Top Ten Songs

Top Song - The Grand Finale by Set It Off
Top Ten:

2) Let it Be- The Beatles
3) Bohemian Rhapsody-Queen

4) One Headlight- The Wallflowers 

5) You Are the Sunshine of My Life-Stevie Wonder

6) Come On Eileen-Dexy's Midnight Runners

7) Redemption Song-Bob Marley

8) I Wanna Be Sedated-Ramones

9) Tiny Dancer-Elton John

10) Roxanne-(Moulin Rouge soundtrack version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUOEXKcFJBA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Above is the singer, Cody Carson's description of the song and how he wrote it.

Lyrics:

He plants his feet remaining still
A front row seat to incomparable thrill
Reflecting on anything he had ever craved
The sunrise never seemed so sweet,
Entranced by the final ocean breeze,
As the world beneath him starts to shake

Run, run
Run to the hills
Leave behind your dollar bills
The value of paper means nothing now
When everything around you is crumbling down

While finding shelter for the end
They begin reflecting on everything
I mean everything
All the life they spent till then

She turns the page in frantic despair
While hoping that auspicious answers are there
She calls off the search
Accepts her fate
Sits by the window no will to escape

Stay, stay
Right where you are
While death waits outside your door
The sirens are screaming
They're letting you know
To sit back relax and enjoy the show

While finding shelter for the end
They begin reflecting on everything
I mean everything
All the life they spent till then
As rock and ash fall from the sky
So surreal
They hold on to anything
I mean anything
Hoping that life won't pass them by

Non-existing answers
We are now condemned my friends
This is the end

Stay, stay
Right where you are
While death waits outside your door

While finding shelter for the end
They begin reflecting on everything
I mean everything
All the life they spent till then
As rock and ash fall from the sky
So surreal
They hold on to anything
I mean anything
Hoping that life won't pass them by

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Fiction Story

                         

                Okay kid, here’s the story. It’s a story of a guy and a gal, common, trite little happy love story; I’ll bet you’re thinkin, right? Wrong. So, so wrong. Let me tell you what happened. All of this craziness went down about a year ago, and things were good at the start. None of us had any problems with each other. Me? Well my life was just grand. We had no problems, things were good, carefree.    
              That one day though, that’s when it all went south.    

              We see a man-he’s neither old nor young-and by the looks of it, he has money. He ducks into a large black car. It’s a Cadillac with a wide bumper and classic design. We hear the soft thump of the car door closing, and it peels away quickly disappearing around the corner.      
             It’s late morning now, a little after eleven AM. There is a brisk feeling to the air, it is just cold enough to make you wish you had a coat, but sunny enough that you are fine without. You can feel the anticipation. Something big is about to start here, it’s just this hunch you have. We are situated in front of a large and old stone building. The same black Cadillac as before slows to a stop, the gravel of the enormous driveway crunching under the wheels. The door opens and a man, presumably the same man as before, (we cannot yet see his face) steps out and leisurely takes his time up the walk; glancing up at the foliage around him, stopping to adjust his coat. 
             He is dressed in a somewhat peculiar manner, however, it is very befitting of the way he is carrying himself; poised, dignified. A bowler hat sits atop his dark hair, and he has a crisp pair of pinstripe slacks on. He holds a cane, yet walks with no apparent limp. It adds a certain finesse to his image though, and is obviously intended to give that effect.
He walks into the building, and now we are back where we started.
It was in the beginning of November if I’m remembering right. This guy I mentioned… the one who the story is about? Yeah, well this day was the day that his business had been runnin for 3 years. It was going pretty well, or at least we thought, but I guess he was up to his eyeballs in financial problems. The guy, let’s call him Knife, had this knack for conniving money out of people. He was sneaky; he made ya think that everything was a million times better than it was.

          Knife had worked for me ever since he was a little kid, and his parents didn't have much money. Even if they did I've got this feelin that he would've been pretty much on his own anyways, cause he always seemed to be independant. He was always a good kid from the start, I never figured out why he got to being so conniving. 

So anyways, I was real proud of him when he opened up that business. In a world where things always seem to go wrong he managed to have them go right. It was a good feeling; gave everyone a little more hope. Well, at least before we realized what a bandit Knife was. 

            We are inside the large building now, and the man walks up the staircase and down to an ornate doorway at the end of the hallway. Hesitantly, he knocks on the door. 

         "Come in!" speaks a slightly muffled voice. The fact that the speaker is female-and expecting him- is apparent by her tone and the man's reaction. The room is handsome and thoughtfully furnished. A woman is seated on a black couch, and springs up at the sight of him. (Perhaps this is not whom she was expecting to meet) 
          "Oh," she whispered "OH!" Louder this time. "But wait, you didn't go through with it?"

