The song that I think should be added to the list of 100 poetic songs:
Gravity ~ Sara Bareilles
This song is very poetic, scoring a 190 on the song rating sheet. While this number may not be as high as some others on the list, you have to take into account that the song actually has less lyrics to work with than those songs. But even though it has less lyrics, the song still manages to use a multitude of poetic devices such as imagery, paradox, hyperbole, symbolism, double entendre, alliteration, ambiguity, oxymoron, pun, and metaphor. It is also has a cohesive narrative, universal relevance, extended metaphor, sophisticated rhyme scheme, and a successful tone, and the vocals are emotionally evocative, showcasing an expansive range and being accompanied by virtuoso instrumentals. The song talks about the idea of not being able to get away from/get over something (I personally think it is getting over heartbreak; but the song is ambiguous because it is open to interpretation), using the metaphor/symbol of gravity to describe this feeling. The gravity is "keeping [her] down." This quote is also a double entendre because gravity literally keeps you down, but the "he" in this case is also keeping her down emotionally. This whole situation is accompanied by several paradoxes: "You hold me without touch/You keep me without chains". While these situations may seem illogical at first, this feeling of being kept by some unseen force actually happens a lot. That is the whole image that this song so adequately describes, by comparing it to gravity.
In addition to the poetic nature of the lyrics by themselves, this song is also very artistic in the way that the instrumentals, vocals, and structure of the music match up to the lyrics. The lyrics of the song describe a cycle: she starts off down ("Something always brings me back to you/It never takes too long"), throughout the middle of the song is building up strength to break free ("Set me free, leave me be/I don't want to fall another moment into your gravity" is the beginning of the chorus), by the bridge seems really angry and frustrated ("You're neither friend nor foe, though I/Can't seem to let you go/The one thing that I still know is that you're/Keeping me down"), before crashing back to where she began with the end: "Something always brings me back to you/It never takes too long." The music and the vocals match this cycle and build effect exactly. The song starts off soft, with just sparse piano chords, and builds up through the choruses and second verse. At the bridge, stacatto strings are added in giving the song a more agitated feel, it gets louder and the vocals get more urgent until all the music stops and all you hear is Sara' voice soaring on the word "down." Then the beginning repeats again; the chords and melody are almost exactly the same, indicating how the whole thing is a never-ending vicious cycle. For all these reasons, I think "Gravity" should definitely be on the list of the 100 poetic songs.
Lyrics
Monday, May 24, 2010
100 Poetic Songs
Hallelujah ~ Leonard Cohen
This song has been covered many times by many different artists, and with good reason, because it is a very good song. This song is extremely poetic, earning a grand total of 255 on the song rating sheet, and definitely deserves a spot on the list of the 100 most poetic songs. The song uses a multitude of poetic devices including imagery, allusions, characterization, ambiguity, irony, paradoxes, symbolism, allegory, and a motif of "Hallelujah." The song uses Bible stories as well as other religious allusions ("holy dove", "take the name in vain") to describe the painfulness of love. It uses irony because "Hallelujah" is usually used to express great joy; but in this case, "It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah." This song has universal relevance, because everyone has experienced that feeling where they are sad about something they should be happy about, and is very emotionally evocative. In addition, I always like when the tone of the lyrics match up with the mood of the music; but this song takes it one step further. The lyrics describing David's "secret chord:" "The fourth, the fifth/The minor fall, the major lift" are also describing the actual chord progression of that part of the song, which is something really artistic. Overall, this is definitely an extremely poetic song.
Lyrics
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Hey There Delilah ~ Plain White T's
This song is poetic, but I don't think it is one of the 100 most poetic songs ever. It scores a 137 on the song rating sheet, which is pretty decent, but mostly it uses the same devices over and over again. These devices are alliteration (assonance and consonance), hyperbole, and imagery. It also uses a few allusions (New York City and Times Square), a simile ("Times Square can't shine as bright as you"), and a metaphor ("Listen to my voice, it's my disguise"). The song also gets points for cohesive narrative, epic/universal relevance, original point of view (epistolary), and is emotionally evocative. The instrumentals are also mastery. It loses a few points for cliche phrases such as "Times are getting hard," and "The world will never ever be the same." The song is very straightforward: its basically a love letter to a girl far away telling her how great she is and soon they can be together. It doesn't really have any ambiguous qualities that leave you wondering what meaning was the one that the writer originally intended. The song uses poetic devices, but I think it goes a little overboard on the hyperbole (I found 8), which I've noticed tend to go hand in hand with cliches. So yes, it's a nice, poetic song, but one of the 100 best? Not really.
Lyrics
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Across The Universe ~ The Beatles
I think that this song also warrants being on the list of 100 poetic songs. Scoring a 231 on the song rating sheet, this song racks up most of its points from imagery and personification/objectification, but it also uses alliteration, hyperbole ("Nothing's gonna change my world"), allusion ("Jai guru deva om"), ambiguity (it's open to interpretation), similes and metaphors, and symbolism. In addition, it has epic/universal relevance, a pervasive mood, a successful tone, is emotionally evocative, and has instrumental mastery. The chorus mostly repeats "Jai guru deva om" and "Nothing's gonna change my world," but the verses use loads of imagery and personification, along with similes and metaphors, to describe thoughts and emotions. The language in the verses is very figurative, and very poetic. A really good example of the beautiful, thought-provoking language used is in the second verse: "Images of broken light which/dance before me like a million suns." This uses imagery, personfication, alliteration, and a simile all rolled into two short little lines!
