In thread C3, we constantly discussed how song lyrics can be taken out of context. For example; in the song Every Breath You Take by The Police, the lyrics are about a special women (one would presume) which he watches and is in a way 'obsessed' with. "Every breath you take Every move you make Every bond you break Every step you take I'll be watching you."
In that lyrical exert, you can see the whole 'obsession' vibe coming from the lyrics. However, how can we be so sure the song is actually about it? I can see this song actually be about a man who really loves a women, or vice versa. However, upon browsing the youtube video of the song, it was apparent that comments were directed about the NSA and how they were surveying the population of United States.
A little historic peek, the NSA was recently exposed for spying on their citizens. This is an example of how lyrics can be taken out of its context to be mistaken. It is quite amusing to think of the lyrics in this sense.
"Since you've gone I've been lost without a trace.
I dream at night, I can only see your face. I look around but it's you I can't replace. I feel so cold, and I long for your embrace. I keep crying baby, baby please..."
The
song “Born to Die” is sang by Lana Del Rey, and was chosen for this blog
because of the way the lyrics could be wildly interpreted, especially if we
take it out of its music video context. Later in the blog I will reveal the
true intention behind this song, and its meaning. However, aside from its
intended meaning, this song can be interpreted in many different views. We
imagine different contexts because; “we construe song lyrics by filling in
vaguely implied information as a way of creating intelligible situations and
stories of our own” (Durant, 2009, p. 138). It is important to understand that a song can
essentially be interpreted in countless ways, since every listener will
construct the lyrics differently. There will not be a single listener who will
have the exact same thoughts, same as the situation in which we listen to the
song. Listening to a song for enjoyment produces different responses as opposed
to listening to the song for an assignment. Originally I thought the song was
about a ‘wild’ relationship, since Lana sang “let me kiss you hard in the
pouring rain, you like your girls insane.” From that sentence, I interpreted an
physically intimate relationship, this context was once again transformed when
I allocated all my attention to the song lyrics, in which different contexts
arose.
From the lyrics,
I can imagine three different situations these lyrics would invoke in
listeners; a relationship doomed to fail, religious enlightenment, and life.
Amusing enough, the three contexts brought up were not relevant to the original
meaning of the song; which Lana said was about an ill boyfriend who died.
First Verse:
Feet don’t fail me now
Take me to the finish line
Oh my heart, it breaks with every
step that I take
From the first
context of a relationship doomed to fail, these lyrics could be interpreted as
Lana struggling to persevere through this relationship. “Oh my heart, it breaks
with every step that I take” can be understood of how the relationship is
riddled with conflicts, with arguments being a very common part of her
relationship. Another context can interpret this verse as an analogy to life,
and our search for the significance and our purpose in life. Speaking from my
own experiences, I am still lost when I think about the meaning of my life. I
constantly struggle to justify what I do in my day-to-day routine, and this
continually creates pain for me knowing of my own futile attempts. The “finish
line” in the verse could be used to address a goal of sorts, or the desirable
final product that Lana is seeking.
Lana
goes on to sing “But I’m hoping at the gates, they’ll tell me that you’re mine.”
This line can be interpreted from a religious point of view, as it could be a
possible reference to the ‘gates’ of heaven, in which not all can enter. In the
context of struggling to find a true purpose in life, the words “at the” seeks
to pinpoint a specific thing, the gate. The wording in this line and all
throughout the song is what makes this song so relatable to different context.
The language chosen within the lyrics is not very specific, just like the use
of “they’ll tell me that you’re.” Who is
“they” and who is “you.” This form of language is what allows listeners to
construct different contexts throughout the song. A common theme along this
song’s lyrics is the way Lana chooses to use reification and fixation to
reproduce the lyrics into something permanent and reproducible. Reification
means turning a process/set of things into something fixed, resulting in a
product. Instead of listening to verbal lyrics, reading the song also results
in different contexts and understandings. Alan Durant (2009) wrote that “speech
can be captured as writing, for example… Writing can be turned into printed
text. Both formats convert the evanescent character of speaking into something
permanent and reproducible” (p. 18). In Lana’s case, she is transforming the
vocal lyrics of her song and converting it into written lyrics, which can be
much better analyzed than it, would be if it were just heard once.
The next excerpt from the song really
sums up our life in a verse:
Don’t make me sad, don’t make me
cry
Sometimes love is not enough and
the road gets tough
I don’t know why
Keep making me laugh
Let’s go get high
The road is long, we carry on
Try to have fun in the meantime
After further research,
Lana was referring to her boyfriend in this verse. However, when I listened to
the song, my own experiences formed a different context; an analogy to life. To
me, she is almost begging life to not crush her. I connected to this song with
my experiences as the verse foreshadows that not everything will always be fun
and games, and all rosy in life. What
really constructs the whole “life can’t always be fun and games” meaning for me
is the last two lines, where she sings “The road is long, we carry on. Try to
have fun in the meantime.”
