Emotions and Meaning In Music

JOY

We are young  by FUN (glee version)
 

Every time I hear this song it makes me think of my prom. So my prom is the object and joy is the interpretant. My senior prom was a great experience all together but the part I loved the most was when the DJ's set broke and all the music stopped. The whole senior class was squished in a small room dancing when all of a sudden the music stopped. We waited for a minute and when the music didn't come back on, rather than grumbling our way back to the tables the entire senior class busted out singing "we are young". Everyone was dancing and singing at the tops of their lungs. That was the most fun I had ever had at high school and the memory always brings about a sense of joy.

Sadness/Mourning

Christmas shoes by Alabama

This song always makes me cry no matter what. This song tells the story of a little boy who is trying to buy his dying mother a pair of shoes for Christmas. For me the object of this song is a little boy losing his mother on Christmas. The image the song paints is so vivid that I can’t help but think of it happening in real life. In the song the boy wants his mother to have these shoes so when she meets Jesus she looks pretty. That is the saddest part of the whole song. The innocence of the little boy and the fact that he is trying so hard just to make his mother happy before she dies is simply heart breaking.

Family

Just Fishin by Reace Adkins

This song is about a father making memories with his daughter by taking her fishing. I have always loved fishing and every time I hear this song I think about fishing with my dad. Therefore the object is me fishing with my dad. Fishing with my dad takes me to a lot of memories. The biggest one is fishing with him in Wisconsin. I have gone up to Wisconsin for many years to go fishing at my uncle's cabin and one year my dad took me and the rest of my sisters up there as part of a vacation. That is how the interpretant becomes family, because I associate fishing with my dad in Wisconsin with the rest of my family.  

Anger

You oughta know by Alanis Morissette

Anger is a very strong emotion that can be caused by many things. I was trying to think of a song that not only communicated anger but also gave a strong reason for the anger. I started thinking of the thing that would make someone the angriest. I thought this song would be perfect. The object of this song is not just a girl who has been broken up with, but who more importantly feels like she has been betrayed. Being betrayed by someone you trusted and love can fill a person with anger. It leads to anger not just for the person that betrays you but for yourself as well. You become angry at that person for hurting you and angry at yourself for letting that happen. 

Sexuality

An American Girl by Trisha Yearwood
 

Okay so I had a lot of song ideas for this one. What it means to be a man or a woman can be interpreted in many different ways. At first I really didn't know how I was going to interpret it. I know a bunch of songs that communicate what it means to be a women in different ways but I wasn't sure which way was best. The question of what it means to be a woman is a tricky one. It’s not like it was sixty years ago when being a women meant getting married and raising a family. That lead me to think about the kind of life today's women lead. This song communicates what I think it means to be a woman in today’s world very well. The object of this song is a working woman raising a family.