Theme and Symbolism in American Music

550 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The importance of music in society

Theme and Symbolism in American Music

Music defines our culture. As Americans, we listen to music while we drive our cars, are at work, doing housework, studying, etc. We have songs for special occasions: Christmas, Hanukah, birthdays, weddings, parties, etc. We have taken songs from the various cultures that make us diverse: Arabic, German, Mexican, Native American, etc. We have many genres: country, hip-hop, rap, pop, blues, jazz, rock, heavy metal, etc. And although we may think of music as simple and easy, looking at all this makes one realize how diverse and complex our music truly is. Two things that contribute to this diversity are theme and symbolism.

Theme can be defined as the subject or topic of something. In relation to songs this would be the subject the author is concerned with in that particular song. By far, it is safe to say that the most popular theme in music is love. Whether it is finding love, the lack of love, lost love, or any other sub-topic of love, you will find countless songs dedicated to love. Interesting enough, the theme of love can be found in ...

Show More
Related

  • Wal-Mart is Bad For America

    841 Words  | 2 Pages

    Besides all the points that I have stated, Wal-Mart has had to pay fines due to breaking Child Labor laws and Illegal Immigrant laws; fines up to $11.5 million for just those two types of laws. Wal-Mart is not good for this economy, for the people, and the company, in a whole, is criminal. If the people let Wal-Mart stay on the track it is on, the United States will not have anything but Wal-Marts. Wal-Mart will become a monopoly and put everyone, who started with something more than greed, out-of-business.

    Read More

  • Angela's Ashes And The Street Theme

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    Theme is the subject of talk, a topic, or morals that the author is trying to get readers to comprehend. When reading an excerpt, the theme is not directly stated in the text, so you must dig deeper into the context to understand the matter trying to be portrayed. In both Angela's Ashes and The Street, we can distinguish a like theme of struggling through life’s complications. After reading the two different stories, we could select the theme from using character, events, and the setting.

    Read More

  • The ‘60s: Culture and Music

    1486 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout history, music have defined or depicted the culture and social events in America. Music has constantly played an important role in constituting American culture, where people have expressed themselves through music during flourishing and turbulent times. In the 1930’s, Swing music created a platform for audiences to vent their emotions in the midst of Great Depression and political unrest. Such strong relationship between music and culture can be seen throughout history, especially in the sixties.

    Read More

  • The Wal-Mart Effect

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    Wal-Mart is a place where millions of consumers shop daily. When people shop at a huge retailer such as Wal-Mart it is evident to see they are helping the economy by keeping the largest retail chain in the nation for business. Wal-Mart supports the economy by having supercenters all around the globe, which creates stores, jobs, income, and profits. A chain of events occurs which benefits the economy, and betters the lives of millions. Wal-Mart “has opened an average of 16 new super centers a month for five years.” [Fishman.Pg 3] The growth rate of the company is substantially higher than any other company in the world. Wal-Mart helps factory workers and companies by providing mass amount of job opportunities. Stated from the passage of Wal-Mart effect by Fishman: “It reaches deep inside the operations of the companies that supply it and changes not only what they sell, but also changes how those products are packaged and presented, what the lives of the factory workers who make the products are like it even sometimes changes the countries where those factories are located”[Fishman.pg2]. The excerpt f...

    Read More

  • Thank You M'am, by Langston Hughes and The Storyteller, by H.H. Munro (Saki)

    744 Words  | 2 Pages

    Theme is the underlying power beneath a story; the “force” that makes the whole experience worthwhile. Theme is “an idea or message that the writer wishes to convey” (Holt 874). A theme can be either stated or implied. A stated theme is a theme “that the other expresses directly in his work (protic.net); an implied theme is a theme “that is not directly stated in the work” (protic.net). As mentioned before, both of these stories have an implied theme, which now is revealed to mean that the author of the story insinuated it. Themes exist in all stories (verbal or written) and can be long, short, true or false. “Earth people will beat out any other intelligent life-form in any and all competitions” is a theme, but “good always beats evil” is one too. “Once upon a time . . .” stories have themes too, except they are more one-dimensional. For example,...

