REEL BIG FISH

Reel Big Fish is a ska punk band from Hunington Beach, California. The band is best known for their hit "Sell Out" from 1997. Thier album Turn the Radio Off gained the band alot of recognition in the mid-to-late 90's.

Reel Big Fish's song "Suckers" is a very pessimistic ska song. It is about a bad experience with relationships and for that reason is about how love never works: "It never works but we keep tryin' like fools learning and breaking the rules. At first your excited then you're less than delighted. By the end you wish they would drop dead it can't last, it's gone so fast". Clearly this song is very negative. However, like most ska songs, the lyrics of "Suckers" are very simple. They do not hold a lot of poetic qualities other than some alliteration and some imagery: "Lust turns to disgust. A heart of gold into rust, a soft touch to a slap in the face". These examples of imagery are also paradoxical to eachother in that they are contradicting. This part of the song is just about the only part that is significantly poetic. However, it is hard to describe what poetic devices are being used. This goes for most ska songs problably because it is a very simple, laid back music.

Reel Big Fish has many other songs but their lyrics are all very simple and insignificant.

BIG D *

Big D and The Kids Table is a ska/ punk band. They are not too popular but that is because their genre is not very popular. They are considered an underground band, like most ska/ punk bands including Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish. Big D came together ten years ago when the band met in a college in Boston. They put on insane live, local shows in dorms, halls, clubs and basements all over New England. Big D formed their own label, Fork in Hand Records to put out their first album, Shot by Lemmi in 1997. The band has built a very vibrant punk/ska scene around themselves.
"Steady Riot" is the opener of Strictly Rude, which was released on March 20, 2007. The song is said to be dancy while it also has a few poetic qualities. "Steady Riot" is a very optimistic ska/ punk song. I involves the narrator praising his friends despite their downfalls: "My buddy Johnny, he can never get up, but it's him who should be admired not those fame driven shmucks". The narrator clearly admires his friends even though they are not perfect. The views of this song are extremely poisitve: "It's easy to get down when you view life as a stray, but my man he brings me up. I should tell him one of these days". These statements are very ironic. The chorus of this song is just one sentence, but it is a metaphor: "Music, a steady riot in my soul". Also, the name "Steady Riot" is a paradox. A riot is defined as noisy, violent, disorder caused by a group of people while steady means free from change or interruption. Clearly, these two things conradict eachother.
Big D and the Kid's Table is a very creative ska/punk band. They do a good job both intsrumentally and lyrically. Their songs seem very simple but when analyzed, their lyrics, surprisingly, hold some poetic value.

CAKE!!!

Cake is a band that formed in 1991 in Sacremento, California. Their music is classified as indie or alternatice rock, although it also combines other genres such as funk, ska, pop, jazz, rap, and coutnry. Cake's music has droll lyrics with wordplay. The lead vocalist and guitarist, John McCrea's, voice has a distorted rap-like stlye backed by "catchy, distorted guitar riffs". Cake's biggest hits have included "The Distance", "Never There", and "Short Skirt/Long Jacket", which is packed with poetic devices.
"Short Skirt/ Long Jacket" is a very catchy, yet poetic song. It depicts a desire for a woman with very specific qualitiest. The narrator uses a first person narration to describe the woman of his imagination that would be his ideal girlfriend. However, it is almost like he is just watching some girl that already exists and describing what she looks like and what she is doing. "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" has an extraordinarily significant rhyme scheme while it also includes many poetic devices. There are many similes in "Short Skirt/ Long Jacket" including; "a mind like a diamond", "eyes that burn like cigarettes", "a voice dark like tinted glass", and the repeated line, "She is fast, thorough, and sharp as a tack". In addition, the song also has some imagery in the lines; "She is playing with her jewlery, she is putting up her hair", and "she is trading her MG for a white Chrysler Lebaron".
Cake's very unique song "Short Skirt/ Long Jacket" is simple but also has some poetic merit. It also humorous. Cake's music is unlike any popular nads. they deserve credit and recognition for being original. "Short Skirt/ Long Jacket" is just one example of their creative sound. This specific song also holds alot of poetic content, which puts the icing on the cake.

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.

BACKMASKING

1. The Beatle's song "Help" claims to have the words "Now he uses marijuana" when played backwards. I do not hear these words and I do not think that the Beatle's meant for it to sound like this.

