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Tonal song analysis (Rough Draft)

"Gone"

By: Kelly Clarkson

Illustrating a tone of satiric accusations in Kelly Clarkson's "Gone", a young girl confesses all about a relationship that went very wrong, using insightful characterization, reflective apostrophe, and matter-of-fact narration, by talking about how this boy didn't treat her right and really didn't care about her as a person.

At the very beginning Clarkson describes what it was like for this girl to be in a relationship with the boy stating that he told "...Lies that drop like acid rain/ You washed away the best of me/ You don't care". Clarkson, using characterization, is describing how this boy is always lying to the girl and how he really didn't care that he was hurting her at all. She speaks of being "shattered" and "broken... /whenever she was with him". By stating these things Clarkson is trying to convey how truly painful it was to be in a relationship with this boy. She describes the relationship as being "back and forth, up and down like a roller coaster". 

One thing always declared in the song, using reflective apostrophe, is that the girl is "...gone/ To find someone to live for/ In this world". She is revealing how she was able to get out of her unhealthy relationship with the boy and is looking for someone who truly appreciates her for who she is. She is almost speaking to the boy through this song, about how made her feel bad and insecure in the relationship. She later backs up her reasoning for breaking up with this boy by very contemptuously stating that "there's no light at the end of the tunnel tonight/ just a bridge that I gotta burn". She wants to this boy to know she is not coming back to him because she has already 'burned that bridge' and now there is no going back for her, which helps to contribute to this tone of satiric accusations.

Towards the end of  the song, using matter-of-fact narration, Clarkson is almost ranting about how said boy came and asked her to get back together with him. But she makes it seem more like he demands they get back together by saying, "If you think you can walk right through my door/... Coming back when I've finally moved on." But she completely refuses him because she acknowledges that she's already been there and done that and doesn't want to go back (especially with him). She blatantly declares that "Sorry doesn't cut it.../ Take the hit and walk away/ 'Cause I'm gone". This girl really wants him to realize that what they once might have had is now over and won't ever come back, and he has no one to blame for that except himself. 

Gone is a very appropriate name for this song, because its truly about a girl who is finally realizing how to stand up for herself. Clarkson tries to really convey that this girl is finally done being a doormat for this boy and that she is taking charge of her relationship and saying 'I'm done' and leaving to find someone who really cares and respects her and doesn't make her feel out of control and insecure. By the end Clarkson has shown us that the girl is "already gone" and won't ever let this boy or any other step all over her again, by showing all of these literary devices such as characterization, apostrophe, and narrative. All of these things are used to covey the most important part of this song...which is it satiric accusatory tone. 

Dual Binary Thesis: Tone

Pink Floyd vs. Boston

Through both Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar" and Boston's "Rock n' Roll Band" convey a band becoming famous and signing a record deal, Boston shows the enthusiastic optimism of their journey from garage band to an internationally famous one, while Pink Floyd uses a cynically disdainful tone to illustrate and reveal the true inner workings of most relationships between the music companies and their bands. 

Binary Thesis Statement

Radioactive vs. Pompeii

      Through both Imagine Dragon's "Radioactive" and Bastille's "Pompeii" the speakers layout a extreme alteration in their lives, The Imagine Dragons are being "welcomed to the new age" and trying to begin a new life in a very changed world than the one they once knew, while in Bastille the speakers are living with the reality that their world is about to come to a tragic end so they ask themselves "Where do we begin? / The rubble or our sins?".

• Lyrics for Radioactive

  

• Lyrics for Pompeii

Album Review: Halcyon

 Halcyon

By: Ellie Goulding

       Ellie Goulding is a fantastic artist. She became a big hit in America after her single 'Lights'. Which is also featured on her album, Halcyon, as a bonus track. Ellie Goulding grew up in England and is a relatively new artist in the music industry. So far in her music career she has been quiet successful. She has done songs for some major motion pictures such as 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire' and 'Divergent'. Goulding topped the music charts in both England and America. She also preformed for Prince William and Catherine Middleton at their wedding reception. Overall in the short time that Ellie Goulding has been singing professionally, she has had great success and is a very talented artist.

