Popular Song Lyrics Research Articles

A Gisaeng who Appeared in the Lyrics of Popular songs in the 1930s

A Gisaeng who Appeared in the Lyrics of Popular songs in the 1930s

‘You Never Stop Working’

Abstract Theological analysis of the most popular worship song lyrics reflects that American Christians may be singing the American work ethic to the God who rested. Employing Brueggeman’s Sabbath as Resistance and Heschel’s The Sabbath alongside current discussions in evangelical liturgical studies, this article seeks to answer the following: 1) do the current most utilized congregational songs in America reveal a God who rests, and 2) what lyrical or musical possibilities exist to embody a theology of Sabbath rest. This analysis highlights liturgical and theological dissonance, while exploring musical and lyrical models that display a God who rests in an overworked culture.

Dubbed in patois: Musical mimicry involving the Chinese in wartime Japanese popular songs

This article examines the politics of cultural differentiation in wartime Japan, especially from the viewpoint of linguistic imperialism and musical mimicry, by researching official documents, newspapers and magazines, as well as investigating popular songs. Various sources from this period demonstrate that Japanese critics, musicians and musicologists were conscious of the cultural difference between Asian regions, even while the government propagated a unified East Asia. Different actors pursued contradictory objectives of cultural assimilation and dissimilation, reflecting tensions and contradictions in both popular attitudes and official policy. On the other hand, the boundary was distorted in musical practices, as seen in the way different languages were selected and used in the lyrics of wartime popular songs. This article analyses two cases as examples of this phenomenon: (1) popular songs sung by Chinese singers, mostly female, in Japanese patois, and (2) songs by Japanese singers in broken and role language. Even during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese and Japanese singers visited each other’s countries on the pretext of ‘goodwill’ to record songs and participate in shows or radio broadcasts for local audiences.

대중가요 노랫말에 나타난 수사와 서사

This study examined the lyrics of popular songs, focusing on rhetoric and narrative. Through the metaphors and symbols used in the lyrics of the popular song ‘The Watermill Turns’, we revealed the method and image embodied in the lyrics. We examined the history and contemporary emotions implied by the repeated words in the lyrics. I discovered the power of narrative to bring out universal emotions through the linguistic aesthetics of song lyrics and the emotions of the time. I discovered that when narrative and symbolism combine to unite the public's emotions, popular art creates a great resonance and is furthermore recorded in an immortal language that forms a consensus that transcends time. Considering that the value of popular songs is achieved at the point where the emotional needs of the public and the aesthetic level of art coincide, it was an appropriate attempt to select the lyrics of ‘The Watermill Turns’ as the subject of research.

Meningkatkan Pemahaman Makna Konteks Tuturan melalui Bahasa “Plesetan” pada Lagu-lagu Populer Indonesia

The emergence of new languages led to the occurrence of interesting language phenomena, one of which was the language of plesetan. People's language skills are increasingly creative in expressing critical things, including those that are political. This study aims to describe the forms and types of plesetan language games. This research uses a descriptive qualitative approach. The object of this study is specifically determined in the lyrics of popular songs in Indonesia taken from online media. Data in the form of words or sentences in the lyrics of popular songs in Indonesia. Data is transcribed from images and converted into sentences and/or words. Data was collected using documentation, reading, and transcript techniques. The data triangulation technique used, namely source triangulation, is to check several related sources to test the credibility of research data. The data analysis process is carried out using a qualitative model from Miles and Huberman through 3 steps, namely data reduction, data display, and drawing conclusions. The results showed that the plesetan language games that appeared in the lyrics of popular songs in Indonesia proved that people's language skills are increasingly creative in expressing critical things, including political ones. Discussing the use of plesetan language, will be able to increase people's insight in responding to and using pun language, especially in understanding the context of speech in the missed song

“I Can Tell You Wanna F***”: A Content Analysis of Sexual Communication in Popular Song Lyrics

