Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Top 10 Billboard Songs

The songs that made the Top 10 on the Billboard Charts were not the same types of songs that made our class lists as the best songs of all time. The songs on the Billboard Charts were the pop songs of today’s young America. These songs included hits by T.I, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Pink, and Britney Spears.
There are not many poetic characteristics in these songs. However, some have a few literary devices. Katy Perry’s song “Hot N Cold” includes many similes (“you change your mind like a girl changes clothes”), metaphors (“stuck on a roller coaster and I can’t get off this ride, and paradoxes (“you’re hot then you’re cold”). I think this song had the most poetic merit. I believe that these songs are considered today’s top music because they are very catchy songs. The songs do not seem to have much significance when it comes to the lyrics except that American can relate to them. The majority of the songs that made the top list talk about romantic relationships. Six out of the ten songs talk about relationships. This proves my idea that people like these songs because they can relate to content. This says a lot about today’s modern American culture. The content of the lyrics are not very extraordinary. They are, in a way, about things that do not actually matter in the world. The lyrics hold no true significance they are just pop songs played for pure pleasure and no other reason. I think it is very sad that these songs are considered the top songs in America, but that just may be because I do not like pop music.
Popular music uses gender roles in almost all of the songs that made the Billboard Charts. Four of the Top 10 songs are a female singing about how senseless men are. They are degrading to men. Another example of gender roles is in T.I’s song “Whatever You Like”. In this song T.I talks about how he can make any woman happy. He can be a true provider for a woman and she could have “whatever she like”. These lyrics suggest that women are dependant on men when in reality I believe that women are becoming increasingly more independent.