Discourse Analysis of Pop Music Songs

A linguist recently analyzed 50 pop music songs. It was found that all songs but one had an I referent, while 88 per cent had a you. Only one each of these referents was specified by proper names. Of course, the major theme is love in one of its three stages--beginning, continuing, or breaking up. It seems that the typical message of most songs is I love you, but we are never told who I and you are.

In addition, only six of the 50 song lyrics explicitly mention the sex of the singer (male or female) and only 17 mention the sex of you. This means that usually the pronouns could refer to either sex for either sex. Furthermore, a pop singer's voice, which could be of either sex, is speaking to us about undesignated yous and Is.

Another point of interest is that 94 per cent of the songs mention no time reference and 80 per cent have no place reference. These characteristics allow songs to 'happen' whenever and wherever they are heard. Listeners can make the songs part of their own world and the people in the songs can become people in their own mind. The 'ghost discourse' which constitutes a song lyric only takes on meaning and form in the minds and environments of the people who use the songs. Thus, we can only say what a song 'means' by focusing on listeners and their interpretations, not by looking at the song itself.

Lastly, the imprecise and highly affective elements of pop songs allow us to use them as 'teddy-bears-in-the-ear': they are verbal 'strokes' which we can ignore or deliberately misunderstand at no risk; like a teddy bear, the song is still 'there' for us. The widespread use of the Walkman makes this analogy even more concrete.

For discussion:

Do you agree with the above analysis of pop songs?

Do you think most songs fit the above description?

Assignment:

Find a recent pop song that you like and analyze its lyrics using the above description, answering the following questions:

1. Are the pronouns explicitly designated?
2. Are the place and the time mentioned?
3. Do the lyrics give us a hint about or directly tell us the sex of the singer?
4. Could someone who did not know the singer tell whether they are male or female?
5. How do you, personally, understand the song?
6. What do you think of when you hear it?
7. How does it make you feel?
8. If there a film or video clip of the song, do you mentally identify with that when you hear the song, or do you have other mental images?
9. How well does your song fit the description in the passage above?
10. Is your song typical or is it an exception?

Go here to see the lyrics for the song "As Time Goes By".

Finding Lyrics on the Internet

To find lyrics on the Internet, type the title of the song in quotation marks followed by the word "lyrics", for example, "As Time Goes By" lyrics.

Adapted from: Murphey, Tim. Music and Song. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, pp.85-6.