Song as Literary Works

7 CHAPTER II REVIEW RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Song as Literary Works

Nowadays, people have been familiar with the presence of music. Since the first time, music is not only a vehicle for expression, but it is also a way to mobilize and inspire listeners to think differently and take action.Music can be heard by all people whether they are young or old, poor or rich, and educated or not. Musicis presentedas aninstrument ofsongthatcan besung byeveryone. Therefore, music is easily accepted in society until this period. Music is one of instruments which can’t be separated with human life. Musicis a human activity which involves structured, audible sounds and is used for artistic, entertainment or ceremonial purposes. The development of musichasa big impactto human lifeinvariousaspects, such aspolitical, social,cultural, orevenreligion. The development of the music itself is indicated by the growth of several genres of songs, like, Hip Hop, Reggae, Metal, Pop, Rock n Roll, Jazz, etc. These music genres show that music affects a lot of people and make them want to know and explore more about the music. Walter Everett 2001: 13 argues that in the 16th century music became one of the important tools that are used to convey messages and feelings.In 1960, the musical group TheBeatlesformedinLiverpool. This group music became widely regarded as the greatest and the most influential band. The music genre of this band is Pop-Rock where this genre is so popular at that time. Rockis 8 differentfromothermusicgenresbecausethisgenresungwithloudinstrumentsandusingharsh words. RockorRocknRoll usuallyexpresscriticism tosomepeopleorevenrebellion against therules whichconveyedthroughmusic. Frank Sinatra in his book entitled Taboo Tunes: A History of Banned Bands Censored Songs expresses that: “Rock ‘n Roll smells phony and false. It is sung, played and written for the most part by cretinous goons and by means of its almost imbecilic retardation and sly, lewd in plain fact dirty lyrics, it manages to be the martial music of every side-burned delinquent on the face of the earth” Sinatra, 2004:45 The development of music is notonlyshownbya variety of genres, but italsoshownina widevariety ofmusicalthemeswritteninto thelyrics ofthe song. Before 18 th century, the theme of music usually talks about love, nature and everything that is beautiful, but by the following time, the theme of music to be so diverse, such as talking about the political, social, cultural or even God. In 20 th century, people have a freedom in expressing their mind, feeling, attitude without any judgments. This period is knownasPostmodernismwhere noexactbinding rulesso peoplehave a freedomto expresstheirlives. Postmodernism is hard to define, because it is a concept that appears in a wide variety of disciplines or areas of study, including art, architecture, music, film, literature, sociology, communications, fashion, and technology. Its hard to locate it temporally or historically, because its not clear exactly when postmodernism begins. Dennis Mc Callum in Proctor,2012:17 argues: “A simple definition of Post-modernism is the belief that truth is not discovered, but created..No one has more lose from post-modernism epistomology than Cristianity ” 9 The development of music is one the characteristic of Postmodernism where people can express their mind in music. In addition to providingsomegreat impact, this periodalsogivessomenegativeeffects, one of themisrebellion. Rebellious is an attitude which rejected or resistingsomeestablishedauthority,government,ortradition and regulations. Rebellioncan beexpressedin various ways, includingmusic. Musicbecomesone of thetools commonlyusedtoexpressrebellioninsociety. It isbecausemusic can beacceptedin all people. The power of song or music is in lyrics itself. Music also uses figurative speech to deliver the meaning as well as poetry. Poetry is a kind of literary works. Wellek and Warren classified literature into three categories or genres; they are novel, drama and poetry. Poetry has the same characteristics with the song, especially in expressing the ideas of the writer. Poetry also usually used as the media in expressing the feeling of the writer or even the social condition at that time. Song and poetry both are used to describe experiences and feelings. They are very similar. Both song and poetry describe the feelings or situations that are meaningful to most people and express the emotions of the writer. Song and poetry are very closely linked. Charles Barber in his book entitled Poetry in English; An Introduction said that originally, a lyric was a poem which was set to music to performance as solo Barber, 1983:14. Furthermore, John Peck and Martin Coyle said that lyric poems can deal with any face of experience, such as love, death, nature or religion, or some domestic, social or politic issues John and Coyle, 184:41. Song is an expression that responds to the life. It is a clearly expression which showing the song writer’s belief, same as the poetry. Song with idea is simply poetry, it tells of love, joy, sadness, or criticism of life. 10 Since the eighteenth century, people have used thepoemasa songto expresstheir ideas, Popefor instance. At that time, Pope has used poetry to explore his ideas in order to preach the epistle. It shows that song and poetry have the same function which not only amuses the reader or listener, but it also as a way in order to influence people. The relation between song and poetry as one of literature is also expressed by Wellek and Warren in their book entitled Theory of Literature which says: “The relationships of literature with the fine arts and music are highly various and complex. Sometimes poetry has drawn inspiration from paintings or sculpture or music. Like natural objects and persons, other works of art may become the themes of poetry. Those poets have described pieces sculpture, painting, or even music presents no particular theoretical problem.” Wellek and Warren, 1949:125

2.2 The Elements of Poetry