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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The Lyrics "There's a starman waiting in the sky, He'd like to come and meet us, But he thinks he's blow our minds." These lyrics are saying if people learned anything new or met any different type of form of life we would be scared of it just because we don't know what they are capable of and probably cant understand them as well.
ReplyDeleteI do not think these songs have to do with the concept of xenophobia because all the songs talk about meeting the aliens and going on their spaceships to escape this planet. The only exception would be the song from the Killers when the aliens took him and cut him open.
ReplyDeleteIn Starman, we see fear of humans as the xenophobia, yet in Mr. Spaceman, we see them asking for the alien to take them with him. In Spaceman by the Killers, they bring to us the traditional Xenophobic attitude of "they will abduct us and dissect us." yet we also see in "they're not here, their coming" talk of government conspiracy. what is all this leading to?
ReplyDeleteYeah I feel that the songs show our fears towards foreign things and that we think that if we find them they will experiment on us or something, like in Starman, he's afraid to come down to Earth which is the key factor into Xenophobia. Whenever there is something new that we've never seen before we are fearful, so we start to spread rumors about the monstrosity of what they are, fear twisting and manipulating the truth into something to truly dread, when in reality it's all a lie.
ReplyDeleteIn these songs there is some sign of xenophobia, in the lyrics, "There's a starman waiting in the sky
ReplyDeleteHe'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" theyre talking about a different and life form and how it wouldnt be normal, or the fear of something foreign
I don't think that the song "Starman" connects with the concept because the Starman in the song is the one who tells the humans what to do. The humans seem to admire not judge the Starman. However in the song "the Spaceman" there is some judgment because the humans talk about the green aliens with their saucers that seem to interupt their lives. The song "Spaceman" definitely shows some prejudice because the Spaceman comes in the night and takes blood from the victim so he is obviously feared and/or judged. The last song that we looked at "Zombies Ate My Neighbors" shows the concept of xenophobia because the Zombies are seen as monsters running through the town eating people. There is also probably judgement.
ReplyDeleteI am seeing a lot of references to Aliens, and xenophobia within the songs that we listened to briefly in class. All of them had the fear of aliens implemented into them. Be it alien abduction, or alien dissection, it was there. And the fear that went along with those two things could be heard. Violence also appeared to be another reference, which connected well to xenophobia, like in the Zombie song or in the Killer's song about aliens.
ReplyDeleteAll the songs have something to do with a foreign creature invading or taking them to their ship. The people are scared but also willing to see what this weird thing is, or where they came from. In the Single File song, "Zombies ate my neighbors", the song is talking about saving themselves and fighting against the zombies. They are not afraid to fight the new creatures.
ReplyDeleteThe song lyrics do connect with xenophobia because in Mr. Spaceman, they don't really know who or what he is but they judge him and assume what he is by calling him Mr. Spaceman. In the song Spaceman by The Killers it explains how some creature takes him from his bed and abducts him and cuts him apart. This is very xenophobic because it shows how different other life forms are, as compared to humans on Earth. "But when they cut me open, I guess I change my mind," is a lyric from Spaceman and it shows how his opinion changed on the strange lifeforms, once they started experimenting on him and hurting him. All the songs relate to science fiction somehow because they are all talking about some strange lifeform is coming down, and without knowing, the humans deem them as bad or scary just because they are not from Earth.
ReplyDelete"Starman" expresses xenophobia in the sense that anybody with contact of the aliens would be feared or punished. The "Don't tell your poppa or he'll get us locked up in fright" expresses the fear of being punished for having outside knowledge, for doing different things. "Mr.Spaceman" expresses a xenophobic nature of the aliens, since they won't bring the singer along. “Hey Mr. Spaceman, won't you please take me along; I won't do anything wrong.” This expresses a withdrawal towards humans. The next two songs, “Spaceman” and “They’re not here, They’re not coming” don’t have a lot of xenophobic phrases in them. “Zombies are my Neighbors” shows a ruthlessness and violence towards the zombies. This violence is a direct result of xenophobia towards the different, strange zombies attacking.
ReplyDelete"There's no way this is real so COUNT ME IN" Zombies Ate My Neighbors by Single File The big part of this quote, to me, is "there's no way this is real..." I think this pertains to Science Fiction because how often is this stuff actually real? If the riots are there then he is going to join them because he is following the crowd. Also, the lyrics "There's a starman waiting in the sky... he thinks he'll blow our minds." This is a xenophobic connection because it relates to the starman coming but he is better than us or we all just might be to afriad of him to meet the starman.
ReplyDeleteI think that the song lyrics do connect with the concept of xenophobia. Most of the songs have the same focus with "light coming in their eyes" and that stereotypical vision of aliens coming from outer space. The fear of the unknown challenging our society and the knowledge that we have.
ReplyDeleteEvery song we listened to in class had to something to do with space or space people. In all the songs, something happens to the singer like he gets beamed up in the light or he has to protected himself from zombies or something of the unknown. This has to do with xenophobia because they all are talking about the unknown. When they are singing it, they don't necessarily seem to fear the creatures more embrace them. In 2 of the songs the singers said the aliens know their name or they stayed a long time with them. Since in the songs they more embraced the creatures, I'm not sure as it would be filed under xenophobia but definitively under space contact or alien contact with the humans.
ReplyDeleteIn "Mr. Spaceman" the writer wants to be in contact with the aliens. He talks about them without fear, which shows no xenephobia at all. "Zombies Ate my Neighbors" by Single File is almost the complete opposite, The writer talks about fighting the zombies and wants to kill them.
