Thumping Speakers: an Analysis of “Loud Music” What do you need to escape from? Music can be any person’s escape from their daily struggles. In “Loud Music”, Stephen Dobyns a young girl and her father escape from reality through the vibrations of their booming speakers. He shows how the powers of music can affect many different people. In the poem the author develops the meaning that you can use music to escape from any problem you might come across in life. The poet uses similes, symbolism, and personification to help the reader understand the message. Stephen Dobyns uses similes to show that music can be any person’s escape from their problems. In the poem the blaring music helps the daughter stay happy: “But at four what she wants is self-location
To begin, music exhibits serenity to the most timid of people in times of distraught. In The
In Stephen Dobyns’s “Loud Music,” the speaker describes the differences between him and his step-daughter’s thoughts on loud music, which shows that music really describes a person’s personality. Throughout the poem the speaker explains how his step-daughter likes soft and more meaningful music more than loud music and their different music types shows in their difference in personalities and the way they see things. People all over the world let the music they listen to describe their personalities.
The novel is able to share how music is of great importance and is able to affect people’s moods and thoughts.
Music has played a major role as an agent of socialization in each of my 4 decades. I know and hope that it will continue to do so. During each period music has affected my personality, shown my personality, affected my perceptions and helped me to cope with growing and changing as a person. My Looking Glass Self has compared the person in song and possibly the singer themselves to myself to gain perspective of who I was at each time. I am going to discuss each decade with the thought of how music was an agent of socialization in each.
There is a lot of controversy over music, musical genres, and the volume that music is played at, but the indirect effects of excessive volume are frequently overlooked. One novel helps illustrate these effects when caused by ear equipment. Contemporary earbuds as well as “seashells” in a book called Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury often lead to hearing loss, which leads to less socializing, and therefore physical and medical problems.
In the book “A Long Way Gone” music plays a role as a healer and a saviour.
The story mentions at one point that the music stops and so does the barmaid. It has her full attention and she waits for it to start back. The music is the manipulator and she is its marionette waiting for it to guide her again. A few more examples that music soothes and comforts the soul are the mother gently humming while Sonny is out on the streets, Sonny’s brother, the narrator, whistles to keep from crying after reconciliation with Sonny fails. At first glance these may seem to be insignificant details, but when analyzed they prove that music is a source people lean on for comfort whenever they are in a state of worry or despair.
In the memoir A Long Way Gone, author Ishmael Beah describes his survival journey as a lost child in his country, because of the civil war in Sierra Leone, then becoming a child soldier facing war daily, afterward the process that Beah went through during rehabilitation and finally in fear escaping the civil war. Ishmael Beah emotional journey has three stages of development in which Beah utilized music. In the first stage, Beah uses music as a survival mechanism to keep sane and safe. In the second stage, begins when he loses his brother and friends, Beah reaches the lowest point with the loss of his entire family again, some friends, music, and being forced to join the war. In the final stage, is the process of rehabilitation where Beah connects with music once again. Ishmael Beah exposure to music at a young age stayed with him throughout his life. (Beah, 2007, p. 5-218)
From the creation of harmonies to singing to instruments, music has been an abstract form of human expression. Although an auditory collection of pitches and volumes, musicians can manipulate the same notes and bring them alive for their audiences. The true emotion and energy that’s felt in music really comes from the player as feelings are transferred to and through the listener. This interaction between performer and the house is catharsis, the complete release of strong repressed emotions. Thanks to the musician, music has the ability to grasp people and cause them to sense emotions and feelings without lyrics or images even being necessary. Although it’s believed we can only hear with our ears, something about music makes it emotionally if not physically tangible. In James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues,” a narrator certainly unaware of the impact of music invites himself to experience jazz for the first time. Baldwin uses the final scene of his story to argue that music has an effect on those who are able to experience it. Baldwin does this in one single moment by letting the fixed, practical minded, “well-intentioned” narrator experience catharsis from jazz as his growing, free-spirited brother communicates with him through jazz.
Maya Angelou said, “Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” When Angelou listens to music, she is able to block out her problems and create a space of all her own to escape to. In the same way Angelou finds refuge in music, others can find refuge in different ways too. Because struggles are difficult, it is important to find refuge through locations, activities, or relationships.
Music is a universal way in which people connect, and it does this through its use of literary devices to make the songs meaningful while still appealing. The song, “Wait and See,” uses literary devices like similes and metaphors to contribute to the theme of society’s mistakes and their impacts on the
The most obvious thing that is important to the character is his adopted daughter, Anna. Throughout the narrative he shows that he cares for her happiness and her health. She is unable to speak clearly and tell her own story, so the character (father) tells it for her. The character is trying to show the reader how effective music can be as a therapy, and is using his own experience to prove the worth of musical therapy. He gives example after example of how music improved the life of his daughter, and how she looks forward to her day with music so eagerly. One line he says, “Ask her a direct question and you will get a stammered word or two at most. Play a song and she will begin to shout out the words, even if she has never heard them before. ”It is a testament to how much music can change her attitude and behaviours. It seems to fill her with confidence and strength where usually she is frail, a picture painted by the quote above.
In conclusion, throughout Beah emotional journey one key component is music for the survival, loneliness, and rehabilitation of Beah. Without music Beah most likely would have returned to the front lines of the war. Music helped Beah survive the early stages of his journey. Without music, Beah would have fallen prey to the dark thoughts of the war sooner. Without his family and music, Beah hit the lowest point, but it became a beacon pulling Beah from a dark place. Music gave Beah connections to new friends and relatives, even though it brought sad memories of his previous life. Beah love for music was a key component for his survival of those horrible experiences and most likely to this date it still is. (Beah, 2007, p. 5-218)
Many more moments like these are worked into the story. The mother hums a hymn under her breath; it comforts her while she watches for Sonny, who is out on the streets (419). The narrator whistles to keep from crying after Sonny refuses his attempts at reconciliation (428). These bits of music are tiny but significant; small musics performed by non-musicians demonstrate how music creates good feelings. The mother may be singing off-key and the narrator probably whistles flat, but because of their nature as song these tunes are suffused with bits of happiness, and by making the music, the
The beginning of this poem is about how much the speaker likes loud music. For example the speaker says “the speakers throbbing” which means the music from the speaker has a strong rhythm. This is an Aural imagery. “Jam-packing the room with sound whether Bach or rock and roll” means to crowd to capacity the room with sound. Another phrase is “the volume cranked up so each bass notes is like a hand smacking the gut which means you feel the beat in your guts. Again this is a aural image. This section obvious tells us how much the speak feels about loud music.