Lesson 14 Analysis of Literature Styles “Canadian Idiot” Al Yankovic Al Yankovic’s song, Canadian Idiot, fits well with the postmodernist movement as it makes use of several postmodern elements, themes, and techniques. Pastiche is a technique used in postmodern works that imitates another work, artist, or period, essentially a parody. Canadian Idiot imitates Green Day’s American Idiot in the sense that it mocks and ridicules the way Americans create farcical stereotypes pertaining to Canada. The essence of identity and patriotism is disregarded and is treated with irony and dark humor. The song also makes use of paranoia and aggression through the lyrics “It's gotta mean they're all up to something so quick before they see it coming time for a pre-emptive strike" (40-42). The nature of the song makes fun of the stereotypes that Canada holds such as extreme politeness, love for maple syrup, and most importantly, Canada’s free healthcare system. In contrast to these things, making fun of the great things Canada has actually chastises America’s restrictive healthcare system, poor gun control laws, and lack of security. Many other songs such as My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West and Losing My Religion by R.E.M., also make use of several various postmodern …show more content…
elements, some of which include mockery and parody. Though Kanye West’s song My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is primarily hip hop, it is evident that the song is significantly influenced by a diverse range of alternative genres such as R&B, soul, classical, and electronic.
Fragmentation is easily identified in the song through the lyrics, “Been a long time since I spoke to you in the bathroom gripping up, fucking, and choking you”, as well as the music that is played in the background; The music in the background is created with a piano and a violin. There is a combination of aggression and serenity, creating something new. The song patently effaces boundaries between past and present styles and ultimately manifesting postmodernism through
music. R.E.M.’s song, Losing My Religion, demonstrates the use of several postmodern elements such as questioning reality and irony. Through the lyrics, “That’s me in the corner That’s me in the spotlight”, we are able to identify the postmodern element of irony. Typically, when a person feels as though they are in a corner, they feel isolated as well as in the dark, hidden away and unnoticed. This is contradicted when Michael Stipe then goes on to state that he is in the spotlight, which is quite the opposite of a corner as being in the spotlight implies being detected or noticed, being the center of attention. Overall, the song itself presents the postmodern element of questioning reality. The song’s lyrics appear to be projecting Michael Stipe’s feelings of exposure and vulnerability, ultimately allowing the listener to determine that he is unable to distinguish dreams from reality. His inability to discern dreams from reality lies within his thoughts existing in doubt and in altered memories, his feelings are extremely subjunctive. The lyrics, “I thought that I heard you laughing I thought that I heard you sing … But that was just a dream”, conveys the inability to disassociate dreams from reality as he essentially states that he is living in a fantasy while he remains awake, he places his dreams and desires into his reality. In conclusion, both My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, by Kanye West, and Losing My Religion, by R.E.M., retain postmodern elements and themes, accurately delineated through the lyrics and instrumentals. Through the experimentation of postmodern elements in both songs, the artists were successful in increasing possibilities in music such as diversity and fragmentation of genres.
album contains an amazing combination of poetic lyrics and edgy music that make it an
The twentieth century has witnessed many transformations in the ways we produce and respond to works of art. It has seen the rise of altogether new media, approaches, and a wealth of new interpretative frameworks. The emergence of manufactured goods, modernism, and a ubiquitous mass culture contribute to the upheaval, in the 1960’s and 70’s, of established art practices and approaches. Pop Art emerges as an important response to, extension of, or parody of what Clement Greenberg called “Ersatz culture” and “kitsch”, which, to paraphrase Greenberg, represent the omnipresent abominations of commercial and replicated art (Greenberg 9). This essay will observe and discuss the interaction of Canadian pop culture, art, and identity in Joyce Wieland’s “O Canada (Animation)”, and will underline how works of Pop Art serve to elevate kitsch into “a new state of aesthetic dignity” (Eco 228).
