Sweater Weather By The Neighbourhood: Music Analysis

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.

People listen to music for a variety of reasons. Some listen to music to relax in which it serves as a sort of escape from everyday life, some because they are a fan and follow a certain artist, and others because they can relate the lyrics to their own personal experiences. Whichever the case may be, music has and continues to serve an important role in people’s lives.

Very often, people have a hard time expressing their feelings through their own words. Music has a way of doing this for society. Based on the context of the music the person is listening to, friends and family are able to get a general

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.

A multitude of people nowadays choose their favorite songs because of how they sound and the attractiveness of the singer. However, some people select their favorite songs because of its appeal by relating to their personalities and feelings. Just as songs can relate to people, they can express countless similarities with stories as well. When it comes to the story, The Diary of Anne Frank, there are a variety of characters and events that songs can relate to. The songs “Chocolate Rain”, “The Last Goodbye”, and “Lost Cities”, verbalize numerous commonalities with The Diary of Anne Frank.

For as long as mankind has walked on this earth, music has been an important part of our culture and lifestyles. Each walk of life beats to a different drum. Different cultures use music for many aspects of their lives; for religious purposes, for celebrations, for comfort, for sorrow, for relaxation, for sports, for dances, for energy, for learning, for sleeping, and for sexual experiences. Everyone uses music for something. Music connects with people and reaches them in ways that words simply cannot. Music is a representation of what feelings sound like. It expresses emotion and brings that characteristic out from within us; it tells us a story. Every generation has its’ own sound and different music styles have emerged and become

Some may say music is just music; a song is just a song. However, music plays an enormous role in our psychology, because a single song has the ability to bring about many kinds of thoughts and emotions in the listener. Music is subtly one of the main factors in which people identify with certain groups and establish their belonging in society. It shapes people’s perspectives on how the world functions and the roles they play within it. Music can function the same way in a culture; it can reflect many of the culture’s values and ideologies. Music can have many effects on culture and the people’s idea of who they think they are within that culture. Music can serve in a way that promotes cultural identity and pride, yet it could also play a

"In camp and hospital they sang -- sentimental songs and ballads, comic songs and patriotic numbers.... The songs were better than rations or medicine.” Music plays a huge role in our society today, and it played a huge role in our society a hundred years ago. Music is fluid, ever changing, and never the same. And yet, one thing remains constant; it tells stories, keeps records, and lift spirits.

Songs are written to evoke emotion, feelings, to be relatable. The creation of a song is an art form. It is carefully crafted to not only entertain an audience but to also evoke an emotional response. There is a variety of emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, and so forth. Songs are not only the instruments or machines creating sound in the background, but the lyrics. The instruments reflect the tone that is set in the lyrics. In order to extract the meaning of the song, one must listen to the words. Two strongly contrasting songs are Heathens by 21 Pilots and Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World. Heathens and What a Wonderful World have different backgrounds, meanings, and themes. There are some literary similarities but there are

Music, “…one of the most widely used and appealing forms of communication…”, is universal and used for different purposes (Root, 2005, p. 7). Among the uses are “…play or entertainment, which humans of all ages engage in to stimulate feelings of joy, tension, and interaction, and enrich their experiences by adding mental complexity, counteracting boredom and lethargy” (Root, 2005, p. 7). In addition, music expresses “…emotions such as love, sentiment, or anger” (Root, 2005, p. 7). Ultimately, it communicates values showing the reality of society and culture. Anyone listening to “a few records [helps] enrich [their] feelings, extend [their] sense of love or despair, and feed [their] fantasies or fire some real relationship” (Cooper & Haverkos,

Throughout its history, music has permeated the significant events of American history. Its effect on American society and the way the American people cope with each event has only grown as popular music evolves and new genres reach more and more individuals. People can remember where they were and their exact surroundings to amazing detail when asked about life-changing events in history. Older generations will remember the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Their children will remember when Kennedy was assassinated and when man walked on the moon. Their grandchildren will remember much of the turmoil of the ‘70s and ‘80s and their great grandchildren grew up in the world impacted by the events of September 11, 2001. Even one’s surroundings during the start or end of a relationship or personal events such as graduation, getting a driver’s license, or getting married can all be paired with the music that was popular at the time.

Music: It surrounds the world, it’s life’s soundtrack. Music is everywhere: in the elevator, playing softly over a store’s speaker, at parties, studying, on a ride in the car, a jingle from a commercial; everyone has a genre, band, song, or artist that helps them pass time. For over 50,000 years, music has been around, lingering in the minds of people. Used in some of the toughest times in history, listening closely to past music can inform a general idea of the events and problems of the time frame it was constructed.

Music is a powerful force that can bring people together from all walks of life. Listening to music creates an atmosphere of peace the surrounds one. Music fills our ears and overpowers our brain, consuming all our thought. This is one of the main reasons people crave music, an escape. In the song and video, Arabian Waltz by The Silkroad Ensemble, listeners can see the artists coming together to play and entertain. In Attaboy, the music surrounds listeners they imagine they are hearing the song being played just for them. The cover of Bob Marley’s song, One Love, projected an overwhelming sense of change needed for the world. No matter what language one speaks, music can be enjoyed by all.

Music is one of the greatest human creations (DeNora, 2000). It plays an integral role in human society worldwide irrelevant of race, gender, age, wealth or well-being (Kemper & Danhauer, 2005). Indeed according to Batt-Rawden (2010), playing different music in diverse situations can introduce listeners to the desired and relevant atmosphere. In most circumstances, music is played to entertain people, but it can also form part of an accompaniment in sad situations. Music is often the fulcrum that influences the listener by creating a unique ambience and atmosphere (Bernatzky, Presh, Anderson, & Panksepp, 2011). Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham, (2007) adds that music can be a medium to enhance communication,