| 27 May 2008 06:54 pm |
morgana Guest | im an older lady in UK and i have to say i feel green day are expressing their feelings and if anyone else identifies with that - then good. if you don`t like the music/lyrics then don`t listen and keep your comments to yourself unless they are constructive - who needs more negativity?
personally, when i get angry or p***ed off with my life - which is most days, playing music helps rid some of the bad feelings.
i probably play more green day stuff than anything else -
| |
 | | 13 Jun 2008 03:37 pm |
Saint.Jimmy. Guest | Zucas wrote:
You see I knew that when I made this forum that people would start bashing me. I for one like to listen to what the song is saying. Unless your an idiot that listens to rap or some loud blaring heavy metal. Then you don’t have to listen to the words because that really ain’t the important part. You have to play that music really loud for it to be good anyway.
I completely agree. Rap is Crap, there is a reason they rhyme.
The meaning behind American Idiot is this (in my opinion, of course)...JoS is a person. fed up, bored with life. leaves home, lives on street...becomes insane...turns to drugs, creates this imaginary person called saint jimmy, listens to him. meets this girl (whatshername) which brings him back to reality and then he goes home, forgets Jimmy (Jimmy Died Today ) and goes back to normal.
I;m open to other ideas, but that one makes the most sense to me.
| | | 25 Jun 2008 02:19 pm |
dragon-architect Guest | In case the overwhelming majority of you have not realized yet, Zuchas has never ONCE said that he takes the meaning of teh album to heart. Thus far, he has mostly been stating that the lyrics to all the songs have a message in them — a story. There are many sorts of songs that tell a story (the best examples being those by Jim Croche).
In essence, the songs in the album “American Idiot” are nothing more than strings of words that, collectively, have a different meaning from the meanings of the individual words that compose of those strings.
Zuchas never said that one had to believe in the “message” the lyrics of the songs pose. The rest of you ASSUMED that is what he said, which he obviously did not.
And the fact that the majority of people who have responded calling Zuchas an “idiot” and other derogatory names such as “gay” or “dumbass” is testament to the fact that those of you who did use such words are rather immature in your argumentative mindset and that you very quickly jump to conclusions and don’t even bother to look at both sides of an issue (one of the many stereotypes of the American Idiot).
The “meanings” and “stories” often told in song lyrics are mostly meant to be taken with a grain of salt (meaning they’re not meant to totally alter a person’s mindset). Songs are purely entertainment.
The only time a song’s lyrics will EVER have any sort of significant impact is if a song is literally the ONLY way you have left to communicate something to someone, and you’ve exhausted all your other possibilities of communicating that message.
Personally, I like the story told in “American Idiot”. It is about a teenager who is conflicted because he is told to conform, but he does not want to conform. So he runs from the pain, experiences pains of his own, then returns back home and back to a more comfortable life.
As for the songs having two meanings? The only song I am aware of that is an example of double entendre (French term meaning “double intentions” — excellent examples include the various witty quips in Shakespearean dramas) is the title song “American Idiot”. In that one, it can be interpreted to be a criticism of American pop culture in general, but it can also be a prologue to the story as Jesus of Suburbia’s personal viewpoint on American culture, thus building elements to his character before the actual story begins.
[As a side note, “Wake Me Up When September Ends” isn’t a chapter in the story. It’s a eulogy to the father of lead singer. Thus, it should be excluded from interpretations of the album.]
Now, personally, one of my top favourite songs is “Sweet Child O' Mine” by Guns N' Roses (another punk rock band). Of all the music I have, this song has the most actively involved bass line. There are parts of the song where the bass actually drives the chord changes where normally the bass is simply a foundation upon which the rest of the chords are built.
Also, the lyrics in THIS song also tell a story. They are a love ballad of a man proclaiming all of the features of his sweetheart and telling her how just looking at her makes him feel warm and safe. It’s as though he would be lost and frightened if he lost her, and that’s what makes the song especially beautiful.