ABSTRACT Given that exposure to sexual messages in song lyrics can influence sociocultural norms and expectations surrounding consent communication between partners, we sought to understand the types of messages regarding sexual initiation and consent language that are available to media consumers. Through the lens of sexual script theory, we conducted a quantitative content analysis of sexual consent in pop (n = 197), hip-hop (n = 193), and country songs (n = 194) from 2016 to 2019. Differences in these messages were examined across singer gender, music genre, and time (pre- vs. post-#MeToo). Results indicated that references to sexual demands (e.g., “Strip that down”) and sexual preferences (e.g., “I want it slow”) were the most common types of sexual communication, appearing in approximately one-third of the singing parts included in the sample. Sexual suggestions (e.g., “Let’s get nasty”) and sexual requests (e.g., “Can I hit it?”), on the other hand, were the least common. References to inferred consent (e.g., “I can tell you wanna f***”) appeared in approximately one-fifth of the singing parts. Both sexual demands and sexual preferences were more likely to appear in pop compared to hip-hop and country songs; however, these sexual communication messages did not significantly differ by male and female singers. Sexual requests were significantly more likely to appear in pre-#MeToo song lyrics. The messages embedded in popular songs may help to reinforce problematic scripts around sexual consent.

When Vulgarism Comes through Popular music: An Investigation of Slackness in Zimdancehall Music

In Zimbabwe, popular music, particularly the Zimdancehall music genre, has become a cultural site where Shona moral values clash with explicit sexual lyrical content despite a censorship regime in the country. This article examines the nature and cultural consequences of the moral decadence that emerges in popular Zimdancehall song lyrics by several musicians. The article illustrates how vulgar language popularises Zimdancehall songs in unheralded ways that foster identities laced with cultural ambivalences that may portray the artists as both famous and depraved. This qualitative study does textual and content analysis of 11 purposively sampled songs with sex terms to elucidate the cultural inconsistencies in Zimdancehall song narratives. Analysis is informed by the Neuro-Psycho-Social theory, which recognises how socio-cultural restrictions are challenged by an emerging ghetto culture like new wine in old bottles. Alternative unsanctioned new popular music genres can be used to permeate the sociocultural system.

INCOMPLETE SENTENCES IN THE LANGUAGE OF JAPANESE MASS CULTURE AS A DEVIATION FROM THE LANGUAGE NORMS

Background. The paper draws attention to the deviations from the syntactic norm in the sentences of the language of mass culture, in particular, the frequency of incomplete sentences that are not typical for literary language, on the example of the oral and written genres of modern mass culture of Japan. The main objective was to analyze, using quantitative and qualitative methods, the phenomena of ellipsis and nominative sentences, widely represented in the language of both written (fashion magazines, manga comics) and oral (lyrics of popular songs, the language of entertainment TV shows) genres of Japanese mass culture. Results. A so called “norm” for the language of mass culture is the production of entire texts that fully consist of ellipted and nominative sentences, that is, they do not contain a single complete one (such examples occur, in particular, in the language of magazine articles, song lyrics, or manga chapters). In incomplete sentences, the predicate is partially or completely removed, which sometimes makes it impossible to interpret the grammatical tense of one sentence or entire texts. The omission of the predicate, which is often accompanied by the introduction of an exclamation mark, that is not typical for Japanese text in general, shifts the emphasis from the action to the objects that are presented to the recipient in isolation, sort of careless manner, which, on the one hand, leads to easier perception of information, but, on the other hand, spreads mistaken samples of word usage due to the non-compliance of the structure of such messages with the syntactic norm. In addition to complete or partial removal of the predicate from the sentence, the language of mass culture is also characterized by sentences-words expressed by a single interjection; interjections often replace verbs in the predicate position. Conclusions. This overusing of ellipsis and nominative clauses in the language of mass culture seems to bring it closer to colloquial speech or spontaneous informal speech, which most likely aims to make the language of mass culture more accessible and the meanings it conveys “closer” to the consumer. The reproduction of colloquial speech in the syntactic structure of the language of mass culture seems to have a manipulative potential, as well as a destructive role in blurring literary norms and destructing the language “feeling” among the mass culture audience.

