How a song affects you is largely based on the lyrics and lyrics can be interpreted in many ways. Please write a 3 page paper wherein you discuss the out topic of interpreting the meaning of lyrics. This is a critical part of listening to music.
It is important to understand that the surface meaning. And a more involved meaning can (and often do) exist in the same lyrics. This is often done intentionally by the lyricist. In your paper you might discuss how different. Interpretations relate to our discussion of the difference between art and entertainment (there is relevance between the topics.) You might discuss why you think lyrists do this. You might include examples of other lyrics that you feel can be interpreted differently. Might discuss how after seeing my lecture videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10dZwI6l5f0&t=1s) while reading the lyrics you have a new appreciation (good or bad) of the song “Don McLean – American Pie.”
In my last post, I described how I use obscurely worded newspaper headlines to improve my students’ interpretation of ambiguous and figurative language. Today, I wanted to further delve into this topic by describing the utility of interpreting music lyrics for language therapy purposes. I really like using music lyrics for language treatment purposes. Not only do my students and I get to listen to really cool music, but we also get an opportunity to define a variety of literary devices (e.g., hyperboles, similes, metaphors, etc.) as well as identify them and interpret their meaning in music lyrics.
There is definitely a myriad of ways one can interpret. The lyrics of a particular song, the sky is the limit! As such, I am always mindful of the complexity of this task and typically tend to target this as a language goal with my adolescent students. I don’t always target the interpretation of lyrics in the entire song, especially because many great recording artists use quite a healthy amount of profanities in their lyrics that I do not necessarily want the students to hear. As such, I may play portions of songs or present clean versions of lyrics to my students for their interpretation. Prior to choosing particular lyrics I typically review the following wikiHow article: How to Figure Out a Song’s Meaning as it provides some helpful advice to students regarding the parameters which they could use to analyze music lyrics.