Variations on a Theme: The Love Songs of the Beatles
In the article “Variations on a Theme: The Love Songs of the Beatles” written by Ian Inglis and published by Croatian musicological society at Jun 1997, the author Brings to our attention that the dominant subject of the pop music was and still is “LOVE”. Similar to other genres, Pop music has a basis. Where the Blues has loss and despair, the Gospel has god and religion, Pop music’s main theme is Love. In Comparison to other media types, movies or literature, that deal with many different subjects besides love (not all the Poetry is love poetry, not all the movies are romance), the Pop music had been recognized as genre that looks at and expresses almost only the different aspects of Love.
Everyone knows Pop music is the mainstream musical preference of people worldwide. There are several reasons that make the genre so successful. Different researchers and critics give their own opinions on the subject.
HOGGART, HARKER – The lyrics talks about positive feelings and relations with another person usually a romantic partner. The lightness of this kind of music and fun atmosphere it brings, function as a certain window to escape from reality to a happy fantasy world.
NEGUS, BURNETT- The genre appeals to a specific public, 15-24 year olds, which are 45% of the music industry customers. The success of the record is determined by the amount of sales rather than the quality of the songs. Approaching this large target audience guarantees the success of an album.
The Essay on Mainstream Music Pop Song Groups
A line of people forms out in the cold. The tired, weary masses huddle together. All have one singular goal on their mind. All are infused with fanatical fervor. All share a common yearning. The door swings open, and at last the new N Sync CD is available to a slew of young girls. This is not an uncommon occurrence. The marketing of "music" often does have this effect on impressionable minds. ...
FIRTH – Pop music songs don’t reflect any emotion by themselves, however they give us an opportunity to express our own feelings while enjoying the music. Firth analyzes songs according to three parameters: The way the song is performed by the artist, the genre of the song and last, all the technical details such as rhythm, sound and etc.
FRIDLANDER, KOLAWOLE – Along the course of history, different love Songs were popular depending on the current atmosphere of the time. For example, the main theme of the 50’s was a romance, in the sixties it was sex and in the 70’s it was sex and sexism. In this way Pop music remains successful because it adapts itself pass the generations. At times, it also gave legitimacy to be a sexist man and call girls names like Honey, Doll and Sugar which raise it popularity among the crowds.
WICKE – Pop music Brings people together. The Pop music is linked more to emotion than to rationalism and cognition. In the short time of the song, a bigger and more powerful message is delivered than is delivered in full-length movies, and novels. On the other hand, some believe that because the short time of the song, it is intended for fun only and therefore cannot deliver messages.
LULL – When analyzing a POP song, we should consider two important things. The first is that the lyrics itself can be a focal point and can convey their own Message. The second is the difference between the original meaning and message of the song by the songwriter, and how one may interpret the song differently according to various reasons. For example, in Bruce Springsteen’s song “Born in the USA” the lyrics portray a kind of patriotic anthem, nevertheless there are those who interpret the song as a political protestation.
To reinforce what was said in lasts paragraphs, the author brings a whole part that talk about love in society. Love is a big part in our lives but not the only part. There is sometimes confusion between love and abuse (R.D LAING).
BELL adds that it is hard to define love, so there are many definitions in society, and as a result multiple interpretations of it in songs and poems. According to RESTIVO there are three types of love: political love – Especially among men, Romantic love – physical attraction, and a mature love – love without distinction. STERNBERG & GRAJEK claims that love is a mixture of emotions, cognitions and motivations. DUCK Clarifies that all these give us the opportunity to see love not as something defined but something as that can be composed of different interpretations by different people.
The Essay on Led Zeppelin Music Band Album
A Brief History of Led Zeppelin and ITs Musical Impact Tell someone to name a band from the 1960 s and '70 s and you could probably listen to a dozen answers before hearing the same one twice. The overwhelming amount of talent squeezed into these two decades has produced some of the most popular, most powerful, and in some cases, the most bizarre music ever. Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Jimi ...