I see the form of Pathos in the album cover because at this time there was the Cold War going on, and we had just gotten out of southeast asia, so there was lots of patriotism that was being portrayed here. The way the thumb is pointed up seems that America is on the climb, and that everyone in America should feel that sense of, “America is a great country, and I am proud to live here.” Also, in the music video for this song, the “American Dream” seems to be portrayed very well because it shows, I can get a great new car and I can get a pretty girl to love me. Also you just seem to feel the patriotism from the video from how happy everyone seems and all the scenes happening, there are people dancing, and celebrating birthdays and playing lots of
To conclude this paper Greenday's contributions did not come from the band members playing something musically in a new revolutionary way. Their contributions came from being themselves and being at there at the right time. Their music contributions gave punk the popularity it needed to make a comeback in the 90's and to sort of come back to a type of rock and roll. This specific album had obvious teen angst and more lighthearted compared to “American Idiot.” Overall this album is very catchy, very pleasant to the ear, and a classic punk album to be enjoyed by most people.
The constantly growing and changing world is trying its best to sway and alter the minds of the common people by using as many influential platforms possible from ads on television, entertainment in the theaters, politics in the government, to music on the radio. The Dave Matthews Band sings about either issues in life or in love. To find a song that correlates to individualism is not a surprise. When singer Dave Matthews performs the song "Drunken Soldier" live, he puts an emphasis on the lyrics "Don't waste time trying to be something you're not/ Fill up your head/ Fill up your heart/ And take your shot/ Don't waste
Such as, how Tupac used his song “Changes” to refer to the institutionalized racism in America in regards to law enforcement and so forth. On example from his lyrics states, “Cops give a damn about a negro/ Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he's a hero.” Another commonly known song that makes ties with Hill’s is Kanye’s song “When It All Falls Down.” Kanye wanted the ties of her lyrics incorporated into his song so much that after his failed attempted to get Lauryn Hills sample cleared he got a replacement singer to perform it on his song alternatively. However, his concept for this song was different as its purpose was more of a self-contemplation of his individualized battle with consumerism. Today society is affected by artists like Lauryn Hill and her lyrics and often quote lyrics like that of hers as references for equality and moral rights in modern society. Today more than ever the incarceration rates are raising extremely. Not to mention, in the past year we have seen some of the biggest out cries for our African American communities with people using the power of social media to come together on a common ground in regards to law enforcement unjustly killing African Americans and other minorities while in the attempt of arresting them. With that being said as Lauryn Hills lyrics state “Ya'll can't handle the truth in a courtroom of lies. Representing security/Holding the word of God
American Idiot, arguably Green Day’s most famous album, is one of the best example of and the most well-known musical protest of George W Bush. The album marked a milestone for Green Day, the benchmark where they became a political band. In the earlier albums, Armstrong wrote about anxiety, relationships, panic attacks, etc., looking inwards as a muse. However, in American Idiot, Armstrong does a complete 180, writing about politics and the “alienation and anger he felt during the presidency of George W Bush” (Orange). The album was meant to be provocative, to incite a response out of the public. Armstrong states that by being so political, it felt like we “tapped into the culture a bit” (purple). Before American Idiot, Green Day’s “social
Modernists believe in rational thoughts while postmodernists believe everything is irrational. Postmodernism is a late-20th century movement, which is against and critiques modernism. Postmodernism knows to mock important topics such as war, and includes dark humour and sarcasm. However on the other side, modernism has a completely different approach in comparison to postmodernism. The modernist period started at the end of the 19th century and lasted up until 1955. Modernism focuses on traditional values, and often comments on the Victorian period. Despite focusing on traditional values, modernism also accepts modern values. The song “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag” by Joe McDonald is a postmodernism song, while poem “The Red Wheelbarrow”
Pathos: The emotions that are really being played on the most are anger. People have so much anger when they can not understand the world or what is going on in it. The audience becomes furious to all the killing and death in the world and they need someone there to sympathize with them. Anti-Flag gets the listener angry by exposing the faults of the world. The listener appreciates this because Anti-Flag will not sell into the wrongs of the world. It uses the emotion of finding comfort in that there is someone else out there that has the same views as the listener does. The band uses punk rock music as a common ground with the listeners and expresses their views through their songs. This relates back to the author because this is a great way to protest through music.
