Hey guys, welcome back to another reflective blog post. Entering 2022, the return to school across the district was postponed a week, so this meant that our first project of the year was going to be one week shorter as well. PLP 11’s first project of the year was all about music, poems, and using these forms of art to represent ourselves. The official driving question of this project was “How might we use music to represent ourselves and text?” This project was already a short one, so instead of 3 to 4 weeks in this project, it was more like 2 to 3 weeks. This being said I do think it was a fairly good length for this project. The only thing I wish we spent more time on was learning about poetry a bit more.
The final product for this project was a “playlist of our life”. We were to pick 5 songs that we felt represented a time in our lives, a philosophy we live by, or reflect a part of ourselves, and then explain why we chose these songs. I’ll give you a little spoiler right now. The 5 songs I chose were “A Long December” by the Counting Crows, “Leaving New York” by R.E.M, “Let Her Go” by Passenger, “Incredible Thoughts” by The Lonely Island, and “Ali in The Jungle” by The Hours. If you want to read my explanation and analysis of each song then click on each. Some of them will be down below so do that AFTER reading this post.
Something I really enjoyed doing was analyzing the songs I had chosen and really understanding why I enjoy them. It was quite fun to get a much deeper knowledge of what each song is really saying. Something that actually really surprised me was how many songs I listen to that overlap in meaning. A lot of them would be telling a similar story, or have a similar moral.
“A Long December” - Counting Crows Song Analysis
Emotions always have an opposite. Without an opposite, the emotion simply could not be understood. The existence of sadness allows us to appreciate the feeling of happiness. “A Long December” focuses on one pair of emotions: demoralization and hopefulness. The connotation in the metaphor that “its all a lot of oysters, but no pearls”(1:18) encapsulates that moment of adversity where you just want to lie down and give up. But then of course “…you look across a crowded room to see the way that light attaches to a girl.”(1:28) You find that glimmer of hope; there is always something that will keep you going. Life is full of obstacles and adversity, but “maybe this year will be better than the last.”(0:19) All you need is a glimmer of hope to overcome the challenges and roadblocks you will face throughout your life.
As I grow up and progress through high school, I keep running into that feeling of demoralization. Why should I spend so much time on my education when it doesn’t guarantee success? Why can’t I just lie down and just let life happen? There will be a lot of times in life where it will just seem easier to give up and move on with your life. We all know that isn’t a fun way to live life, and Counting Crows acknowledges this in “A Long December”. Life will hit you sometimes, but what makes a person strong is not how many times they are hit, but how many times they get back up. Resilience in the face of adversity is the underlying tone of this song and it’s something that everyone struggles with, even though everyone must master this ability in life in order to be successful.
Counting Crows uses alliteration and a rhyme scheme of ABCB to create a euphoric chorus even though the mood of the song is sad. Something I find so interesting about this song is that the rhythm of the song is slow and gives the impression of sadness, but the topic of the song is generally happy. “A Long December” is about looking forward to better times, even if the past was filled with regret and failure. The song ends with “It’s been so long since I’ve seen the ocean, I guess I should.”(3:38) The artist is saying that maybe he hasn’t done what he wanted to in the past, but maybe things will change. With the ocean being a metaphor for going out, trying new things, or even just doing things in general, the coming of the new year brings that hope that this year will be better than the last.
Reflection
This analysis was the first analysis I did for this project, but I think this was definitely not the worst analysis I created. I think I properly identified poetic devices within the song, but something I wish I did more was focus more on the personal aspect of the song. I did say that this song represents a feeling and emotion I relate to but I didn’t say much about what this song really means to me. This was one of the first Counting Crows songs I’ve listened to yet I didn’t mention that at all in this analysis. A lot of the songs I chose for this playlist were introduced to me by my dad, this song included, yet I don’t talk at all about the nostalgia I feel with this song. Other than that I think this is a pretty solid analysis. I integrate quotes well and explain why I chose this song.
Presenting to my classmates
Like I said before, something I wish we did a little bit more of was analyzing poems and songs more. This was probably a personal problem, but at the start of the project I had a lot of trouble identifying poetic devices in literature. I knew the definition of the poetic device, but there were a lot of times where I wouldn’t recognize the poetic device in the poem. I do think this improved, but there were still times where I would read something over a few days later and realize I missed a poetic device.
