Music Paper Example

--Here's the beginning of a paper about a song with lyrics. I don't expect your in-class essay to be this long or polished, but you can get some examples of how to talk about lyrics and explain them. This is also good reading comprehension practice.

Black Star's "Astronomy"

I think rap music is interesting because it takes popular culture references and turns them into poetry and figurative language. It's fun to figure out the references to movies and songs and people in rap songs, and the ideas in rap music can be very interesting and moving.

One song I enjoy is the rap group Black Star's record "Astronomy (8th Light)". The first interesting aspect is the group's name. "Black Star" refers to the rappers themselves: they are two black men (Mos Def and Talib Kweli) who are famous. "Black Star" also refers to a famous ship: in the early 20th century, an African-American man named Marcus Garvey argued that African-Americans should return to Africa because America would not give them the freedom they deserve. So the name "Black Star" also refers to African-American history. Also, the "Black Star" is a celestial event, so the band is also connected to space and the univserse. The multiple meanings of the names show how complex rap music lyrics and names can be.

The song is built around references to American cultural uses of the word "black." One common perspective is that the term "black" is usually negative, and this negativity reflects negative attitudes toward African-American, or "black," people. For example, Mos Def says, "Black like my baby girl's [girlfriend's] stare": a "black stare" is an angry look, so "black" is a negative word in this case. Other uses of "black" are positive, positive uses that reflect support for the black community specifically and peaceful coexistance generally. For example, Talib Kweli raps, "Black is the color of my true love's hair," a reference to a famous song by black singer Nina Simone. In this case black is something beautiful about the person whom you love.

Talib Kweli has a verse that looks at perceptions of African-Americans in American culture. He raps, "Deep on the front lines, and blacks is all there. / Black like the perception of who, on welfare / Black like faces at the bottom of the wellI've been there before / To bring the light and heat it up like 'la cocina' / Make without imagine happen but maybe i'm just a dreamer / I love rockin tracks like John Coltrane love Naema." The first line references how black people (and other minorities) are the ones most commonly on the "front lines," or the most dangerous places, in a war. This is literally true (most foot soldiers in the U.S. military are ethic minorities) and also reflects the idea that black people are on the "front lines" of the "war" of life. The second line refers to the prejudicial perception that most welfare (Governmental monetary support for the poor) recepients are black people. Statistics show that the typical welfare recipient is a white woman who has been abandoned by her husband, but the prejudice that most welfare recipients are black is often thought to be used as a way to think that black people behave badly. Next, he reflects on his wish to make relieve people "at the bottom of the well" (those destitute and in trouble) through his music and his love. He worries that he is "just a dreamer" and can't help anyone, but he knows that he is committed to art because he "loves [rap music] like John Coltrane loves Naema," a reference to a famous jazz musician and one of his songs.


Links:
song: http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=4-hVkorqicw
lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/black+star/astronomy_10040228.html