Glorifying the Words behind the Lyrics

After reading Matthew L. BalieyShea’s From Me to You: Dynamic Discourse in Popular Music. I began to ponder about the deeper thing and the intention of lyrics. The first song that came to mind was the song Glory by John Legend and Common. This song made its debut in the film Selma, which was based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. This song embodies a deeper meaning that really causes the listener to channel in and truly understand its true meaning. The writers of Glory intended to instill a sense power, and inspiration within blacks and to interconnect history with current day events.

This song incorporates quite a few aspects of BaileyShea’s article. The concept of pronouns is brought to my attention in his article. BaileyShea states that pronouns allow for a listener to make a shift from a distance perspective to one of intimacy. This concept is portrayed in the lyrics with the comparisons between the marches that took place in 1965 for equal voting rights and marches that have occurred today due to covert inequality.

When listening to the song Glory, one can hear a lot of pronouns such “it, ours, we and us,” these pronouns all signify third person. The use of third person in the lyrics emphasizes on the direct meaning of lyrics. It draws the attention of the listeners to the lyrics preceding and following the pronouns, therefore grasping a deeper meaning of the song’s intentions. The pronouns used also insinuate the claim that together as a race they can achieve their goals and withstand obstacles.

 “That’s why Rosa sat on the bus,

That’s why we walk through Ferguson with our hands up.”

These two lines that the artists state allow one to connect on a more intimate level. In the first line Common references the Rosa Parks boycott, which resonates a connection with the older black generation By stating Ferguson listeners of this generation have a comparable concept to relate to because it is an event that has recently occurred.  These two references together bring a sense of intimacy to the song because no matter the age deferential the topic of discussion is the same, equality, and that is something that all generations can connect on.

The song continues and throughout its lyrics embodies the name Glory with its use of narrative theory combined with pronouns. Narrative theory contains two branches, storytelling and mimetic role-playing, that BaileyShea claims in his article are within every song. He explains that the use of storytelling and mimetic role-playing is usually displayed as one or the other within a song. However, in Glory both concepts are exhibited although storytelling plays a more prevalent role than mimetic role-playing.

The entire song is set around the struggle to achieve equality for blacks. Therefore, the lyrics tell the story of the fight for equality.

“When it go down we woman and man up

They say, “Stay down,” and we stand up”

The lyrics stated tell a story; the story is that they will fight for their equality despite the predetermined ideals of authority figures and others who do not support their movement.         

           

 Within those lyrics is the phrase “Stay down,” which represents mimetic role-playing. These two words although miniscule, send a very symbolic message to the listener due to its historical and current day relevance it contains. The phrase, “Stay down,” is also common monologue used towards black men when law enforcement assume they are harboring illegal contraband and or participating in illegal activity. By saying “Stay down” within a song that already carries the idea of fighting for the equality for blacks, this phrase alone has the ability to impact the mindset of all blacks in a positive manner.