     Ellie Goulding has had great success in her music career so far and this album was no different. Halcyon is a very emotional album full of both ups and downs. To begin, the first few songs start off very dejected and sorrowful but slowly the begin to show glimmers of hope in the lyrics, such as in the songs 'I Know You Care', 'Burn', 'Goodness Gracious', 'Halcyon' and 'Figure 8'. All of these songs begin to help the albums dreary mood to start to show more feelings of renewed hope and happiness.

     Halcyon is defiantly a must to listen to album. The songs in the album send out a very powerful emotional message. The album was very well made and is a very beautiful piece of musical genius created by Ellie Goulding. Goulding defiantly put a lot of effort into this album to influence her listeners, and to also touch them with her music so that they can understand how she feeling. By makes her listeners feeling that even if things aren't looking so good it doesn't mean that things won't get better, it helps Goulding to really reach that level of understanding with them. Especially as your outlook on different situations becomes more and more hopeful and optimistic.

Song Analysis 1: 'Human'

Human

By: Christina Perri

Revealing what it is to be human in “Human,” Christina Perri shows wistful mood, touching figurative language, and first person point(s) of view, that help to portray the concept that people are “only human” and they can be built up only to be hurt and fall down.

Christina Perri (CP) sings about putting up with a hurtful situation that gives off a wistful mood throughout the song. The conflict in the song is a hurtful one but CP goes on and “bites her tongue” in order to get through it. But the situation just keeps getting worse and she feels as if the people around her treat her like a machine. As if she doesn’t have feelings and can’t be hurt by their awful words, she is forced to “fake smiles” and “force laughs” she “dances around and plays the part” she has been given, since that is what they have asked her to do. All the while trying to ignore the effects of this hurtful situation, she really wants them to understand that she is “only human”. And she says throughout the song: “I’m only human and I bleed when I fall down and I crash and I break down” all the while explaining that their words are like “knives in her heart” and how those words also affect her by “building her up and then I fall apart”.  She’s “just a little human” and then finally she’s had enough and stands up for herself. Showing them that she isn’t a machine but in truth a human who has been hurt quite a lot! And hopefully she will be able change her situation to a much cordial and happy setting.

CP uses many different phrases in her song to help convey that wistful mood but she also uses those words and phrases, in order to show off the touching figurative language sprinkled throughout the song. CP is trying to make us really feel what the speak is feeling by saying things like: “Knives in my heart” or “I can hold the weight of worlds”. She isn’t really being hurt with a knife and she most definitely cannot hold the actual weight of worlds, but CP wants us to understand that it almost feels like she is doing these things but in an emotional sense instead of a physical one. The figurative language throughout helps to invoke a almost sensitive feeling that is helping to build up to that sense of wistfulness in the mood.

One of the final literary devices used in CP’s song ‘Human’, is first person POV. During her song we don’t really know if the speaker is actually CP or if it is someone else that is talking about their situation and feelings. But regardless of who the speaker is, they tell us this story of how people have treated them as “a good machine”, even though they have said that they “bleed when I fall down” and describe how they “Crash and break down”. By all of these things being told from first person POV we know have this one certain person is feeling, which help us, as the audience, really understand what is going on and make a better almost personal connection with the speaker. And by making that connection it makes the speakers emotions come through to us the listener that much clearer and stronger.

Describing what seems to be a bad situation for the speaker, who through out this song struggles to make a bad situation more bearable but soon reaches their limits and stops trying to make it better and finally say “I’ve had enough”! Christina Perri really gets her point across in this song ‘Human’, by using literary devices such as wistful mood, touching figurative language, and first person POV. All of these devices help us to really understand and appreciate how the speaker is feeling throughout this wonderfully beautiful song.

CLICK HERE TO SEE LYRICS

Theme-Genre Declaration

My theme-genre is going to be...

Emotions in Alternative/Pop

I chose this as my theme-genre because I love the emotions and feelings that you hear the artist sing about in their songs and I want to learn to get deeper into those emotions and figure out what they really want their listeners to hear and feel when listening to their music!