Fellow classmates and teacher of AP English,
I want to welcome you guys to my blog about rhetoric of songs. My name is Gary Guillermo and I am a senior. From a young age I have always been interested in music. Not only did I like to hear music but I also liked to listen intently to the lyrics that certain lyricists used. I am constantly being awed by their writing techniques using different types of pathos used by the lyricists.
With this blog I want to share my understanding of certain songs with you. I will look at the lyrics of songs in-depth and depict them to you as I see them. I will try to give meaning to the different styles of writing techniques of the lyricists in their music. Some of the lyrics I chose will be mostly of the Hip-Hop and Rap genre. Some of those artists will include Common, Nas, Talib Kweli, and Lupe Fiasco to name a few.
Since I know not everyone listens to just Hip-Hop and Rap I would like to ask you for some suggestions if you would like. My knowledge of other genres of music is very low so I will need the help of you to be as diverse as possible. I would like to thank you for reading my blog and hope to get some song suggestions soon.
I want to welcome you guys to my blog about rhetoric of songs. My name is Gary Guillermo and I am a senior. From a young age I have always been interested in music. Not only did I like to hear music but I also liked to listen intently to the lyrics that certain lyricists used. I am constantly being awed by their writing techniques using different types of pathos used by the lyricists.
With this blog I want to share my understanding of certain songs with you. I will look at the lyrics of songs in-depth and depict them to you as I see them. I will try to give meaning to the different styles of writing techniques of the lyricists in their music. Some of the lyrics I chose will be mostly of the Hip-Hop and Rap genre. Some of those artists will include Common, Nas, Talib Kweli, and Lupe Fiasco to name a few.
Since I know not everyone listens to just Hip-Hop and Rap I would like to ask you for some suggestions if you would like. My knowledge of other genres of music is very low so I will need the help of you to be as diverse as possible. I would like to thank you for reading my blog and hope to get some song suggestions soon.
16 comments:
Dear Gary,
I have read your post and I have noticed that you are a good writer. Although it seems that you didn't put time into it, it is still a great piece of writing. In regards to your topic, I think that your topic is best to you not to me because you mentioned that you enjoy music. I hope I get to know more about the music and the lyrics because I really don't pay attention to those kind of details.
Your writing friend,
Leo Jagetro Aka Wolverine
Gary,
i really liked that you started off with a warm welcome and talk a little about how you got to like music. i also liked that you advised your peers and me about what kind of songs you will be talking about. it was really good that you wanted to suggestions on other genres that you are not familiar with.
Vanessa Reyes
Gary,
I'm glad to see you are part of this scholarly community and taking on this gargantuan challenge. Do you plan to find representatives from all different genres of music to explore how they utilize rhetoric? If so, how do you plan to label the genres? Perhaps there is commonality to be found between the sound and label of the genre and the lyrical content. May I suggest some diverse and lyrically rich titles and artists for your journey?
• The Beatles – “Here, There, Everywhere”, “Come Together” or anything from the later era. “For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” is an interesting Found Poem to examine. Or you could simply study your theme song “I’m So Tired”.
• Led Zeppelin – they have many songs that allude to Tolkien. You know I like that!
• Billy Joel – for historical songs. “Goodnight Saigon”, “Leningrad” and “Summer, Highland Falls”
• Bruce Springsteen – blue collar American songs. “The River”, “Thunder Road”, “The Ghost of Tom Joad”, and “The Promised Land”
• Leonard Cohen – “Hallelujah” and “Democracy”
• Guns N’ Roses – “Estranged” and “Civil War”
• U2 – “One”, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, and “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses”
• Elton John (Bernie Taupin is the lyricist) “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters”, “The One”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”
• Meatloaf – “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” (Very interesting rhetoric in that song though perhaps inappropriate. . .)
• Lauryn Hill - “Zion”
• Sarah MacLaughlan - “Building a Mystery”
• Fleetwood Mac – “Silver Springs”
• Eazy E – “Boyz N Tha Hood” (Though clearly it may be inappropriate for scholarly work)
• Garth Brooks – “The Dance”, “Standing Outside the Fire”, “She’s Every Woman”
• Howard Ashman and Alan Menken – “Part of Your World”, “Beauty and the Beast”. (Yes, I am talking about the Disney Films!!)
I have many more songs with great lyrics but have already spent enough time away from grading papers. Drop by if you need any help with this project.
Warmest regards,
Miss Tran
Tran I can't see your blogs.
Gary,
The rhetoric of songs is definitely the most awesome topic there is. Every song has a message, and in order to send that message an songwriter must pick out words to send that message out clearly. I sometimes try to work out what songs are saying, but some just sound like nonsense with too many words. As for suggestions for songs where rhetoric is used in a perfect way, I would suggest one song which is Bonzo goes to Bitburg - by The Ramones. It's about Ronald Reagan's controversial visit to a Bitburg cemetery. Or Iron Maiden's-2 Minutes to Midnight, Tiger Army's- Under Saturn's Shadow. I look forward to seeing the analysis of rhetoric in songs from you.
