1991-2000: Smells Like Teen Spirit

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg

Nirvana came out with this song in 1991. Kurt Cobain, a member of the American rock band, was the one who wrote the song. He publically admitted that when he started writing the song, he was initially trying to copy the Pixies.

This song is famously known as being a part of the Grunge Movement. This song was written in a time when people were killed over the labels they were wearing or the brand of their shoes. The Grunge Movement started in Washington state when people refused to wear high-end clothes on the street. Quickly, the new “in” thing to do was wear oversized, messy-looking clothes with greasy hair. This drew attention away from the violence that spawned from expensive clothing.

Reading the lyrics can only be slightly less confusing once you know that Kurt Cobain was a heroin addict. The words themselves don’t make any sense, like many other songs of this same generation and genre. This song expresses the 90’s well because it was the time of the Grunge Movement and nearing the end of the age of sense-less dance music.

This item does not specifically talk about one subject, so there is a lot that isn’t discussed. The Grunge Movement isn’t mentioned by name and it’s only inferred that this song is about that. This song also doesn’t talk about the violence that led to the Grunge Movement.

1981-1990: Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeMFqkcPYcg

The song was written by the singing duo, Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart, from Britain. The two are known as the Eurythmics when performing. The 1980’s were the age of music that was fast-paced and fun to dance to. Many songs also had random words that were purely thrown together just to rhyme, much like music that was released later in the Beatles’ career. This piece was created to be a single for the Eurythmics album.

When you take a look at the lyrics, the song is talking about life as it is, saying that here we are in our existence, trying to make sense of our lives and to survive. The words say that some people who come into your life won’t be good to you and don’t have good intentions. It continues on to say that overcoming obstacles is just part of life.

This song expresses the time period by being one of the most famous songs from the 1980’s known for its dance-y beat and intriguing lyrics.

This song doesn’t tell us any particular story of one person or emotion. It’s a blanket song in that it was made and written to appeal to everybody who liked to dance. This song also doesn’t tell us about any cultural things that were happening at the time.

1971-1980: Imagine

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwUGSYDKUxU

     “Imagine” by John Lennon is a very simple, slow song that came out in 1971. It originated when John Lennon wrote it. At the time, he felt more at liberty to say he’d gotten the idea himself and took the credit for the creativity of the song. However, later he admitted that many of the ideas and even some of the lyrics came from a book Grapefruit by Yoko Ono, published in 1964. When Lennon began writing the piece, he was in his bedroom in England and playing the piano. Lennon and Ono ended up co-producing the song.

     This song was built upon ideas from the past because it was a time when our country was still at war in Vietnam and the younger generation that had been the hippies were now growing up. Drugs were also becoming a force in Lennon’s life and he’s said to have quite powerful, philosophical hallucinations when he was under the influence.

     Why was the piece created? The piece was created when Lennon wanted to express his views on how an ideal world looks to him. He described the perfect communist/socialist community with no borders of countries. He describes a world free of religion, reason to kill; with only peace between people.

     With this song, John Lennon uses his lyrics to describe a peaceful, loving, and harmonious world of people who can coexist and get along together. This song expresses out the time period well for the people who were done with the Vietnam War and just wanted things to be peaceful again.

     This song, while talks about how things could be better, doesn’t say anything about what’s actually wrong. The song also gives no explanation to what types of problems the changes are trying to solve.

1961-1970: Let It Be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajCYQL8ouqw

This piece of music is a song named “Let It Be”. How did it originate? John Lennon and Paul McCartney, both members of the Beatles, wrote the song together. McCartney says he got the song idea after he had a dream about his mom who had died from cancer when he was fourteen years old. Although the song was originally written for McCartney’s mother, it could have a double meaning regarding the Vietnam War. At this time, many young people were resisting the movement to draft young men to go fight in the war that they didn’t necessarily believe in.

During my research I found explicit points saying that “Mother Mary” was not a biblical reference. However, with that I also found that there are several lyrics based on verses from the Bible. The song is about leaving things to be what they are and not getting upset. It also leaves an overall message of waiting for the answer that will inevitably come.

This song expresses the time period well because it has a very 60’s feel to it that brings listeners back to the Hippie days. It’s got a very flow-y sound and is very much immersed in its time.

     What can this item not tell us about the time period?  From this song you cannot gather any information about how the Vietnam War was going or what was the cause of it. You also don’t truly get an explanation of what the context of the song is, as I found that from research rather than lyrics.

1951-1960: Misty

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=9JwhJMFDybQ “Misty” is a jazz standard that was written in 1954 by Erroll Garner. Later, lyrics written by Johnny Burke were paired with the music. Johnny Mathis sung the song and it was put on his album, Heavenly, that was released in 1959. The song sailed to the second spot on the Billboard Charts in the United States. During the time this song was becoming popular, the ban on “obscene” rock and roll music was moving forward. The song became popular amongst the older generation as a sweet love song that reminded them of their youth, and the “good old days”. The song disappeared for a while, but made a rather noticeable reappearance in Silver Linings Playbook (2012). Many other aspects of this time are not mentioned in this song, however this is one of the last insanely popular slow songs to be released. The Beatles took over the music scene pretty soon after, with a very different sound and style.