한국 대중가요 가사에 나타난 “세상”의 공기어 네트워크 연구

The analysis of Korean popular song lyrics is helpful in investigating the social phenomenon or emotions of a certain age, but previous studies have only been limited to a small number of qualitative or quantitative analyses. To overcome this limitation, we collected 3,488 songs from 1964 to 2020 and created networks that link words in noun phrases and verb phrases appearing in the same line of lyrics. Then, we traced how the usage of the word “world” (“sesang” in Korean) changed during the periods from 1986 to 1997 and from 2015 to 2020 whereby to explore the world view of the masses diachronically. As a result, we found that the public in the past had a great interest in the change of the world and had a strong view of the world negatively, whereas recently, interest in the world itself decreased. The network data generated in this study will be made public, so anyone can access it through a web page.

‘The barn is burning’: Polish popular music and memory of the Holocaust in the twenty-first century

ABSTRACT There are three important phenomena in the lyrics of popular Polish songs about the Holocaust. Firstly, there is local resistance to the conflation of the town of Oświęcim with the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Secondly, the memory of the Jedwabne pogrom is used as a yardstick for contemporary societal evils and to comment upon the chasm between conservative and liberal segments in Polish society. Thirdly, the Catholic pro-life movement juxtaposes abortion and the Holocaust. These songs were released after the publication of Jan T. Gross’s Neighbors (2000) but there is a disparity in how the genocidal past is treated.

“Love lies”: A content analysis of romantic attachment style in popular music

During adolescence, music consumption drastically increases and many adolescents become romantically involved. Popular songs often depict romance, and teens may incorporate tenets of these lyrics into their own romantic experiences. Romantic attachment style is a primary indicator of relationship functioning, and individuals’ attachment style may shift according to romantic experiences they observe in media. This study comprises a content analysis of the romantic attachment style portrayed in popular song lyrics. Findings revealed that more than 86% of songs illustrated an insecure attachment and various song/artist characteristics were associated with specific attachment styles. We assert that parents, teens, and educators should be mindful of the lyrics adolescents listen to, working together to ensure adolescents navigate music’s messages about romance in a positive way.

Using music to identify and evaluate Knapp’s Relationship Staircase Model

This teaching activity builds students’ interpersonal competencies in identifying Mark Knapp’s Stages of Relationships (Adler, Rosenfeld, Towne, & Scott, 2012, Interplay: The process of interpersonal communication, p. 504, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston). The activity establishes a theoretical understanding of each stage and asks students to use their knowledge to identify and pair the stages with popular song lyrics. The benefits of using music in the classroom are described and then the Staircase Model is introduced, followed by an outline of the activity and a debrief. Lastly, variations are described. Courses Interpersonal Communication, Introduction to Communication, Intercultural Communication. Objectives This activity engages students in discussion about Knapp’s Relational Staircase Model. By the end of this activity, students will be able to connect songs and lyrics to identify and interpret specific relational stages. Students will also be able to articulate their perceptions for where lines between cultural or personal expectations may blur. This activity also challenges students to identify their own expectations of relationship progression and dissolution while unpacking interpretations.

THE DEPICTION OF GENDER IN MOROCCAN POP LYRICS

The aim of the study is to investigate song lyrics within the most popular Moroccan Pop music from a cultural and a gender perspective, focusing on the depiction of both women and men. More specifically, the question that motivated the present study was: What cultural messages about women and men have been depicted to society through Moroccan song lyrics? Listening to music is the dominant hobby of a great majority of the population, as well as the fact that the lyrics of some popular songs are highly restrictive of gender roles (Weitzer & Kubrin, 2009). The study questions the way the Moroccan Pop music reflects and constructs gender in society. The study used content analysis approach and analyzed twenty Moroccan popular pop song lyrics from 2016 to 2018 based on most watched music videos on YouTube. The investigation focuses on the gender of songwriters, and the nouns the songwriter use to refer to the concept of WOMAN and MAN.

