Monday, October 31, 2011
Alien Song Lyrics And Extrapolation? Xenophobia?
Do the songs and song lyrics connect with the concept of xenophobia? If so, how? Also, feel free to comment regarding other connections with science fiction. Please include some references to songs and song lyrics in your response. Please finish this blog response during class today.
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Bailey S-
ReplyDeleteI think these songs connect with the idea of Aliens coming to Earth and each artists take on what it would be like if they came. David Bowie said "There's a starman waiting in the sky
He'd like to come and meet us
But he thinks he'd blow our minds
There's a starman waiting in the sky
He's told us not to blow it
Cause he knows it's all worthwhile" In this song he talks about how we can't "blow" it or else the Starman won't come visit. He also says "don't tell your poppa or he'll get us locked up in fright" this relates to xenophobia because the dad would be scared of the starman and therefor he won't let the kids meet him.
The Starman is about a star(?) and how he is different and how everyone saw he was strange and how he wants the children to do something. Mr. Spaceman was about strange aliens that are in the sky like the Starman and how they come at night and want to change things. Spaceman 2 is about again aliens and how they come at night and fool around. Aliens and space seem to be a poplular topic. Next is they arnt here theyre not comming. Its talking about that how the 'accident' in '47 was aliens and now they arnt coming anymore. Zombies ate my neighbors is about how zombies really ate his neighbors and now hes scared and hiding. Does the Frankenstein Complex link in at all? Only that theyre all strange, feared, and yet everyone is infatuated with them. They must feel really strange, but the people feel exactly the same, feeling observed and afraid of them. Its people against a person. How weird.
ReplyDeleteGretchen Spurgeon
The song lyrics do connect with xenophobia, in "Zombies Ate My Neighbor". "So grab something sharp find some cover kill the lights and nail the back door shut this isn't funny any more, oh no,THIS MEANS WAR. Don't take this the wrong way but I'd much rather choke and die than sit alone and fall without a fight." This demonstrates xenophobia because this person is saying that he has prepared himself for the zombies with sharp objects and he has hidden so that he has an advantage. Instead of trying to make peace or figure out why the zombies are attacking, he jumps to conclusions and won't go down without a fight. In this way his fear of the zombies has overcome his rational thinking.
ReplyDeleteTHey connect with xenophobia because they all talk about something of space or monsters or something that we may be afraid of. "Zombies ate my neighboors" is a great example of xenophobia or something that may scare us. All of the songs, overall, are good examples of xenophobia.- Taylor
ReplyDeleteyes, this does connect with xenophobia. In all songs they have either talked about space or creature that are invading our land. All of the songs throw a sense of bewilderment out there because all songs talk about what they wish they would be doing in space, or how if they were there what they would be doing and how they would enjoy it more than earth.
ReplyDelete1.) "Starman"
ReplyDeleteWhen listening to the song "Starman", it seems like he is talking too someone but he never explains who he is. The more he talks about the man the more and more it feels like he is talking about god.
2.) "Mr. Spaceman"
This song he seems to be singing about space aliens. He talks about seeing bright lights and something coming come down from the sky with saucers and people as well.
3.) "Spaceman"
The Killers do a good job of being descriptive in their story and they seem like they are describing people that are more like doctors rather than aliens of something not known to man.
4.) "They're Not Here, They're Not Coming"
They talk about the world being Postmodern many times in this story, they seem to not really have anything to say about aliens but more of what people now a days think about weird things.
5.) "Zombies Ate My Neighbors"
In this song they seem to put a funny and fun twist on Xenophobia! They make it sound somewhat fun but still get their point across of what they are talking about.
All of these songs connect to Xenophobia in their own way, so directly and some very indirectly. It just shows that people this about it.
In the song lyrics it talks about things that are different and things they are scared of. The songs are about strange things happening. In some of the songs however they seem welcoming of the idea of aliens like in the song Mr. Spaceman, he wants to go with them. Its interesting how the lyrics are very similar in all the songs.
ReplyDelete-Teddig
Cody-
ReplyDeleteI think the song lyrics connect with Xenophobia because all of the songs talk about aliens coming down and us fighting them like in Zombies ate my neighbors they talk about getting weapons and protecting themselves. The songs talk about spacemen coming down and having them take them away. Also the songs talk about people coming and they say don't tell anyone because they don't want to scare anyone.
All of the songs connect with Xenophobia because everyone is afraid of the strangers or people coming down from space.
