Personally, one of my all-time favorite songs is “Africa” by Toto, which is featured on his self-titled and fourth album Toto: IV. This song is one of my favorites because it brings me a sense of nostalgia as I used to listen to this song all of the time as a child. Now, despite there being no actual reason behind liking the song besides its nostalgic effects, I absolutely adore it, and every time this song comes on, I get super excited and sing along no matter where I am. I could be out in public, which has happened before, and I will immediately stop when “Africa” comes on and begin to sing the song at the top of my lungs because it is just so catchy and it brings me back to the good old days when things were much simpler. One specific interpretation of the song that I believe could be taken to heart and represent me is that the song is actually about cleansing (i.e. the rain) and going back to the origins of life, or in this case Africa, to where life began for this man so that he could start over and get away from the world for a while. This, I feel, represents me in that sometimes I wish I could get away from the world and technology for a bit too, and like I addressed earlier go back to much simpler times, but that’s just one perspective of the song as it has been interpreted in many different ways. Now another song that I love, which has similar effects to “Africa” is “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel, which is featured on his album Storm Front. This song,
Bruce Springsteen’s song American skin. In the relation to the story, it is a interesting song, it is about weapons, and there will never be justice, as long as there a guns in the world, and this has much relation with the story. He also sings about how easy it is to people, it could be a dad or husband, how it the family handle the situation when the most important person leaves them.
My story has a meaningful story behind it. The story is deep for me and even for the artist and probably for many other people. Hearing songs like this can inspire you. It inspired me to be thankful for the people in my life. One day they can be here the next they could be gone. You never know what’s going on in their lives.
Africa is the second largest of the earth's seven continents, covering about twenty-two percent of the world's total land area. From its northern most point, to its southern most tip is the distance of nearly five thousand miles. Africa is both north and south of the equator. The Atlantic Ocean is located west of the continent, and the Indian Ocean is on the east. Width of the continent is also nearly five thousand miles. Although Africa is so large, much of it is inhabitable. Desert soils, which have little organic content, cover large areas. The Sahara Desert, in the northern part, covers more than one fourth of Africa, and the Kalahari Desert is in the southern part of the continent. These two deserts are a
Popular singer Elton John once said; “music has healing power; it has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours”, and for most, music is the portal to an out of body experience. African American lyricists especially have been found to use the art of music to escape the real world, commencing from the slavery era and onward. The blues song titled The Tracks of My Tears does just that; expresses the ability to remove your soul from a treacherous reality. Similarly, the lyrics from popular modern songs, written by black artists, speak volumes about what is presently going on in the country, parallel to the way African American slavery songs did. Music written at an earlier period have been found to correlate to music of the past through providing strong emotion toward present day commentary.
African music, on the other hand is different from European music. It has a strong sense of rhythm, which means it uses heavy beats in the music. Also, in African music you have the freedom to change or add the melody or rhythm. African Music usually is about daily life and it coveys life events. The “fields call” style plays a really important role in American Pop Music. This style will influence
Listening to the lyrics of your favorite song you automatically start to have a connection with that song. Then the song starts to represent you and your life because of the lyrics. Some songs show about being a fighter,having freedom, or just being you. There's a billion of songs out there and there's a billion of people who connect with those songs. Usually the most common reason why some songs represent people is by their past experience. For me some songs represent me because I decided to follow my dreams,living in the moment, and get right back up.
“We Found Love” is a popular song produced by Calvin Harris and features singer Rihanna. “We Found Love” reached the number one spot in the top charts in multiple countries in 2012 and the music video became popular very quickly after being filmed in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The music video features a young couple living in an impoverished council estate in West Belfast. Both characters portrayed in the music video are in their twenties and of mixed race, one parent being black and the other being Caucasian. Their relationship is distinguished by domestic violence as the couple is seen yelling, pushing and hurting one another, along with stealing from convenience stores, gambling and abusing drugs and alcohol together.
Ludacris does a remarkable job of portraying his message about the struggles that some adolescents are faced with. “Runaway Love”, by Ludacris, featuring Mary J. Blige (2007), represents the theme of struggle through hip-hop and rap music. It is about little girls who are “stuck up in the world on their own.” They have to take care of themselves because the people they are around do not care about them. They range from nine to eleven years in age, and their goal in life, at such a young age, is to run away from home. Ludacris is trying to get the listener to realize the struggles that even children have to face because adults are not the only ones who have problems, like most people believe. He is very successful in
In the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, the message in the song is to always be happy, and that the sky is the limit. When I was younger I always had big goals and I still believe it, and I keep reminding myself of the message in the song when I’m upset or angry. When I was younger, I never seemed to enjoy the present moment and I was always looking towards the future, and once the future came, I realized that I should’ve enjoyed the past, and not look at the future, and appreciate what’s there in the moment. When I started listening to this song a few years ago, I started hearing the true message in this song, and I started appreciating my life, and enjoying every moment of it. I figured out that the
The song "The message" by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five depicts the struggle of young black adults growing up in society. The struggle to make it out of poverty can be compared to survival of the fittest in a jungle. Only the strong would survive and adapt to the changes to fit in. Trying their best to make a betterment with whatever little society offers. Being a young black African American in the early 1980's was not easy. It was easier to live the fast life and gain fast money by being part of the drug community. Drugs, guns, and money was glamorized and this is what the young adults looked at as a means of getting rich. In the songs, a young man talks about how he is trying hard to hold on to the little bit of sanity he has left in his soul. He talks about the struggle he endures while trying not to get pushed over the edge. He was born an innocent child who's blind to the ways of mind kind. Growing up he faced many challenges and had to fight
to music critics Jackson’s album Thriller seemed to be inspired by “a mixture of several genres
his book The World in Six Songs, Dr. Daniel J. Levitin explores how the influence of musical sounds on the brain has created and shaped human nature. He believes that the various functions of music have affected the evolution of human relations. These musical functions are performed by six types of songs: friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion and love. He feels that anthropologists, archaeologists and psychologists have neglected to thoroughly investigate how music has contributed to the development of human nature. Levitin is a research scientist, a psychologist, an author, a professional musician and record producer, and also professor at McGill University where he heads the Laboratory for Music Cognition, Perception and Expertise. He has been published in both scientific and musical trade journals.
“Ghana’s history is a metaphor for what occurred in the immediate aftermath of independence in Africa,” is a quote by Kofi Awoonor, Ghana’s leading literary figure and one of Africa’s most acclaimed authors. Three of his poems illustrate the hardships and trials that the Africans faced after their claim of independence from Britain. As said by Awoonor himself, “...high hopes were crushed by the greed, corruption, and lust for power…”. The author uses multiple literary devices as a way to emphasize the adversities they faced. Kofi Awoonor symbolizes the downfall of Ghana after independence through the use of theme, mood, and symbolism in his Three Poems.
Morning Song, by Sylvia Plath, was written in February 1961, the same month she suffered a miscarriage.
In 1984, an iconic song was created by two sensational artists Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. A song they created inspired millions, originally created for people of Africa during the time of a horrific famine, was later recreated for the earthquake of Haiti. And for many years our world has been through so much trauma, trauma such as diseases, shootings, and devastating natural disasters. That song we know as “We Are The World” created such an inspiring notion that sparks to change our perspective of the world, how it is ours the children like Jackson said’ “ We are the world, we are the children” meaning we are all connected and the lyrics of this song represents that.