    Read More

  • The Influence of Rap and Hip-Hop on Music and Pop Culture

    566 Words  | 2 Pages

    many cultures view as an important part in their way of life. Music ranges from strictly

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Theme Essay

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Dictionary.com, theme is defined as a “main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work which may be stated directly or indirectly.” My idea of the meaning behind theme lies closely within this definition. To me, theme is the main memorandum or moral the reader will gained through reading and analyzing a story. The theme usually has a message or lesson behind it to provoke to the reader to question life. The theme could be very obvious or obscure, it just depends on how the author wants to communicate with his audience. After reading several pieces of literature in this class, the theme of “Gender Roles” really stood out to me. I especially found this theme pungent in The Yellow Wallpaper, A Doll’s House, and The Great Gatsby.

    Read More

  • The History of Slave Music and its Impact on Modern Music

    2049 Words  | 5 Pages

    Music is an art and a wonderful gift to human race. It soothes, stimulates and makes us feel happy. It affects our moods in many different ways from lullaby to war cry for changes in the society. Music is actually distinct to different people. Above all, it has a transformational importance that is captured in its art and nature. Music draws our emotions and it has an impact of bridging different cultures across the continents. Slave songs were very vital channels through which all kind of information was conveyed both positive and negative.

    Read More

  • Culture and Music

    568 Words  | 2 Pages

    As defined in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, culture is “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.” These customary beliefs could also be described as a set of morals or values commonly practiced by a group. Social forms are understood as being the institutions in which interaction and socialization between people take place, such as at school, church, or work. The material traits within a culture would include clothing, food, and art to name a few. Music is a distinct, diverse culture in itself, a subculture. Each musical era had its own code of values, social forms, and material traits.

    Read More

  • Walmart Rhetorical Analysis

    1119 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dicker brings up valid statistics that help give an understanding of just how powerful Wal-Mart actually is including that Wal-Mart employs one out of every 115 American Workers and the business is four times the size of its largest rival (790). He also goes into great detail about many of the issues with Wal-Mart. He talks about not only the many lawsuits filed against Wal-Mart but also the feelings of the workers about their jobs (791-795). Dicker’s article brings up many valid points about the negative aspects of Wal-Mart, however he overlooks the details of how the business manages to stay powerful despite all of the terrible things that are going on and fails to include any benefits that come from

    Read More

  • Peter Pan Syndrome

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ls, she falls and then she will get back up. This shows his progression from innocence to adulthood; he accepts that Phoebe may fall and he cannot prevent it. Therefore, Peter Pan refuses to lose his innocence because he does not want to face real world problems while Holden moves on because he learns that he cannot be the catcher in the rye.

    Read More

  • The Social Theory Of Durkheim's Sociological Theory

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    “There can be no society which does not feel the need of upholding and reaffirming at regular intervals the collective sentiments and the collective ideas which makes its unity and its personality. Now this moral remaking cannot be achieved except by the means of reunions, assemblies and meetings where the individuals, being closely united to one another, reaffirm in common their common sentiments”( Durkheim 1912/1995:474–75; as cited in Sociological theory in the Classical Era, p.94).

    Read More

  • Natural Toxins in Foods

    2002 Words  | 5 Pages

    Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites of fungi that are usually belongs to one of the three genus

    Read More

  • Leadership Theory

    1819 Words  | 4 Pages

    Leadership and management are two words that are commonly mistaken; the relation and the differences between them are often unclear. Leadership can be defined as „the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or a set of goals." Managers are there to plan, organize, lead and monitor employees' activities. Leaders also have to be able to guide an organization through change. As we will see later, vision is a crucial component in the success of this task.

    Read More

  • Solidarity Analysis

    1112 Words  | 3 Pages

    Democratic societies are held together by their solidarity although individualism sometimes threatens this solidarity. Individualism is closely linked to diminishing sense of common identity. Solidarity makes people living together understand each other and hence develop a close link which results to strong bonds. This was, for instance, witnessed in formation of Europe’s most successful welfare states.

    Read More

More about Theme and Symbolism in American Music

Open Document