“Ali in The Jungle” - The Hours Song Analysis
I started playing basketball in 2014, when I was in grade 4. One of the best gifts I’ve ever received was from my uncle in 2014, when he got my brother and I NBA2k13. The NBA 2k franchise started in the early 21st century, but that was the first NBA game I ever had. “Ali in the Jungle” was part of the soundtrack of the game. Every time I listen to the song I’m reminded of playing the game after school. The entire song is incredibly nostalgic to me. I can remember playing with the new rookies at the time, thinking “who the hell are these people”, except now many have established a career in the NBA today. Considering I still play games from the NBA 2k franchise regularly, I’d say that this song can be related to when I first fell in love with basketball.
This song can be seen as a token “motivation” song. The song starts with the line, “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish”(0:31), which I view as something of a cliche. Actually, the entire first verse could be seen as a cliche. It continues with “It’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at”(0:45). The big cliche in my mind is the line “everybody gets knocked down, how quick are you gonna get up”(0:58), something I hear a lot in basketball.
The chorus of the song alludes to major comeback stories from history. The Hours refer to Muhammad Ali, and his win in the “Rumble in the Jungle”(1:25). The line “…Nelson in jail”(1:28) is of course referring to Nelson Mandela, and the next line pays homage to Joe Simpson, a climber who managed to survive multiple injuries, including falling into a crevasse, while climbing in Peru. The next verse goes “like Keller in the darkness, like Adams in the dock, like Ludwig Van how I loved that man.”(1:39) Ludwig Van Beethoven and Helen Keller were both deaf, yet both managed to create a successful career during their life. The line “Adams in the dock”(1:42) is about Tony Adams, a British footballer from the 80s and 90s. Adams suffered from alcoholism for most of his career before going into rehab after a 4 month imprisonment. All this allusion in the song helps this song become less phoney and cheesy. Without this allusion, the song would be full of cliches and corny lines.
“Ali in the Jungle” is about overcoming odds. The title of the song is about Muhammad Ali’s victory over George Foreman in the “Rumble in the Jungle”. Foreman was heavily favourited heading into the fight, yet Ali overcame all odds and won. The final words of this song are from a radio broadcast from the fight, “Muhammad Ali has won! By a knockout, by a knockout. The thing they said was impossible, he’s done!”(4:25)
Reflection
This was definitely one of my better analyses from this project. In contrast to my analysis on “A Long December”, I think I do well in explaining what this song means to me by connecting it to NBA2k13, a video game that most definitely helped build who I am today. I also think I do a good job identifying poetic devices within the song and using quotes from the song to solidly my argument for why this song is one massive cliche. If I were to pick something from this project that I am most proud of, this analysis would be considered if not chosen.
The Old iTunes look
I do think I did the best job I could in the written analyses and my presentation. Since I knew I had trouble with identifying poetic devices, I would download the lyrics of each song and go through them a day before I started writing about them. This way I could go back and look over it one more time and notice if I missed any the first time around. I also think I chose songs that properly represent me as a person. Some of them are nostalgic, while others represent an idea I try to live by. For my presentation I created a slideshow with the album covers of the songs I chose. I actually designed the slideshow in a deliberate way to mimic the look that Apple Music had when I was a child. I wasn’t perfect since I only went off my memory, but I think I was pretty close. I also think I presented my work quite well, especially considering the amount of time I had to present (7 minutes).
Finally, lets return to that driving question. “How might we use music to represent ourselves and text? I think I answered this question pretty well. I chose music that I feel best represents who I am, and I used poetic devices in my analyses to explain how these songs represent who I am. Something I could have done better to answer this question was plan my presentation a bit better so that I could read it off by memory, which would allow me to really get into the presentation and be engaging with the audience.
It was a fun project. I think I learned a lot about myself and what type of music I listen to, but also a lot on how to properly analyze poems and music. It was nice learning about the stories behind some of my favourite songs, while also learning how this songs use certain poetic devices to create something nice to listen to. If I were to do something differently about this project, it would be to choose my 5 songs much earlier. There were plenty of times where I was second guessing songs, or trying to choose between two different ones. If I had chosen them earlier I would have been able to refine my analyses a bit. That being said, I am still proud of what I produced this project, and I hope my enjoyment of this project will continue into the next one.
