The Themes of Love and Relationships in Pop Music
The life of an adolescent varies from day to day. For every good thing, most likely there is a bad thing. This doesn’t always happen, but this constant changing of moods can greatly affect the stress one feels. Adolescents will look for some form of relief, this often being music. Turning on the radio while doing homework can help people stay relaxed and get through an assignment. Drifting off for thirty minutes while you listen to your favorite band on a pair of headphones can be the cure also. It is not what an individual turns on that matters, as long as it is what they like. Not everyone is going to listen to Top 40 music, but a majority will so we focus on the top five songs. The top five songs of today do not differ that much thematically from when I was fourteen with the most common theme being love.
The re-invasion of pop music has brought out the theme of love and relationships even more so then ever. If a songwriter has “writer’s block”, then the simple solution is to write a love song. “All I want is you (Come over here baby). All I want is you (You make me go crazy)... I‘m gonna love you right...” (Aguilera), is part of the chorus to Christina Aguilera’s song “Come on Over”. The attraction to this song to girls is in thinking that they could be in the situation of the female character in the song, finding the perfect guy and spending time with him. For guys, the attraction comes because a beautiful girl is singing this and they can pretend that she is singing to them. Something similar is also found in the song “Doesn’t Really Matter” by Janet Jackson. In this song she is stating all the things she loves about a certain individual. She can live with his imperfections and doesn’t care what anyone else cares. “Doesn’t really matter what the eye is seeing. Cause I’m in love with the inner being. And it doesn’t really matter what they believe. What matters to me is you’re nutty, nutty, nutty for me.” (Janet Jackson) This song is good in that it is a love song unlike many out there today. In this song we see that the main character loves her man because of who he is.
...ix percent say they feel tired (Teens’ Stress Levels Rival Those of Adults, Survey Finds”). The survey also revealed that many teens experience the same stress symptoms that adults face and that school was the most common source of stress that is put on teens. “Teens’ financial concerns for their families also ranked among the top stressors” (Teens’ Stress Levels Rival Those of Adults, Survey Finds”).
Jack Roosevelt Johnson was born in the very segregated south in Cairo, Georgia around 1919. Jackie grew up loving baseball and knew that is what he wanted to do. About two decades before Jackie was born the MLB was split between white and Negro leagues. Jackie being an African-American, of course played for the Negro Leagues. He strived in this sport. He lead the Negro League with most stolen bases and had a great batting average. Both his statistics and love for the game brought the name Jackie Robinson to the attention of the Brooklyn Dodger's manager Branch Rickey.
The article “ In Defense of “Trap Queen” as our generation’s Greatest Love Song” by Hanif Abdurraqib, who is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio, writes about todays modern “love song’s” and their meanings. Hanif believes that todays modern generation love songs are not the same as they once were, because the meaning of love has evolved over time. Love songs have a different kind of passion then the once did, they have evolved the passion of love towards each other to a whole different level of passion. The meaning of a love song has changed its not all about only love towards someone, its changed to the love for the life style they live with the success they 've made to be where they are. This life style involving money, drugs. and sex, which is very blunt about how they describe it, is what “love” is to them and the young crowd
Jackie Robinson overcame many struggles in life such as being included in the civil rights movement, facing discrimination, and he achieved being the first black man in major league baseball. He was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia on Hadley Ferry Road. It is a blue-collar town of about 10,000 people. Jackie Robinson became the first black player in the major leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Even though he achieved this major goal he still had trouble getting there. He and his siblings were raised by his single mother. Jackie attended Muir High School and Pasadena Junior College. He was a great athlete and played many sports. He played football, basketball, track, and of course baseball. He left school in 1941, worked as an athletic director and played semiprofessional football for the Honolulu Bears before being drafted to the Army in 1942. While he was in the army he became close friends with Joe Louis. The heavyweight used his popularity to protest about the delayed entry of black soldiers. Two years later he got the honor to be second lieutenant in 1943. After an accident where he refused to sit in the back of an unsegregated bus, military police arrested Robinson. A duty officer requested this and then later he requested that Jackie should be court martialed. Since this happened Jackie was not allowed to be deployed overseas to the World War II. He never saw combat during the war. Jackie left the Army with an honorable discharge.
According to the New York Times, teenagers listen to an average of 2.5 hours of music in a singular day. The messages coming through in each song may vary between drug/alcohol reference or transcendentalism. No matter where there is music, there is a lesson to be learned through ideas that Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau created. Though transcendentalism is a relatively foreign word to most, it can be defined by using five i's: individualism, inspiration, intuition, idealism and imagination which are displayed on all platforms of music today. The different music genres may vary between music from the late 1990's and children's movies today.
