Music and Meaning - Tupac - Essay Example

Music and Meaning The purpose of this essay is to explore the meaningful and personal side of music and to elaborate on how and why a particular artist affected my personal life. In my case, hip-hop and rap have played a special role in my life for a long time. In particular the works of Tupac Shakur have had a lot of impact on me. Therefore, this paper will describe how Tupac emotionally affected my life and what songs affected me in particular. In addition, it will be explained why certain songs of Tupac captivated me. First, I will describe in general why Tupac’s music is important to me. Then, I will explain why and how the following four songs had a strong impact on my personal life: “Life Goes On”, “Keep Ya head Up”, “California Love” and “Changes”. A good friend of mine introduced me to the works of Tupac Shakur many years ago and although Tupac has been dead for 15 years, his music is still very important to me. From the beginning I could feel that his songs were authentic. Tupac seemed to turn his personal thoughts and experiences into music, which is the very reason why his songs do not only sound authentic, but truly are authentic as well. Moreover, I was and still am impressed by the variety of topics that are addressed in his various songs. This is another reason why Tupac was and still is very important to me; depending on my mood or my situation there are certain songs that fit my situation. I listen to different songs when I am happy compared to when I am sad or angry and Tupac seems to have the right song for me in every situation. Moreover, Tupac touched on a variety of topics, including racism, tolerance, social and racial equality, violence, conflicts with the law, life in the ghettos, criticism of the “American Dream” and the love for his Mom, which is another reason why his versatile lyrics are captivating. “Life Goes On” is one of Tupac’s songs that hit my emotional nerve, more than that, it helped me through a sad period of my life. It is a song about losing loved ones, but while remembering them, life goes on and one has to continue with life, even though it might be hard to do so. I used to play that song over and over again, because the song let me grieve and gave me hope at the same time. Lyrics, melody and vocals all work in perfect harmony to create this song. Throughout the song, the vocals of female background singers give the song a beautiful melancholic undertone, which works perfectly with Tupac’s rap. The sentence “life goes on” is repeated over and over during the song, and for me this sentence in particular helped me through a certain rough time in my life. Since the sentence is repeated so often in the song, it almost felt as if it was hammered into my head, until I actually believed it. When losing a loved one, it seems as if life has stopped and it is hard to believe that life actually continues, but with the help of this song, I embraced and accepted the fact that life goes on. “Keep Ya Head Up” is another song that had a strong impact on me. I would go as far as saying that it changed my life. It is one of his songs that show Tupac’s soft side. For me, the lyrics of this song are its most powerful feature. As mentioned before, his music feels real and so do the lyrics of this song. It feels as if Tupac really wanted to make a difference with this song by influencing the way some people think and act. This song makes me want to be a better person and that is why this song changed my life. As mentioned, the lyrics of this song are very powerful and authentic: “And since we all came from a woman. Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman, I wonder why we take from our women. Why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think its time to kill for our women. Time to heal our women, be real to our women”. Although, this line is devoted to women, the song is about being respectful to everybody, regardless of gender or age. For example, Tupac raps: “They got money for wars, but cant feed the poor”. These lyrics are powerful and precious to me and when listening to the lyrics I do want me to be a better person and be more respectful with the people around me, especially my mother. At the beginning, I stated that Tupac has a variety of songs for different moods. “California Love” is definitely one of my favorite songs when I am in a happy and/or party mood. This song can lighten my mood, even when I had a bad day and it makes me even happier on a sunny day. It is a song that I associate with good feelings, positive experiences and the summer time. When I hang out with my friends, especially in the summer, we often play this song, as they say; it is an Oldie, but Goodie. Whereas the lyrics were the best feature for me in “Keep Ya head Up”, in this case, the catchy rhythm made me become addicted to this song. Whenever I hear it, I cannot get enough from the song and I play it on repeat. However, I also like the lyrics, because they, together with the rhythm, create the perfect song for a happy mood: “Say what you say. But give me that bomb beat from Dre. Let me serenade the streets of L.A.” Tupac, who wrote the song, definitely has an extraordinary gift for song writing, which can be observed in all of his songs. Tupac’s gift for writing extraordinary lyrics can also be seen in “Changes”. This song has a similar impact on me as “Keep Ya Head Up”, in the sense that it makes me want to be a better person. I admire and respect Tupac for addressing a variety of political, economic and social issues. He never kept quiet about existing inequalities and I think highly of that. “Changes”, which is probably one of Tupac’s most famous songs, consists of amazing lyrics: “We gotta make a change. Its time for us as a people to start makin some changes. Lets change the way we eat, lets change the way we live and lets change the way we treat each other.” It is lyrics like these that inspire me to be a better person and change my life and attitudes to the better. “Changes” is not a song that is connected to only a single event in my life. Instead, it is a song that has accompanied me for quiet a long time and continues to influence my entire mindset and attitude. Read More