Lyrics
This song has been covered many times by many different artists, and with good reason, because it is a very good song. This song is extremely poetic, earning a grand total of 255 on the song rating sheet, and definitely deserves a spot on the list of the 100 most poetic songs. The song uses a multitude of poetic devices including imagery, allusions, characterization, ambiguity, irony, paradoxes, symbolism, allegory, and a motif of "Hallelujah." The song uses Bible stories as well as other religious allusions ("holy dove", "take the name in vain") to describe the painfulness of love. It uses irony because "Hallelujah" is usually used to express great joy; but in this case, "It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah." This song has universal relevance, because everyone has experienced that feeling where they are sad about something they should be happy about, and is very emotionally evocative. In addition, I always like when the tone of the lyrics match up with the mood of the music; but this song takes it one step further. The lyrics describing David's "secret chord:" "The fourth, the fifth/The minor fall, the major lift" are also describing the actual chord progression of that part of the song, which is something really artistic. Overall, this is definitely an extremely poetic song.
Lyrics
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Hey There Delilah ~ Plain White T's
This song is poetic, but I don't think it is one of the 100 most poetic songs ever. It scores a 137 on the song rating sheet, which is pretty decent, but mostly it uses the same devices over and over again. These devices are alliteration (assonance and consonance), hyperbole, and imagery. It also uses a few allusions (New York City and Times Square), a simile ("Times Square can't shine as bright as you"), and a metaphor ("Listen to my voice, it's my disguise"). The song also gets points for cohesive narrative, epic/universal relevance, original point of view (epistolary), and is emotionally evocative. The instrumentals are also mastery. It loses a few points for cliche phrases such as "Times are getting hard," and "The world will never ever be the same." The song is very straightforward: its basically a love letter to a girl far away telling her how great she is and soon they can be together. It doesn't really have any ambiguous qualities that leave you wondering what meaning was the one that the writer originally intended. The song uses poetic devices, but I think it goes a little overboard on the hyperbole (I found 8), which I've noticed tend to go hand in hand with cliches. So yes, it's a nice, poetic song, but one of the 100 best? Not really.
Lyrics
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Across The Universe ~ The Beatles
I think that this song also warrants being on the list of 100 poetic songs. Scoring a 231 on the song rating sheet, this song racks up most of its points from imagery and personification/objectification, but it also uses alliteration, hyperbole ("Nothing's gonna change my world"), allusion ("Jai guru deva om"), ambiguity (it's open to interpretation), similes and metaphors, and symbolism. In addition, it has epic/universal relevance, a pervasive mood, a successful tone, is emotionally evocative, and has instrumental mastery. The chorus mostly repeats "Jai guru deva om" and "Nothing's gonna change my world," but the verses use loads of imagery and personification, along with similes and metaphors, to describe thoughts and emotions. The language in the verses is very figurative, and very poetic. A really good example of the beautiful, thought-provoking language used is in the second verse: "Images of broken light which/dance before me like a million suns." This uses imagery, personfication, alliteration, and a simile all rolled into two short little lines!
Lyrics
Monday, May 3, 2010
The Worst Song
Crank Dat (Soulja Boy) ~ Soulja Boy Tell 'Em
"Lyrics"
Crank Dat (Soulja Boy), by Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, is one of the worst "songs" ever written. I'm not sure you can even call it a song, because it is just really bad both lyrically and musically. It received a score of negative 108 on the song rating sheet. The only good things this song has one instance of alliteration consonance ("super soak"), and a handful of allusions (Superman, Roosevelt, Robocop (I'm not actually sure what that is, though.)) However, since these allusions make absolutely no sense ("Then Superman dat oh"????) in the context of the song (if the song even has a context), they really aren't even poetic. The list of deficiencies is much longer. Practically every line is a grammar violation ("That" is spelled T-H-A-T!!! You make "hater" plural with an s, not a z! "Fo' sho'" are not real words! What on earth does "now watch me you" mean??), and the song is so repetitive. Also, there is absolutely no need to stick your "name" in your song every other line. There is incoherence everywhere as well because some of the lines make absolutely no sense, like "I got me some bathin' apes." What does that even mean??? Actually I don't what the whole song even means, though I'm assuming its something inappropriate. Either that, or it means absoultely nothing at all. In addition, it is basically a rap song, meaning that singing-wise, the vocals are really bad as well. Overall, the song just makes no sense and is incredibly irritating, and it really doesn't even have any good points to offset the bad.
"Lyrics"
Crank Dat (Soulja Boy), by Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, is one of the worst "songs" ever written. I'm not sure you can even call it a song, because it is just really bad both lyrically and musically. It received a score of negative 108 on the song rating sheet. The only good things this song has one instance of alliteration consonance ("super soak"), and a handful of allusions (Superman, Roosevelt, Robocop (I'm not actually sure what that is, though.)) However, since these allusions make absolutely no sense ("Then Superman dat oh"????) in the context of the song (if the song even has a context), they really aren't even poetic. The list of deficiencies is much longer. Practically every line is a grammar violation ("That" is spelled T-H-A-T!!! You make "hater" plural with an s, not a z! "Fo' sho'" are not real words! What on earth does "now watch me you" mean??), and the song is so repetitive. Also, there is absolutely no need to stick your "name" in your song every other line. There is incoherence everywhere as well because some of the lines make absolutely no sense, like "I got me some bathin' apes." What does that even mean??? Actually I don't what the whole song even means, though I'm assuming its something inappropriate. Either that, or it means absoultely nothing at all. In addition, it is basically a rap song, meaning that singing-wise, the vocals are really bad as well. Overall, the song just makes no sense and is incredibly irritating, and it really doesn't even have any good points to offset the bad.
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