“A great song doesn’t attempt to be anything – it just is.” (Carter). This is a quote from an essay written by Jay Z in a Rolling Stone article in 2011. Jay Z is a multi-platinum recording artist with many hit songs, including a few that are in Rolling Stone’s top 500 songs list. Because of Jay Z’s accomplishments, Rolling Stone felt that he would be a good person to ask about how to make a classic song. Jay Z references different songs and ideals on what he thinks makes a classic song, but is he really the right person to ask for insight on this topic? Jay Z is just a rapper, and we live in a time where it is more important for an artist to sell records than present a legitimate message, and the best way for one to that is to gain …show more content…
Today, songs have to be able to appeal to the demographic that primarily listens to those radio stations that play the top songs in the country or the world. That is the main way for an artist to gain popularity and get the rest of their music out there. The problem with that philosophy is that artists more often than not have to give up some kind of creative control to achieve their goals. Which means they must follow certain trends in the music industry at any given time in order to gain or sustain their popularity. Just because songs get a lot of air play on the radio, does not mean that they are always the best song when it comes to quality and meaning in the lyrics. Jay Z attested to this in his essay in Rolling Stone. “A song like "Can I Live" is so full of emotion to me — it was better than "Hard Knock Life" or "Empire State of Mind," but it lacked that accessibility.” (Carter). That is saying a lot considering “Empire State of Mind” alone has gone platinum five times since its release in 2009. People overall want to hear songs that make them feel good or that bring up good memories and are easy to remember. That is why most songs on the radio are up-beat with catchy hooks. The music becomes like an infection and the more a person hears a certain song, the more likely they are to buy it. The problem is that people only buy or download a certain song thanks to new technology that allows a
Following World War Two, the two legitimate world powers were the United States and the Soviet Union. With the Soviet Union under a communistic government and the United States being a nation founded in Capitalism, tensions between the two nations rose, resulting in the Cold War. Against the wishes of the United States, small countries in East Asia began to turn communist. Fear that one country turning would have a chain reaction turning many more, the United States turned to a policy of ‘containment’. This policy was tested in the Korean War and would be again tested in the Vietnam War. Starting as a War with the communist North Vietnam against South Vietnam and the French,
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
Great songs are ones that are never outdated, they are songs that generations later, remain relevant and worth
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
[Chorus x2:] Let's try to make it right, don't wanna start a fight And we're so sorry if we give you all a little fright We're not so scary if you see us in the daylight You'll be so happy just as long as you survive the night
Ludacris does a remarkable job of portraying his message about the struggles that some adolescents are faced with. “Runaway Love”, by Ludacris, featuring Mary J. Blige (2007), represents the theme of struggle through hip-hop and rap music. It is about little girls who are “stuck up in the world on their own.” They have to take care of themselves because the people they are around do not care about them. They range from nine to eleven years in age, and their goal in life, at such a young age, is to run away from home. Ludacris is trying to get the listener to realize the struggles that even children have to face because adults are not the only ones who have problems, like most people believe. He is very successful in
Musicians may feel that the only way to increase sales is to make their lyrics as graphic as possible. It seems as though the lyrics to songs are giving permission to listeners to do wrong and immoral things (Tanner). As stated in the article “How Much Are Violent Lyrics to Blame?” by Emily Tanner, “Music is important in today’s society and when music becomes corrupt in its meaning then society may in turn become corrupt and immoral.”
Lyrical Ballads were written in a time of great change. They were dominated by the French Revolution and both Wordsworth and Coleridge felt great impact from this. There was disruption all over with the American War of Independence and other wars worldwide. Britain itself was changing rapidly due to colonial expansion, which brought new wealth, ideas and fashion, and there was much disturbance to both the people and the land with the act of enclosure, which may have meant more effective farming but less work. The introduction of the Poor Laws meant that landowners paid their remaining staff very little knowing that they would be supplemented by poor relief. However the conditions stated by the Laws before aid would be given were very
“Hey Jude” is a song by the English rock band The Beatles and was written by Paul McCartney. It was first released in August 1968 under The Beatles label ‘Apple Records’. Hey Jude runs for 7mins and 11secs and at the time of release was the longest single to top the British charts.
It’s a culture that has gotten so big that its influence can be seen everywhere from movies, commercials, and even pop songs. “We live in a popularity contest now,” says the rapper Chuck Inglish. The genre has become so recognized to the point of over saturation, in addition the music industry has monopolized the radio to dumb down the masses with homogenous rap songs made by a handful of people. So it’s up to the listener to “Put our money where our ears want to be,” and support fresh, creative, and unique hip hop. If the listeners become intent with such sub standard expectations, then the authenticity of Hip Hop will die
Many people just look at the negative songs that come out but what they fail to realize is that there are many positive songs out too like: Live Your Life by T.I, Just A Kiss by Mishon to encourage the children not to move fast in a relationship. While many blame Hip Hop what about rock music, it promote the same things that Hip Hop do maybe more because rock promotes: sex, drugs, murder, and even suicide at some points.
For example Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd, is widely known because of it’s numerous appearances in TV shows, movies, games, etc. it’s also been passed down have passed their love for the song. Another great example is Lose Yourself by Eminem. This song is incredibly popular because of the movie 8 Mile and also because Eminem is one of the most famous rappers of all time. This song gives people a look at how hard his life was, but it inspires people to go the extra mile because he went from nothing to something. A final example is Hurt by Johnny Cash. This song was originally by Nine Inch Nails but in 2002 Johnny Cash did a cover and it was incredibly popular. This is because the song fits better to his style and his story. He pours all of his soul and his sadness and regret into this final song, touching the hearts of millions of people as well.
That brings us to another point-- that most popular music is neither unique nor creative. Just about all of the music coming out now is generally the same. It lacks creativity because artists are just in it to make money, not for the love of music. Society is force-fed this bland music on a daily basis. Through radio stations and the emergence of MTV, new hit songs come out every week and people digest them, claiming to enjoy them just so that they appear to be versed on the latest "on hit wonder" groups. Since the music is generally the same and really does not change that dramatically every week, album after album is put out to fatten the wallets of wealthy producers. The more albums that are put out, the more money is made, as consumers shell out millions every week for something new to listen to, but are merely continuing to feed the frenzy of the popular music industry.
The classical music period extends from 1740 to 1810, which includes the music of Haydn, Mozart, and the first period of Beethoven. The classical period of music combined harmony, melody, rhythm, and orchestration more effectively than earlier periods of music. With the natural evolution of music slowly changing with the culture, the baroque era had ended. That era had left a structure, articulation and periodic phrasing of music which would shape classical music.
Morning Song, by Sylvia Plath, was written in February 1961, the same month she suffered a miscarriage.