Background of The Study

1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of The Study

In Stardust Memories, one of Woody Allen’s movies, there isasceneofa conversationof twomen dealing with their perspective of the existence of God. The first man asks to his friend, “Why is there so much human suffering?” The reply comes back, “This is unanswerable.” So, the first man tries again, “Is there a God?” Later, his friend replays, “These are wrong questions.” The parable above is not just a mere joke or humorous. This scene depicts the human condition. Lately, the perspective of God has become a common topic to be discussed. This can beevidenced by themovies, songs andotherthings that no longer taboo to talk about the existence of God as the theme. Since a long time ago, people have tried to find out about the existence of God. Peoplebegan towonder wherethe earthandeverything in itis derived from. They begin to think about who made the earth and everything in it because it is beyond of human power. They think that it needed a huge power to make a solar system, and it is God. Scientists are convinced that the universe began with one enormous explosion of energy and light, which called as the Big Bang. This is the singular start to everything that exists: the beginning of the universe and all things in it. Astrophysicist Robert Jastrowstates: The seed of everything that has happened in the Universe was planted in that first instant; every star, every planet and every living creature in the Universe came into being as a result of events that were set in motion in the moment of the cosmic explosion...The Universe flashed into being, and we cannot find out what caused that to happen. Jastrow, 2000:23 2 Moreover, Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in Physics 2013: 63, says “The universe was about a hundred thousand million degrees Centigrade...and the universe was filled with light. The universehas abeginningbutno one knowswho the creator. It had a start, but the scientists have no explanation for the sudden explosion of light and matter. It is that makes some people concludes that there is an enormous power to make the entire universe, and its great power is named God. The existence ofGodis often identifiedwith religion. Even though the religion and God has a close relationship, but both have different meanings. Chan 2006:3 said that God refers to an all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing, eternal creator of the world than religion is formed because it believes the presence of God. Religion is organized and structured, since it is an institution formed by people to be obeyed by its followers. Religious institution teaches about what people should do and shouldn’t. People start placing themselves in a religious institution and follow the dogma, but not all people want to be religious in their life, Shelley Segal for instance. She ignores the existence of God and the rules because she wants to live in freedom. Shelley Segal is an Australian-Jewish singer and a song writer who likes to express her feeling in beautiful songs. Shelley was born in Melbourne and she follows her father’s professions as a musician, especially as a guitarist, singer and song writer. She is interested in folk-rock genres and has published six albums since 2009. Shelley Segal’s perspective about the existence of God is interesting to discussed, because it gives more understanding about the diversity of people’s perspective of God. This thesis analyzes one of Shelley Segal’s albums entitled An Atheist Album. This album describes Shelley’s feeling towards religious institutions 3 where at the end she prefer to rebel against religious institutions and has her own way. It is very interesting to discuss because Shelley lives in religious family where her father is known as a local president of synagogue but later she rebel against religious institutions to get freedom and prefer not to obey in any religions. Shelley Segal’s figure represents most human figures nowadays who don’t want to be bounded by any rules. She wants to do what she likes and regardless any religious rules. The creativeness of Shelley Segal is expressed in her albums. Each song which produced based on her own feeling or experiences. An Atheist Album is the first of Shelley’s album. It talks about her perspective towards the idea of religious institution such as about the existence of God, the dogma, religious regulations and hypocracy. This album consists of seven songs that express the way of life she chose. There are seven songs in this album; they are Afterlife, House with No Walls, Saved, Apocalyptic Song, Eve, I Don’t Believe in Fairies and Gratitude. Each song conveys her perspective towards belief in God. Shelley Segal’s lyrics interpret her view or her motto “Find Your Own Way and Be Happy”. She lives by her own way and doesn’t care of what people talk about. In this thesis, rebellion against religious institutions is the main point to discuss as well as Shelley’s perspective about the religious institution itself. Talking about song can’t be separated talking about lyric as well as talking about the poetry. To get the idea of the song writer, the lyrics should be analyzed in the same way with poem. Song has the same form with poetry. Both of them are written in lines or stanza. Furthermore, the song writer sometimes uses figurative speech in expressing the ideas. 4 Franciss Scott Key gives argument about the relationship between song and poetry. He says: “Both poetry and song are literary poems that deal with emotion of a particular individual, regarding a particular situation. Furthermore, poetry verses and lines of song often follow a rhyming scheme giving a sense of melody to the verses, even when the lines are merely recited. There are a number of different lyrics used in songs that derived from poetry. The lyrics of the song were actually derived from the poem of the same title and written”, Key, 2003: 101 So does John Dryden 1966:38 who says, “Poetry is articulate music”. In conclusion, it can be says that poetry and music are similar in characteristics.

1.2 Problems of The Study