Emotion and Meaning in Music

Although never they signed to Berry Gordy Jr.'s Motown Records, Earth, Wind and Fire's timeless classic "September" is the epitome of Motown-era rhythm and blues and disco.  This song communicates the feeling of joy to me because it's just a feel good song that makes you want to get up and dance, which could be an index.  No one can frown while this song is playing.  The infectious "Ba de ya" during the chorus can penetrate any bad mood and forces a smile on your face.  Along with being a joyous tune, this song is about sharing past experiences or rekindling a relationship that has faded which leads to better communication and bonds.  I always listen to this song whenever I am trying to recover from a negative blow in my life.

  

In spite of the fact that I never went through an "emo phase" in middle school, I did find myself listening to a more of a "harder" rock scene.  This power ballad, "The End" by Silverstein is one of those songs.  Anyway, whenever I am sad and want to believe that I am not the only miserable person in the world, I put on this song. What starts out as a man who seems to be talking to himself about what happened in a previous relationship slowly develops into a conversation between past lovers.  

The actual words, or symbol, in this song are exceptionally powerful.  The man compares the couples relationship to a house that he procedes to burn down.  This may imply that he wanted to end the relationship or just wanted to hurt his significant other.  Either way, during the song the duo claims that when they were together, their feelings were genuine, however, sometimes things happen and you have to move on.

"Hurricane" by Bob Dylan is a anger-driven rant of about the true events that took place June 17, 1966.  Around 2:30 a.m. in Paterson, New Jersey (about twenty minutes from where I live) there was a triple murder at a bar.  There were two black males seen running from the bar.  Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a contender for the middleweight crown, was arrested, charged and convicted because he was African-American.  Even though the prosecution could not produce the murder weapon or any motive for Carter to commit these acts, and was imprisoned for almost twenty years. 

This song is an index for the speeches that Martin Luther King Jr. made during the Civil Rights Movement in the sixties.   

When I hear the song "All Together Now" by The Beatles it instantly takes me back to being a kid and waiting for the bus with my Dad in his car, which would be an index.  He would always have on the classic rock station, Q104.3.  We would sit and listen to "Breakfast with The Beatles" every morning.  Also, other than Barry Manilow, The Beatles are the only music from the past century that my Mom actually enjoys.  She still has a lot of the old vinyls from when she was a kid.  Even though my favorite song by The Beatles is "Eleanor Rigby," "All Together Now" takes me back to New Jersey and my family.

When I was younger, I would tear up whenever I heard this song. This song is very depressing to me, not because I have a father like this but rather because I have known kids with dads like this, and it breaks my heart.  Actually, I have a great Dad who I want to grow up and be like.  The father in this song is everything a man shouldn't be.  He puts everything ahead of his son and doesn't spend any time with him.  His son is at a very impressionable stage where he sees his father doing work or other things ahead of him.  When the child finally grows up he does flips the coin and does not have the time to hang around with his father.  With this song, like most people, I have an indexical relationship and think back to the times with my Dad.