Lost but now I am found
I can see but once I was blind
I was so confused as a little child
Tried to take what I could get
Scared that I couldn’t find
All the answers, honey
This verse is
very important from an analytic point of view because it is directly related to
another song. The song goes “lost but now I am found, I can see but once I was
blind” which is an exact copy as the classic Christian song “Amazing Grace” by
John Newton. Just as how I can identify the song as an analogy to life, Lana
could also identify her own experiences as she compares her life to the
Christian hymn. This line is also very powerful in the sense of how relatable
it can be in many different contexts. For example; “lost but now I am found, I can
see but once I was blind” can simultaneously reference relationships, god, love,
or even finding a purpose of life.
“Born to Die” is
a strongly relatable song because of its register; the language is designed to
adhere to certain contexts. Songs like Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die” are highly
relatable because of the words chosen in the lyrics. She never specifically
states someone or something; many contexts are not excluded. Her constant use
of “I” puts listeners in her shoes, and thus allows them to take any route they
want in their musical journey. The reason why register within a song is
important is because of the discourse it produces. The discourse group created
by a common clubbing song or today’s pop hits is vastly different from the
discourse group created by people who listened to Lana Del Ray. In a way, it is
a much more ‘fulfilling’ discourse. Songs about alcohol and clubbing, or even
about promiscuity and sex are in many ways much more explicit, leaving no room
for imagination. However, a song like “Born to Die” contains many analogies,
and has room for interpretation.
Overall “Born to
Die” is a great song for both its sentimental value, but also for its analytic
value. The song allows room for many different interpretation and its register
and style allows it to do so. The discourse it creates is widespread, purely
due to the first person perspective of the song, making it highly relatable. If
this song was played on YouTube with a picture of the cross, or a figure of
Christian importance, the discourse community could immediately shift to religious,
along with its genre. Out of all the possible contexts imagined, I personally
like to think of this song as an analogy to life, even with its title; “Born to
Die.” The message I got from this song is that, life has its up and downs, and
although sometimes things get rough, it is important to try to have fun in the
meantime.
This blog is a
continuation of the first TMZ blog, due to the length going over the
recommended amount.
The TMZ blog and comments from readers do adhere to the
code in a way that it is not extremely toxic, and has a fine balance of sorts.
Death wishes are not tossed back and forth; the most is just offensive
bantering. Maybe the Code is being adhered, where the inappropriate comments
are being deleted before seen by too many, explaining the lack of overly harsh
statements.
TMZ itself is not an overly polite site, it constantly
blogs on the ‘dirty laundry’ of celebrities. Just on the front page, gossip on
numerous celebs including Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashin, and Pamela Anderson is displayed,
with bold headlines and criminalizing photos. Although this format of blogging
may not be the most courteous, it does execute it’s sole task well… It allows
an instant explosion of gossip information, article headings and pictures serve
well to spoon feed readers the social update needed. In this sense, the blog is
very successful in online communication.
After reading Crystal’s analysis on blogging in Language and the Internet, I can match
TMZ to the statements made in the article. Just as Crystal stated, discourse is
constantly present in the blog, which seem more like streams of thought. This
also touches on the way the blogs are written; non-standard English. Unlike
Standard English, the non-standard counterpart departs itself of its norms of
orthodox writing; less like a text, more like a conversation in real life. Crystal
also claims that blogs increasingly became sources of news instead of
reflections of it, this is shown through TMZ, as it’s community of users use
the site purely as a celebrity news update.
TMZ
is a very popular celebrity gossip site that continuously updates it’s archives
with the latest stories. Albeit this site is busy, it is certainly not a site I
would personally spend my recreational time browsing… Which is exactly why I am
reviewing this site against O’Reilly’s draft code of Civility within blogs.
Firstly, this site appeals to a certain discourse; mediated entertainment. The
discourse community the blog creates is one where the public group that uses
the site is those that enjoy gossip of celebrities. Furthermore, in order to contribute
to the discussion about a specific article, the community must also obtain a
membership. This membership is easily attainable with just an email and
username. A site driven by curiosity, and snooping (to a certain degree) will
only be successful if they allow the community of readers to post their own
thoughts on the situation, no matter how toxic.
