Song Analysis Of The Song 'American Pie'

In America, our identity often comes from the culture we live in and develop for ourselves. The identity of many Americans is also developed by their actions. Some groups develop an identity by speaking their native language, like some members of “Chinatown” in various American cities. Others develop their identities by the way they dress, music they listen to, and their sexual identity. We can clearly see some of the largest factors used to develop one’s identity is the area in which they live in and their actions throughout their day to day life. In Kenny Chesney’s song American Kids we see the development of identity from the hometowns and actions of these so called “kids.”

On average, 1 person commits suicide every 16.2 minutes(Do Something). The song 1-800 by Logic sets a scene of a boy who goes through life and struggles with being gay, bullied, and suicidal thoughts. Which leads to a call to the 1-800 suicide hotline. The video takes a turn and ends happily with the main actor being married and surrounded by family and friends. The main point that this song displays is that suicide is a real problem and it portrays that through stressing the importance of accepting everyone. My main points in this paper are the content of the video, the sound and pace, how this piece affects today’s society, what modes of persuasion are used.

The song “American Solider” is sung by Toby Keith, a country music artist. The release date of this song was 2003, and it was named one of the hot country songs on the chart in November 2003. The lyrics to American Soldier by Toby Keith explain a soldier's feelings and responsibilities to his family and his country. He wants to be a good husband and father, and to also meet the needs of everyone else. Toby Keith states that he is not a soldier for the money because he is still unable to pay all of his bills, and the glory is not a good reason because it is not always wonderful. He became a soldier because he knows that he has to fight for the future of his family and his country. There are some cons to being a soldier, such as not being able

In the song American Pie, by Don McLean, produced in 1971, McLean uses this song to commemorate the death of singer Buddy Holly but he is able to also describe what he thinks is one of the most influential periods of American history; 1959-1970. The speaker in the song is Don because he’s telling what has happened since the death of Buddy holly and how much has influenced a change in society. In the song “bye bye mrs American pie” there to represent the innocence of American that Holly took when he died. I chose this song because it was one of my father’s favorite songs. And since the main idea of the song is about death, after my father died I felt a connection with the song. American pie relates to an old saying "as American as apple pie".

Instrumentation includes the guitar, harmonica, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, and strong bass. There is no percussion. Musical elements featured are fast tempo, virtuosic playing and high lonesome vocal sound. A couple of bluegrass artists are Bill Monroe and Del McCoury. A song example is “Its Mighty Dark to Travel.”

I have chosen a song that I would say is a country song. It is actually a song that I have known for many years and that I actually taken ato. This song would be “Chicken Fried” by Zac Brown. In this song, Brown sings about things such as enjoying his evenings with family and getting to dine on his favorite meals, being raised in the South, and giving thanks to God and the people who fought for the freedom of our nation. In the chorus, he is described to the listener that he is with his family, and presumably friends as well, enjoying each other’s company on a Friday night. He also explained getting to eat some fried chicken, drink beer, and listen to the radio. He then mentions that he was born and raised in Georgia Pine. Then in the next

This Social-Self manifest in Citizen: An American Lyric, “A friend argues that Americans battle between the 'historical self' and the 'self self’.”' (Rankine 2014). Citizen helps the reader understand that the small everyday acts of racism can accumulate and potentially become toxic, this includes: being skipped in line at the pharmacy by a white man, because he has failed to notice you in front of him; being told approvingly, as a schoolchild, that your features are like those of a white person; being furiously accosted by a trauma therapist who does not believe that the patient she is expecting could look like you. Written by poet, essayist, and playwright Claudia Rankine. Rankine discusses the microaggressions, which is defined as the

Whiskey Lullaby is a song sung by Brad Paisley (ft. Alison Krauss) which narrates the story of a soldier coming back from war to find his wife in bed with another man. After this, the man drinks away his life trying to escape the pain until he commits suicide. Then the song continues to talk about how the woman follows down the same path after hearing about his death. In the end of the song they both get buried next to each other which symbolizes how they are finally together. The audience for this country song is those who have served or who have had family members serve. The unexpectedness of how life will figure itself out when the soldiers return. Also, how hard it is for families when their loved ones are out fighting, and they are

Throughout this course I have learned that Bruce’s songs have a deeper meaning than the tempo, instruments and lyrics of the song present. This is proven again with the songs Nebraska, Born in the USA, Ghost of Tom Joad, and Streets of Philadelphia. These songs can almost be looked at spiritually and emotionally for those who feel they don’t fit in with society. As Chet Flippo says about Bruce’s songs in his interview “a fundamentalist acceptance of life and its troubles, along with the faith that true belief will bring a better way.”

American Pie is a song that made a huge impact on Americans in any time period. Don McLean sang about the events from the nineteen fifties through nineteen seventies after Buddy Holly’s death. Many events from those years are controversial. McLean also stated how music changed from these decades. Rock ‘n Roll used to be popular since the fifties. American Pie by Don McLean describes the transition in Rock ‘n Roll music from the iconic history of the mid nineteen hundred.

The Vietnam war was a major event to America because it had major conflicts with personal opinions of the people of 1960’s. In this era, plenty of people were rethinking on why they were fighting in a war that they did not need to be fighting. and joined the anti-war movement. This can explicitly be seen from the type of music that people were listening to at the time. The song that I am going to be analyzing is “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones. This song resonated with the persona of the people for multiple reasons because it was a song that was about losing a loved one and dealing with the sadness.

‘No matter gay, straight, or bi, I was born to survive’. In the words of lady GaGa herself it doesn’t matter who you marry, what your gender is or what’s you race you just need to accept others and yourself. Lady GaGa’s song ‘Born this Way’ informs others about self-acceptance in her new album ‘Born this way’. This song is about people abusing others and reflecting badly on them self because of their race, gender and choice in who they marry. Lady GaGa expresses her thoughts about people’s issues to say it doesn’t matter who you are because you were born that way.

The song I chose is a song sung by Martina McBride, a country singer, called Concrete Angel. The song was written by Rob Crosby and Stephanie Bentley, later released on November 18, 2002. The song is about a young girl, Angela Carter, who doesn’t have the most stable and safest home. At home she is domestically abused by her drugged mother, neglected and forced to take care of herself; she packs her own school lunch, walks to school by herself, and is wearing the same dress showing her mom does not care to give her new clothes. When watching the music video, in the beginning children are laughing at her, which shows she is bullied, another main theme tackled in the song. The bruises are seen by her teacher and the neighbors hear her

Essentially, the late 1960s and early 1970s are an in between stage for America, where people were exploring the many options in their lives. The release of “American Pie” in 1971 was a landmark in pop music history because the song was eight minutes and thirty-two seconds long. Later, it was divided up into two parts and then turned into the version that is known today (www.don-mclean.com). Now that the time period that surrounded the release of “American Pie” is established it is easier to understand the song because it can be read more in context.

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.