Popular Music as a Reflection of Culture

According to Rolling Stone, the top forty songs mostly consist of pop, alternative, and hip-hop. These songs were judged as the most popular currently based on radio airplay, sales pertaining to a certain distributer “Neilsen,” and by streaming music activity related to online music sources. Songs like “Call Me Maybe,” “Wide Awake,” and “Payphone” are currently within the top five on the list. All of these songs are of the pop genre, and are all based around the first person point of view. Viewing the rest of the top songs of 2012, the vast majority are written and sung in the first person point of view as well. Most of the songs on this list are songs that you would expect to hear at a club and would dance to, having the repetitive bass beat holding the rhythm. As a whole, these songs are based on love, whether it be finding love, losing it, or trying to hold on to it. “Call Me Maybe” is about a girl finding someone she is interested, and trying to pursue that love. “Wide Awake” is about falling from love. Following suit, “Payphone” is about trying to rekindle his love, and “What Makes You Beautiful” is about young love. Keeping the theme, “Where Have You Been” is about searching for and finding love. All of these songs are within the top ten, as well as all have to do with love in some way. Reviewing the rest of the songs, the overwhelming majority has to do with some aspect of love. As a reflection of our culture, our current taste in music shows the importance we place in love and experiencing it. We aspire to find love, and to hold on to it. These songs represent that my generation desires to love and be loved, as well as to have music that contains a steady bass beat to dance to. Also, poetic devices and symbolism are used to portray the universal ideas in this year’s top songs. For instance, in Elli Goulding’s “Lights,” the line “I had a heart then but the queen has been overthrown” is symbolic and interesting, as it alludes to someone losing their heart and way due to a certain event, relating to the overthrowing of a queen. Another line that contains poetic merit is in “Titanium” by David Guetta. “You shoot me down but I won’t fall, I am titanium,” Guetta is attempting to show how strong he is by saying that he is titanium. In this instance, the titanium is a symbol for courage and strength. 

Theme Genre Delcaration

     I decided to choose irony in alternative rock for my theme genre. Some of my favorite bands and songs are considered alternative rock, and I really like to listen to the genre. When listening to this genre, I started to notice that a lot of the songs used irony to convey a message, sometimes constructing an entirely ironic song. I like how the artists sometimes convey their intentions by sarcasm, rhetorical remarks, and constructing stories that are purposely mocking their ideas to more strongly show them. Because I like the genre and find ironic songs interesting, I decided to choose irony in alternative rock.