O’Reilly
has 6 rules to judge TMZ against, to conclude whether or not this site adheres
to the blogger code of conduct, and creates a friendly, hospitable community.
1.We take responsibility for our own words
and for the comments we allow on our blog.
Part of this rule
entails the constant maintenance of the community’s comments and content so
that they are not deemed unacceptable. TMZ clearly does not uphold this, all it
took was a quick browse over the comments section, in which users were toxic
towards the celebrity being discussed.
2.We won’t say anything online that we wouldn’t
say in person.
Hopefully
my faith in humanity won’t let me down, as I dare to say that I hope none of
the online users would repeat what
they posted in the comments.
3.We connect privately before we respond
publicly.
There
is no PM function. So, there is no way to connect privately.
4.When we believe someone is unfairly
attacking another, we take action.
There
is a chance of this rule being fulfilled as the comment section does have a ‘reply’
function, in which any good Samaritan
will use to defend their fellow peers from trolls.
5.We do not allow anonymous comments
In
a way, there is no anonymous commentators by O’Reilly’s definition of
anonymous; supply a valid
email used for contact. However, this email is only visible by the administrators
of the site, while the average user does
not have access to other peoples email. Only thing users have are the usernames/alias to take as face value.
6.We ignore the trolls
People
respond to nasty comments with even nastier comments of their own…
Up
until recently I have always taken my everyday interactions for granted, I
never knew the constant powerful theories and concepts that were at play during
my seemingly simple conversations. The most complicated I’ve ever had the
luxury to think of my everyday conversations was to look for physical and
verbal queues all throughout the conversations. I never had any idea of
register, tenor, field, mode and the other communication ‘devices.’
Register and style of speech is something
we all use, for the sake of arranging our text/speech in a way appropriate for
the particular context. For example, I would not walk up to my professor and
hold a fist up and exclaim; “Wusup dude?” No, definitely not, for that sort of
greeting is only appropriate among your closest friends, and even then you are
still at a risk of sounding like a babbling buffoon. If I were to sum it up,
HOW communication is executed, changes along with WHAT the topic being
communicated is, and to WHOM it is directed to. In the example of my Professor,
a friendly “Hello, how do you do?” goes much further than a “Sup pops?”
Call me a dork, but I just find it
so extremely exciting just to have the knowledge of how register and style
changes our perception and even social standing among our group of friends.
Thinking back, there have always been people who loved joking around, whereas
there are serious people. In a cognitive sense, their brain must have a preset
register and style. Luckily for my endless interest, register and style do not
limit themselves to verbal communication, but also textual.
Semiotic register is relevant to
typeface communication, in which design elements in the text contribute to
register, including our font, color, and layout. I’m sure we have all had that
moment when we enter an unknown webpage only to quickly backtrack out of it due
to the lack of vision appeal. For me, the font is a real killer; nothing screamsPROFESSIONAL more than adept use of comic
sans!
Stay
tuned for next blog folks! I will be reviewing a blog by applying previously
discussed concepts and more!~ Good day, and until next time!
We hear the word “media” constantly being tossed around
in our present society, but for good reason. Media is constantly around us,
whether it is the news we watch, the books we read, or even the people we
interact with, we are all helplessly intertwined with media. For me, media is
the technology we are exposed to in our everyday lives. By technology, I am
referring to all sorts of ‘mediums.’ Alan Durant (2009) wrote in his book Language and Media, that “Media may be
described as the technologies that extend human communication capabilities”
(2009, p. 57).
Being the quintessential source of influence in my life,
one can certainly assume how important media is to me. It basically makes up my
perceived ‘reality’ of life. Without media, I would be a boat without its body
of water, stuck in the barren ground, without any means of fulfilling its use. I
am constantly being exposed to information via the seemingly infinite mediums
around me; it really is both a blessing and a curse to have technology so
readily available to us nowadays.
However, as much as I appreciate the technology at my
disposal, I should also question how this constant bombardment of information
affects my mindset. Upon logging into my Facebook account, I am always quick to
check my timeline and literally get exposed to different news articles, all
with bold titles. However, how can I be sure of what I am reading as a source
valid information? In all honesty, I cannot.
There is where my bittersweet appreciation for media
comes to play, I love the convenience and usefulness everything related to
media brings to me, but at the same time I am hesitant to readily absorb the
vast array of shiny images, and bolded headlines presented. Media can quite
possibly be a tool used by whoever is in control to desensitize and turn the
massive viewing population into zombies. I remember reading from somewhere that
media was an instrumental tool in shaping the general population to all be
alike, therefore easier to control.
I’ll leave you, the readers with the following question;
How big of an impact do you feel that media has on a society?