I say song lyrics are simple, but in this case I am going to attempt a feat of rhetorical analysis few have considered possible by analyzing the song “Once in a Lifetime” by The Talking Heads. I emphasize the difficulty of this analysis because I fear that I am about to embark on a journey to make sense out of madness; a 1984 documentary of the band’s music is entitled Stop Making Sense, for one example. For another more drastic example, songwriter David Byrne was one of the most intentionally abstract lyricists of his time; in an early episode of apparent madness, he took to the stage of his college and shaved his hair and beard in front of the faculty to the accompaniment of piano accordion and a showgirl displaying phrases in Russian. He was promptly ejected from that school. Regardless, his song “Once in a Lifetime” is symbolic of the introspective, neurotic, and post-modern approach he often uses to create his lyrical identity. Though I at first found it to be a rough fit, I believe the Pentad can be successfully applied to describe the motivation ...
Semley, John. “From Big Snow to Big Sadness: The Repatriation of Canadian Cultural Identity in the Films of Guy Maddin.” Cineaction 73 (2008): 32-37.
The Song “American Idiot” by Green Day uses techniques to engage the audience to interoperate the issues. Green day through their style of music convey issues such as the medias over powering effect on society, greed and the division of the United States of American over political issues. Green Day’s negative stance on the issues through these techniques conveys the audience to agree with the main issues being focused.
South Park, the brainchild of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, is the leading animated sitcom on Comedy Central Network. It follows the story of four children, Stan, Kyle, Eric, and Kenny, and their adventure throughout their town. South Park has been widely criticized for its dark, somewhat satanically, humor. South Park has had a huge impact on television and uses satire and comedy heavily influence young-adult culture and politics.
In rock music its target audience is the youth. And by youth I am not referring to teenagers, but instead to the mentality of youth, the adults and teens still in the sociological stage between being a ‘kid’ and accepting the responsibilities of ‘adulthood’ [Weinstein pg6] These youth negotiate the genre and change it to their liking. For example both males and females have different subgenres of rock targeted specifically at them. Males are seen from a young age as being naughty and rowdy, not very responsible and thus given more freedom. While girls are seen as quiet and polite, with very low aggression. These traits have reflected in the genres that are targeted at the two genders. Males were targeted with Heavy Metal as it expressed the qualities the very qualities they will have to give up in order to become adults and how they will lose their freedom. While for females rock music is soft and romantic, females will typically grow up faster than males and leave youth behind in order to take up responsibilities. An example of how the music was negotiated to fit the two genders is seem in the 1960s when performers such as Carole king and James Taylor transformed themes of protest into sentimental commentaries, romance and illusions of youth. [Weinstein pg 12-13] While heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath sung about politicians and how disgusting they are for exploiting young people in the name of greed which is shown in the song Wicked World. This very characteristic of rock being created by the youth for the youth is still alive today, for example during the 2004 presidential election Green Day released American Idiot. The song was about how the media and political are brainwashing Americans to remove their individuality. The singer wanted to warn America of this and prevent them from turning into ‘idiots’ and
In “Holiday” it was clear that the band disliked Bush, but “American Idiot” is a direct slight towards Bush’s presidential re-election campaign. One of the biggest critiques from Bush’s opposition was that they believed that he was perpetuating and even mongering the fear that followed 9/11. Subsequently, the lines “Don’t want nation under the new media and can you hear the sounds of hysteria?” and “Information age of hysteria, it’s calling out to idiot America,” as well as others, are directly correlated to those concerns. The band members have also admitted unabashedly on numerous occasions that the “American idiots” were Bush and his supporters.