Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Butterfly Kisses-Bob Carlisle

Bob Carlisle was born on September 29, 1956 in Los Angeles, California. He worked with a couple of bands before pursuing a solo career. He performed in clubs in the 1970s. He performs Christian music, his most notable song being “Butterfly Kisses.” He won the Grammy for Best Country Song in 1997. The song also won a Dove award for Song of the Year. In the late 1970s he married his wife, Jacque. They had two children together; a daughter, Brooke, and a son, Evan. "Butterfly Kisses" had been written as a gift for his daughter Brooke's sixteenth birthday and was a song that he had never intended to record.
In the song “Butterfly Kisses,” there is a simile in the line “Like the wind, the years go by.” There is a hyperbole in the line “Trying her wings out in a great big world,” because she doesn’t actually have wings to try out. There is imagery in the line “Stickin' little white flowers all up in her hair.” The reader can picture a little girl putting flowers in her hair. There is symbolism in the line “little white flowers.” The flowers symbolize purity and childhood. He uses white flowers to show how innocent his daughter is when she is a child. There is consonance in the line “sweet sixteen today,” showing the next part of his daughter’s life. The whole song tells a story, creating a picture of his daughter growing up and how he sometimes feels like he is losing his daughter, but that she will always be his baby girl. The song is emotionally evocative because it brings thoughts of growing up and having that relationship with your father.
The main device used in this song is imagery. The whole song can create a picture in the listener’s mind. There is a lot of symbolism to show the innocence of his daughter as a child. Having written this song for his daughter, Bob Carlisle’s song is relatable to many girls with good relationships with their fathers.

Ring of Fire-Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash is one of the best musicians of all time. Starting out as a poor Christian boy on a farm, Johnny Cash developed into a man who wrote influential lyrics to millions. Getting signed in 1954, Johnny Cash quickly became a hit with many people. By 1958, he had sold over six million records for his label. In 1960, Cash met Bob Dylan, and the two recorded together for Dylan’s album Nashville Skyline, and Cash covered several of Bob Dylan’s songs. Johnny Cash is best known for being a country singer, but he dappled in other genres, such as rock and roll, blues, gospel, and folk music. In the 1960s, Johnny Cash married June Carter, and the happy couple revived Cash’s career. Together, they did duets on multiple songs, and made millions. Cash’s lyrics provided inspiration for many people, and lead to his thriving career. Cash’s song “Ring of Fire” contains a number of poetic devices, showing off just one of many of his amazing songs.
When Johnny and June got married, she wrote songs with him, as well as about him. “Ring of Fire” was written by June Carter Cash about her love for Johnny. The mix of her lyrics with his voice allow for a huge country hit. The quote “love is a burning thing” is both a metaphor and personification. It is a metaphor because it is a comparison without using like or as. It is personification because love does not actually burn. “I fell into a ring of fire” is an example of hyperbole, because June did not actually fall into a ring of fire. There is also imagery, because the reader can picture a ring of fire that keeps progressing and getting larger. The “ring of fire” in itself, and the whole song, is symbolic of their love, and how they fell in love while they were both married to other people, and were thrown into a crazy life. An example of personification is “the taste of love is sweet” because love does not have a taste. The line “I fell for you like a child” is a simile because it compares her love to the how children fall in love using the word like.
The key device in this song is symbolism. It is used throughout the entire song to accentuate the chaos of June and Johnny’s love for each other at a hectic point in their lives. Imagery is also used throughout the song to picture the flames burning higher and higher. Although June was the one to write this song, Johnny Cash’s singing brings it to a new level, and the fact that it was written about their real lives makes for an even better song. Together, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash made amazing songs that rocked the country world, and brought country music to a completely new level.

