ipl-logo

'Interpreting Robinson's Song Analysis Of Hey !'

943 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How does the media promotes stereotypes

It is interesting to analyze the first verse of the song. It is an anaphoric sentence in which the British police acts as the agent of pain and repression. Another important characteristic to analyze here is the political polarization of them (the police) vs. US (homosexual collective). Van Dijk (16) defines a societal domain or field as “the organization that plays an important role in the commonsense definition of political actions”. The binary opposition between the societal field of the British police and the homosexual group of the English population are very clearly shown in Robinson 's song.

If we rely on van Dijk 's political domains, Robinson also criticizes the repressive political action of the moment. Van Dijk says (18) that "such …show more content…

This use of direct style is a way of addressing the listener directly, talking to him, persuasively convincing him of the change.

Pictures of naked young women are fun
In Titbits and Playboy, page three of The Sun
There’s no nudes in Gay News, our one magazine
But they still find excuses to call it obscene
Read how disgusting we are in the press
The Telegraph, People and Sunday Express
Molesters of children, corruptors of youth
It 's there in the paper, it must be the truth

According to van Dijk, political evaluations are characteristically polarized: whereas WE are democratic, THEY are not (van Dijk 28), in these verses Tom Robinson makes a serious criticism against the media (granting them the pronoun THEY in several occasions) which he accuses of infusing a false ideology of stereotypes in order to create a negative social climate with respect to homosexuality. Through positive evaluations of US (the appearance of the possessive pronoun “our”): “there’s no nudes in Gay News, our one magazine” and negative evaluations of THEM: “But they still find excuses to call it obscene” Robinson is accusing to the guilty of the homosexual repression. It is clear here the opposition between good and evil, mass media versus LGTB …show more content…

“It’s there in the paper, it must be the truth” is a serious criticism of the spread of an ideology based on the hatred exercised by the mass media.

(Try and) Sing if you 're glad to be gay
Sing if you 're happy that way
(Hey!) Sing if you 're glad to be gay
Sing if you 're happy that way

The refrain here changes slightly. Now Tom Robinson dares to encourage his listeners with a shy "Try!". He encourages them to try to sing for freedom with a direct style, directing to them, what would it be like to achieve happiness and pride for ourselves?

Don 't try to kid us that if you 're discreet
You 're perfectly safe as you walk down the street
You don 't have to mince or make bitchy remarks
To get beaten unconscious and left in the dark
I had a friend who was gentle and short
He was lonely one evening and went for a walk
Queerbashers caught him, kicked in his teeth
He was only hospitalised for a

Show More
Related

The Outsiders By S. E. Hinton

322 Words | 2 Pages

A song that connects to the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is I How to Save a Life by the Fray. This song shows the theme of losing a friend and not being the same. When the song says “I lost a friend” it is relating to the Greaser’s and mainly Ponyboy when Johnny died in the hospital. In the beginning of the book when Pony was describing all the Greasers he said that Johnny was like the gang’s pet, everyone’s kid brother. Another thing Ponyboy said that Johnny would never have known what love and affection were without the gang.

Read More

Brian Schaffner's Party Polarization

768 Words | 4 Pages

This view is consistent with the theories of David Mayhew (The Electoral Connection, 1974) who asserts that the desire for

Read More

Analysis Of Letters To The President By Hawk Nelson

543 Words | 3 Pages

The song I chose to analyze is “Letters to the President” by Hawk Nelson. It is a song that has a strong resonance in today 's society and inspires me. It is in the genre of “Pop-Punk” , which has had many songs released in the same vein of attempting to make a political statement. The artist attempts to convey that it is important that as a society the two main components of a song are the lyrics and instrumentals. While the instrumentation lends to the lyrics of the song, but it is not the most prominent thing in the song.

Read More

Black Men In Public Space Rhetorical Analysis

1610 Words | 7 Pages

Authors always have a message they wish to instill upon readers. That is, of course, the purpose of writing: to eloquently devise a message that can be easily interpreted by the public so that they can develop a better understanding of something that an author represents. The success of an author, then, in creating a powerful message, manifests itself in whether or not those who read the message decide to take action on the issue presented by the author. The success of Brent Staples in “Black Men and Public Space,” and Andrew Sullivan in “What is a Homosexual?” in conveying their messages come from the ways that the authors utilize various rhetorical devices and tone, elements which help to solidify the purpose of their essays.

Read More

Listening To The Podcast's 81 Words From This American Life

918 Words | 4 Pages

Within the first few minutes of listening to the Podcast, “81 Words,” from This American Life, my mind began to wander to the concept of deviance. When I think of deviance, I think of an act, or desire, that goes against the socially constructed norm. In this case a grand act of sexual deviance, which is considered a civil deviance, leads to grand social change. As I continued listening, I was saddened by the realization that John Spiegel, the main figure in the episode, was a homosexual physiatrist during a time when homosexuality was thought to be a disease.