Backmasking vs Reverse Speech

             The use of backmasking and reverse speech in music has been openly criticized and controversial since its start. Through listening to a song played in reverse rather than forward, as all songs are intended, people have found secret “messages” and references, be them intentional or not. Occasionally, one will hear a song where forwards it only sounds like gibberish yet in reverse the phrases make complete sense. This is intentional backmasking. When the words make sense going forwards, but are then reversed and still seem to make out coherent phrases, this is reverse speech, and it is hard to tell whether this is always intentional or merely an odd coincidence. Oftentimes, these messages are referencing satanic praise and have vulgar meaning, so this adds to the controversy of the whole situation. As this reversal of music became more popular, more and more of these backmasked and intended messages were heard, usually, it seems, parodying the ideas of those who abhorred the “Devil’s music.”         

            Backmasking grew to be more and more prevalent in music when people began to find their own examples, and clearly many of the ones created after all of the dissention regarding this backwards music were flat-out mockery, or very specifically placed in order to be found. Electric Light Orchestra was accused of referencing Satan on their song Eldorado, so later they added messages to their songs as a way of creating a joke. In the reversal of the song “Fire On High” the words say “The music is reversible, but time is not. Turn back! Turn back!” and their album appropriately titled Secret Messages has one point where it says “You’re playing me backwards.” These examples clearly display the backmasking used in the songs. Another blatant demonstration of backmasking can be seen in Choking Victim’s song “Hate Yer State” where played forwards, the whole start of the song makes no sense, and in reverse one can hear firstly a great deal of swearing and then “So stay in school, say no to drugs, oh yeah! Hail Satan! Good night boys and girls, pleasant dreams." Considering all of the accusations placed on artists for corrupting the youth with satanic references, and the fact that this was recorded very intentionally to be heard in reverse, it is safe to say that this example is most likely a mockery of how people can make something out of nothing. Chiodos even put in their album lyrics that the beginning of their song The Lover and The Liar was meant to be played in reverse.     

            Reverse Speech in song is something that people have debated over greatly. Sometimes such as in Eminem’s song “My Name Is” when you play a part of it in reverse one can make out the words, “It’s Eminem” repeatedly, and this was probably figured out through trial to make the words work to be coherent whether they were played forwards or backwards. The same goes for the song “Another One Bites the Dust” where in reverse these words seem to sound a lot like “It’s fun to smoke marijuana.” Presumably this was intentional and listening to it forwards and hearing how specific the diction is makes that more apparent. However in the song Umbrella by Rhianna, people claim that she intentionally uses reverse speech to say “He is taking my faith, he is murdering,” and that it is secretly about being possessed by the devil. This, in honesty, is very hard to back-up as it is difficult to hear. Also, to do something like this without simply recording ones voice in reverse and putting it in the song, but in the forward LYRICS, it takes a deliberate delivery of those words, and she did not write the song. Therefore, how could these “messages” have been delivered properly? This is one situation where it seems as though somebody was reading into the reversed phrases too much.

            Where backmasking is something that is always intended, yet not always crystal clear, reverse speech faces much more judgment. Sometimes it appears that the hype about these hidden messages caused people to hear more than was really there, and to make connections to satanic things when these connections do not truly exist. If the majority of the people we encounter daily do not secretly praise the devil or openly worship him, what makes it justifiable that so many musicians would partake in a satanic faith? A few of the examples may truly be subliminally corrupt and definite references to the devil, but the number of songs and artists that people have discovered, they think, to have done this looks a bit too high. Every human is entitled to their own opinions though, and some simply hear things that others do not. Unless a song clearly says something if the artist owns up to the claims against them, reverse speech and backmasking will always be debatable.

Comparative Analysis

Sadness envelops people every day. When we feel depressed, we often feel like we have nobody to turn to when really, we are never alone. There will always be somebody out there willing to help you; you just need to find them. “Dream Run,” by Parkway Drive and “Not Alone” by Before Their Eyes polarize the darkness of life with the fact that you’ve gotta go and face it today, because you are never alone.

