Music is an empowering and enriching form of sound that conveys nuance, meaning, and messages to its audience. The presence of music evokes certain feelings, emotions, and intuition among individuals that relates to events, memories, and moments that they have experienced throughout the course of their lives. The melodious, harmonious, and rhythmic elements of music allow people to develop different perspectives of the world, endure the different aspects of life, and experience sentiments of pleasure, enjoyment, sorrow, misery, uncertainty, anger, etc. American singer, songwriter, and musician Gavin DeGraw illustrates the significance of self and individuality in his song “I Don’t Wanna Be”. The soulful and profound lyrics of the song symbolize …show more content…
While singing the words of “I Don’t Wanna Be”, DeGraw portrays the symbolism, repetition, and diction implemented throughout the song in order to express the relevance of self-identity. The meaning of the song encompasses the brutality of society’s deplorable perceptions of individuals and their character. DeGraw’s expression of individualism throughout the song attracts the attention of many people that struggle to embrace their identity and selfhood due to the presence of societal norms that degrade their individuality and self-worth. Similarly to DeGraw, medieval philosopher Boethius would strongly believe that the melody of the song would likewise draw the attention of many individuals that struggle to cope with society’s corrupt nature and allow them delight in the simple but meaningful tune of the song.
As DeGraw profundly sings the words of his song “I Don’t Wanna Be”, he expresses that humans must learn to embrace who they are and present themselves to society as they choose. The words “I’m surrounded by liars everywhere I turn/ I’m surrounded by imposters everywhere I turn/ I’m surrounded by identity crisis everywhere I turn/ Am I the only one who’s noticed?/ I can’t be the only one who’s learned” illustrates the presence of stereotypes that often degrade and demean individuals throughout society, as they are hindered from being able to express themselves and who they are as humans. The implementation of such words throughout the song
What is important to me in this essay is the phrase ‘’I just want to be
In today’s society, people are taught to conform to the masses in order to fit in; however, it is imperative that one’s individuality is maintained, as it preserves their identity and encourages uniqueness. For example, in the song, “Outside of a Small Circle of Friends”, Phil Ochs discusses the social norm where people are too afraid to stand out, often times, leading them to pay little to no attention to the wellbeing of others. Instead of adhering to their own judgment and moral values, the person in the song continues to abide by the notions of the rest of the group. In addition, in “The Dying Girl that No One Helped”, Loudon Wainright describes the brutal murder of a young 28 year old women, while over 38 of
Characters in the play show a great difficult finding who they are due to the fact that they have never been given an opportunity to be anything more than just slaves; because of this we the audience sees how different characters relate to this problem: " Each Character has their own way of dealing with their self-identity issue..some look for lost love o...
Music is regarded as a method of passing a message. Though some songs do not intend to do that, the message in them is still perceived. The song, “Get up, ...
Identity is a substantial component of a person, it’s something that determines who they are and help establish themselves with people who you find enjoyable and shares similar interests. It could bring people together, and provide a sense of belonging and unity. However, there are times where these people who are within certain cliques are perceived more negatively or believe that all people within that group perpetually have a certain set of traits. In most cases, these negative perceptions lead to discrimination and conflict, and obscures the positive and more genuine traits of an individual. In S.E. Hinton’s book, The Outsiders, there is a group of poor and lower-middle class teens who are labeled as greasers. This group of wild teenagers
If one were to look back into the world’s history, one would find that an important and consistent element is the world of music. Music has presented itself in various forms throughout its spread and through our identification of its magical realm, people have been fortunate enough to come across a means of relation. Whether it is blues and reggae or rap and pop rock, there is music out there for everyone. Music can serve as a stabilizer for some, a relaxant to others, and to many a form of inspiration.
For many of us, one of the most accurate and effective ways to express the feelings that really matter to us is through music. We don’t only grow to attached to songs that are catchy, but also those with lyrics that we can relate to. It is not uncommon to feel like sometimes, artists can convey the way we feel better than we could ourselves. The storybook-like lines you read at the start of this page are a collection of lyrics
Alternative rock music of the nineties successfully captured the distress of a young generation afflicted by multiple struggles. First and foremost, this music genre accurately voiced the concerns of those who could not imagine a thriving future as prosperous members of society, and for whom the American dream was nothing but a distant notion. For instance, in his song “Loser”, Beck Hansen skillfully described the apathy that overtakes an individual’s being when he is faced with life´s unavoidable grim prospects. Similarly, this kind of music resonated with all those individuals who were struggling to feel comfortable in their own skin. To illustrate, in one of its most popular songs, “Creep”, the alternative rock band Radiohead managed to convey the excruciating angst experienced ...