The time came on April 15, 1947 when the man who would change all this stepped up to bat marking the first time an African American played in the major leagues. Jackie Robinson was the man and the hero of baseball to the black people. With much hope Jackie Robinson and the African American race marked the beginning of the struggle for the ultimate goal which was equality. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. He was the son of a sharecropper and life wasn’t ea...
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 to a family of sharecroppers. He attended UCLA where he became the first athlete to receive varsity letters in 4 sports; baseball, basketball, football, and track. Jackie did not have enough money to afford college and was forced to drop out. He then decided to enlist in the U.S. Army. With very swift progress, after only two years Jackie earned the rank of lieutenant. Jackie’s career in the army was cut short when he was court-martialed in relation of objections to racial discrimination. No scene was made and Jackie received an honorable discharge when he decided to resign from the army. He took a stand when he was in the army and made changes against racial discrimination that stood until racial discrimination completely ended. Jackie stood up for what was right and was not afraid to voice his opinion. Jackie said, “A life is not important, except in the impact it has on other lives.” Jackie never knew what was coming when he gets recognized by Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Teenagers have for long been a constant bother to many parents, for many years. It is during this stage that a large number of individuals engage in rebellious acts and are anxious to try out almost everything they lay their hands on. It is clear from the illustrations that music does have a great effect on teenagers. Parents should therefore combine effort in instilling a sense of responsibility and good morals to their young ones since they are the future leaders of the world.
Jackie Robinson not only became the first African American baseball player, he also made the movement for the first African American president and equal rights (Bilyeu). Mr. Robinson would later sign with the Brooklyn Dodgers on October 23rd, 1945, thus becoming the first professional negro baseball player (Young). Baseball wasn’t fully ready for a colored player, so Jackie played one year for the Dodgers minor league team Montreal (Young). There he would lead the International League in hitting over all the white athletes (Bilyeu). Just before the start of the 1947 season Robinson had received a phone call on April 10th telling him that he would be on the Dodgers the upcoming season (Bilyeu). On April 15th, 1947 he had made his Major League debut and had started his journey to silence the critics and show everyone that it doesn’t matter the color of your skin, but if you can play you can play (Bilyeu).
Jackie Robinson was a major cultural hero. It was a very courageous act to go and be the first African American player in Major League Baseball, breaking the color barrier. This paved the way for many more African Americans in baseball and other sports everywhere. This also affected our society today because now baseball along with all other professional sports are multi-racial and allow everyone to play in the league. No matter what if they had the skills it didn't matter who or where they are from they could play.
...or what it is - entertainment, and not be taken so seriously as people try to make it. Music, be it rap, alternative, country, or bubble gum pop, is merely another form of expression. If you don't like what you hear, don't want your children exposed to it, or are offended by it, just turn it off. Thousands of people have attended concerts by the most hated artists in America. Millions watch Marilyn Manson prance about in music videos. Yet, the general majority of the population is not inspired to murder innocent people. Teens that are depressed, troubled, or rejected and taunted by their peers need to get help before they let their warped sense of fantasy and reality mix too far. Don't deprive more mature listeners all because it's something that frightens you. Music may be a huge influence, but it cannot be blamed for all of society's problems.
Hip Hop and Rock music are today’s people choice of music. People will find that teens and adults from the age of 20 to 34 listen to these two types of music. Not too often will you see or hear a teen listening to Blues, Opera, Reggae, or Oldies. Reason being is that they were raised up in toady’s society where really all they will here is either Hip Hop or Rock. There is a lot of argument that these two different types of music are the same old sing about money, drugs, and sex. But actually they are tot...
People are surrounded by music every day of their lives. They hear it in their homes, on the radio on their way to work; some people have even caught themselves humming the tune of their favorite song to themselves. But how many people actually listen and not just hear the music they are listening to? Teens in particular don’t realize the message behind the music they are quoting the lyrics to, or the effect it has on them.
...al of Pesonalities“Adolescents' music preferences and personality characteristics” Mar2008, Vol. 22 Issue 2, p109-130. 22p
The genre of pop rock has taken the music industry by storm, giving record companies enormous amounts of power and endless financial success along with a way to reproduce it. Owing its popularity to the “light” nature and simplistic, yet catchy melodies, pop music is one of the broadest genres. There’s no way of clearly defining parameters as to what distinguishes a pop music song from other genres. This is largely due to the genre's’ reliance on popularity. Pop music has taken many forms over the decades, keeping characteristics through each generation it passes through.