LEE is a researcher that came into conclusion and categorized the Different types of love songs:
1. EROS – Romantic love based on physical attraction
2. LUDUS – fun and not serious love
3. STORGE – Love of men about friendship and caring
4. PRAGMA – Love the practical and logical part of the relationship
5. MANIA – Obsessive and jealous
6. AGAPE – Compassion for others, eternal spiritual content
In the part of the article talking about The Beatles the author doesn’t distinct songs to any specific band member for several reasons.
1. There is always conflict who wrote the songs
2. Not all songs were written by one band member
3. Foreign influences on the songs make it hard to know to whom the real credit belongs.
4. The Band Repeats the same methods, same ideas and same performance so there is no practical difference between songs.
From 1962 to 1970 The Beatles released 221 songs. Of those songs, 196 were written by the band members and out of them 112 were about love. One of the changes The Beatles brought was that unlike in the United States, Britain has not been a culture of artists who write songs, however The Beatles did write their own songs and their success made other artists start doing the same with their music.
The article tries to classify the songs into the groups of LEE. In order To create a reliable classification, the author was paid attention to four principals: Understanding of the lyrics and their meaning, listening to the artist’s performance and noticing certain emphasizes, checking the history of the band members in order to understand in what period the songs were written, and biographical research and checking of the drafts of the band members in order to understand the personal interpretation of each.
The Essay on Long Hair Beatles Style Bands
The purpose of a persuasive paper is to convince the reader through facts and personal information, that the thesis of the subject is correct, or adequate enough to change ones opinion. The purpose of this specific paper is to prove that the Beatles are still influencing todays music and fashion trends. Out of a tough city filled with alcoholics and rebels sprung the world's greatest band. Ringo ...
The most of the songs are EROS kind. For instance, in the song “8 Days a Week” we can see the willing to get love back. Frank Sinatra said that “Something” is one of the greatest songs ever written.
The writer continues to divide and talks about every one of LEE’s Categories. In addition, he claims that there is another way to investigate the love songs of The Beatles – The Yearly Method. The author explains that the songwriting can be divided into several periods of time. In this method, we can see that the song writing was very much affected by fluctuations in the lives of each member, and changes in the band as whole.
The author of the article brings to a close by drawing the following conclusions. The Beatles opened the gate of writing popular love songs for artists that continued follow in their footsteps throughout the years. Even after 30 years their songs are still relevant despite social and structural changes in culture and music. Because Love is an everlasting emotion sitting in our heads a lot of the time. The author’s ambition was to examine the way in which the The Beatles were able to express their understanding of the concept of love. The article was not written in order to do an analysis of the songs, but in order to give us a answer on a primary need – the exploration of love songs patterns, that Reflect more than how much a song can be profitable. All this and more is an example of how the Beatles continued to evolve in two aspects, both professionally and personally.
All in all, nowadays songs of love are as a result of history, affected by the heritage of The Beatles and their music, and of course the concept of love today.
Outline
1. Abstract
2. The love songs in the Pop music
a. Example of what stands behind some genres
b. How the pop music began
c. How the pop music became so popular
d. The love in pop music
3. Love in society
e. What is love
f. The interpretation of love
g. Lee’s method to classify love songs
The Essay on Kundiman Filipino Love Songs
Kundiman (originally spelled Cundiman) is a genre of traditional Filipino love songs. The lyrics of the Kundiman are written in Tagalog. The melody is characterized by a smooth, flowing and gentle rhythm with dramatic intervals. Kundiman was the traditional means of serenade in the Philippines. The Kundiman came around to be an art song at the end of the nineteenth century and by the early part of ...
4. The love songs of The Beatles
h. The author’s method to approach the songs of The Beatles
i. Discography of The Beatles
j. Division by LEE’s method
k. Division by the Yearly method
5. Conclusions