Gary,
I really enjoyed your welcoming to others. I also think that you are a great writer but that you could have added more things to your introduction to the rhetoric of songs/music. In my opinion you have one of the best or maybe even the best topic in the class. I’m pretty sure many students like my self are really interested in your topic and its purpose. I would also like to hear more about the lyrics of the song but not only based on hip-hop and rap but other genres as well. Your topic is actually really interesting because I am pretty sure many people don’t really pay attention to the lyrics as much as you do.
Well I hope to learn more about the purpose of music and its lyrics.
- Jenny
Dear Gary,
I liked the way you introduced your topic and at the same time i am interested on your topic because i like music as well but doesnt pay attention much to the lyrics as much as the beats. I listen to some of the lyrics but not to all songs. I hope that this blog will show me the hidden messages within the lyrics. I listen to the same genre as you do and i look forward on reading more about your blog.
I've noticed that the artist that you picked seem to have a few songs with messages in them. I've never heard of Talib Kweli, but then again, I'm not much a hip-hop/rap fan. I've believed that maybe that genre might have been good back in the days, but now, it's seems more like a quick scam for rappers to become famous and rich. I've felt that rap music is simply about degrading women and bragging about how tough the rapper is.
Diversity is a very good thing, especially when it comes to cultural things like music. Maybe look into some foreign music while you're at it. You never know what you might gain.
Hey Gary,
Obviously Ms. Tran beat me to The
Beatles, since they are known to have weird and "drug" songs to say the least, Im glad you are looking forward to finding the writing in songs. I myself simply like to see everything as a sweet nice poem every song is a new feeling, adn every lyric is a nee meaning.
"Black Bird", "A day in the life"-Beatles
"Asylum"-Crass
Dear Gary,
I'm really intrigued by your topic by many ways. One of the ways that you topic intrigues me is that many times we just hear the beat and how the melody goes in the music/ song; and we don’t put much attention to the lyrics. In my opinion you would help us by knowing how to actually listen instead of hearing these songs. The second reason I’m intrigued by your topic is that I’m don' really hear the genres your covering, but I would actually like learn more about these songs; and why these particularly genres that mesmerizes you. If you want suggestion on other genres I would suggest getting many varieties like bachata, underground, corridos, etc. so your classmates would be more interested than they already are.
Sincerely,
Masyeli M
Just Checking To See If It Works
Gary,
Sorry for the comment i put on the top problem was that yesterday i wrote 2 comments to you yesterday but it never got posted because my internet explorer kept closing on itself so i am using safari instead. Anyways gary thanks for your recommendation that you gave me. Yeah instead of using sophisticated words i should also use slang or what you call,"Cool Words", so once again thanks for your recommendation. Now your blog, if i would have known any better about your topic i would of chose your topic instead of mine. So let me ask you something: you said that as far as rap you don't know any other genres that may have rhetoric in them but i want to know what genres do you think may have rhetoric in them as well? Now i would like to recommend 3 songs to you: Champion-Kanye West, You Only Live Once-The Strokes,Run To The Hills-Iron Maiden. So hopefully you take my recommendation and find if any of my songs has rhetoric in them. I look forward to reading your blog and if you find rhetoric in my songs. So once again thanks for your recommendation
Hey gary
Well music is truly a wonderful art. I really enjoy hearing all kinds of music.I really dont have any preferences i usually just hear the words and they way an artist expresses himself in order to capture the audiences attention. Some artist i think you should look into are john lennon, the beatles, immortal teqnique, or even lil wayne lol. Well these are some artist that i believe put meaning language into their music. I hope you enjoy your travel through the wonderful world of music
sincerely
your classmate Hernan
Hi Gary,
Nice topic. I think it matches you very well and its refreshing to read something you're passionate about. I would like to suggest you look into Immortal Techinque. I think they're messages are truly captivating.
I'm not a fan of hip-hop or rap but I can't wait to see what you come up with.
-Dianasaur
Gary, you do have some good writng and it shows on your introduction. Yet, once i read the post it shows that not a lot of time was put into writing this post because it is really short, but other than that you show some really good examples like the type of lyrics and songs you choose to listen. Besides the short writing, it is really good.
Gary, you can moderate this blog, I believe. For example you can delete both your and Vincent's "Is it working?" posts.
Your covetous classmates are correct when they say your have an embarrassment of riches with this topic.
I'll add to Tran's cheat-sheet and Vincent's call-in requests -- but I'll stick to artists and let you dig for the albums.
Soul Coughing
Morphine
Tracy Chapman
Counting Crows
Also, if you do not have a pandora account, get one:
www.pandora.com
Finally, yes, Tran, if you want to play, play fair and unblock yourself!
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