The songs and the lyrics itself do connect to xenophobia because the songs involve the "unknown". The songs involve the fact of what is real or fake, for example the quote from "zombies ate my Neighbors" "I can't be certain
ReplyDeletebut I swear I hear ‘em just outside
There's no way that this is real
So COUNT ME IN."
the quote shows that the person is not sure if this is real, but he is going for it.
zach K P1
ReplyDeleteall it really does is just make us think on more about what is out in space and what they would do if we ever met them. xenophobia can always be a good or bad thing all depends on what you would do in the situation. each song relates a little to xenophobia and that fear of what ever is strange is a bad thing, or wants to hurt you. all the songs relate to a nightmare or some kind of bad dream in the human conception of reality.
The songs do express the concept of xenophobia. In one of the songs, the artists exclaims, "...So grab something sharp, Find some cover, kill the lights and nail the back door shut, This isn't funny any more, , oh no,THIS MEANS WAR." This gives the feeling that aliens aren't welcome on any level. The fear of aliens and other beings drives the people in this song to the conclusion that their safety is in jeopardy and that they need to protect themselves. What really shows their fear in this is that they don't really know what's happening or what's out there, so they are making these conclusions in the dark, demonstrating real xenophobia; reacting to this fear with out thinking or waiting. -Eli B.
ReplyDeleteThe lyrics to the songs remind me of a Sci-Fi story; just put into a song. The song "They're not here, They're not coming" reminds me of a typical movie; where government find out that 'they' came and they try to cover it up and feed us lies. The extrapolation would be that we would want to know if they were really here; it's just would every one freak out and run away? Or would people stay to see the alien and see what really happens. But the xenophobia is us humans fearing aliens and them taking over. But the song "Zombies Ate my Neighbors" sounds like what could happen if we ever came to that point; where people rather die than trying to fight for survival by yourself. It's both bogus and possible at the same time.
ReplyDeletein starman he says that there's a person/alien in the sky or in space that doesn't want to come down because hes afraid that everyone will be to blown away by something about him this shows xenophobia because its like everyone on earth would be to scared of the foreigner if he came down to earth so he stays up there so he doesn't have to deal with that. Also Mr. spaceman talks about strangers that come down to earth every night now it never says whether or not there scared of these people but this is science fiction because every night aliens come down from space to earth and do certain things every night.
ReplyDelete-Ryan C.
I think that "Starman" and "Zombies Ate My Neighbor" exhibit xenophobia the most. The chorus of "Starman" says that the starman wants to come down to Earth, but he is afraid of how the people here will react to him, the starman fears the possible xenophobic reactions of the people. "Zombies Ate My Neighbor" shows xenophobia because of how the speaker in the song is looking for help to fight zombies, which are generally quite dangerous, but I believe the speaker's fear is not only of the zombies, but from the fact that they are different and he does not know how to react to them, so he plans on fighting them. I think that these songs are related to science fiction because they use aspects of science fiction, like space and people in space, possibly as metaphors to convey a message.
ReplyDeleteI think these lyrics connect with xenophobia because each artist has lyrics about the aliens coming down to earth. They all are scared of the aliens and this shows xenophobia because they don't want the aliens to come down and take over the world.
ReplyDeleteYes the song lyrics connect with the concept of xenophobia. They are all dealing with foreign and strange ideas, but the songs don't really show fear of these things. Most of them were about spacemen, but the last one was about zombies. The first few songs did not really seem to be describing fear of these people, but more interest in what was going on. In Mr. Spaceman by the Byrds it says, "Hey Mr. Spaceman, won't you please take me along
ReplyDeleteI won't do anything wrong
Hey Mr. Spaceman, won't you please take me along
For a ride"
The person in this song wants to go with the spaceman and isn't showing fear. I think these lyrics connect with xenophobia, but not necessarily illustrate it in its purest form.
All of these artists are singing about what they think it would be like if aliens were coming down to earth. So they do connect with xenophobia. "theres a starman in the sky."
ReplyDeletei think the older ones did more then the new ones because the older songs were talking about strangers from space that come down or watch us from above i think that sounds xenophobic to me, then again one of them said they were concerned for the aliens, and none of them sounded very frightful so maybe the xeno without the phobia. i don't even think that all of them were talking about aliens or strangers but maybe i just miss heard
ReplyDeleteThe songs connect with the concept of xenophobia because in a lot of the songs, they talked about aliens coming to earth or zombies taking over the world. "Next thing I knew they ripped me from my bed, and then took my blood type." Spaceman by The Killers connects very well with xenophobia because whenever we think of aliens coming to earth, we think that they're going to take us into their ship and do tests on us. I feel that we are always making assumptions about the "unknown." Like if there are other life forms out there, we think that they are going to come to earth and try to take over. It can't be that they're just gonna come visit, they're gonna come to earth and destroy it and our race. So I believe that we are always making things we are not certain of scarier than it needs to be.