2. Santana's song when played backwards says the words "I'll remind you to say yes". This is a very good example of backmasking and the words are very clear. This was probably an intentional exmaple of reverse speech.

3. Mariah Carey's song is also an example that I think has intentional backmasking. When played backwards, the song clearly says " Yes, I am a woman now". In fact, I found it difficult to understand what she was saying when the song was played regularly but understood what it said when it was played backwords.

4. The Spice Girl's song couyld also be considered tgo have intentional backmasking. you can clearly hear the words " Was I easy? Have fun." when the song is played backwards. It makes sense that they would put this in the song backwards because when plyed regularly the son says "Im not that easy".

5. I do not beleive that the words " I love satan within" were intentionally backmasked into Santana's song. The words are not clear and it does not even seem like it is saying that.

6. I think the same about Sting's song. I do not hear the words "He scared me hidden, hear me please". Nor do i think that that sentence make sense so i do not think that it was intentionally back masked into the song.

7. Cheaptrick's song Gonna Raise Hell says the words "satan hold the key to the lock" when it is played backwrods. I beleive that it was intentionally put in there, however you can only hear it when they play the song backwards super slow.

8. I do not think that the Rolling Stone's purposely backmasked the words " I love you said the devil" into their song. I do nto hear those words at all when the song is played backwords. I actually do not hear any words at all.

9. Iron Maiden's song "Still life" clearly has the words "the man of evil is here" when its played backwards. This backmasking was most likely intenional because the words are very evident and easily understood.

10. Alanis Morisette's song claims to have the words "high in LA" in it when played backwards. I can understand the words but i do not think that it was intentionally put in the song.

Big D and The Kids Table

Big D and The Kids Table is a ska/ punk band. They are not too popular but that is because their genre is not very popular. They are considered an underground band, like most ska/ punk bands including Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish. Big D came together ten years ago when the band met in a college in Boston. They put on insane live, local shows in dorms, halls, clubs and basements all over New England. Big D formed their own label, Fork in Hand Records to put out their first album, Shot by Lemmi in 1997. The band has built a very vibrant punk/ska scene around themselves.

However, before they hit the studio, Big D was contracted by SideOneDummy Records who told them, “You need to do a ska record. You need to do the album that ska music needs,”. McWane of Big D says, “So we decided to do it, and it was awesome”. Their career is successful and although they are not in a popular genre, they are a very popular band among the very few ska fans. Big D and the Kids Table plays an average of 200 shows a year and plans on taking things up a notch to lead ska’s next big resurgence.

Big D’s albums are very adventurous and fun. They have faster songs while they also have slower ones. Their album Strictly Rude released March 20, 2007 includes both types of their songs. The album includes a dancy opener, “Steady Riot” and the creepy, ominous “Snakebite”. The fourteenth track on Strictly Rude, “The One”, is an upbeat, sunny song. This song sends a message of optimism. The songs also has different points of view.

"The One" involves someone convincing their friend that their girlfriend is trouble and that he deserves better, “That woman is trouble. You’ve got to wake up. I know you wanna love her for the rest of your life. But man, there are much kinder girls here tonight.” This song is an excellent example of optimism in ska/punk music. Another example of optimism in "The One" is "And if you keep that smile then you'll find a way. And if you keep your sun out then you'll find a way. And if you keep the pressure down you'll find a way." Big D is sending a very strong message that if one stays positive, then they will find a way through obstacles and difficult times. In the middle of the song, Big D changes the point of view to that of the friend receiving the advice, "But what if I get lost? And what if I can't find? A girl to take care of, a girl to be just mine?" Then the point of view returns to the original narrator and Big D strikes again with an awesome line of guidance and reassurance, "No need to worry now, the one will come around. No need to worry now, the one will come around." Clearly, this is a very influential band sending direction and posterity to their fans.

Big D and The Kids Table has many songs. "The One" is not their most popular but thier fans find it to be a total hit. The song has a good flow and a catchy tune. Like most ska songs, "The One" is very upbeat and positive.

P.S CHECK OUT MY PLAYLIST TO HEAR "THE ONE" AND OTHER INSANELY AWESOME SKA SONGS!