Amazed-Lonestar

Lonestar is a talented band, whose members are all from Texas. From 1993 to 1994, Lonestar played about 500 gigs while traveling in a Jeep Cherokee and a trailer that carried all of their equipment. They promoted themselves with a six song live CD. In 1995, the band was offered a record contract by BNA Records. Their self titled debut album featured a Top Ten hit, entitled “Tequila Talkin’.” Their second single, "No News," hit number one in 1996 and remained there for three weeks. The Academy of Country Music named Lonestar its top new group of the year for 1995. "Runnin' Away With My Heart," co-written by Michael Britt, made the Top 10. Billboard, Music Row and Country Weekly all gave year-end awards to the band. Their self-titled debut became a gold record. In 1998, Lonestar had its first ballad single, called “Say When.” Also in 1998, the singer, John Rich, left the band to pursue a solo career. The band’s third album, entitled “Lonely Grill”, had a chart topping single, “Amazed”, that stayed there for eight weeks in 1999. This broke records and made the band a crossover sensation. “Amazed” hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Lonely Grill was certified multiplatinum in 2000.
The song “Amazed” by Lonestar has many different poetic devices that work together as a whole to make a wonderful love song. For example, the line “This feeling inside me, is almost more than I can take” is an example of a cliché. It is an overused expression that shows how the man’s love for his girlfriend is overpowering to the point where it almost hurts, which can also be a hyperbole. The line “I can hear your thoughts. I can see your dreams” is an example of a hyperbole, because his cannot really hear her thoughts or see her dreams. The line “I’m so in love with you” is another example of a cliché, because that term is overused when people explain their love for others. There is imagery in the lines “the smell of your skin, the taste of your kiss, the way you whisper in the dark, your hair all around me,” because you can picture all of these things in your head. There is an example of hyperbole in the lines “your hair all around me, baby you surround me. You touch everyplace in my heart.” This is a hyperbole because her hair is not really all around him, she doesn’t surround him, and she cannot physically touch his heart. There is another cliché in the line “I wanna spend the rest of my life with you by my side.” This is again another overused expression. Although all these clichés may take away from the song a bit, it all fits together to form a ballad about a man whose love for his girlfriend grows stronger every day, and using clichés shows his growing love for her through time.

Jesus, Take the Wheel-Carrie Underwood

Carrie Underwood was born March 10, 1983 in Muskogee, Oklahoma. As a childhood, Carrie played in talent shows and sung in her church choir. In 1996, Carrie was set to get a recording contract with Capitol Records, but when the management changed, she didn’t get the contract. At age thirteen, Carrie became a vegetarian, saying she wouldn’t want to eat one of her own animals, and didn’t want to eat other animals either. She graduated in 2001 from Checotah High School as salutatorian. After high school, she attended Northeastern State University. She graduated magna cum laude in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication and an emphasis in journalism. She was a member of the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority. She competed in numerous beauty pageants at the university, and was runner up of the Miss NSU pageant in 2004. In the summer of 2004, Underwood auditioned for American Idol in St. Louis, Missouri. She was one of five winners never voted in the bottom three. On May 25, 2005, Underwood was crowned the winner of the fourth season of American Idol. She has returned to Idol many times to perform on new seasons’ shows. On November 15, 2005, Carrie released her debut album, Some Hearts, and made the Billboard 200 chart, selling 315, 000 copies. Some Hearts made it to number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and was the biggest debut of any country artist since the SoundScan system was used in 1991. The album has been certified septuple Platinum by the RIAA and is the fastest selling debut country album in the history of the SoundScan use. The album’s second single, “Jesus, Take the Wheel” was released to radios on October 18, 2005. It was played so much that it made it to number thirty-nine on the Billboard Country chart in its first week, and was number one for six consecutive weeks. Carrie has since released two more albums, Carnival Ride on October 23, 2007, and Play On on November 3, 2009. She has embarked on multiple tours, and has received many awards for songs and music videos. Most recently, in May of 2010, Carrie was named one of the 100 Most Beautiful People in the World by People Magazine. Carrie has also made a few TV appearances since 2009. She began to date Canadian hockey player Mike Fisher after meeting him at one of her concerts in 2008. On December 20, 2009, the two became engaged.
The song “Jesus, Take the Wheel” has many different poetic devices that work together as a whole to make a beautiful song. For example, the line “She was driving last Friday on her way to Cincinnati on a snow white Christmas Eve. Goin' home to see her Mama and her Daddy with the baby in the backseat” show imagery. While listening to the song, a person can picture a woman driving home in the snow with a baby in the backseat of the car. Another example of a poetic device is symbolism. The title “Jesus, take the wheel” is a symbol for her losing her place in life and needing Jesus to help her. The “wheel” symbolizes her life and where she is in life. There is consonance in the line “she was so scared.” The song as a whole has social relevance, because a lot of people veer off the course they started on, and soon don’t know where they are going any more. They look for guidance from anyone as they try to go back to where they started from. Throughout the song, there is euphony. The way Carrie sings the song works together to create a song that people want to listen to, and can relate to easily. It is emotionally evocative, allowing people to put themselves in her shoes and think about a time where they needed help in life. Carrie has an expansive range, making the song even better. There is a simile in the line “she cried when she saw that baby in the backseat sleeping like a rock.”
The key device in this song is symbolism, though imagery is used throughout it as well. The symbolism of Jesus taking the wheel of the car is used to show how she needs his help in getting her life back. Her loss of control of the car is a symbol of her loss of control of her own life. She is turning to God for help and guidance, and the imagery allows the person listening to the song to picture someone’s life being troubled and being in need of help.

