economy, and betters the lives of millions. Wal-Mart “has opened an average of 16 new super centers a month for five years.” [Fishman.Pg 3] The growth rate of the company is substantially higher than any other company in the world. Wal-Mart helps factory workers and companies by providing mass amount of job opportunities. Stated from the passage of Wal-Mart effect by Fishman: “It reaches deep inside the operations of the companies that supply it and changes not only what they sell, but also changes how those products are packaged and presented, what the lives of the factory workers who make the products are like it even sometimes changes the countries where those factories are located”[Fishman.pg2]. The excerpt f...
Dicker brings up valid statistics that help give an understanding of just how powerful Wal-Mart actually is including that Wal-Mart employs one out of every 115 American Workers and the business is four times the size of its largest rival (790). He also goes into great detail about many of the issues with Wal-Mart. He talks about not only the many lawsuits filed against Wal-Mart but also the feelings of the workers about their jobs (791-795). Dicker’s article brings up many valid points about the negative aspects of Wal-Mart, however he overlooks the details of how the business manages to stay powerful despite all of the terrible things that are going on and fails to include any benefits that come from
According to Dictionary.com, theme is defined as a “main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work which may be stated directly or indirectly.” My idea of the meaning behind theme lies closely within this definition. To me, theme is the main memorandum or moral the reader will gained through reading and analyzing a story. The theme usually has a message or lesson behind it to provoke to the reader to question life. The theme could be very obvious or obscure, it just depends on how the author wants to communicate with his audience. After reading several pieces of literature in this class, the theme of “Gender Roles” really stood out to me. I especially found this theme pungent in The Yellow Wallpaper, A Doll’s House, and The Great Gatsby.
Since the earliest days of human civilization music has been a key tool for communication of stories which carried emotions through them. If we think back to our youngest years of life music has surrounded us whether it was from our parents singing us lullabies or from some sort of toy that played music we can say that musical melodies have helped shape or lives one way or another. Once we start growing up and figuring out who we are our musical preferences change; some people like classical and some like punk. We start to befriend people who like the same music as us and eventually we may attend a musical event. Our lives somewhat revolve around the music that we listen to.
Music is an art and a wonderful gift to human race. It soothes, stimulates and makes us feel happy. It affects our moods in many different ways from lullaby to war cry for changes in the society. Music is actually distinct to different people. Above all, it has a transformational importance that is captured in its art and nature. Music draws our emotions and it has an impact of bridging different cultures across the continents. Slave songs were very vital channels through which all kind of information was conveyed both positive and negative.
Besides all the points that I have stated, Wal-Mart has had to pay fines due to breaking Child Labor laws and Illegal Immigrant laws; fines up to $11.5 million for just those two types of laws. Wal-Mart is not good for this economy, for the people, and the company, in a whole, is criminal. If the people let Wal-Mart stay on the track it is on, the United States will not have anything but Wal-Marts. Wal-Mart will become a monopoly and put everyone, who started with something more than greed, out-of-business.
Walmart has had a long-standing presence in America society since the middle of the 20th century, seen as a place to get everything done, Walmart has become a fixation in our society. From grocery shopping, to changing your oil and even filing your annual tax returns, Walmart is always there, everyday. Started by Sam Walton in 1962, it began as a small operation catering to a small Arkansas community. It was started on principles very similar to small local businesses in small towns. Today Walmart has gotten a different, darker reputation. On the surface, Walmart may seem like the solution to everyday issues. Low-income families are attracted to the low prices, and people who work odd hours benefit greatly from the 24 hours a day that many Walmarts are open. Lately, Walmart has also managed to be publicly recognized as a store that sells many of today’s green products, including organic food, environmental conscious cleaning products, as well as, paper products made from recycled paper. However, underneath all this, Walmart has a different side. Exploitation of its workers is widespread amongst Walmarts who do not belong to a union, especially in the United States. Wal...
“There can be no society which does not feel the need of upholding and reaffirming at regular intervals the collective sentiments and the collective ideas which makes its unity and its personality. Now this moral remaking cannot be achieved except by the means of reunions, assemblies and meetings where the individuals, being closely united to one another, reaffirm in common their common sentiments”( Durkheim 1912/1995:474–75; as cited in Sociological theory in the Classical Era, p.94).
Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites of fungi that are usually belongs to one of the three genus
As defined in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, culture is “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.” These customary beliefs could also be described as a set of morals or values commonly practiced by a group. Social forms are understood as being the institutions in which interaction and socialization between people take place, such as at school, church, or work. The material traits within a culture would include clothing, food, and art to name a few. Music is a distinct, diverse culture in itself, a subculture. Each musical era had its own code of values, social forms, and material traits.
...ls, she falls and then she will get back up. This shows his progression from innocence to adulthood; he accepts that Phoebe may fall and he cannot prevent it. Therefore, Peter Pan refuses to lose his innocence because he does not want to face real world problems while Holden moves on because he learns that he cannot be the catcher in the rye.
Democratic societies are held together by their solidarity although individualism sometimes threatens this solidarity. Individualism is closely linked to diminishing sense of common identity. Solidarity makes people living together understand each other and hence develop a close link which results to strong bonds. This was, for instance, witnessed in formation of Europe’s most successful welfare states.
Music generally plays an important role in all of our lives. Western music reflects all of our supporting cultures. It is commonly passed down from generation to generation like any other type of music. Western music is shared among different religions, dance, and drama. All of which is used to reached out to a certain group of people that relates traditions. Western culture is shared among genres like: Gospel, Jazz, Blues, Rock, Rap, Reggae, and so much more. Each genre shares characteristics and beliefs of their own. “According to Kerman, long before European settlers and African slaves arrived here; Native Americans had their own music style (Kerman, 2012).” Native Americans as well as other nationalities would create music to tell their