Music: How it Touches Our Lives

Students in my intro to media class are writing what, for me, is always my favorite reflection paper of the semester: They each will pick two songs and dissect what those songs mean to them. I like it, because I learn more about my students and more about music.

For example, several students have used country songs. I am not a country fan, but I appreciate that genre more, knowing how it can impact their lives. So I’m going to do the assignment first, although I’ll cover more than two songs.

First, some background—we know that Pop Music is, well, popular, but also rather simple. In class, we enjoyed (at least I enjoyed) this famous video by the Axis of Awesome that plays with that idea:

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So, music does not have to be complex to be popular—and Pop Music is a commodity that is processed and sold. Still, music does have meaning, I think.

The music world suffered a loss when Top Petty died on Oct. 2, 2017. He was not my favorite musical act (my enduring favs are the fab four), but I enjoyed many of his songs. And many have been covered, which says something about a musician’s impact. And in the wake of this death, Miley Cyrus and her dad performed a very poignant cover of “Wildflowers,” a song that today will bring almost any Petty fan to tears:

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Lemony Snickett wrote “that which is too stupid to be said is sung,” which I suppose has some truth—but music touches us with “large” emotions that aren’t easily reduced just to words, which is what I think Miley manages on that cover.

In Class, I played the Distrubed cover of “The Sounds of Silence,” showing that a song from my youth can be remade for today’s generations:

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That is a song by Paul Simon most popularly performed by Simon & Garfunkel. They weren’t every person’s cup of tea—some rock fans of that era almost made a point of hating S&G in the way that Celine Dion is today both loved and not loved—but I had an older sister who loved that duo, and I inherited an appreciation of them from her. Two of my favorites are “America” and “Only Living Boy in New York”:

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The songs are very much of that early 1970s time and place, a longing for a better world as the idealism of the hippie movement fell away. I can’t explain the mix of nostalgia and emotion I feel listening to those two songs, expect to say they are key parts of the soundtrack of my youth.

We also talked about how music is controversial and things that people should and would not say end up being sung. I played them a nice, catchy song by The Regrettes, which drops the F bomb repeatedly, and asked if they could summarize the message, and if they were offended by the lyrics. They weren’t offended, and several students dropped the F bomb in discussing the message—which goes, I suppose, to show that media does have an impact on behavior and norms that we don’t always understand. Student typically don’t drop F bombs in my classes, for the record.

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We also touched on music’s role as providing the anthems of political movements. And I played them a current song, which, as Iowa lawmakers are contemplating a bill clearly aimed at depressing the vote of young adults, I hope that they will take to heart:

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Speaking of politics, we didn’t even get to “Zombie” by The Cranberries—a song I’ve always enjoyed, and that I like the message of. It’s an anti-violence song set in the background of the troubles in Ireland, but certainly can apply to today, and I particularly am touched by the second version, a cover by a Canadian community choir:

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I have not explored any two of these songs in depth, students, which you will do—but I think you can see it’s easy to connect your music to larger themes, which would be easy to expand upon, which is what I hope you do in your papers. There is so much more I could do on this post—I didn’t use any Lake Street Dive songs, for example, nor any by Tessa Violet. Nor did I touch on parody, satire or Randy Rainbow. Maybe I’ll have to do more posts.

Anyway, in parting, most couples have “that song,” and for my wife and I, it was Bette Midler singing “The Rose.” I also like this version, a more contemporary performance by the woman who wrote the song:

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