Now before you jump to any conclusions about my choice of song, hear me out. The song I have uploaded, I Stand Up Straight and Tall, was on Sesame Street, a show for young children. This song associates the letter “i” with “standing up straight and tall.” From a quick glance at the song, it may seem like it is just silly and nonsensical, but once you look at it past the superficial level, you see that it is trying to shape children so that they share the American value of verticality. From the sky-high buildings to the Oscar awards, everything seems to have a value. Think of soldiers and officers of high rank, they too are told to keep a proper posture. All of these are constant symbols of verticality. We, as a nation, associate up right positions with success and pride. It is deemed proper and thus we teach our children the same. When children are young are helpless, they crawl and as the elderly age, they start to hunch over and may need support from a cane. Therefore, it makes sense that we value standing up straight just as much as we value youth and strength.
Tag Archives: Song
Down
The song “Down” by Blink 182 shows an aspect of being down in the sense that the artist feels heartbroken and melancholy. The reason why the artist feels this way is that he lost the relationship he had with a loved one and wants to have it back. He says, “Tidal waves they rip right through me. Tears from eyes worn cold and sad. Pick me up now, I need you so bad.” He clearly wants her in his life the way it was before and he feels so much pain from being away from her. He also says, “This can’t be the end” that shows he doesn’t want this separation from her to be the end of their relationship. A specific element of the song that I found important was how the song crescendos at the part when he says, “Tidal waves they rip right through me. Tears from eyes worn cold and sad. Pick me up now, I need you so bad.” The reason is that he strongly expresses his emotion of feeling down or somber and he wants to let his feelings that he bottled up out. The sudden raise in volume and instruments playing gives the listeners a sense of his emotion of sadness and desperation to have what he really wants, which is affection from his love.
Not Afraid
The song Not Afraid by Eminem is from his album Recovery. Eminem talks about his long and hard road to recover from drug addiction. The song starts off by saying, “I’m not afraid to take a stand.” This shows vertical movement from the low point of his life to the time he will rise above it all. Toward the end he restates, “I’m standing up, I ‘ma face my demons… Time to put my life together right now.” This song gives hope to many people who are addicted and can’t find the way out. Eminem tells them, “Come take my hand we’ll walk this road together, through the storm.” Sometimes knowing others have been to where you are and have still been able to recover, can give you the motivation you need to give it a try. This message can even be taken to people who are not addicts. Knowing that others have gone through the same struggles you have on a daily basis and have come out on the other side, can give you that boost to do it yourself.
On Top of the World
“On Top of the World” is a song by Imagine Dragons that motivates listeners to not give up even if they don’t succeed at what they are trying to accomplish. It might seem difficult and unreachable, but hard work can lead to a positive outcome. A line in the song says, “I’ve had the highest mountains/ I’ve had the deepest rivers/ You can have it all but life keeps moving,” which tells us that there are two different ends of the emotional spectrum in life and we have to accept both the positives and the negatives sides. Other parts of the song that stood out to me are “Try to take the easy way out/ I kept on falling short of something/ I coulda gave up then but/ Then again I couldn’t have ‘cause/ I’ve traveled all this way for something,” and “And I know it’s hard when you’re falling down/ And it’s a long way up when you hit the ground/ Get up now, get up, get up now.” These two sets of lines encourage the listeners by telling them that there is a reason for us to work hard to get back on our feet: to succeed. Even though feelings of hopelessness and dreadfulness may arise, we should keep working towards our goal because there is a possibility that we will reach our goals if we keep pushing ourselves to keep trying.
Rocket Man
“Rocket Man” is one of Sir Elton John’s extremely famous songs. Even though it was written in the 70’s, its message is still applicable today. While on its surface, this song seems to be about a man who is explaining his “boring”, routine day as an astronaut. He seems to be talking about how being a Rocket Man isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, and how it’s lonely up in space. But I believe that he’s not talking about literal outer space (even though it is the 70’s), rather he’s talking about simply being high up. Being at the top. He is singing about how being rich or famous isn’t as great as it seems and how lonely it really is. Some specific lines on that point include “Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise a kid/In fact, it’s cold as Hell,” where the “cold” further represents the loneliness up on high. This point can also be seen through a different lens, in the line “And im gonna be high as a kite by then.” This line, which is an obvious drug reference (even in the 70’s), shows the other problem with being rich or “at the top”: once you’re so high up, there’s no one telling you what to do and you end up falling into destructive patterns. These are two ways which highlight the fact that “Rocket Man” is about height in societal structure, and is still relevant today.