Read More

Analysis Of Not Just (Any) Body Can Be A Citizen By M. Jacqui Alexander

1447 Words | 6 Pages

In, “Not Just (Any) Body Can Be a Citizen”, author M. Jacqui Alexander explores, examines and expounds on the socio-political forces and machinations which have influenced the legislation in Trinidad and Tobago and The Bahamas, regarding specific sexual identities and manifestations. Primarily using the laws of both countries pertaining to sexual offenses, she discusses how homosexuality and other non-reproductive sexual acts and lifestyles have been outlawed in both nations. In her argument, she outlines how persons of such alternative lifestyles (including herself) have been carefully constructed as deviant, immoral and ultimately destructive to the moral and social fiber of the country. They are counterproductive to the state-imagined heteronormative, civilized state and, as such, must be criminalized and prohibited from enacting such “unnatural” behavior within the general society. More specifically, however,

Read More

Paid Vacation Analysis

1790 Words | 8 Pages

Third, the actions of the police historically have been a topic of concern for punk bands. Bands have a different way of expressing their beliefs, but the Subhumans have never been shy about their views. In their song “No” they state, “No, I don’t believe in the police force, police brutality isn’t a dream.” These lyrics were key on the 1980’s as punk shows were always broken up by the police which would result in arrests and members of the punk community in the hospital. This brutality by the police is more present today than ever.

Read More

Locke Vs Tocqueville Analysis

1084 Words | 5 Pages

Introduction: While freedom as a concept feels fairly intuitive, nuances in interpretation can change the basis of an argument. John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government and Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America do not define liberty in precisely the same way, which in turn guides two different visions in how a government should function. When examining a core concept in an argument, it is important to inquire to whether its treatment is adequate. Is either definition of liberty sufficient, and does either author’s envisioned government adequately address liberty in that system? This paper will argue that Locke’s definition of liberty remains in the literal sphere while Tocqueville’s is more conceptual, but neither Locke’s nor Tocqueville’s

Read More

The Argument Against Hate Speech

1527 Words | 7 Pages

“The Case for Censoring Hate Speech.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 24 July 2013, www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-mcelwee/hate-speech-online_b_3620270.html. Mears, Bill. “Anti-Gay Church 's Right to Protest at Military Funerals Is Upheld.”

Read More

Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique

2208 Words | 9 Pages

She believed that gay men were disrespectful and that they could not be respected in the society (Nardi & Schneider, 2013). At a particular instance, she described the spread of homosexuality in the United States as “murky smog”. Still in the research, the mistrust for gay people was drawn from unscientific ideas and methods of collecting data. For instance, the information that Alfred Kinsey, an author whose views concerning homosexuality are widely used in Friedan’s book, was collected from a prison facility. The fact that the facility had more men than women means that random sampling was not employed in collecting research (Nardi & Schneider,

Read More

Summary Of Sedgwick's Epistemology Of The Closet

1105 Words | 5 Pages

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick in her Epistemology of the Closet claims that “many of the major nodes of thought and knowledge in twentieth-century Western culture are structures—indeed, fractured—by a chronic, now endemic crisis of homo/heterosexual definition” (Sedgwick 2008, 1). Sedgwick argues that it is a crisis “indicatively male, dating from the end of the nineteenth century” (1). This is an interesting point since the male perspective is the pillar, of the Western Patriarchal model of gender role’s construction—and for our purpose sexual identity constraint. The author, in her book, says that “virtually any aspect of modern Western culture must be, not merely incomplete, but damaged in its central substance to the degree that it does not incorporate a critical analysis

Read More

Hey Jude Analysis

1298 Words | 6 Pages

The Beatles were undoubtedly one of the best song composers of the twentieth century. Their countless number of hits have motivated and inspired millions of songwriters and fans all throughout the world. “Hey Jude” is certainly one of their most popular songs of all time. Not only has the track been recognized as one of the Beatles’ greatest songs of all time, but has been influential enough to be classified as an anthem. What was is about “Hey Jude” that was so captivating, and influential in rock and roll history?

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Fake News

1526 Words | 7 Pages

Is It True? Living in a Fake News World “But I 'm ravenous for news, any kind of news; even if it 's false news, it must mean something” (Atwood, 1985). In this digital day and age, people have access to information and news at any time. People give their attention to a headline, an article, or a link just because they are posted on the internet.

Read More

Literature Review: The Impact Of Media Influence On Society

1015 Words | 5 Pages

Their study was based on an examination of the content of animated cartoons which exposes young audiences to media biases at a very young age. Their study was unique because it focused on a younger media group as opposed to the majority of other media analyzes that prefer to to do adult focused groups. Interestingly, they found that homosexuals are annihilated in cartoons in other words they are basically non-existent in cartoons. Klein, et al gives the reference of symbolic annihilation which was first made by Tuchman (1978), who described the phenomenon as a process by which the mass media omit, trivialize, or condemn certain groups that are not socially valued. This is a major issue because it sends a message to society that certain groups are not important in society and therefore are not part of the important story.

Read More

Disadvantages Of Liberal Democracy

792 Words | 4 Pages

Heywood, A. (2013). Politics. 4th ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan, p.71.

Read More

More about 'Interpreting Robinson's Song Analysis Of Hey !'

Related Topics

Open Document