When I listen to music I always try to understand the words, to get and to learn the pronunciation, but I don't care much about the meaning.
The meaning, I believe, is something more personal, something that is subjective, a feature of the song that is not immediately clear, but needs time to take some kind of form . If an artist explains the meaning of their lyrics, they ruin that touch of magic present in it.
Sometimes excerpts of a song without any kind of meaning have a great potential. Interpretative potential, I mean! Everybody may give a personal interpretation to it, and that's amazing.
It is clear that this doesn't happen with every song, and that's even more amazing!
Let's start talking about "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay. I like it, but with some kind of reserve. I'll explain later.
What does this song talk about? Well, at first sight... ops, listening... this song talks about kings, castles, Jerusalem...
I may over-generalize a bit, but basically almost all songs talks about love and/or drug! Both are addictive and make one feel better. Pay attention! I'm not talking about the consequences...
I think that this song talks about a love story finished in a bad way. Everything was fine, going right. Then something happened, in a blink of an eye and apparently without a clear reason. He (I'm almost sure that the song is about a man. It's women that tend to leave men without clear reasons! :-P ) discovers that everything he believed in, such as faithfulness, was just an illusion and that nobody around him wanted to tell him.
Well, the part about Jerusalem is not so clear!
As the song goes on, he tries to find some kind of relief in someone who will have to be for him a sort of shelter (be my sword and shield), but at the same time also an advisor (be my mirror).
In the second part he admits in a certain way that he, too, may have made some mistake, but it is not so clear.
The song finishes with the refrain repeated many times and a lot of ooh ooh, too!
Oh, if you have some more minutes to waste, take a look at these videos! Listen carefully, because the first one regards plagiarism! :-)
The second one is about misheard lyrics... Well, sometimes it is very hard to catch every word of the lyrics, but the author of this video did a great job! ^_^
That's the last, but not the least. I love this song so much! I'm really curious to see how an English speaker would interpret this song! :-)
AND HERE IT IS...MY PERSONAL MINDMAP!!!!
14 anni fa
Dear Mario, what would the course have been without you ;-) ?
RispondiEliminaSo, let's see. The first one is soooo interesting. Recently, Alan Clark came out with a song "Father and Friend" which, I swear, takes the music from my favorite song by the Indigo Girls when I was a teenager. The whole issue of music plagiarism is so very complicated. Is it original if it's the same and you'd never heard the other? Mah... The second video - won't load in YouTube but I'll keep trying. The third video - how am I supposed to interpret it as an English speaker? It reminds me of the four years I spent playing bass guitar in a punk rock band (that was, yes, back in the eighties). But there wasn't any YouTube back then so there are no videos to make my name in history ;-) I also played bass in the school jazz band and was the only girl, and the only white person, so for the school I was 'the white bitch who played bass' :-) Anyway, no interpretation, just enjoyed watching the chick play the bass guitar :-) Finally, when I went to Lerici with my two 13-year-old nieces, the Italian one brought along her cd of the 'Bastards' and my sister, American niece and I got such a laugh out of this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0olGzl4Ooc First we couldn't figure out what on earth they were saying, and the meaning? which day is which? To sum up, music is great :-) Have a fantastic summer and good luck on your thesis.
Sarah
I know, I know! I'm able to make any course very special! ;-)
RispondiEliminaI definitely agree with you when you say that music plagiarism is a very complicated issue! I think I know enough about music, I listen to many different bands and different genres. This is something that has positive and negative aspects. It is positive because I'm never bored, for I've got so much songs to listen to, but at the same time, when I listen to a song my brain goes crazy if it catches a particular tune. Every time that this happens I start my search among my cds, my mp3s and the web. My friends hates me because I am always able to find an unknown band who anticipated a famous artist (maybe one of my friend's favourite) in playing a tune. They also mock me (prendono in giro, is it right?) because I know bands such as Mando Diao, Bloc Party, and so on. :-P
You really play the bass? Amazing! Did you quit it now! You have to teach your sons!
As regard the Bastard Sons of Dioniso, well, they are from Valsugana, Trentino, my region. They made their first video in a pub where I used to go (when I was younger! now I'm too old for those places :-P) in Riva del Garda. They're quite good, but I think they better keep on writing songs in Italian! Writing song in English is cool, but also dangerous! I recall the lyrics a friend of mine wrote when we played together! What a laughter! It was 100% maccheroni English!ù
Thanks for everything!
Ich wünsche dir einen schönen Sommer und viel Erfolg! ^_^
Mario