Culture in Popular Music

Music is a very important part of everybody’s lives. People listen to music every day for many reasons. Some people listen to music simply for entertainment, others listen to music for emotional feelings, and some people listen to music for the enjoyment of poetry in songs. No matter what the reason is, people listen to music every day and it is a great aspect of every day life. People of all ages have been inspired and entertained by music for decades, even centuries. Music has been changing over time and different styles have been born. There have been many styles of music and popular themes particular to certain time periods over the years. Just as this is true, today’s music is unique to modern day culture, as classic songs are unique to their time periods, such as the 70s for example. In today’s music, the reoccurring themes of missing love, good, fun nights, and relationships are very noticeable. These themes are demonstrated in the songs, "You Belong With Me," "I Gotta Feeling," and "Down" by Taylor Swift, the Black Eyed Peas, and Jay Sean.

"You Belong With Me," "I Gotta Feeling," and "Down" are a few of many songs that have the themes of missing love, good, fun nights, and relationships. Taylor Swift’s "You Belong With Me" is a great example of the theme of missing love. This is a song about a normal, plain girl who has a crush on a popular boy who is taken by a popular girl who treats him badly. Taylor shows this social difference with lines such as "She wears high heels, I wear sneakers/She’s cheer captain and I’m on the Bleachers." This line is supposed to show that the boy’s girlfriend is a stylish cheerleader, while the other girl is a plain, boring girl that isn’t anymore special than anyone else in a crowd. As the title implies, the boy should be with the unpopular girl instead of the popular one and because he’s not, there is a missed opportunity for love. Taylor Swift tries to make this mistake clear with such lines as "She’s going off about something that you said/ ‘Cause she doesn’t get your humor like I do," "I’m listening to the kind of music she doesn’t like/And she’ll never know your story like I do," and the chorus, "If you could see that I’m the one who understands you/Been here all along so why can’t you see?/You Belong With Me." All of these lines indicate that this unpopular girl knows and understands the boy better than the other girl and is clearly the right girl for him.

The Black Eyed Peas’ "I Gotta Feeling" is perfect to represent the theme of good, fun nights in modern music. This song is very straight forward and is all about having a good night. Every line in the song contributes more to encouraging having a good night of partying. The first stanza indicates this and introduces the idea, and every line afterwards supports the same idea: "Tonight’s the night, let’s live it up/I got my money, let’s spend it up/Go out and smash it like Oh my God/Jump off that sofa, let’s get, get off." This stanza also shows a little of how people speak these days with the line, "...like Oh my God." This is significant because today people, especially teenagers, say like in almost every sentence that they speak, and everyone says "Oh my God" almost every time they express emotion. Relating to the theme of the song, no line in any song expresses having a good night better than the very repetitive chorus of "I Gotta Feeling": "I gotta feeling that tonight’s gonna be a good night/that tonight’s gonna be a good night/that tonight’s gonna be a good, good night." This chorus is very basic and simply talks about having a good night, which is the theme of many modern day songs.

Jay Sean’s "Down" is a good example of a song that supports the themes of good nights, and relationships. Jay references good nights with the line "You oughta know, tonight is the night to let it go/Put on a show, I wanna see how you lose control." This shows the theme of good nights, which is prevalent in many songs, and if it is not the main idea, then it is at least referenced usually. However, "Down" mainly demonstrates the theme of relationships, as the song is about a guy making a commitment and promise to be with a girl forever no matter what. The line that best depicts this is "So baby don’t worry, you are my only/you won’t be lonely, even if the sky is falling down." In this line, the singer is saying that he will be faithful and love this girl no matter what, "even if the sky is falling down" and everything is going to end. This idea of love and relationship is the main theme of this song, and it is the main theme of many other modern day songs.

These three songs support the themes of missing love, good, fun nights, and relationships very well. They are just a few of many songs that share these same themes and ideas, which are clearly very popular in modern day music. Music expresses a lot about culture, and these themes help show a lot about our culture. Because these themes are so popular in today’s music, and most of today’s music is purchased and listened to by young teenagers, it shows that modern day young teenagers like these ideas. Many young girls can relate to the idea of missing love or mistaken love, like the theme of Taylor Swift’s "You Belong With Me." A lot of people are emotionally moved by the idea of an unbreakable relationship like the theme of Jay Sean’s "Down", and mostly everybody that listens to modern music seems to like to party and have good nights, as the song "I Gotta Feeling" encourages. All in all, the themes of missing love, good, fun nights, and relationships are popular themes in modern music and help express modern day culture.