“We Never Get Ahead but We Have Enough”

Country music has cultural and narrative roots in the American working class. As such, themes of class are integral to the mythos of country music, informing the musicians and shaping the genre’s audience. Researchers have studied the origins of class narratives in American country music, but less analysis has been given to the specific ways that these themes are expressed rhetorically. The purpose of this study was to analyze how class-based narratives are expressed in country music. Through a content analysis of the lyrics of popular country songs between 1950 and 2009, three overarching themes emerged. First, the emphasis of emotional over material experiences: emotional consequences related to working-class material conditions were the focus of songs’ rhetoric, rather than underlying material issues. Second, escapism and sentimentality: class-based issues were expressed as sentimental or nostalgic as a means of escaping material struggle or downplaying their severity. Finally, parasocial commiseration: the building of a one-sided connection between artists and their audience based on their perceived shared class identity. These themes provide insight into emotional rhetoric that affects working-class politics in the US, as well as broader race, class, and political issues.

GAYA BAHASA DALAM LIRIK LAGU POP GAYA BAHASA DALAM LIRIK LAGU POPULER YANG DINYANYIKAN OLEH SYAHRINI

The language style or known the Figure of Speech is an expression of feelings that have deep meaning for others. This research was conducted to look at the style of the language in the lyrics of popular songs by Syahrini. The analuses covered were stylistic repetition, alliteration, assonance, parallelism, “Simploke”, and redundancy. Analysis methods of this research used descriptive qualitative method. Based on the analysis of the lyrics of a popular song Syahrini explained that the style of repetitipn languange is a classification of words in a few times to amplify the pressure. We can see the lyrics of the songs, entitled: My Lovely, Aku Tak Biasa, Bohong, Kau Yang Memilih Aku, Semua Karena Cinta, Sesuatu, Cinta Tapi Gengsi, Pusing Setengah Mati, Aku Tak Biasa (Cover Alda) dan Kau Cetarkan Hatiku. While the other songs on the album are Tatapan Cinta, Kau Sengaja, Kau Sengaja, Sang Pencipta, Tak Terganti, Aku Pergi, Tak Memilih, Memilih Aku, Kau Bohong, Taubatlah Taubat, Ya Robbi, Cinta Terakhir, dan Jangan Memilih Aku. In the alliteration style is a kind of language style that is concrete use of the word tahat have teh begining of the same consonant. Analysis of language style of the lyrics songs by Syahrini is titled Kau Yang Memilih Aku, Sesuatu, Pusing Setengah Mati, dan Aku Tak Biasa (Cover Alda). Whereas in the others Syahrini song lyrics are entitled: Tatapan Cinta, Habislah Sudah, Sang Pencipta, Tak Terganti, Tak Memilih, Melewati Batas, Kau Bohong, Taubatlah Taubat, Ya Robbi, dan Jangan Memilih Aku. In stylistic assonance of vocal style is similar in the wording. In Syahrini song lyrics have stylistic analysis of a popular song titled: My Lovely, Aku Tak Biasa, Kau Yang Memilih Aku, Semua Karena Cinta, Sesuatu, Cinta Tapi Gengsi, dan Aku Tak Biasa (Cover Alda). According to other Syahrini song lyrics titled: Habislah Sudah, Sang Pencipta, Tak Terganti, Tak Memilih, Memilih Aku, Taubatlah Taubat, Cinta Terakhir, Suasana Dikota Santri. In the parallelism style is a confirmation of language pronunciation used to clarify a statement as the seriousness. In the Syahrini song lyrics have stylistic analysis of a popular song titled: Aku Tak Biasa, Bohong. “Simploke” is repeated word in the sentence at the beginning or end of the line or continued sentences. In the Syahrini song lyrics have stylistic analysis of a popular song titled: My Lovely, Aku Tak Biasa, Bohong, Kau Yang Memilih Aku, Semua Karena Cinta, Sesuatu, Cinta Tapi Gengsi, Pusing Setengah Mati, Aku Tak Biasa (Cover Alda), dan Kau Cetarkan Hatiku. While the lyrics of other songs titled: Kau Sengaja, Habislah Sudah, Tak Terganti, Aku Pergi, Melewati Batas, Memilih Aku, Kau Bohong, Taubatlah Taubat, Cinta Terakhir, Jangan Memilih Aku, dan Suasana Dikota Santri. Pleonasme is an excessive use of the word re-added the next sentence with a view to better of the meaning of the lyrics in a song. In the Syahrini song lyrics have stylistic analysis of a popular song entitled Bohong.