Ultraviolet-Alexz Johnson

Alexz Johnson was born November 4, 1986 in New Westminster, British Columbia. She is a Canadian singer-songwriter and actress. She is the sixth of ten children, and has acted in a few known shows or movies. She was in Disney Channel’s show “So Weird”, The-N’s “Instant Star”, and Final Destination 3. She played Jude Harrison on “Instant Star”, her character being a winner of an American Idol-like contest. She sang for the shows four seasons while working on her debut album. She starred and featured on the TV show’s four soundtracks. In early 2008, Alexz signed with Epic Records. She was due to release an album in late 2009, however, Epic records released a third of their artists from their contracts, Alexz being one of them. She then stated she would be working on a different album independently with her brother Brendan. Her debut album Voodoo was released March 30, 2010.
The song “Ultraviolet” was released on the fourth soundtrack for “Instant Star.” There are many hyperboles in this song, including the line “Everybody knows the truth. Everybody sees right through.” This is an exaggeration because not every single person knows the truth behind what is going on in their relationship. There is a simile in the line “I swear that you're just sinking in like a stain that's on my skin.” This shows how her boyfriend is always with her and on her mind, and he stays there like a stain. There is another simile in the line “Your love's like ultraviolet.” This shows how his love can be dangerous and soaks into her, and she feels like it burns into her skin. There is a hyperbole in the line “I can feel it burn, but I like it, yeah.” This is supposed to show how his love is always with her, but love can’t actually burn, and she can’t feel it burn, so it is both a hyperbole and personification.
The main device in this song is simile. Similes are used through the whole chorus and in another verse, comparing her boyfriend’s love to ultraviolet rays and to stains that can’t be removed. She uses similes to show how his love lasts inside of her, and it helps the listener know how deep their love is for each other.

Bring Me to Life -Evanescence

Evanescence is an American rock band formed in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. The two met at a youth camp where Moody heard Amy Lee singing a song by Meatloaf. In early 2003, the band was completed by Amy Lee and Ben Moody's friends, John LeCompt, Rocky Gray and Will Boyd, all of whom worked on Evanescence's earlier songs. Meanwhile, Evanescence signed on with their first major label, Wind-up Records, and began work on their first album, Fallen. Fallen spent forty-three weeks on the Billboard Top 10, was certified seven times Platinum in the United States, and sold more than fifteen million copies worldwide, including seven million in the U.S. The album was listed for one hundred and four weeks on the Billboard Top 200, and it was one of eight albums in the history of the chart to spend at least a year on the Billboard Top 50. Evanescence's major label debut single "Bring Me to Life", featuring guest vocals from Paul McCoy of 12 Stones, was a global hit for the band and reached number five on the American Billboard Hot 100. It gave Evanescence their first UK number one single, where it stayed for four weeks from June-July 2003. The song also became the official theme for WWE No Way Out 2003.
The song “Bring Me to Life” has many poetic devices in it. For example, there is a simile in the line “How can you see into my eyes like open doors?” This shows how he can see what she is thinking, as if her eyes were open doors. There is consonance in the line “Without a soul, my spirit sleeping somewhere cold.” There is a hyperbole in the line “Frozen inside without your touch.” This is an exaggeration because she is not really frozen inside. There is another hyperbole in the line “Only you are the life among the dead.” There is another hyperbole in the line “I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems.” Obviously, he has not really been sleeping for a thousand years.
The main device in this song is hyperbole, because they are both exaggerating the fact that they feel empty without the other. They use many hyperboles to show how alone they feel and how they feel like they are going to die unless the other one is with them.