The three songs I choose to discuss are I Will Survive Gloria Gaynor, White Rabbit Jefferson Airplane, and Got My Mojo Working Muddy Waters. I love to watch how music evolved over time and absorbed the differences in music to add to what they were doing at the time.
I Will Survive Gloria Gaynor
“I Will Survive” sung by Gloria Gaynor was a song about overcoming a difficult situation or moving on from a difficult situation. Often time’s people believed it was a female liberation song about getting over a difficult love affair yet over time it has become an anthem for everyone. When I listen to the song I do feel empowered, it makes me feel like I can make it through any situation. The late 1970’s when the song came out was a turbulent
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I have read numerous articles over the years about the meaning behind “White Rabbit” one in particular that it was about the Vietnam War even with a thought provoking dialogue of how each line of the song reflected regarding the war (link below). I believe the majority of people think it is about drugs or referencing the Alice in Wonderland 1865 and Through the Looking Glass 1871 books by Lewis Carroll. According to Grace herself in an interview (link below), the song was a slap in face to parents. They read these books to children from authors that were taking and writing about drugs and then wondering why their children did drugs. This has always been one of my favorite songs, the song makes me feel alive and I think it is what actually spurred my fascination with Alice in Wonderland over the years. In my opinion, American society during this time was at a crossroads, we were in the middle of a war that many were against, breaking the mold of the 1950’s “perfect family” was a priority for many young adults wanting to express themselves freely and not be tied down by cookie cutter frame that society created; racism and discrimination levels were still …show more content…
I believe the song refers to the woman he wants yet she is not reciprocating the feelings. He has numerous women but can’t get the response he wants from that particular one. Now he is progressing to actually speak to a gypsy to attain her help in getting the woman. The song has a jazzy blues feel and it makes me feels similar like I should be listening to it in a smoky bar dancing with a drink in hand. American society in 1966 when the song was released was fighting segregation and blues and jazz music was listened to by predominantly black Americans, the time period was the cusp of music intertwining many rock bands were absorbing a blues feel and taking that music to a new level, bands like The Doors, Led Zeppelin, The Yardbirds, you can even begin to hear the change in the Beatles around this
- Explain briefly what your selected ballad is about and the reasons why you picked it.
The story “The Old Man Isn’t There Anymore” by Kellie Schmitt is about a lady who lives in China that tries to make friends with the people in her apartment. She does this by sending sympathy flowers to the family of the old man that passed away. She then later attends the funeral of the old man. In the end Schmitt creates a funny twist. Schmitt created an intriguing story about a person’s experience in China.
Carl Strommen was born in 1940 and currently lives with his family in Long Island, New York. He graduated from Long Island University receiving a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and later went to The City College of New York where he studied music and received a Master of Arts in Music. He studied orchestration with Manny Albam and Rayburn Wright and composition with Stefan Wolpe. He currently has over twenty published arrangements for bands and wind ensembles. His popular arrangements and compositions are played all over the world.
“We Shall Overcome” was a popular song of comfort and strength during the civil rights movement; it was a rallying cry for many black people who had experienced the racial injustices of the south. The song instilled hope that one day they would “overcome” the overt and institutional racism preventing them from possessing the same rights as white citizens. Anne Moody describes several instances when this song helped uplift her through the low points of her life as a black woman growing up in Mississippi in the 1950s and early 1960s. By the end of her autobiography “Coming Of Age In Mississippi” (1968), she saw a stream of excessive and unending violence perpetrated by white people and the crippling effects of poverty on the black people of
The characters in this film seem to resemble the conflict that was taking place during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Mad Hatter’s character displays what a stereotypical gentlemen might act like; however, the fact that he is known as a “Mad” Hatter demonstrates a type of deterioration within society which seemed lost at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. With mankind losing it civility by creating missiles and threatening to launch them, the Mad Hatter’s decline as a gentleman exhibits what was happening to society as a whole during the Crisis. At the Mad Hatter’s tea party scene the pots are boiling and whistling aggressively with their lids about to blow off. This suggests a correlation with the missiles that were so close to being launched. The inhumane attitude going on in both the Cuban Missile Crisis and Alice in Wonderland shows a slowly declining society. Another character that illustrates a connection with the Cuban Missile Crisis is the White Rabbit. The rabbit seems to be an agent of change. As Alice keeps following the Rabbit, he gets her deeper and deeper into trouble as well as into Wonderland. This symbolizes both powers, the USSR and the United States, goal for development and to be ahead of one another at every second in everything from elements such as technology to allies. This created pressure and social unrest because of the fear that the Cuban Missile Crisis generated. Throughout the movie the rabbit 's watch always marks the same time which is 5:00. Something to note during the film is that the rabbit repeatedly says that he is late. This represents the fact that both forces did not show any sign of ending the crisis creating the idea that it would persist for an eternity. Both of these characters show a correlation with the pressures and conflicts of the cold war by having inhumanity and deterioration as
The Fray's hit song, 'How To Save a Life,' tells a story of a mentor, also a friend, who is trying to 'save a life' of a troubled youth. The story starts off with the teenager and this friend sitting down to have a talk about what is wrong in the teen?s life. The second line reads, 'he walks, you say sit down it's just a talk,' this showing anger and fear of what might be brought up in conversation, so he tries to run away from the problem. Although neither individual wants to have the talk, they both respect each other enough to be polite, 'He smiles politely back at you/
Rabbit shows us that we have to live with our mistakes, that we can't just act like they never happened. Rabbit tries to run, but he can't. He reminds us that people don't just forget and move on.