The Poetry of Pop by Adam Bradley

Reviewed by: The Poetry of Pop by Adam Bradley Eldonna L. May The Poetry of Pop. By Adam Bradley. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017. [414 p. ISBN 9780300165029 (hardcover), $28; ISBN 97800300248326 (paperback), $22; ISBN 97800300165722 (e-book), price varies.] Illustrations, appendix, notes and credits, index. Adam Bradley’s book proposes that pop song lyrics are poetry. Certainly, there is a measure of truth to that statement, and he examines more than one hundred years of diverse popular song to prove it. Nothing is out of bounds in this investigation; Gershwin sidles up to James Brown, Smokey Robinson, Nirvana, Joni Mitchell, and Young Thug. In analyzing popular music, however, it is not always easy to find clear and convincing evidence of the poetic in a steady stream of melisma and fade endings. While I read Bradley’s The Poetry of Pop, the following words of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart came to mind: “In an opera, poetry must necessarily be the obedient daughter of the music” (Letter to Leopold Mozart, 13 October 1781). It also raised the specter of Richard Wagner’s concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, and, finally, the thinly veiled wisdom of Aaron Copland’s essay, “How We Listen,” in What to Listen for in Music (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1939). Like opera, the lyrics—poetry—of popular music demands our full sensory attention to be properly appreciated; as Mozart pointed out, however, poetry and music must work obediently and gracefully together. This is the thrust of Bradley’s book as he calls the reader’s attention to the little-used concept of poetic analysis in popular music. He makes the case that while listeners focus on the romanticized meaning of popular-song lyrics, they often ignore the finer details of the “libretto” and do not practice “active” or “critical” listening skills when evaluating song lyrics. Instead, they are swept away by the pathos of the words and not the ethos. He keenly observes in discussing Rihanna’s song “Diamonds” that “a poetic act that is also a musical one. One finds an art in equipoise” (p. 13). The book is cogently organized in tripartite fashion, initially consisting of three chapters encompassing the relationship between lyrics and melody; the often-neglected poetic nature of song lyrics and the distinction between lyric and narrative poetry; and the importance of poetic form as it relates to cognition insofar as the language of [End Page 408] literature is concerned. Part 2 focuses on rhythm and rhyme and these components’ relationship to musical accompaniment. In discussing rhythm, Bradley raises the issue of tempo rubato in both poetic and musical phrasing from the classical perspective in juxtaposition with singers Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and Willie Nelson. The thoughtful inclusion of Jerry Wexler’s observation that “the art of gliding over the meter and extending it until you think they’re going to miss the next actual demarcation” (p. 98) serves as an excellent example of the ways in which popular music artists enhance the relationship between words and music through vocal delivery—a device that listeners have both come to expect and take for granted. In this section, too, Bradley enters into a lengthy discussion of both the concept and history of rhyme. His thoughtful commentary concerning the timeline of lyric poetry and its absence in modern literature and song is beneficial to both educators and researchers in teaching and analyzing modern/popular song because it effectively explains the reasons for devices such as slant rhyme as well as the abandonment of rhyme by some songwriters altogether. In this section, Bradley takes us on a detailed songwriter’s journey including Samuel Francis Smith’s “God Save the King” (1832), the Beatles’ “Michelle” (1965), the Hollies’ “Stop, Stop, Stop” (1966), and Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s “Raising Sand” (2007), discussing the relative merits and features of each song, the relationship between rhyme, rhythm, and music, and the artistic equation that led to such successful songs. One of the most interesting chapters in part 2 is devoted to the use of figurative language. This section in particular should be required reading for every vocal-music student because it includes an in-depth discussion of the use...