1941-1950: Birds of a Feather

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCebbUz4eoQ A musical piece that expresses the 1940’s well, is “Birds of a Feather” sung by Bing Crosby. The instrumentation in the song is very similar to the 1930’s, if not a little bit quicker and happier. The quality of the sound also got better within this decade. A huge that influenced this song and its lyrics was the ending of World War 2 and all of the troops coming home. Hence, the “baby boom” that happened right after. So, of course love songs were all over the radios and becoming popular very quickly. Other things we know about this time period from the lyrics are that phones and calling other people were now normal, as the song says “And I just want to call you” and “I wonder what it will take for you to call me?” Another subtle thing in the song is the mention of “astronauts” which indicates that interest in space was picking up at this time. Not necessarily in the singer, but the fact that the profession was mentioned. Things about the time period that the song does not tell us about are the horrible things that were happening overseas such as the bombings and the Holocaust. Bing Crosby doesn’t have any mention of World War 2.

1931-1940: Oh Johnny! Oh Johnny! Oh!

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=qfY7L__-kIQ “Oh Johnny! Oh Johnny! Oh!” is a song that was originally a patriotic themed composition by Abe Olman. Later, Ed Rose wrote lyrics to the song and had it published by Forster Music Publisher, Inc. Apparently, Ed Rose wrote the lyrics about a couple he’d known and been friends with in college. He also gave the original work to Mr. and Mrs. John Hansen. The lyrics don’t express anything particularly articulate about the time period itself. But the music style in the song was quite popular in the 40’s. The lyrics depict a rather thoughtless woman falling for a man that doesn’t have any distinguishing qualities. However, songwriting has moved forward a little bit in that the lyrics are less outwardly objectifying. This is the first song I’ve found so far during the 1900’s that is purely about infatuation without questionable things also being added in. This song cannot tell us about the Great Depression or the Second World War. Two major events were happening around this time period and this song doesn’t give much information on the subjects.

1921-1930: My Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKivfzjQxOQ Fanny Brice has been such an icon since she made her debut. Her song “My Man” was one of the top songs from 1921. This tune came from the Ziegfeld Follies (a set of elaborate theatre productions performed on Broadway) which happened in 1921. However the song was also in her movie My Man which came out in 1928.This song is absolutely built on ideas from the past. The amount of sexism and objectifying of women makes me want to smash my head into a wall. In just one verse she says that “her man” has at least two or three other ladies that he’s seeing. Her only response is “But I love him! I don’t know why.” I found this appalling enough without adding in another line from the same verse. “He beats me too. What can I do? Oh my man I love him so.” She sounds so weak; unable to stand up for herself or leave him. This expresses the time period by expressing the oppression of women. Fanny Brice writes about this man who abuses her and cheats on her and all she does is “love” him blindly. However, also happening at this same time period is a huge rise in the women’s rights movement. Strong, independent women are not represented very well in this song.

1911-1920: Some of These Days

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=3heCSPJrO70&feature=kp Some of These Days is a song that was first recorded in 1911, though it was published in 1910. The song was written and composed by Shelton Brooks. The song is most known for being sung by Sophie Tucker. She was about to perform, when she was approached by her maid, Mollie, asking if she would listen to a song someone she knew had written. Sophie agreed to listen to it and ended up identifying with the song so much she said, “I could have kicked myself for almost losing it. A song like that; it had everything.” The songs premise is clearly about missing someone you love and wanting them back. She outwardly says “You’ll feel lonely” and “I’ll feel lonely” several times in the song when talking about when the other person is away. There isn’t much hidden meaning in the lyrics. The actual song doesn’t express the times, but the story of how it got to be #1 on the Billboard Charts expresses the time period. Being a singer was nothing like it is today. Back then, people hoped and hoped that she would take their songs and make them famous. Today, things are so much more different. Everyone’s so protective of their work. Suing and legal issues prevent people from just accepting other people’s work and agreeing to produce it on the fly. This song, standing alone doesn’t say much at all about what was going on in the world. It doesn’t say anything about culture, fashion, rights, technology, etc. It’s a very simple song.

1900-1910: America the Beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBJZ_X8iOFE There are no high quality versions of the song from its original time period, but this is a version that Frank Sinatra sang. America the Beautiful is an American patriotic song. It originated as a poem titled “America” written by Katharine Lee Bates. The music for the song had originally been written for the hymn O Mother dear, Jerusalem in 1882 by Samuel A. Ward. Ward’s music and Bates’ poem were first combined and published in 1904, one year after Ward passed away. Bates’ poem highlights many things about nature. Bates also mentions the brotherhood between all the American people. The song was written at a time before World War I and the Great Depression, so there weren’t many financial struggles that America was going through. It was also written just after the Civil War. America was at a peaceful time in history. It is said that while Katherine Lee Bates was on a train, the words for the poem just came to her and she wrote them down as soon as she got to her hotel. The first bit of the song talks about “the amber waves of grain” referencing the United States’ plentiful food and good harvesting. In the next verse Bates included “O beautiful for pilgrim feet,” welcoming new people to the land as America was still having more people come all the time. She continues to praise America by saying “O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years” saying that we would have patriotic spirit for many, many years. This song definitely expresses the things that were going well for America and its citizens. With all of its lyrics about nature, it’s clear that the Industrial Revolution hadn’t happened yet. America was still a quaint-living country with a huge emphasis on farming and agriculture. What can this item not tell us about the time period? This song doesn’t tell us anything about the negative things that were happening. It doesn’t talk about the aftermath of the Civil War or racism. Those topics were left alone to focus on the great things that were happening.