California Songs

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.

Songs impact many people and can be used to capture a specific moment or feeling in time. The song “Billionaire” by Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars talks about having it all and how they want wealth so badly. This song captures what a lot of people today believe about being rich and why they want it so bad. Songs about wealth is not anything new. The song “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” by Bessie Smith, was almost an anthem for people of the time because it captured their life perfectly. It talks about having wealth and living care free but then losing it. When this song came out, the Harlem Renaissance was occurring.

The song “hotel California” was released by an artist known as Eagles in 1976. The genre of the song is classic rock. It was written by Glenn Frey and Don Felder with help of Don Henley. California is the setting of this song, even though it used to relate the entire America. This song is all about the exaggeration of the American culture and some specific girls in America. In addition, it touches the uneasy balance between commerce and art in America. "Hotel California" is a metaphor for the LA high-life and the cons and pros of living in the music industry.

Great songs are ones that are never outdated, they are songs that generations later, remain relevant and worth

     Many forms of popular culture today are inspired by themes, characters, and other references in various types of classical literature. John Denver’s song “Calypso” parallels with a number of the themes in Homer’s the Odyssey. The Odyssey’s themes involving Odysseus’ journey back home and the aid of gods and goddesses directly influence “Calypso.”

It may seem unlikely, but songs written today can share connections with literature from the past. Washington Irving’s, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” is an example of this concept. Irving’s writing was influenced by time spent as a child, reading stories about adventure in his father’s library. The song, “As Long As I Know I'm Getting Paid,” was written by Patrick Stump who wanted to portray people's hunger for money. The short story, “The Devil and Tom Walker” and the song “As Long As I Know I'm Getting Paid” share themes of religion and greed that are still relevant today.

All the pop, hip-hop, country, and most other genres are focused on making money from entertainment. They don’t try to convey an important message. The artists just try to make the songs catchy and fun to listen to, but the songs have now lessons to teach and they don’t try to tell the people what is going on and how they feel about it. Whereas back then they used music like Fortunate Sons by Creedence Clearwater Revival that talked about how their band didn’t like the Vietnam War and that it wasn’t the rich or the politicians’ sons going to war, but the common people going to war instead. Alabama by Coltrane was a Civil Rights movement protest song that talked about the oppression, violence, and injustice done to African Americans and was song while they were protesting.

Many black musicians used their music as a platform to express the struggles that their community experienced daily during the 1980’s and 90’s. It allowed them to represent their anger or sorrow without acting out violently while also spreading awareness to the listeners about their stories, ideas, struggles, deep emotions, and the messages behind their songs. Lyrics to songs can bring a lot of meaning to a person or society. Music is an art and showcases an individual’s spirit. Hip hop music has brought many messages forward, for example the song Expression by Salt n Pepa had lyrics that showed the public how to be yourself and how to let lose. On page 7 of “Understanding Black American Aspects in Hip Hop Cinema” it talks about how during slavery the slaves would make up songs that would lift the spirits of the people working. Some of these songs had messages about freedom and dreams that the slaves had. Considering most songs have an impact on people, the slaves would create a culture of music that was brought forward. Craig Werner talks about genres and their impacts on the black culture.

Timeless Protest One true test of a classic song is that it stands the test of time. Does the theme of the song resonate to the modern audience? Do the lyrics engage and motivate the listener to action? Or is the song just a historic footnote from an era long ago? While times may change and people evolve, there are certain basic human elements and emotions that will always remain the same.

We all want to be more productive because an increase in productivity leads to better grades. Now who doesn’t want better grades? According to the New York Times, many people use music to make a repetitive job more interesting or energetic. Some of the more melodious music out there can help release much higher amounts of dopamine which is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers. By rewarding the mind we allow our mind to be happy which increases our focus and keeps us in the present moment. Business Insider tells us which songs help us the most. Many different songs have the power of benefitting us such as songs we enjoy and even music without lyrics. Songs that we enjoy make us feel better and like mentioned before, when we feel good we have more of a tendency to finish our work more efficiently. Music without any lyrics help us because the absence of words is less distracting. According to a Cambridge study, “speech distracts about 48% of office workers”. So next time you get off track or distracted, try listening to some music.

How one chooses to see how the change in music has come to be is all in that person's opinion. The life that is today is obviously going to be different than the life that was during a war or the great depression. It is circumstances and factors like that, which have shaped music. The problems of today are frequently mentioned in today’s music because that is what is happening. For people who lived through events like the great depression, the music they listened to was all in relation to not having money, trying to get by one day at a time, facing the reality that it might never end. Music from today mentions some similarity but it also mentions problems that are current, problems like race equality, gender equality, and same sex marriage. These problems were not as huge in the past as they are today. With there being new current events every day, artists from today’s music and artist from old school music have one thing in common: in order to connect with people and have songs with meaning they need to write songs about things that matter. Many artists have done this for many years, and even future artists will continue to follow the trend and do the same

Music has a large impact on people. It can bring a person out of depression as well as bring them into it. It can create fights as well as solve them. Traditional jazz was a source for this back in the 20's to late 60's. Now, traditional jazz does not have much of an impact on people as much as newer music does. For example, John Coltrane's album "A Love Supreme" was considered spiritual at its time. Today, there are still some who consider it spiritual but not as many. As times change, the popularity of albums change making the impact of certain albums change or just dissipate. Certain types of

One of the best things about humans is that we evolve. For better or for worse, people's personalities are not stagnant, and we change as we grow: gaining, loosing, and altering certain traits as we go through life. We adapt to situations by changing our environments and ourselves. Human's adapt; it's how we've lasted so long in a world that poses so many dangers to us. Music is one such adaption, though it ultimately depends on the song on whether or not the intent is a way to cope with outside factors of environments.

The lyrics came from the writer’s soul. These old-timey songwriters used their real life events that they had experienced personally to write their songs. Back in the ole days, songs told stories that had true meaning and feelings behind them. People related to the situations that the songs told. Whether the song is about life struggles, love, family, or even a good time out drinking with friends, people felt the connections; this is what catches the attention of their listeners. People do not relate to the music sang today. The songs tell stories about doing drugs and shooting one another up. Fans want to be able to relate to the lyrics and artists. For instance, Johnny Cash is a man who many people felt they had a bond with because the lyrics of his songs and the way he performed them with such passion. Most of his songs were about the rough life he had endured. Johnny Cash had been through about every predicament a person could go through. Like the loss of his brother at a very young age, an abusive father in his home life, a failing marriage because of his affair, and his constant struggle with a drug problem. No matter what situation a person may be going through, almost everyone who listens to his albums can find at least one song that is similar to the issue they are going through. In this time, it was common for duets to be sung by a husband and wife. Back when “the

Attention Getter: When you guys have had a long tough day, you hop in the shower after working so hard, the first thing that we all like to do is turn on some music that calms our body right?