Each song has narrative influences where they tell stories of hardships and struggles. Parkway Drive sings “Dear girl, there is a world that stands between us and them/See this was never about giving up, just giving in.” The subject of the song has to fight against the whole (metaphorical) world to get to where she needs to be. When they speak of giving in, they are talking about how some people just succumb to the pressures around them for they do not have the strength to fight back. Similarly, Before Their Eyes says “Reality stung, the whiskey bottle was dry/ Daddy would scream,/ Cause he is diseased and haunted all the time,/ Big girls don't cry” The girl who is the subject here has a father who we presume is an alcoholic. She does not cry though and takes it. When they say that reality stung, this is personifying the idea of reality to be something that can hurt you, as opposed to an imagined happy time. The darker side of both songs is how people who face sadness often do not know where to go, and as said in “Dream Run”, “you only live once/ But you spend your whole life dying.” They are comparing how some do not take control of their lives and just waste them on sadness.

 Another, opposite idea, featured in these songs is that people must make that move to better their own lives, no matter how bad things appear. The tones of both songs imply that you need to live your life and face the hardships, and to not give in. In “Not Alone,” the singer says that “You’ve gotta stop running away…you’ve gotta break through, /make it on your own.” This uplifting and supportive tone and words let the subject know that they need to keep pushing forward and making the best of your life. In “Dream Run” it says “You're not alone/ You only live once/ So when it comes crashing, know you're not alone” Parkway Drive also uses this idea that you are not alone when bad things happen, but you need to take charge of them because you only have one life. Dream Run and Not Alone both talk about how you need to get over your struggles and fears and live your life, and how if you do that, there will always be somebody willing to help.

                The two songs both show how you are never alone in your struggles unless you choose to be.  They have parts that are in a narrative-like form to tell of problems that people face, and say that you need to fight back instead of giving in. Dream Run takes a slightly darker and less optimistic approach, however, where Not Alone is more positive. For each parallel in the songs there is also a difference, for they are not the same song. Not Alone has a much softer approach than Dream Run, yet they still manage to portray the same general idea.

Desolation Row

   

        I figured I would analyze a Bob Dylan song. Problem was, my theme-genre of Defying Authority in Pop Punk and Post Hardcore doesn't really include his style. Luckily, I remembered the Bob Dylan Tribute Album: Chimes of Freedom. It just so happened that one of the seventy-something covers fit my themed genre. So, although this cover is a shortened version of the song, it's an interesting one to analyze, and could be looked at from many perspectives. 
Lyrics: Desolation Row (My Chemical Romance) Originally by Bob Dylan

They're selling postcards of the hanging
Where they're painting the passports brown
Yeah, the beauty parlor's filled with sailors
The circus is in town

Oh now but here comes the blind commissioner
Well, they got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other's in his pants

And the riot squad, they're restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row

Cinderella, she seems so easy
"Well, it takes one to know one," she smiles
And she puts her hands in her back pockets
Bette Davis style

Now but in comes Romeo moaning
"You belong to me I believe"
And someone says, "You're in the wrong place, my friend
You better leave"

And then only sound that's left
After the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up
On Desolation Row

Now at midnight all the agents
And super-human crew
Go out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do

They gonna bring 'em to the factory
Where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders
And then the kerosene!

Is brought down from the castles
By insurance men who go
Check to see that no one is escaping
To Desolation Row

'Cause right now I can't read too good
Don't send me no letters, no
Not unless you gotta mail them
From Desolation Row
         Adopting a very different style for the delivery of Desolation Row, and shifting from first to second person viewpoints, My Chemical Romance utilizes a constant narrative, pessimistic tone, and meaningful allusion to display how they fought the law, but the law won. 
       The song is in a narrative form, like a story, so one gets the idea of what is happening chronologically. It is in the first person point of view, and they are describing the characters in the song's fight against those opposing them. "Go out and round up everyone/that knows more than they do/They gonna bring em to the factory,"  sings Gerard in the covered version. They are telling a story, and the story they tell shows the listener the struggle that the subjects of the song are facing.  This format is constant throughout, until the end where he switches to second person and says "don't send me no letters," so it becomes his story rather than simply one he was telling about anyone. This aids in conveying that universal idea of trying to fight the law. 
       The tone is pessimistic, for the speaker seems to have lost all hope. He sings, "and then only sound that's left/After the ambulances go/is Cinderella sweeping up/on Desolation Row," nothing else was left. He is saying so much wrongdoing occurs there that by the time everything is cleared up there is nobody there anymore. "And the riot squad, they're restless/they need somewhere to go," his tone is not cheerful, but wary and unoptimistic. He sees no way out from what is happening. Thus, the tone helps in displaying that idea of defying their authorities and failing, because they do not have that optimism any longer.
       Allusion plays a key role in this song as well. The singer speaks of Romeo, Cinderella, and a Blind Commissioner. Romeo was someone who went against his parents wishes and secretly married his lover. His spiteful act of defiance cost him his life, so this allusion might be hinting at how it is not always worth it to "stick it to the man". However, Cinderella, also alluded to in the song, went against her stepmother and ended up living a happy life. She did pay the price of losing her shoe though, and risked never meeting her true love again. The Blind Commissioner mentioned could be someone turning a blind eye to wrong deeds, and has an evil nature. This person would be abusing his power as well as the system, and with this opposition that is rigged, the subjects of the song are bound to lose. 
       Desolation Row is a great song with many different meanings and interpretations. There are multiple devices heavily present throughout the song, yet allusion, tone, and narrative most clearly displayed the universal idea of defiance to opposition, and then failure. The idea behind the song could also be something more surreal, and how evil reigns over all that humans do, with our nature to disobey and fight. 

