This statement is very impactful in how he uses the example of painting the American flag, it’s not possible without the color red and for artists to not be able to write songs using their past experiences that isn’t quite possible either. Another limitation of music censorship is that lyrics are poetry and are filled with double meanings so what may be obscene to one person may be perfectly acceptable to another. John Denver testified at the 1985 hearing of the PMRC stating that his song “Rocky Mountain High”, which had previously been banned on many radio stations thinking it was about drugs, was actually about the beauty of the nature and the mountains in Colorado (Rabkin). Another example of lyrics with double meanings is the song …show more content…
Ten to thirty percent of the students gave the “correct” interpretations of the songs while twenty to sixty percent gave incorrect or vague responses. The remainder of students refused to answer (Nuzum 64). The difference in interpretations between adults and teens can be shown through this study and there is a reason for the difference. Interpretations can be caused by the fact that one’s understanding is limited to their knowledge on the topic. Greenfield conducted a study on four different age groups: fourth, eighth, and twelfth graders and college students. Two songs, “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen and “Like a Virgin” by Madonna, were played for the participants. Following each song they were asked to fill out a questionnaire. The questions asked about their comprehension of both specific words in the lyrics and about the overall meaning. The results for the understanding of Bruce Springsteen’s song was low. After hearing the song entirely and seeing certain excerpts on the questionnaire sixty percent of the overall sample couldn’t answer the questions regarding song content. Contrary to the title and refrain, the song is about the loss of hope and resentment. The percentage of participants who understood the song’s actual themes were very low. Not one of the fourth graders could recognize the real theme, while only thirty percent of eighth graders, forty percent of twelfth
I felt that in those instances a generalization or meaning of the lyrics would have been
In the realm of music, words and melodies work together in order to form a complete idea of an artist’s work. However, by abandoning the melodies and reading closely into the lyrics of a song, readers are able to draw meaning and make observations from the text that could be overshadowed by its melodies. A fine example of a song where this method is applicable is Paul Simon’s “Graceland.” Examining the lyrics reveals the story of a man making a pilgrimage to Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee in the same way a religious person would journey to a holy site. Through usage of imagery, tone, and metaphorical devices throughout allow this song to function as a comically surreal poem.
Has it ever occurred to you that this generation tries to search for the next best thing? Is it like a business man try to look for the next best thing that everyone is buying? I mean if other people do it and there perfectly fine doing it we assume that we could do it and we think we will be just fine as well. Take those examples and try to use it with music. Do you think that what we listen to can affect us in any way or not? Maybe and maybe not, but some of us tend to get influenced by what they put into their heads. Not everything that we see or do can import negative thought or feelings, but listening is a part of that category as well. Therefore, what these artists are trying to do is trying to use a rhetorical device to tell us that
Millions of people in the world listen to music for all different reasons. Most people all over the world listen to different genres of music in order to relax, but not too many people pay attention to the actual lyrics of a song. If you listen to the lyrics of a song you will realize that many songs have important messages or themes to them. An example of this is the lyrics of the song “Changes” by Tupac Shakur. If you listen to this song, you will realize that Tupac raps about not only the problems that African Americans face from society, but also the struggles that poor people in society have to endure and overcome. Many
In today’s society, music controls the way we live our lives. The influence that music has on society has broadened throughout the years and with social media being one of the world’s top priority, the fan base and spectrum for music in general has expanded significantly. Music is used to express feelings, moods, circumstances, experiences, knowledge, and so much more. With this being the case, the lyrics of any song can be interpreted differently by each and every listener. Many song lyrics give positive messages, promoting well-being, whiles others give negative messages, promoting violence, criminal behaviors, sexual contents, and disrespect towards others. With this being said, music reflects what the public demands, and in many cases the negative messages are often times what sells more than those music giving positive messages.
Knowing the personal, social or political context of a work of art can have an impact on how to judge the art in question in a few different ways. For example, a certain painting can be an expression of art from the artist related to a silent and subtle political protest. Besides, music can also have personal, social and political context attached to it. One song that generated a lot of polemic was “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” by the Beatles. Knowing the social context behind the song, fans soon connected the initials from the song with the drug “LSD”, which changes the way in which people interpreted the lyrics as a whole, such as the song being an analogy to a hallucination caused by drugs.
Music is not just music, or just a source of entertainment; rather music is “a major force and presence in contemporary American adolescence” (Christenson and Roberts 11). Besides the belief that music is just music, another popular belief is that, “Nobody pays attention to lyrics” (Christenson and Roberts 7). This assumption is not completely true or false. Lyrics are often learned accidentally during the listening experience, but almost every adolescent has a favorite song that he or she can recite word for word. Therefore, whether the learning of the lyrics is intentional or not, adolescents do learn
Whenever a person turns on the news, they can always find out that something bad has happened or is happening in the world. Issues such as racism, sexism, and police brutality are problems that has happened in the past and are still a big issue in today’s society. Imagine if a random person is getting attacked on the street but they are unable to scream for help because they have no voice. Most people in today’s society, feel that when they are getting attacked by somebody being racist, sexist, getting attacked by the police, etc. that they have no “voice” to speak up and make a change on a situation. Songwriters uses their songs to voice their opinions on issues that effects their lives or the people around them.
misinterpreted with the true gist of a song to fit a person’s accusations. The problem with this is
Today, in the 1990's, citizens in our society are being bombarded with obscene material from every direction. From the hate lyrics of Gun's 'N Roses to the satanic lyrics of Montley Crue and Marilyn Manson to the sexually explicit graphical content of today's movies, the issue is how much society is going to permit and where we, as a society, should we draw the line. The freedom of speech has always been considered a right, but that doesn't mean that you can shout, "Fire!" in a crowded movie theater. The real question is whether such material is harmful or dangerous to our society.
So overall, Music has it’s own particular area of censorship which is unique and flawed in it’s own way. Although there have been some more recent changes in music to support the freedom of artists, the past has been condemning and rough for artists to easily “express,” themselves through their
According to Leech (1974: 13), a meaning is concerned with conceptual and connotative meaning. Conceptual meaning is the meaning when a lyric covers basic, essential component of meaning that is conveyed by the literal use of a word. While Connotative meaning is the meaning implied by a word that is apart from the thing which it describes explicitly. Related to the analysis of both music videos, it could be seen that Blank Space song lyrics contain more verbal signs with connotative meaning rather than conceptual meaning found in it. The total of 45 lines with connotative meaning, 39 lines with conceptual meaning, and 2 lines with double-meaning were found in Blank Space song lyrics.
Although is clearly states in the first amendment that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances," censorship in America still exists in a big way. "Music censorship is the term used to describe the act of editing, altering, or preventing the listener from hearing the music as the artist created it in order to either deny certain information or to act as a moral gatekeeper of potentially harmful material" (http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~barndollar/courses/spring98/students/fabfive/index.html). The Censorship of
Frequent topics of debate in our country pertain to our rights according to the constitution. Namely, freedom of speech and expression is often cause for controversy.
Music has been the cure to many people's bad days.But on the other hand,some not.Music has been around for decades and has become popular now.Not everyone proud of the censored/uncensored music their making now and are in an disagreemnet about some people wanting music being banned.Music has become offensive to many parents and their children.However,the offensive music is affecting the way teens talk and dress,promote violence, and causing students to be unfocused in school.Muisc should be banned because it would give an positive outcomeon behavior,language,and paying attention in school.