ReplyDelete-Jen O.
The songs and lyrics connect to xenophobia because they are all dealing with aliens that may be coming to get them and don't even take the time to consider that maybe they are not here to hurt them. In Zombies Ate my Neighbor, the song talks about how they aren't going down without a fight. How do they know they need to fight whoever is coming? Maybe they are peaceful or need help or they can help us. The lyrics are similar to people today, judging others before meeting them because they are different.
ReplyDeleteIn the "Starman" song the artist is talking about aliens or foreigners coming to visit our planet and how they might not wanna come here because we can't handle it because of our xenophobia. I also found the second song interesting because it seems like it's saying that we have xenophobia and its all in our head.
ReplyDeleteAll of the songs that we listened to are about aliens. In the first song, "Starman" David Bowie talks about an alien that wants to come meet the people on Earth, but he thinks he will blow up their minds. This shows a little xenophobia because he is afraid of us. The second song, "Mr. Spaceman" does not really connect with xenophobia because they are singing about a man that wants to get taken away by aliens, he is not afraid of them. In the third song, "Spaceman" they sing about how the aliens are coming for people and how they are not afraid of bombs and all the other things the planet is trying to do to get rid of the aliens. In the fourth song, "they're not here, They're not coming" they sing about how the government thinks that the citizens are xenophobia so they hide an alien they find and pretend that they never found it. And in the last song, "Zombies ate my neighbors" the band sings about how there is a zombie attack and everyone is afraid and fearful of the zombies. Many of these songs show xenophobia.
ReplyDeleteEach of the song lyrics that we read in class today pertain to xenophobia in a different way. Starman talks about a greater being who gives the narrator of the song commands. They follow, still somewhat unaware of the Starman's intentions. Mr. Spacemen involves extra-terrestrial visits surrounding the narrator and he then decides that he wants to get to the bottom of them; by doing this, it may make them less alarming. The narrator in Spaceman is visited by aliens, as well, and he is trying to convince himself that all that frightening events that have occurred to him are simply from his imagination. They're Not Here, They're Not Coming is about the infamous Roswell event of 1947. The narrator talks about how the government is struggling to cover-up the truth of what happened to hide evidence from the public. Society would be in an uproar if they thought that an alien had crash-landed in the US. The last song, Zombies Ate my Neighbors, is about suburban residents defending themselves from an imminent zombie apocalypse.
ReplyDeleteVictor
ReplyDeleteThe songs we listened to are speaking of bright lights; weird things happening in 'Spaceman" and They're not here, they're Not coming" say stuff like lights are coming from the above. In "Zombies Ate My Neighbors" and Mr. Spaceman they keep mentioning their here i don't know why or who. In the selection of 5 songs there all connected by some form of xenophobia or the Frankenstein Complex. The song "Zombies Ate My Neighbor" is talking about they are coming this way so probably a thought about artificial humans. In conclusion the 5 songs that were play in class are all representations of xenophobia or Frank-stein Complex
Although each of the songs deals with the appearance or abduction of aliens, the issue of extrapolation is still prevalent, because each song portrays situations in which the unusual intersects the ordinary. Take for example, being interrupted from sleep by an alien abduction (Spaceman) or being chased by zombies in your neighborhood (Zombies Ate My Neighbors). The issue of xenophobia is therefore explored, because these situations not only discuss the interactions between two different species, but how people deal an interruption in the normality of their routine.
ReplyDeleteMost of the songs have to deal with the singers not liking something or wanting to run away so they turn to "The Spaceman" or something similar. they are turning to something they don't really understand because they want something new and totally different.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the song lyrics really connect to xenophobia. I felt like they were less focused on fear, but targeted more on wonder towards the unknown. The songs were thought-provoking, poetic, and could perceived in various, different ways. "Everybody look down, it's all in your mind" (Spaceman, The Killers).
ReplyDeleteYes the songs connect with xenophobia, all of the songs talk about different beings of some type, who we are not used to. In "Starman" by David Bowie he says "there's a starman waiting in the sky, he'd like to come and meet us." Also in "They're not here, they're not coming", we get a different perspective on xenophobia, we get the message that we should not worry and should not be afraid of things that are different from us. The song says "stop your trembling, dry your tears". Through these songs we get different outlooks on xenophobia.
ReplyDeleteCaleb Wilmore