In analyzing the music video for this song, the young couple is separated by war, as the male enlists in the army without tell his female partner. The male subject in this video is personally affected by the situation (war) going on it that time period. The video expresses the director's feeling that with all of the losses in the world, we should all value each other and every moment we have with others. We should never take others for granted, because times and circumstances change.
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Rhetoric is Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends"
As was mentioned in a previous post by Angie Han, "'Wake Me Up When September Ends' is a tribute not only to his father who died twenty years ago, but also to the victims of 9/11. The song also acted as an anti-war protest against the Iraq War." In addition to his father's death, the line, "Like my fathers come to pass" represents those who we look up to as our role models that have died and have meant so much to so many. The lyrics that state "seven years has gone so fast" refers to the fact that Green Day started their group 7 years after his father's passing. When he states "twenty years has gone so fast", he is referring to the 20 years it was from the time he wrote the song. This song shows extreme pathos as he does not even want to stay awake for the rest of September. Green Day states how the rain keeps coming showing intense sadness for the situation at hand, and the rain makes him "drenched in {his} pain again." He'll never forget what has been lost (his father, father-figures, and all of the victims of 9/11). This song is more than seven minutes of singing about intense pain and feelings of loss, and it is the most personal song that Billie Joe Armstrong has ever written. Ethos is used as credibility is provided in the knowledge of 9/11 and of the speaker's personal relationship to death and then also the knowledge of the countless victims of 9/11. Even when the memory of the deaths is not in the front of his mind he will always forget the horrible losses that have occurred. All of the hardships that we endure are supposed to build our character and make us stronger.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This song's pathetic appeal is crucial to its impact on the listener; it's evident even in the tone of the song. One familiar with Green Day expects one of their songs to start with electric guitars and a feel of rock, though this begins with a few quiet, sombre notes on a non-electrified guitar. In the band having developed such an extrinsic ethos and creating a piece like this, they provoke a questioning sense in the audience that indicates that what's behind this particular song is more grave and unlike any other work they have produced.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete