Category: Passion Blogs – Music

The seventh studio album by Green Day, American Idiot is a rocking, politically driven concept album about an American anti-hero, the teenager Jesus of Suburbia. This “punk rock opera” contained five extremely successful singles and discusses the generational dissent and disapproval of the current American government which had been involved with many controversial things like the Iraq war. The punk rock album’s success is not to be understated as it won best rock album at the Grammys in 2005 and inspired a successful Broadway act.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpVUc2GOdK0&t=2527s

Some important political themes on the album include criticising American politics especially President George W. Bush and how he has caused American dysfunction. Billie Joe Armstrong, the lead singer, also focuses on American warmongering throughout the record and large corporations that “destroy” small businesses. In a sense, Green Day was trying to use this character, Jesus of Suburbia, in order to demonstrate to the world what they saw was wrong with the country, in the hope to bring awareness and change. The album was inspired by other rock operas like  David Bowie‘s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and The Wall by Pink Floyd.

The five most notable best tracks on the record include the title track American Idiot, Jesus of Suburbia, Holiday, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, and Wake Me Up When September Ends.

American Idiot, the track, criticises the American approach to the Iraq war as well as the media coverage of it and the mass perception and paranoia from the event. It is very political and establishes that America is not great by juxtaposing it with words such as f*aggot and propaganda.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams is the second single and my favorite song of the album. This song has an amazing guitar riff and discusses how the Jesus of Suburbia feels alone in the American society. How isolation and fear can split people apart, leaving them restless and without opportunity, which is what many Americans experienced at the time.

Holliday is another extremely political song of the record and criticized the Republican party for alienating groups of Americans (such as the gay community) for political gain. Armstrong later said in an interview that the song was an FU to President Bush for the “disaster” of a country he had caused.

Wake Me Up When September Ends was written by Armstrong reflecting on the death of his father when he was ten. This is the only song that doesn’t relate to Jesus of Suburbia, although the metaphor of “September” being a tough time compared to the political and social climate of America at the time, as Armstrong calls to be woken up after the pain and suffering has ended.

Finally, Jesus of Suburbia is a nine-minute song which introduces the life of the anti-hero of the same name.

I decided to continue my trend of discussing concept albums for my passion blog this week since they have so much depth even in between songs. And what better way to continue then to discuss the most followed band on social media, Linkin Park’s, concept album released in 2010 named “A Thousand Suns”. To the everyday listener, the title of the album may not stand out, yet the astute historian will realize that the title is based on a quote from J. Robert Oppenheimer, the creator of the atomic bomb. As this title suggests, the concept album discusses war, dissension, and oppression, warning especially about the use of nuclear weapons.

This album sounds nothing like anything else that Linkin Park has done. It is a lot mellower than the eviscerating screams and guitar riffs that are present in their famous freshman release Hybrid Theory and is not pop like their newest album One More Light in 2017. Linkin Park has always experimented with their sound as they continually have evolved as a band, but their sound in A Thousand Suns stands out because it fits the story they are trying to tell. The echo effect in some of the vocals, the overlapped synths, and mixed guitars, and even the isolated piano found on the record all sounds like it is coming out of an apocalypse, yet it still sounds excellent. Iridescent, for example, was the lead song in of the transformers movies.

The story of the album which discusses the consequences of war is an important one and makes sense since Mike Shinoda, the band’s rapper and main writer is Japanese-American. He had family in Japan during WWII as well as family in internment camps in the US. Although he never experienced this himself, the albums warning is related to this conflict and gets deeply personal at times.

The beginning of the album begins with a speech from Oppenheimer discussing the devastation his invention could create, calling it “Death, the destroyer of worlds”. Next, the song Burning in the Skies discusses the fire and devastation that war can cause. The song’s perspective is from someone who has started a war a conflict but has been retaliated against and is now facing the same devastation that they had initially created. The haunting chorus calls out “So don’t apologize, I’m losing what I don’t deserve”. In between the tracks of the album, there is gunfire and people yelling for cover, continuing the theme of war. Next, songs like Robot Boy and

Iridescent talk more about the consequences of war. How it can isolate people, making them lose hope and emotions and give up. Robot Boy, in particular, is my favorite song from the album as the singer calls to the boy to “hold on”.

