The song 1985 is about a middle-aged woman who dislikes modern pop culture, believing that the mid 1980s pop culture was better. Referenced as “Debbie”, she does through a sort of mid-life crisis where her life thus far has been incredibly boring compared to the life she could have led. Because her teenage years took place during the 1980’s, she thinks fondly of them and believes them to be superior to her later years.

The chorus of the song is backed up by very upbeat guitar. Each line of lyrics being introduced by two strums of guitar gives it a sort of back and forth interaction between singer and music. Though I didn’t live during the 1980’s, the music does have a sort of “1980s” feel to it because of the pop-rock genre it embodies. A very interesting part of the song is when the lyrics sing about Debbie hating time and wishing it could stop, and then the music completely stops and is replaced by a ticking clock sound.

“1985” was actually originally written and recorded by the band SR-71 but gained widespread popularity after Bowling for Soup performed it in 2004. This song doesn’t have particular meaning for me, but it does remind me of my middle school days because that is when I first came across it. The song has the underlying message that you never know what you miss unless you take chances, as exampled by the fictional Debbie in which she leads an unfulfilled life rather than doing what she actually wanted to do.

I recommend this song to anyone who is remotely into rock. It’s a very upbeat, fun song to listen to and sing along with, and for anyone who actually lived during the 1980s, it can possibly serve as memorabilia. Overall, 1985 is a great song to add to your playlist for jamming to during a car ride, for workouts, or just general enjoyment.

Work Cited: Bowling for Soup. 1985. Butch Walker, 2004. CD.

Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bowlingforsoup/1985.html

Chandelier by Sia is a recent hit song about alcoholism and substance abuse that runs rampant during parties. Some of the lyrics state how “party girls don’t get hurt…cant feel anything” because they drown out their feelings by “pushing down” substances. Swinging from a chandelier is a metaphor for partying to excess, and the song goes on to talk about how once she wakes up the morning after, she comes back to her empty reality. “Feeling the love” doesn’t refer to actual love, but rather the “love” she feels with her partying friends who suffer from the same alcoholism and substance abuse.

The music in the introduction gives the feeling of a standard party currently happening. The instruments paired with Sia’s voice bring great emotion to the song, as the content of the music is something that many people have dealt with in their lifetime. The most memorable parts of the song is definitely the high notes that Sia hits during the chorus. The video is also something that is extremely memorable, and will most likely be a big part of pop culture for a while.

I am not completely sure if this information is factual, but this song includes moments from Sia’s home-life when she was child, how her parents were alcoholic and always spent money on alcohol rather than food. As a result, Sia was forced to suppress her hunger by consuming alcohol. In turn, Sia also grew up to be a victim of alcoholism.

I personally enjoy this song a lot. It has a very somber theme in comparison to its fun beats and “soaring” tone and I especially enjoy how it’s completely relate-able for people who have gone through the same situation. It puts into words how sufferers of alcoholism and substance abuse feel and simultaneously brings more public awareness to the issue. I recommend this song to anyone who has any remote interest in pop music.

Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sia/chandelier.html

Work Cited: Sia. Chandelier. Sia. Greg Kurstin, Jesse Shatkin, 2014. CD.

Interviewing my mother, she gave me the song Red Bean by Faye Wong as her song of choice. While listening to this song, she told me it doesn’t have a very specific meaning to her, only that she finds the song to be beautiful and leaves you feeling warm on the inside. Red Bean is a ballad that is about a woman whose lover has left.

Interestingly enough, there is a Chinese Love Legend where a man is forced into battle, leaving behind his wife and children. The legend goes on about how the woman would sit beside a tree on a mountain, fruitlessly waiting for her love to return from battle. Crying every single day, she realized she began to cry blood, and those blood droplets ended up turning into red beans. Those red beans were then planted in the ground and grew into large trees producing even more red beans.

My mom also told me that red beans have big cultural significance when it comes to love. Red beans often symbolize faithfulness and love because of its hardness and heart shape. It’s color is similar to blood and it can be stored for very long time periods without rotting or fading color. The entirety of the song has a continuous “warm” tone to it, and I understand why she enjoys it so much. It is indeed a beautiful song once you get past the language barrier, and it has a “timeless” feel to it. At least, for Chinese people.

I only hesitate to recommend this song to other people because it’s in another language and because its a Ballad. I myself am already very accustomed to listening to songs in other languages like Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, German, etc. but for some people they might be turned off because they can’t understand it. It is a beautiful song once you understand the meaning behind the lyrics, but it is all a matter of taste.

The Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhDp_ktFcV0

Lyrics: http://www.lyricsmania.com/hong_dou_red_bean_lyrics_faye_wong.html

Work Cited: Wong, Faye. “紅豆” (Hóngdòu) (Red Bean). Faye Wong. Rec. 1998. EMI, 1998. CD.

One Summer’s Day is a beautiful instrumental piece for the animated movie Spirited Away that was released in 2001. This piece has no single meaning, so the listener has the ability to interpret the music in their own way. From my own listening experience, it sounds like two people meeting and embracing on a breezy spring day after spending an extensive amount of time apart from each other, spending the entire day having fun and catching up, and then parting once more. It is filled with emotion from start to finish, and gives an intense feeling of nostalgia, to me at least.

The piano gives this piece a very tender, human quality. It’s as though the song is coming from within someone, trying to tell you their story without using words, only emotion. The piece starts off soft and simple, slowly building up more and more after each group of notes. It gets to a point where it feels like your feelings have built up so much that you’re beginning to let everything out. Then, the most memorable part comes in, being the gentle, beautiful melody.

There is not much information out there about how Mr. Hisaishi produced this piece, nor any hint of what inspired him, but based on the live performance that he did, I think this music is just something that came directly from his soul. This piece has the potential to hold many meanings for myself, though I need to find and experience them first.

I HIGHLY recommend this piece to anyone I meet. It is simply beautiful, and it’s something that I feel many people need to hear and experience for themselves with good headphones. This is most definitely not a one time wonder, and I think this will always be well known among the more “nerdy” people in the population. This piece will begin to lose its touch if you listen to it over and over on repeat, but listening to it every once in a while, it will always give you a warm feeling on the inside. It’s a great piece to listen to if you are in the mood to cry as well.

Works Cited:

Hisaishi, Joe. One Summer’s Day. Milan Entertainment, 2001. CD.

Live Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1ni1sVCgEk

Love Story is about a girl who fell in love with a boy whom she first saw in the past at an evening party from a balcony. She goes on to narrate that the boy made his way through the crowd towards her to meet her and in the beginning, her father disapproved of their relationship. Her father sent him away and she cried out, wanting him to come back. The main chorus is about her wanting to escape somewhere with the boy so they can have time to themselves in a sort of fairy-tale fashion. She mentions that she was a scarlet letter so that meant she was under-aged at the time they met. Some time passes and she comes across him again outside of town, and he proposes to her once she has come of age and he received permission from her father.

The beginning acoustic guitar gives the song a gentle, “summer love” tone that plays quite well with the lyrics that introduce the Romeo and Juliet. When the song gets to the chorus, the sudden addition of the drums and guitar gave the impression that Juliet was passionate about Romeo and that she desired to spend time with him, against her father’s wishes. The musical break towards the end gives off the sense of the passage of time, and plays along with the lyrics that follow that stated that she “got tired of waiting”.

Taylor Swift from back then had a very country romance type of vibe to all her songs. She definitely was not as pop focused as she is now. This song is autobiographical because Taylor was in a similar situation as Romeo and Juliet in the sense that she introduced a boy she liked to her friends and family, only to find that he was not liked by them. The only people who wanted them to be together were themselves.

If you are into country, then this song is definitely a recommendation. And even if you aren’t into country, this song is not bad at all to listen to once in a while. It’s a song that I can see many teenagers and younger children to enjoy because of it’s fairy tale elements, but of course adults are free to enjoy it just as much. It’s a lovely song to listen to when you’re in love. This song has potential to stick with people throughout the generations, but only if Taylor Swift continues to be a common household name.

Works Cited:

Swift, Taylor. Love Story. Taylor Swift. Nathan Chapman, Taylor Swift, 2008. CD.

Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/taylorswift/lovestory.html

The A Team by Ed Sheeran is basically about a prostitute’s life in a very cold area in the world. The lyrics go on to talk about how ever since she was 18, she dreamed of a better life than the one she has now and that her health is starting to falter because of her situation. Loose change and a couple of bank notes is the only money she has on her, and “going mad for a couple grams” refers to how people in poor situations will do anything in order to make a living and survive. In her case, she is working as a call girl at night time to pay for her rent. She also purchases drugs as an escape from reality and actually feel good every once in a while.

The music in this song has a very mellow, constant guitar strum that lends a rhythm to the story that Ed is trying to tell. There are background singers who sing pleasant, relaxed notes. One part of the song that I feel is quite powerful is when the constant guitar strumming gets quiet and stops for a few lines. The lines sang during this section are supposed to be the main message of the song, being that many people are struggling in their daily lives just to get by.  Many people who are under “the upper hand” and must work extra hard, sometimes even night jobs to make a living.