The power of visual analytics and language processing to explore the underlying trend of highly popular song lyrics

The number of songs are increasing at a very high rate around the globe. Out of the songs released every year, only the top few songs make it to the billboard hit charts .The lyrics of the songs place an important role in making them big hits combined with various other factors like loudness, liveness, speech ness, pop, etc. The artists are faced with the problem of finding the most desired topics to create song lyrics on. This problem is further amplified in selecting the most unique, catchy words which if added, could create more powerful lyrics for the songs. We propose a solution of finding the bag of unique evergreen words using the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) technique of natural language processing. The words from this bag of unique evergreen words could be added in the lyrics of the songs to create more powerful lyrics in the future.

Implications for School and Education through Popular Song Lyrics: Focusing on BTS' lyrics

목적 본 연구의 목적은 학교 및 교육에 관한 방탄소년단 노랫말의 의미적 특징과 방탄소년단 노래에 대한 팬들의 온라인 댓글을 분석하여 교육적 측면의 유의미한 시사점을 제시하는 것이다. 방법 이를 위해, 방탄소년단의 노래 중 교육 관련 가사가 있는 여섯 곡을 선정하여 핵심 키워드 간의 빅데이터 분석을 하고, 국내 온라인 음원사이트의 관련 댓글을 모아 내용 분석하여 국내 청소년들의 사회적 반응을 파악하였다. 결과 연구 결과, 학교와 교육에 관한 방탄소년단의 노랫말에는 ① 자아의 주체성 중시, ② 기성세대와 청소년세대 간의 인식 차이, ③ 학교 및 교육 현실에 대한 부정적 감정 폭발, ④ 그런 한편으로는, 미래에 대한 희망과 기대 내재, ⑤ 청소년세대의 언어 표현 사용이 특징적으로 나타났다. 온라인 댓글 분석결과, 감성적 의견표현 댓글이 이성적 의견표현 댓글보다 많았고, 방탄소년단의 학교비판 노랫말에 대해 공감, 호응, 동의, 인정, 응원, 만족, 지지하는 긍정적 댓글이 95% 이상으로 나타났다. 결론 댓글러들은 지금의 학교 현실이 마치 학생들의 불행, 수동, 방관, 경쟁, 타협, 억압, 이탈 등을 학습시키는 곳처럼 묘사하며 학교라는 공간에 대한 부정적 감정을 강력하게 표현하고 있었는데, 이러한 분석결과와 논의점을 바탕으로 미래 학교 교육의 방향에 관한 몇 가지 시사점을 제시하였다.

The normalization of fear: Geo-cultural vs. universal emotional sensibilities as reflected in the annual Israeli Radio Hit Parade

Music plays an important socio-cultural role in constructing and/or reflecting geo-cultural and universal emotional states by giving voice to personal emotional sensibilities, such as self-searching, romantic longing, and desire, alongside collective spatial sentiments, patriotism, etc. Moreover, popular song lyrics reveal the socio-cultural values, norms, tastes, and emotional conventions of both their creators and their audience. Thus, this article focuses on decoding geo-cultural vs. universal emotional sensibilities via narrative analysis of the first place winners of the annual Israeli Hit Parades between 1963 and 2018, broadcast on the two major Israeli radio stations, Kol Yisrael and Galgalatz, every year on the eve of the Jewish New Year. This long-standing tradition offers a unique opportunity to examine ongoing changes in socio-emotional coping with fear and death, wars and terror while providing a contemporary conceptual and practical inquiry into the normalization of emotions within a culture and politics of fear.

Characteristics of Vocabulary Found in Popular Song Lyrics and Emotional Expression of the Japanese People -Focusing on Chronological Changes-

Characteristics of Vocabulary Found in Popular Song Lyrics and Emotional Expression of the Japanese People -Focusing on Chronological Changes-