Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes Band - Assignment Example

Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes Band The song, “Seven Nation Army” is a track in an album called ‘Elephant’ by ‘The White Stripes’ band. This song comes as the first track playing on the album. The song was released on 7th march in the year 2003 as a single, it received accolades from many hence attaining a first position in ranking in the ‘Modern Rock Track listing, a position that it maintained for more than three weeks. The song continued in being popular among many for more than a decade, this owed to the songs third rank in the best rock sons of the decade in the same listing. The song also received a positive welcome in the commercial arena. Following the good commercial reception, the song won a Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Rock Song title. Generally the song explores the aspects of general life. What we see in the song is like-themed with some other songs in the album such as Blue Orchid. Though the song addresses some issues which the singer feels, it raises a feeling of self-worth and even more, a call to fight for one's rights. In analyzing this song, I will basically focus on the approaches aforementioned, that is; life in general and fight for freedom. Besides that, I will also analyze the video, musical as well as the lyrical structure of the song. To start with, the video is red themed. The video starts with a unique work by the producer. It then progresses to a kaleidoscopic view with three colors which are black, red and white. At some points in the video, there are scenes of skeletons holding shields which reflects to the lyrics of the song that seven armies would not hold him back. The two Whites change roles with their instruments in harmony with the beats of the song. Still in the video, there is an elephant citing which captures an association of the song with the title of the album. Back to the musical and lyrical analysis, the song starts with what sounds like bass, however, what sounds like ass is actually a guitar to which an octave effect have been added that makes it sound like bass. There is then the introduction of the drums’ this mixture of instruments, where all the instruments were used in the former years of 1950s makes the music unique in its own. The song has three main stanzas. Each stanza seems to be a continuation of the story in the former stanza; this gives the song a smooth flow from the start to its end. Every stanza has its own major idea but all in all, they sum up to form a masterpiece of a song. Each stanza has a refrain which, though it is different in wording, it is almost the same in the choice of words, the message sent by the refrains in the song is one and the same. The song does not display a maintained sequence such as AABA or another, however, there is a mix, for example, in the first stanza, we find an Ababccdc sequence. The sequence is not followed in the following stanzas. The last verses of each of the stanzas, however, still rhyme. This gives the song a steady flow. Every stanza is demarcated down into eight verses, save for the refrains which are taken as if they are the choruses in this song. These choruses are the transitions from one stanza to the other. They allow for the song to be flawless in delivering its message. Each of these verses has input for the title of the song. For example ‘I was gonna fight 'em off’ backs up the following verse ‘A seven nation army couldn't hold me back’. This sees to the success of the song. Getting back to the analysis through the social mirror, the outline of the song is that a person is poorly received by his mates in his hometown. The friends who are supposed to assist him are against him and they speak against him, spread rumors about him until he results to cigarette but still can’t forget their rumors, he decides to ‘Leave it alone’[AZL15]. He realizes that those people will have stories to tell at all times and he has to let go. He moves ahead to look for a home besides what he calls home since he is not welcome. He later comes to find that he must get back home despite the ills. Thus, he says that the ‘army’ that disgraced him could not hold him back. All in all, Seven Nations Army by The White Stripes is a song that made the band shine in the field of rock music. The song sheds light to the social lives and how it should be approached; never giving up’. The song also allows multiple reading for the richness in it. Works Cited AZL15: , (AZ Lyrics, 2015), Read More