Monday, February 25, 2013
Alien Song Lyrics And Xenophobia? Extrapolation?
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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Some of these alien songs include the thoughts and fears of xenophobia. They express the ideas of how it is looked at and what we humans think of this. The fear of xenophobia is a thought humans havent experienced yet with the other life. We havent had that thought of run or check it out
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the songs show xenophobia. The main thing that makes me say that is the fact that the singers never say anything about being in fear. They seem to be more interested than anything. The songs just seem to be a recollection of an interesting event.
ReplyDeleteMost of the song lyrics make reference to "strangers" and how they act. The narrators are probed and kidnapped for experiments by them. The songs don't have much of what you would call xenophobia, however. The only song that makes reference to being violent is "Zombies Ate My Neighbors". In fact, most of the songs make reference to wanting to leave earth, or asking the "strangers" to take the narrator with them.
ReplyDeleteThese songs do connect with xenophobia in many was for example the second song the said that there is a light shining down from the sky, fear of what it might be. And the third song relates to xenophobia by having the space man telling the human that everything in her mind after they cut him open and everything fear of what happening. By the time we heard the fifth song they where singing about war calling the labor kids to help because there something out side I can't be certain but I swear I hear ‘em just outside There's no way that this is real. So it really shows that xenophobia is represented by these songs we listen today in class.
ReplyDeleteYes the song lyrics definitely connected with xenophobia. In all the songs the writers talked mostly of spacemen, who they didn't seem to know much about but yet were curious nonetheless, like in one song the lyrics go "Must be those strangers that come every night
ReplyDeleteWhose saucers shaped light put people up tight
Leave blue-green footprints that glow in the dark" This is a stereotypical description of aliens and what we picture the unknown to look like.
In Mr. Spaceman by The Byrds, they talk about waking up with the light in their eyes but it's dark outside and they have no idea who it is. This relates to xenophobia because they are scared to what's unknown to them.
ReplyDeleteThe song lyrics connected with the concept of xenophobia because in some of them they were singing about how they didn't want to see them and they wanted to fight the aliens to make them leave. Some of the lyrics were also about how they wanted to go with the aliens but were afraid of what they would do to them.
ReplyDeleteThe song lyrics definitely connect to the concept of xenophobia. They talk about some unknown creature or man in the stars; for example, in the song "Starman" it says "There's a starman waiting in the sky; He'd like to come and meet us; But he's afraid he'll blow our minds." This connects to "The Puppet show" where the aliens don't know how us humans will react to them because they are the unknown to us. This shows how us humans are afraid of anything unknown otherwise known as xenophobia.
ReplyDeleteAll of the songs that we listened to deal with the extraterrestrial world and what might be out there. "They're Not Here, They're Not Coming" deals with the government conspiracy behind Area 51 (a remote nuclear facility in the middle of the desert where access is strictly prohibited to the public). "Government conspiracy; cover-ups and lies
ReplyDeleteHidden in the desert under endless skies." This quote talks about the cover-ups and what they could be doing that they don't want the public to know about.
Some song lyrics connect with xenophobia but not all. some songs refer to aliens as spacemen or describes there flying spaceships as if they already know about the aliens. And xenophobia is about the unknown so those songs dont really connect.
ReplyDeleteThere is a fair amount of xenophobic elements in these song lyrics. For instance when describing how they feel about the aliens, he says, "Carrying our highest hopes and our darkest fears." This shows that the people have a fear of these aliens, fear of the unknown, which is what xenophobia is. Also Spaceman by The Killers uses a stereotypic idea of alien abduction, "Then it took my blood type" which almost preys on our fear of aliens, which could be attributed to xenophobia. The zombie song also relies on the fear of a zombie invasion, which sadly many people fear today. This is similar to xenophobia, as we are fearing the unknown.
ReplyDeleteI think the songs connect to science fiction but not all of them to xenophobia. A few of the songs lyrics were welcoming to the "spaceman". Only one song was about the fear of what the spaceman would do to him.
ReplyDeleteThe songs and the song lyrics somewhat do connect with the concept of xenophobia. In several of the songs the lyrics said that the lights were low and there was something unknown coming from above. In one or two of the songs they said that they weren't sure they wanted to find out what was coming, which would be the fear of the unknown.
ReplyDeleteThe songs have a strong connection to xenophobia. They connect by having fear of what lies out there, in the rest of space. Like in the song "they're not here, they're not coming," little green men coming for mcnuggets, shows how we are scared of what they will do to us when they do come here to earth.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the musical artists were singing about things that were unknown to them. Some were even singing about what they did know about science fiction and described there experience or there encounter. Rocket Man was a song about going into space to find and explore the unknown. Or maybe about rocket men coming to earth. In general the songs were all about how science fiction and the fear of the unknown.