Tone Analysis

Tonal Analysis in Theme-Genre
Set It Off - I'll Sleep When I'm Dead lyrics

It's the same, each and every night
Glare at my screen with two big bloodshot eyes
I'm stuck self torturing

My meds are failing me
Internal clock in smithereens
Can't fix this, I'm hopeless

My eyes are stapled opened wide
As I lay down on my side
I am bouncing off these walls

Notice my hands begin to twitch
Unprovoked assaulting of my conscious wit
Me and the TV are enemies
Sickening static surrounds my mind
I'm losing time and realizing that
After days of thought

I'm stuck self torturing
My meds are failing me
Internal clock in smithereens
Can't fix this, I'm hopeless

My eyes are stapled opened wide
As I lay down on my side
I am bouncing off these walls

As I focus on the clock, try to feel but I can not
I should strap myself in bed
I guess I'll sleep when I am dead

Talk to myself,
Lie in the darkness so content
As the Sun begins to rise
I can barely shut my eyes
This crazed delirious mess
Laughing at everything I see
My sanity is spent
Just tell me where my time went
I'm losing it

Attention:
All insomniacs please raise your right hand
And kindly repeat after me
I guess I'll sleep when I am dead

Cause I'm stuck self torturing
My meds are failing me
Internal clock in smithereens
Can't fix this, I'm hopeless

My eyes are stapled oWened wide
As I lay down on my side
I am bouncing off these walls

As I focus on the clock, try to feel but I can not
I should strap myself in bed
I guess I'll sleep when I am dead
I guess I'll sleep when I am

Lyrics provided by LyricsMode.com

          Shifting from a quick-paced and fierce instrumental to a much softer one for parts in I'll Sleep When I Am Dead, Set It Off utilizes internal first person perspective, crazed imagery, and effective hyperbole to display a bitter and indignant tone towards his insomnia.
          The first person point of view seen is told from the mind of the speaker. The perspective of being in his mind helps to connect the listener to his emotions and give a better idea of how his sleep-deprivation has affected him. He sings "I'm stuck self-torturing/My meds are failing me/Internal clock in smithereens/can't fix this, I'm hopeless," his tone here is very bitter and shows his animosity. He is desperate and the first person point of view gives the listener a deeper understanding by hearing his thoughts. This viewpoint conveys the time more precisely than any other would because it is really an internal battle he is fighting with his insomnia.
          The imagery in this song strengthens the main tone and idea, for the mental picture one created through listening is one of despair and anger. The speaker says "Notice my hands begin to twitch/...Sickening static surrounds my mind," the imagery here is best described as crazed and hectic. One imagines exact man in whom has a very troubled demeanor. The imagery serves to bring you to understand the song more deeply. The words "sickening static surrounds" are alliteration, they help to drive a point and make the imagery more effective. "I should strap myself in bed," is more imagery because one can picture him so set on getting rest that he is bound down almost comparable to a straightkacet. That can tie in with the bitterness and insanity in the tone.
         The hyperbole in this song strengthens the idea and tone of bitterness. The singer, Carson, says "My eyes are stapeled open wide," in an exaggeration to show just how wired he is and unable to sleep.