This brings me to something else: songs are more than just lyrics. They’re also the melody and harmonies and the chords that drive them. I also listen to songs to hear the individual parts that make up the whole. I like most of the songs in “American Idiot” because they are musically complex. There are bits and pieces that interweave and although they play minor roles in the song as a whole, they add color to the song and make it more aurally dynamic and more interesting to listen to.
Another example of an album that tells a story is “The Wall” by Pink Floyd. How many people here like Pink Floyd and other 80s rock bands?
Now, another personal note, I myself am not a fan of heavy metal or rap/hiphop. First of all, there’s nothing to listen to in heavy metal. It’s all screaming. There’s no singing at all. Same for rap, except rap has another strike against it. The people in my area who listen to rap crank their car subwoofers up so loud that the thud of the bass practically gives me a headache worthy of Novacaine... or at least a pair of Aspirin.
Granted, I like to crank up the volume of my music. Who doesn’t? But to me, there exists a point at which loud becomes too loud, and a lot of bass becomes a migraine-inducing too much bass.
Now, going back to my original statement about song lyrics being only words...
If I said the word “no”, you would think “No what?" Just the word “no” alone has only the definition given to it by the dictionary. However, if I preceded or followed the word “no” with other words, the meaning of the entire sentence changes. And even then, if I remove the word “no” from that sentence, its collective meaning is completely inverted! That being said, the lyrics of a song are exactly the same way. They are merely a collection of words being strung together, and they similarly have a collective meaning.
Some songs (like “American Idiot” are written in such a way that they can be interpreted with more than one meaning to apply to the lyrics. Other songs (like “Wake Me Up when September Ends” are best left alone because of their tributive nature. But regardless, all songs carry the PROBABILITY of having at least one interpretation of the lyrics. That doesn’t mean all songs have a meaning, and it most CERTAINLY does not mean that you have to seriously take to heart the meaning of the songs and let your life philosophy circulate around those meanings.
Songs are essentially poems set to a melody and chords. And poems are just literature. They’re the written word. They are one of two classes of offspring when Pen meets Paper (the other being prose, but that’s a different story).
Now, as for those of you who started bashing Zuchas, I have just one thing to say: GROW UP. There are better ways to express any disagreement you have other than calling him gay or a dumbass or other derogatory names thusly.
Not everyone has the same interests in this world. That’s what makes this world so diverse. While someone like Zuchas may like punk rock and dislike heavy metal and rap, someone else may love only heavy metal and rap and hate everything else. Bashing people for not sharing your interests is, in the long run, pointless because the people you bash will continue to have their own interests regardless. It’s just pointless.
These are all my two cents on the matter. If anyone doesn’t like what I said and wants to bash me for it, too bad. Your attempts at riling me up as well will fall upon deaf ears and blind eyes.
[P.S. If you read this entire post, give yourself a pat on the back and a cookie. It took me an hour to write all of this. x___x;;]
| | | 07 Sep 2008 03:18 am |
omgwafflegood Guest | Great, now five seconds of my life has been WASTED. In fact, as soon as i realized that it was fake, a part of me DIED inside. Do you hear that? A part of me DIED. I can never get back that precious life wasted. NEVER. In fact, I’m wasting MORE life time right now, when i could be looking up funny pictures of cats. Which in itself, is in fact time wasting. Also, reading this message is wasting time, precious time. So what are you still sitting there for? Huh? Get off your lazy butt and go outside, or at least walk around a bit. You could be doing something useful with your life, but instead you sit around reading messages that other life-wasters write. How freekin pathetic is that? I mean, think about what your doing right now! Your STILL reading this message! I can’t believe you people would actually was your freekin time when you could be LIVING, sitting around and laughing at this message! You could be going to lolcats.com, or even icanhazcheeseburger.com, as weird as that sounds. Also, side effects may include dry mouth, headaches, blurred vision, nausea, cardiac arrest, stiffness of muscles, seizures, coma, and death. Sitting around reading retarded messages is not for everyone, tell your doctor immediately if you experience an erection for more than 3 hours. Consult your doctor before use.
| |
|
Previous Page - Post Reply |
|
»
Music
» Meaning of the Green Day Album American Idiot