The album concludes with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. calling for people to stand up to stop the cruel wars that have killed people with napalm and bombs, and the track: The Catalyst. This was the first single from the album and calls out for forgiveness for the terrible deeds that humans have done.“God save us everyone, will we burn inside the fires of a thousand suns? For the sins of hand, the sins of our tongue, the sins of our father, the sins of our young.” (A Thousand Suns). It criticizes the use of nuclear weapons as it concludes the albums’ anti-war message.

This album is one of my favorite albums ever and it relays a good message that is difficult to convey. I would recommend you check it out when you have the time!

 

For this semester’s passion blogs, I decided to write about something completely different from last semester’s scientific blog posts. I intend to write about different music albums that I think are impactful, both to me and the community, and why they are important. The music albums will be from all genres and encompass many different themes. Some will be concept albums and some will not. I will not only be listening to the albums in full but also watching interviews with the artists on their inspirations.

The first album I that I wanted to talk about is the rapper Logic’s third studio album Everybody, not just because I have been listening to it a lot recently, but also because of its message. The album was initially named AfricAryaN before it was released, since Bobby Tarantino (Logic) was exploring topics about himself, like the fact that he was biracial. However, as he developed the concept of the album, it focused more on the social and racial injustices around him that affect everyone. So the title of the album evolved to become “Everybody” as the focus changed.

Everybody is a concept album based on Andy Weir’s short story The Egg which depicted a very futuristic explanation for God, religion, and how every person is connected. The original three-page story can be found here: http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

An alteration of this story can be heard throughout the album in the tracks Hallelujah, Waiting Room, and AfricAryaN where famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is narrating the perspective of God.

The general message of the album is an inclusive call to celebrate people’s lives instead of degrading them. That everyone is equal and loved “regardless of race, religion, color, creed, and sexual orientation” even if some people do not want to accept the fact (Take It Back).

I wanted to go into a little more detail investigating a couple of songs from the album that stood out to me and explains their meaning.

Everybody – Everybody is not only the title of the album but also the name of the second track. It is distinct because it is a powerful introductory track, not only explaining Logic’s own biracial past and the discrimination he has faced but also the powerful chorus where he calls out “Everybody people, Everybody bleed, Everybody need something, Everybody love” (Everybody). The title track effectively establishes the basic concept of the album, calling to unite every person, which later is expanded on.

Killing Spree – Killing Spree focuses on institutional discrimination and racial prejudices, where Logic discusses human social biases and prejudices where people instinctively degrade or blame a certain race or religion for problems. This is apparent in his line “All the things they wanted me to be, Is all the things that I turned out to be” where he focuses on how negative social expectations can influence a person’s life (Killing Spree). This message is mirrored in later tracks such as America. Logic also criticizes social media and people’s inseparable attachment to technology in the song and mentions people’s insecurities that stem from the technology. He analyzes how other people can judge everything you do online which is apparent in the lines “Everybody scrollin’, scrollin’, thru they life, I wish they would love me like I like they pictures”. The song stood out to me because of how deep it is as it discusses how insane our societal priorities have become where every day is measured in likes as we are engrossed in our phones.

Take It Back – Take It Back is a positive song which elaborates on Logic’s own life story which the song Everybody begins. It talks racial tensions between black and white people and his personal experiences as biracial. His mother was racist, his father was addicted to drugs and left him, and at school, he was bullied because both black and white kids didn’t accept him. It then talks about how he persevered and wants to preach equality because he has experienced hatred and prejudice from both sides. The song ends with him calling for “peace, love, and positivity” in spite of everything he has faced (Take It Back).

1-800-273-8255 – 1-800 is the radio single from the album and is by far Logic’s most popular track. But just because it is popular does not in any way demean its lyrical quality. The song investigates an individual who is suicidal and their internal feelings about how they are not loved or appreciated. The song title is actually the national suicide prevention hotline and attempts to relate to people who have faced these struggles. The song switches perspectives between someone who is suicidal calling the hotline in verse one, to the operator begging the person to stay alive in verse two. The song is fascinating because it tackles such a hard subject so effectively and calls for people to fight against their depression and anxieties and look to the positives in their life instead of the negatives. I would highly recommend watching the music video for this as well, it is extremely powerful and aids to the story.

I hope this was interesting and you as the reader were able to learn and appreciate a little more of the depth that Logic put into this album which spread a positive message of equality for everyone. I highly recommend listening to the album in full, and if you do, listen to it in order, since the order of the songs matters when listening to the full story of the concept album.