ReplyDeleteThe song relates to xenophobia because of the mention of aliens but their reactions aren't as fearful as we are told to look for in these works. David Bowie sings “ There's a starman waiting in the sky. He'd like to come and meet us” in his song Starman. He's not xenophobic towards the aliens. There is nothing to fear, the aliens just wanted to come down. In the song by the Byrds, they actually want to be abducted by the creatures. They see no harm in joining with another civilization. It's different than the stories we've read because they are almost excited about a major change to their lives. Single File wrote of a different approach to the invasion. They think that “this means war” and “ I'd much rather choke and die than sit alone and fall without a fight'. This is a more accurate xenophobic attitude. The aliens are unknown and they fear the unknown.
ReplyDeleteThe songs all deal with the concept of xenophobia by how they discuss aliens or “spacemen.” Many of the songs make generalizations about alien abductions. For example, in Mr. Spaceman by the Byrds, it says “ Must be those strangers that come every night, whose saucers shaped light put people up tight, leave blue-green footprints that glow in the dark..”, and in Spaceman by the Killers, it says “It started with a low light, Next thing I knew they ripped me from my bed, And then they took my blood type, It left a strange impression in my head. You know that I was hoping, that I could leave this star-crossed world behind, but when they cute me open, I guess I changed my mind.” Both of these examples show how the artists are making light of what we don’t understand. They are trying to make generalizations to create understanding about aliens, which is a large unknown in today’s society. Also, there are several science fiction cliches, like “spaceman”, or “blue green foot prints that glow in the dark”, “large head”, and countless others throughout the many songs. These are classic alien themes that are seen throughout many areas of science fiction.
ReplyDeleteIn the songs "Spaceman" and "Zombies Ate My Neighborhood" We do see the more threatened side of humans trying to figure out how to deal with these unknown things and putting a bad image on things that are not human. trying to almost rid the world of them. But in "Mr. Spaceman" we see a different side of how humans are interacting and reacting to the unknown species, asking the aliens to take hum with them, it reflects a completely different projection of xenophobia than what we have seen in previous readings and videos.
ReplyDeleteThe songs don't really connect with the concept of xenophobia because they aren't really scared or frightened of them. In the second song it's saying that they want to get away from Earth and go with the aliens. "Hey Mr. Spaceman, won't you please take me along I won't do anything wrong," from Mr. Spaceman by the Byrds shows that they want to go with them and not run away from them. Yes they might be a little anxious about what's going to happen, but they still want to go with them. The 3rd song by the Killers might address the concept because it's the classic alien abduction. They have no idea what happened to them, but it does say that the aliens pull them out of their bed.
ReplyDeleteThe songs displayed xenophobia by talking about the fear of the power that aliens may possibly have over humans. In some song lyrics it sounds like humans actually want to meet the aliens.
ReplyDeleteI do think that the songs relate a little bit to the concept of xenophobia. However, in the songs it seems like the fear of new things is kind of a thriller for the artist. They sound upbeat and excited about getting captured by aliens or having zombies in their backyards. In Zombies Ate My Neighborhood by Single File he says, " there's no way this is real so COUNT ME IN. " This shows me he is excited about this new weird thing and he wants to experience it and join the excitement.
ReplyDeleteThe songs we listened to in class connect to xenophobia but the lyrics really show it. If someone took the music out of it and read it as a poem then it sounds like something that would be read in Science Fiction class. In the song, "Zombies Ate My Neighbors", it refers to neighbors being eaten by zombies. How is that not xenophobia? The fear of change or unknown. Zombies are changing society. How scary, or xenophobic.
ReplyDeleteThere is definite xenophobia with in the songs that we listened to. For instance in "They're Not Here, They're Not Coming" the final chorus reads, "They're not here, they're not coming/Not in a million years/til we put away our hatred/And lay aside our fears/You may see the heavens flashing/You may hear the cosmos humming/But I promise you, my brother/They're not here, they're not coming." The song writers here are saying that the aliens won't come because they know we are afraid of what we do not know or understand and the they know what we Earthlings are capable of when we are afraid.
ReplyDeleteZombies Ate My Neighbors is probably the best example of the concept of xenophobia of any of the songs that we listened to. The singer calls upon his neighborhood to rise up and take arms against an unknown threat. The problem is that he knows nothing of the intruders, he doesn't even know if they pose a real threat. The song is really a quasi definition of xenophobia in disguise. In essence, the song is just an attack on the unknown.
ReplyDeleteI think that most of these song relate to the idea's of xenophobia. Even thought some of the songs sound more welcoming to the unknown more than fear or distaste for the unknown space dwellers or in case of single files song, zombies. I feel like the most You know that I was hoping,
ReplyDelete"That I could leave this star-crossed world behind
But when they cut me open,
I guess I changed my mind." from the Killers song Spaceman I think show that the spacemen had xenophobia towards humans.
The songs definitely feel like they relate to xenophobia as in several songs they speak of beings in space that we don't know about. One song they warn that "There's a Starman waiting in the stars" suggesting people are worried about this man as he can blow our minds and be something that we don't know about that is just waiting. In another of the songs the artist sings, "They're not here, they're not coming not in a million years" trying to assure the people that there are no aliens that are ever coming here making people feel possibly a false sense of security since there is no guarantee. These two songs specifically show people trying to feel safe though they fear what they don't know in the final frontier.
ReplyDeleteI think that xenophobia is the irrational fear of something foreign to what you believe or grew up with, a very mild case might be something like not being okay with trying new foods from other cultures. How it might relate to science fiction might be with being afraid of the vastness of space and the unknown, or in a more fictional sense, not accepting an alien race or vice versa.
ReplyDelete