ReplyDeleteI feel that you can find xenophobic themes in any work. A majority of these songs discuss the alien creatures in a positive light, which fails to have a xenophobic theme to it. The only songs that truly addressed the subject were "They're Not here, They're Not Coming" by Don Healey and Stan Lynes and "Zombies Ate My Neighbors" by Single File. In "They're Not Here They're Not Coming" the singer discusses the state of the world and how aliens wouldnt want to come to Earth because of our hostility and Xenophobia of other nations and people. "Zombies Ate My Neighbors" discusses xenophobia in a less literary way by saying that zombies are coming and we need to kill them to survive. While this could be interpreted as meaning that you must struggle to succeed in life, despite any obstacles, I don't think that was the intended message. I think this song is just intended to be entertaining and not carry much meaning.
ReplyDeleteThe songs and song lyrics connect with the concept of xenophobia by wondering about the unknown, and they all included a man of some sort. "There's a starman waiting in the sky", "Hey Mr. Spaceman, won't you please take me along", and rocketman all include a type of man. It seems that when society thinks of aliens, we think of another kind of human figure thats green and glows. These songs also relate to xenophobia by fearing what aliens might look like, as they are not like us.
ReplyDeleteI think most of these songs show curiosity of the unknown rather than fear or hatred. In the song, "Zombies Ate my Neighbors" by Single file, the lyrics, "This isn't funny any more, oh no,THIS MEANS WAR" might show that this band would be the kind of people to advance towards the unknown rather than run in the opposite direction.
ReplyDeleteThe lyrics in the songs reflect Xenophobia in many ways. In Zombies ate my neighbor especially. The artists do not know for certain if they are being attacked, but still call to arms for people to fight against the unknown force. Xenophobia is also evident in "Spaceman" by the Killers. The singer is abducted by Aliens and at first is excited about the experience but is later haunted by his time.
ReplyDeleteThe Xenophobia theme is carried through the songs very well. Because in each song a story is told involving some strange and alien thing. In some they may have accepted the coming of these creatures, in a way having no Xenophobia. In others they fear what they do not understand. "Hey Mr. Spaceman, won't you please take me along I won't do anything wrong. Hey Mr. Spaceman, won't you please take me along For a ride" In that part of the song they seem to eagerly await the arrival of the new race. In hopes of being taken some place they couldn't reach on their own. Several points of views can be seen from the selection of songs. In a way we see the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
ReplyDeleteWhile the songs talkedabout science-fictional characters, most of them were not xenophobic. In Starman by David Bowie, he said "There's a starman waiting in the sky, he'd like to come and meet us". In Mr. Spaceman by The Byrds, a lyric says "Hey Mr. Spaceman, won't you please take me along". In Spaceman by The Killers, the lyrics just talked about his experience, without really being positive or negative. In They're Not Here, They're Not Coming by Don Henley and Stan Lynch, there wasn't any fear of foreign beings, but they didn't like the idea of there being any. In Zombies Ate My Neighbors by Single File, which was my favorite song we listened to by the way, was the only one that demonstrated some actual xenophobia. The singer was clearly terrified of zombies, and honestly, who wouldn't be? I've already accepted the fact that, should we ever have a zombie apocalypse, I'm going to be somebody's dinner.
ReplyDeleteThe songs all seem to have a similar theme, most of them are excited to see and be apart of something new but are also scared of this new being. In the song, "They're not here, they're not coming" by Don Henley and Stan Lynch one lyric says, "Carrying our highest hopes and our darkest fears" This is extrapolating that a spaceman could be helpful and maybe carry out some of our dreams and hopes... But it also presents xenophobia because we fear that it could "cut us open" and fear that the spaceman could be destructive and scary. Another example of this is in the song Spaceman by The Killers, it says "You know that I was hoping, But when they cut me open . I guess i changed my mind." It's exciting at first but then it quickly turns into a fearful event.
ReplyDeleteThe songs we listened to in class all possessed concepts of Xenophobia. They all showed some concept of something that was unknown to everybody, and the songs hinted to some sort of fear and uncertainty. One song that demonstrated this especially was " They're Not Here They're not coming" one lyric said, "Carrying our highest hopes and our darkest fears" this lyric demonstrates Xenophobia because it shows these people are hoping for good things to come from an unknown species, but at the same time there is this fear inside that has a doubt and fear. It's the whole expect the worst, and hope for the best concept.
ReplyDeleteThe songs and song lyrics definitely reflect the idea of xenophobia because each song addresses the arrival of an extraterrestrial species. In the song, "Zombies ate my neighbors", they sing about children preparing for the spacemen's arrival by wearing trash cans on their heads, indicating fear of being harmed. And in the other songs, the singers don't sound overly exuberant to be in the presence of space creatures.
ReplyDeletethe songs relate to xenophobia by talking about how we don't want to meet "spaceman" for example "Look out your window I can see his light If we can sparkle he may land tonight Don't tell your poppa or he'll get us locked up in fright."
ReplyDelete