V. To make this short I will start in the 50’s the golden age of rock and roll, continue to the 60’s with beatlemania, on to the 70’s with disco and punk rock, then the 80’s on through today.
Author Christine Mitchell’s “When Living is a Fate Worse Than Death” told the story of a girl Haitian named Charlotte. Charlotte was born with her brain partially positioned outside of her cranium which had to be removed or she would have not survived. Her skull had to be concealed by a wrap in order not to cause further damage. Charlotte was born with less brain cells which allowed her only to breath and not feel much of the pain. Charlotte’s parents thought that the doctor’s in Haiti did not know what was best for their daughter. The doctors in Haiti thought Charlotte should not be resuscitated, undergo anymore horrible treatments and die peacefully. Charlotte’s parents were not happy with the doctor’s guidelines and thought the United States medical care would have better technology and could save their daughter. Charlotte’s parents bought her a doll which
The man feels abandoned in a corner and he drinks for the sadness he feels. While drinking, he tells himself I do not understand why you left me, if I know she loved me, so if you ever regret your decision he will be waiting for you. Basically, the man feels broken emotionally because the women he loved, left him for no reason. This song to me is not a dancing song, however the song is more about remembering your ex-wife, ex-girlfriend or ex husband and ex-boyfriend. For me personally, this song reminds me of drinking, the title literally means bitter shots of liquor. The way the song shares the hurt the man feels by the women that left him. I could almost picture a man sitting at a bar drinking to his ex saying, “I’m drinking because of you, you caused this”. I could picture that scene in my head because I have seen my friends in Mexico and my cousins in Mexico do
Throughout the story, Lewis Carroll uses the metaphor of the rabbit hole to represent growing up and reality of life. The story starts off with Alice sitting near a tree, when she saw out of nowhere a white rabbit who was in a hurry, and Alice was curious to where he was headed to. She followed it and the next thing she knows is that she is falling in rabbit hole and is headed to the adventures of the unknown. The adventures she goes through is what is what all girls will go through one time or another.
These songs made their way throughout history. People listened to these songs during protest and rallies when they wanted to feel a sense of prosperity. For example, during 2011, protesters on Occupy Wall St. scattered around the world “challenging social and economic inequality, as well as corporate greed and its influence upon government policy. The uncompromising sentiments expressed on Bob’s “Get Up Stand Up”, lyrics that are repeatedly chanted at these demonstrations, seem to have directly inspired the protesters’ dissenting stance: “Some people think a great God will come down from the sky, take away everything and make everybody feel high/but if you know what life is worth, you will look for yours on earth and now we see the light, we’re gonna stand up for our rights!””
She decides to follow this Rabbit down the rabbit hole into the enchanting realm of Wonderland. The White Rabbit is also our first instance of what would be considered an adult in Wonderland. “It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other: he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself as he came, 'Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! won 't she be savage if I 've kept her waiting! '” (Carroll, 24) Alice is ignorant to the Rabbit’s predicament, and thought it odd how pressing the matter of time could be on a creature. Alice demonstrates the qualities of a child here, as well as Carroll’s portrayal of adults. From a child’s viewpoint, adults are the White Rabbit. They mumble nonsense to themselves as well as having places that they need to be. All of the adults that are shown throughout the story are literally insane. Another example of madness comes from the mad Hatter. After stumbling upon the Mad Tea Party, Alice quickly learns that everyone she meets is more than a little bit bonkers. “The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, 'Why is a raven like
Alice in Wonderland is Carroll’s most popular and successful writing by far. Alice is a girl who falls into a rabbit hole, and wonderland is where she ends up, in the simplest form. The story begins as Alice is reading with her sister, when Alice becomes bored, she begins to fall asleep. Alice sees a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat, talking to himself, and carrying a pocket watch, this strikes her curiosity and she follows him into a rabbit-hole. Alice fell down the
I like this style of music the best because it best represents who I am and what I enjoy. The lyrics to the songs during these times were mainly fun and easily understood compared to other genres of earlier music that seemed were very dark, depressing, or hard for me to understand or relate to.