...ferent from their peers has isolated Bernard, Helmholtz, and John, it has also deepened their individuality. This scenario, at a lesser level, often plays out in modern day. People possess a natural desire to fit in and often are willing to forego individuality in order to do so. Though one may gain a facade of happiness as a result of fitting in, being truthful to oneself and expressing one’s free will allows for honest expression of individuality, a concept much greater than such a facade. A society without unique individuals is a society without humanity, and, as demonstrated through these characters’ experience, does not function. Ultimately, people must realize that individuality, knowledge, and raw emotion is more important to society than superficial happiness.
...a half years ago, I figured that compared to most people, I was fairly aware. Since then, the most important thing I’ve learned is how much I don’t know. I don’t know what it is like to go to class and be the only dark spot on white linen. I don’t know what it is like to have to fight mentally, physically, and spiritually to preserve a cultural identity. I don’t know what it is like to fear running at night. I don’t know what it is like to be feared if I run at night. I don’t know what it is like to live under a shroud of stereotypes. I don’t know what it is like to have people who instruct me subtly ignore me and people who sit next to me subtly avoid me.
To be put in a place of no diversity is detrimental and damaging to many aspects of one’s life. It comes to a point where one doesn’t even know themselves. By not having people different from who you are, you aren’t being challenged or reflecting on your own identity. By the lack of integration we are ultimately hurting ourselves. Audre Lorde says in her essay, The Fourth of July, that her parents ignored the prevalent racism, she says, “perhaps it would go away, deprived of her attention(Lorde 255).” By ignoring and not facing what is in front of her she is depriving herself of truly knowing her self. She is exhibiting the ignorance of the world around and within her. Hurston describes how she sometimes feels discriminated against but it doesn’t really make her angry, rather, “it merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? (Hurston 188)” again people are not making the necessary steps into meeting new people. Just think about the number of missed opportunities that occur when we aren’t able to make the move. Our existing prejudices and stereotype is what is hold us back from the acknowledgement of others, which leads to a detrimental state for our own sense of identity. How do we learn about our selves? The answer is through reflection; this reflection happens through seeing how others view themselves. In a world where people are separated, misjudged and misperceived, we
Music can take on many meaning and there are many forms of music that come in different languages through out the world. So is it reasonable to conclude that music does affect a person mood and personality through out his or her life. Despite the fact the music play such an important role in a person life, there are still people that do not care about the art the cultural behind different type of music that we experience in everyday life. In his podcasts, “Why Do Listeners Enjoy Music that Makes them Weep?” professor David Huron talk about how his research of psychology help him related to the study of humanities which could be connect to the understanding of systematic musicology in a human mind. With this idea we as listeners can engage it with the different way that people can interact with music in their life and understand more about what cause the mood and emotion that a person feel when they experience music.
Whereas, Hughes depicts a speaker that struggles with personal identity issues because he hasn’t developed a sense of self-perception and, as a result, lacks the capability to define himself as a person. The character of Dave in Wright’s story struggles with the concept of personal identity because he wants to alter the way others perceive him by going on a quest to prove his manliness and earn the right to be respected. However, Dave’s attempt to alter their perceptions of him ultimately destroys their impressions of him since he failed to own up to his actions like a real man would in order to gain the respect that he sought. The speaker of Hughes’ poem struggles with the concept of personal identity because he lacks the capability to define himself since he hasn’t had the opportunity to reflect and discover his inner self in order to gain a sense of self-perception. Most of the time personal identity issues occur in real life but they also take place in works of literature as well since these stories portray characters or speakers in different scenarios that struggle with the concept of personal identity. There are numerous reasons of how these two stories portray characters or speakers that struggle with the concept of personal identity but this is only one example of the ways they
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 role in the separation of social and economical identities in within cultures.
Although music provides an aesthetic value according to DeNora, it still makes us feel in a specific way i.e. in terms of emotions. “Our response to music is in any case not always congruent with what we would objectively characterize as its emotional content” (Ball, 2010). This song for me acts as a gateway that leads me to a very special emotion by the time the song ends. In conclusion, I can say that I have made a very self-conscious choice of deep engagement and in addition, it is almost as if the music is trying to reach to me and to speak with me.