Song Analysis 10/16

This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race by Fall Out Boy
(Just for kicks, the misheard lyrics videos for this song are hilarious, I particularly like this one)

I am an arms dealer
Fitting you with weapons in the form of words 
And I don't really care which side wins 
As long as the room keeps singing  
That's just the business I'm in
 
This ain't a scene, it’s a god damn arms race 
This ain't a scene, it’s a god damn arms race 
This ain't a scene, it’s a god damn arms race 
I'm not a shoulder to cry on but I digress
I'm a leading man 
And the lies I weave are oh so intricate, oh so intricate
I'm a leading man
And the lies I weave are oh so intricate, oh so intricate
 
I wrote the gospel on giving up (You look pretty sinking)
But the real bombshells have already sunk (Prima donnas of the gutter)   
At night we're painting your trash gold while you sleep 
Crashing not like hips or cars
No, more like p-p-p-parties
 
This ain't a scene, it’s a god damn arms race
This ain't a scene, it’s a god damn arms race  
This ain't a scene, it’s a god damn arms race 
Bandwagon's full, please, catch another
I'm a leading man
And the lies I weave are oh so intricate, oh so intricate  
I'm a leading man 
And the lies I weave are oh so intricate, oh so intricate
 
All the boys who the dance floor didn't love 
And all the girls whose lips couldn't move fast enough 
Sing until your lungs give out
 
This ain't a scene, it’s a god damn arms race 
This ain't a scene, it’s a god damn arms race (Now you) 
This ain't a scene, it’s a god damn arms race (Wear out the groove)
This ain't a scene, it’s a god damn arms race (Sing out loud) 
This ain't a scene, it’s a god damn arms race (Oh, oh) 
This ain't a scene, it's a god damn arms race
 
I'm a leading man 
And the lies I weave are oh so intricate, oh so intricate
I'm a leading man
And the lies I weave are oh so intricate, oh so intricate

      Shifting from first to second person point of view in This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race, Fall Out Boy utilizes effective figurative language, indifferent characterization, and a satiric tone to show that the industry is not all that it's made out to be, and someone is always fighting to be on top. 
         The tone of this song is somewhat mocking and condescending to a point, yet it is trying to prove something. The idea behind the pop-punk music scene was that they all partied and got along but Fall Out Boy sings "This ain't a scene, it a god damn arms race," which clearly gives the impression that that idea is not true. An important line is when he says "Bandwagon's full, please catch another," for this is very satiric in that it is telling people to not just jump on what everyone else says. He is sick of everybody agreeing with things that they do not understand. The singer, Patrick Stump, says "I'm not a shoulder to cry on, but I digress," and his tone is one that is slightly acerbic, he does not pity anyone in the industry.
          The speaker of the song is characterized as someone who "wrote the gospel on giving up," and he is singing about the music scene and it's competitiveness. He says "And I don't really care which side wins...that's just the business I'm in," and this shows the great indifference he is trying to portray. 
He is attempting to point out how none of the people in their industry truly care what happens to them, so long as they are getting money. The speaker shifts from being a manager type until he is the member of the band, fighting to become number one, but he's given up.  He says "I'm a leading man, and the lies I weave are oh so intricate," they all make things up to better themselves, yet he is saying he almost no longer cares, because it isn't worth it.

            Figurative language plays a strong role in enhancing the universal idea of the song. Stump sings "At night we're painting your trash gold/while you sleep/Crashing not like hips or cars/no more like p-p-p-parties," which is a metaphor. They are saying that the idea is all of the people in the music "scene" go out and do ridiculous things as painting trash gold, simply because they're rich and they can, and partying. Another thing is when the song says "All the boys who the dance floor didn't love," and this is personification. A dance floor cannot love someone, yet they mean that these boys are ones who were never accepted into the popular group and scene. When it says "I am an arms dealer/fitting you with weapons in the form of words," this is a metaphor comparing the speaker (here a member high up in the music industry) to somebody who sells weapons, only in this case it is not a physical fight but one through speaking and sly moves. 

         Fall Out Boy's satiric indifference aids in giving a clear view on their opinion of the business that they're in. They use metaphor and personification to effectively drive their points as well. The mockery is also made more noticeable in how the speaker becomes the head music-man so to say, and how they sing about all the people who could not fit into the scene. Characterization, figurative language, and the tone of this song most strongly help to represent the main idea that it truly isn't a scene, but an arms race.

Soundtrack of My Life

Click here to view my presentation for the Soundtrack of My Life

Theme-Genre Declaration

My themed genre of defying authority in pop punk and post hardcore music came about because these styles of music are one that I really enjoy listening to. I've found in most cases that among other themes, many songs seem to be about defying an authority figure, or otherwise "sticking it to the man". The Vans Warped Tour, featuring these styled bands each summer, was mostly how I got introduced to these genres, and from the start I really liked it. Pop punk and post hardcore is almost as an acquired taste, the more you listen, the deeper you get drawn in. The reason I like it so much, i think, is because it is so different from what one usually hears on the radio. It has a more raw sound, therefore making it more relatable. Because of this common recurrence of  defying authority being so relevant in a style of music I love, I decided it would be a good choice to write about.