I’m not quite sure if the message of the song relates to Ed Sheeran himself, but I would say that one big reason for writing it was to bring more awareness to this issue. It sounds nice and peaceful at the first listen, but then it hits you that it’s a very melancholic song as you continue listening further and really pay attention to the lyrics. Angels can refer to the innocent people affected by poverty.

I feel that The A Team is a fantastic song, but only when you’re in the mood for something of a more somber tone. I personally enjoy the song because its different in that it has great meaning behind its words, contrary to the mindless lyrics of some other music. It doesn’t rely on too many instruments or a catchy beat to lure in listeners, but more on story telling. I think this song will continue to be listened to in the future and I definitely recommend this as well as Ed Sheeran himself.

Works Cited:

Sheeran, Ed. The A Team. Ed Sheeran. Jake Gosling, 2011. CD.

Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/edsheeran/theateam.html

              This song is about a man and a woman who somewhere down the road, drifted apart into two separate directions. The man is a taxi driver who somehow meets the woman again after a long time has passed, and they don’t have much to say to each other. The woman finally notices that the driver is the man after seeing his name plate, and she is reminded of the love they once had. They drive on for several miles and only exchange a smile or two, the whole ride being a melancholic silence. While this song isn’t my cup of tea, I did enjoy it and thought the story telling and overall sad tone was done in a pleasant way.

The music and lyrics compliment each other in creating a depressing atmosphere. With the artist singing about a love that is lost and wont be rekindled paired up with the mellow guitar and cello, it creates a strong harmony that allows us to feel what the artist might have felt at the time of writing his song. At the part when he sings “Oh, I’ve got something inside me…” his voice intensifies with the lyrics to indicate the overwhelming emotions that he felt.

This song is unmistakably about the artist and his lost love with a woman. Throughout the performance, he doesn’t give away too much from his facial expressions but his voice combined with the music lets us know how he feels. The song definitely has special meaning to the artist because, well, it’s about his past love. I feel that this song is something that many people can easily relate to, because this kind of situation isn’t uncommon.

I think you can listen to this song anytime you’d like, but will have the strongest effect on you when you are going through a tough time with someone you love. It can be considered a breakup song, but not the type where its spiteful. It’s more of a “we had something special, but now it’s gone” type of song. It is by no means a “one hit wonder” either, because it’s clear though the comments on the video that people of all ages can enjoy this song. I highly recommend this song if the style is what you enjoy listening to!

Works Cited:

Chapin, Harry. Taxi. Harry Chapin. Jac Holtzman, 1972. Cassette.

Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/harrychapin/taxi.html

• I want to be able to dive into the deeper meanings of songs and uncover the artist’s messages.
• I want to be introduced to new music to listen to in my spare time.
• I want to learn the creative process behind writing a song, and what gives the artist his or her inspiration.

Welcome to my SBYou!

My full name is Danny Yang Zhao and my birthday is December 6th, 1995. I was born in Stony Brook hospital actually, so it’s cute how I’m attending college here now. I am an art major, which can be rather puzzling to most people at first because Stony Brook is a science oriented college. I am of Asian decent, or more specifically, Chinese.

I have a rather nerdy selection of interests and hobbies that range from reading comics, watching anime, and playing a large amount of video games. I also have more “normal” interests like drawing/painting and eating food. But obviously, there is more to someone than just their interests. I am an EXTREMELY shy person in the beginning. I don’t like speaking in front of crowds, and making important phone calls or talking to strangers gives me anxiety so that is one of my top priorities to fix during my college career. Another big issue I have is that I tend to procrastinate too much, which is normal I suppose. BUT, this creates headaches for me in the end so I would like to get rid of this tendency as soon as possible.

Music is something that (almost) everyone enjoys. For me, music has been a savior in many, many situations. Whenever I’m on transportation for an extended amount of time, I get motion sick, but ever since I got an I-pod and brought it on those long rides, the motion sickness magically vanished without a trace. Whenever I’m unable to sleep at night, I pop my ear-buds in and listen to music in bed. Its something that I do nearly every night, and it usually helps me fall asleep. Music genres that I enjoy include pop, rock, Korean pop, indie, and Latin, but more recently, I’ve been having a deep appreciation for classical music. Classical music is very soothing to listen to, and it has a great knack at giving you emotions.