From the 20th century to the 21st music hasn't changed that dramatically, but the meaning in the lyrics can change with the semantics used. I have chosen two songs from each time period and analysed for change of meaning of words used, and also to find if the meaning of "Abandonment" has changed in sense of what people think abandonment is. Abandonment Is shown through lyrics through semantics and lexis. The songs i have chosen are "Tears in Heaven" By Eric Clapton, "Mother" by John Lennon. These are from the 20th Century. The 21st century songs are "Far Away" by Nickelback and Abandon by Bif Naked.
The first thing i realised is that the older songs seem a lot shorter meaning they would have to use certain words to show how they feel in a shorter amount of time. Both Songs talk in first person, over using the word "I" to show feeling and sincerity. The usage of "I" in the newer songs is less frequent as the lyrics are more narrative and telling a story rather than using a lexical field to show their emotion. Abandon by Bif Naked, which was written in the 21st Century has a narrative explaining a story about someone who has abandoned her. In the lyrics there are rhyming words which is the norm for lyrics. But the words that rhyme relate to eachother, for example the forst two sentances end in the words car and far. They relate to each other, aswell as the next two sentences end in hard and scar. This lexical field relates to the theme of abandonment and gives a feeling of it in the first few lines.
The first thing i realised is that the older songs seem a lot shorter meaning they would have to use certain words to show how they feel in a shorter amount of time. Both Songs talk in first person, over using the word "I" to show feeling and sincerity. The usage of "I" in the newer songs is less frequent as the lyrics are more narrative and telling a story rather than using a lexical field to show their emotion. Abandon by Bif Naked, which was written in the 21st Century has a narrative explaining a story about someone who has abandoned her. In the lyrics there are rhyming words which is the norm for lyrics. But the words that rhyme relate to eachother, for example the forst two sentances end in the words car and far. They relate to each other, aswell as the next two sentences end in hard and scar. This lexical field relates to the theme of abandonment and gives a feeling of it in the first few lines.
In the chorus it is talking to the person directly using the word “you” as the main pointer.
“Where were you when I needed you, where were you, where were you?” This relates us into the song and catches us in feeling the emotion of the writer. Now in the other song Mother by John Lennon it is very different to the narrative of this very modern song. John Lennons song "Mother" was written in the 1970’s and showing a different way of expressing meaning through its lyrics. It is very straight to the point and involves us into the story.
Repetition is key in both lyrics, but is different. In John Lennons song, the lines are literally repeated over and over again for half of the song. This emphasises the feeling towards his mother, whereas in the Bif Naked song, in one of the verses the word “shaking” is used a lot. This is a good semantic as it is in the lexical field the writer has chosen to write in.
Shaking in my boots, you shook me down.
You really took me down.
Shaking my foundation, not to be found.
Never to be found.
You really took me down.
Shaking my foundation, not to be found.
Never to be found.
In this verse the repetition also comes back into place as the first two sentances end in down, and the second two sentences end in found.
The main thing I found in my investigation was that the older song is accepting the abandonment whereas the modern day song is explaining how it is affecting there lives in the present. John Lennon uses certain words like goodbye, and also, “Children don’t do what I have done,” explaining that he shouldn’t have said goodbye but is facing the fact that it is done. The modern day song is more a narrative as I have explained before but, it is using words such as die, and can’t breathe to show how the abandonment has affected her and she cannot handle it.
Where were you when i needed you?
Somethings missing, and I can't breathe.
Where were you? Where were you?
Somethings missing.
You abandoned me.
Somethings missing, and I can't breathe.
Where were you? Where were you?
Somethings missing.
You abandoned me.
Oh when you look deep into my mind.
That is so tired and weak from this life.
On the verge of fear all the time.
I feel like you left me here to die.
That is so tired and weak from this life.
On the verge of fear all the time.
I feel like you left me here to die.
Does spoken language change throughout the 20th and 21st century? Is it shown In the lyrics?
Prosodic features were the first thing I saw and decided to take this approach first. The simplest way to see this instead of analysing the whole song was to look at the choruses of the four songs I chose. And what I found was the earlier dated songs of the 20th century did not have a chorus but just maybe a paragraph that was repeated or lines that were repeated. Throughout the song the language used is monotone and the volume stays the same with slight differentiation to some words than others. In all of the songs the tempo is at a constant stability, but in the 21st century songs the choruses are different. The prosodic features change to that of the verses. The pitch and volume increase giving a sense that they are angrier and have more emotion in the words that they are trying to convey through song.
A similarity that all four songs had was that they used contraction for the words did not and cannot and so on. It is formal which shows that the theme of Abandonment is a very touchy and sincere subject when writing it in lyrics or poems. I have done a survey as to whether the contraction of words change meaning or makes it less personal and affective. I wrote down two sentences from a song of each era, one sentence being the correct use of English and the other with contracted words. These are my results;
| | Affective? | Non-Affective? |
| 20th Century (contracted) | X | |
| 20th Century (not contracted) | | X |
| 21st Century (contracted) | X | |
| 21st Century (not contracted) | | X |
The Sentences.
| 20th Century (contracted) 'Cause I know I just can't stay here in heaven’ |
| 20th Century (not contracted) ‘Because I know I just cannot stay here in heaven’ |
| 21st Century (contracted) ‘I keep dreaming you'll be with me and you'll never go’ |
| 21st Century (not contracted) ‘I keep dreaming you will be with me and you will never go’ |
From the results I found out that contracted words are much better as they flow and can be in time with the music much more than non-contracted words are. Flow is the essence to music and the language to go a long with it has to flow. A lot of the aspects of language that people think of as “the way to talk” are defied in lyrics and contracted words are a part of it. Another being non-fluency features. This is the typical and normal characteristic of spoken language that interrupt the 'flow' of talk. Some examples: hesitations, false starts, fillers, repetitions, overlaps and interruptions. When analyzing the four songs, two being from the 20th century and the other two from 21st century, I figured out that the earlier written songs are based on repetition throughout the whole song. Whereas there may be repetition in the newer written songs, the older ones,
