I believe almost everyone one of you agree with me that that "Music" plays a important and big part of our life. We listen to music when we are sad, feeling alone or even at parties. Many of you also have probably hummed, whistled or even sang your favorite songs. I know i have. I love music, and have always listened to it. There are many great bands and singers. And new one's always coming along. Although some prefer the original and classic ones. Everyone has their own taste in music and that's the way it should be as well.
Why do you listen to music the way you do? Do you listen to songs because you like the beat of it, because its catchy or just because it's your favorite singer? Have you ever wondered what the song actually means by taking each and every single word and combining it? Most likely every song will have a meaning or story behind it.
Sadly, some of us or even most of us often interpret the real meaning of songs. We often miss the intended context of songs and the whole time we thought of what we had was wrong. Lets take a look at the definition meaning of "misinterpretation". As taken from www.Dictionary.com:
misinterpretation is to interpret, explain, or understand incorrectly.
Bruce Springsteen also known as "the boss" is an american singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is known mostly for his heartland rock music. However one of Springsteen's famous song called "Born in the U.S.A" was misinterpreted by many. It is known in the Top 10 misinterpreted songs ever. The song was not intended to be "patriotic" or "nationalism" who many thought it had. Although it does sound patriotic because of the obvious chorus "I was born in the U.S.A". Not did it only fool many people, the song even fooled former president Ronald Reegan. Who had thought it to be a very patriotic song. Lyrically, the song deals with the negative effect it had on Vietnam war on Americans. The important lyrics of the song were missed.
"Sent me off to a foreign land, To go and kill the yellow man".
Another song that was misinterpreted was by the band Maroon 5. The song was "Harder to Breathe". It was also one of the Top misinterpreted songs. The misinterpretation of the song was as the title of the album suggested many of the songs are about Jane, who is the lead singer in Adam Levine's ex-girlfriend. However this song was not about Jane. It was about a scam of a record label company that was accusing Maroon 5. They were forcing them to make certain songs and release them one after the other .In the following lyrics we can see the pain:
Next time you listen to a song ask yourself what is the song trying to say?
1 comments:
Generally, people use music for numerous reasons, from relieving stress to just for fun. Our lives or at least mine revolves around music. However, there is quite a bit of misinterpretation when it comes to music. Bruce Springsteen,one of Americas most renown rock and roll musicians who happens to be one of my personal favorites. Raj describes one of Bruce's songs "Born in the USA" as being one of the most misinterpreted songs of all time, which I completely agree with. There is a huge discourse behind the actual lyrics of this song. One of the biggest controversial war in American history, the Vietnam War. Many people, and Americans especially, believe that continuing to send Americans to Vietnam when it was clear there was going to be no victory was a blunder on Americas behalf. Now it is easy to miss the true meaning of these lyrics, as they are written for it to sound and look as if they were nationalist lyrics about how great being an American is, it actually is quite the opposite. The song is really talking about the hardships people encountered in the Vietnam war, for instance.
"I had a brother at Khe Sanh
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone"
It's talking about how when the Americans were fighting off the South Vietnamese army, known as the Viet Cong, and even after many battles with this army, they still were in this city, but his brother was dead, so what was the point of fighting. Another main part of the song is talking about the troubles veterans of the Vietnam war faced when they returned home, as Raj said.
The other song Raj talked about "Harder to Breath" by Maroon 5, hit's closer to home for people like me, people who like to create or produce music. Musicians, including myself, use music as a way of expressing ourselves, and if a record label were to force someone to create certain songs, the artist looses all passion for creation because they aren't doing what they want.
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