Discourse Community of a Sports Team

The discourse community I chose to write on was that community of being part of a sports team. I played competitive softball  my whole life, up until attending Northeastern and believe it really shaped me and the values I apply to many other aspects of my life today.

The first is about the community following the same sets of rules. This can apply to the literal rules of the game, the rules set by the coach and then the unwritten rules set up by the players based on position on the field and position in the “veteran” status on the team. They are all followed and respected differently and also dealt with differently when broken. The second is based on communication. There is a lot of communication that happens on and off the field between the players themselves, the communication between players and coaches and the communication between the umpires and all the other parties involved. It is important for all members involved in the community to know how to talk to each in the level of respect and appropriateness that needs to be present. Teammates will talk to each other completely different than a player will talk to the umpire. The third is pretty straight forwards because participation is evident for a successful team. The fourth geared towards furtherance of aims would be practice. Practice is where we all work on what needs improvement whether it be hitting, throwing, communicating or sorting out personal team issues. This is where we further the team to be as best as we can be. The fifth part I think can be described as either spoken word or signs that are used to relay messages without shouting them out. For spoken word, “down” is used to imply the need to slide, “gap”, which is used mostly by outfielders when they feel the ball is going in between two players. Many plays will have names or numbers that don’t mean anything to the other team (much like basketball teams). I think the signals can also be part of the pillar because even though they are specific to a team, signals are used by every softball team in this community. The can be from coach to batter, catcher to pitcher, or teammate to teammate. The last part is basically about a hierarchy in the community. There is the difference from the head coach, assistant coach, position specific coach, and then the older players to the newest players. Even though it’s a team and we work together, there is still a respect and “veteran” understand of the players on the team. All of the sports communities have a very similar foundation and relation to the softball community and I think would follow very similar pillars. 

The Freshman

I chose the song lyrics from "The Freshman" by The Verve Pipe. I think it's a song we all know but don't really pay attention to the lyrics that much. I chose the first verse.

"When I was young I knew everything
And she, a punk, who rarely ever took advice
Now I'm guilt-stricken, sobbing with my head on the floor
Stop a baby's breath and a shoe full of rice, no"


In the first sentence, I think this could be applying to the audience of those who listened to them. I think they were appealing to a young or mid twenty group. "When I was young I knew everything"- I feel like we all thought that when we were 15, 16 years old. But the older we get the more we realize we didn't know anything at all.
"She a punk who rarely ever took advice". This could be going with the first line, of being at the age where you "knew everything". It could be the girl who was a rebel and didn't listen to advice from anyone because she already knew everything about her life.
"Now I'm guilt stricken, sobbing with my head on the floor"- at this point I don't think we know why he is upset but there is definitely an event that has happened that has left him this way. This line paints a picture of a kid who's life is turned upside down by feeling guilty about something and being very upset about it. It makes you wonder what he could feel guilty about because he mentioned before that he already knew everything. I think this event is something that he never would have imagined in a million years being something that he would have to deal with at a young age. It's something that he caused though, because of the feeling of being "guilt stricken". His head on the floor makes me think that he is so upset he could literally be lying on the floor because he doesn't know what else to do.
"Stop a baby's breath", this could seem like the flower baby's breath. And "a shoe full of rice" wouldn't seem like anything. I see a shoe full of rice as the result of a wedding, and the baby's breath being the flower at the wedding. At the end they guest throw rice in the air while the bride and groom exit which could cause their shoes to literally be filled up with rice. The "no" at the end negates this though.
This could mean that there was no babys breath and no "shoe full of rice", so no wedding.
 The baby's breath could be literal baby's breath, meaning there was an abortion. He feels guilt stricken for getting his girlfriend pregnant and since he "thought he knew everything at a young age" he meant that he would never imagine it would happen. His girl who was a "rebel who never took advice" could be her not listening to anyone about their opinion of whether to go through with it or not.
This song is about the life changing decision he had to make at an age where he thought he knew everything and nothing bad could ever happen.

Cinemetropolis

From this city emerges a new generation of babies
Who came out of the womb, glued to the tube

These lyrics are from Cinemetroplis, a rap song by The Blue Scholars from Seattle, Washington. The song analyzes how reliant today's generation is on media, especially film and television. By close reading these lyrics and the title of the song, you can tell that the artist is relating cities to the movies and the film industry, hence the emergence of babies from this city. Todays generations are constantly exposed to television and movies from an early age, and it is clearly having an impact on their development and childhood. Instead of always going outside or finding other children to play with for entertainment, children stay inside and watch television, which is produced by a company that is in someway trying to influence them. Whether its with advertisements to  buy a certain product or something even deeper such as a certain way to think, whether on purpose or not, generations today are heavily influenced by what we see in the media.

While the Blue Scholars are obviously referring to a television when they reference being glued to the tube, this line can be close read to see that television is not the only source of media that can be accessed. With today;s technology, we can use our smartphones, computers and tablets to access television, news and movies, and it is so readily available that it can be very difficult to get away from it all. Despite some parents best intentions, children can always find access to these outlets through school, their friends, or even just walking down the street. It is possible that today;s generation will never experience what it was like to live without constantly being exposed to some sort of screen or media outlet. While this may seem like a good thing that this generation is always well informed and aware of what is going on, they miss out on some critical aspects of human development and social skills that are normally developed as children.

While we may seemed doomed as a civilization to always have these problems, there can be some hope for humanity. It is up to the parents and the older generations to see this problem developing and take preventative action. Parents need to be aware what kind of media and movies there are children are watching and being influenced by. They need to be sure to expose them to social situations besides just what can be done through screens and tubes. This is a huge undertaking, because many parents today are also constantly consumed by their screens and tubes. We need to realize that we are becoming too dependent on technology and media, and take a step back to some of our roots and just spend more time with our families not in front of a screen.

The Aer is Full of Meaning (See What I Did There?)

 So for my song lyrics I chose a line from “Floats My Boat” by Aer. The line goes, “Live it up ‘till I’m dead, Ignorance in my head, Fuck whoever you are, I do what floats my boat.” First off, sorry for the profanity if anyone’s offended. Anyway, I felt like this set of lyrics speaks directly to a younger generation of people. Like many popular songs today, they follow along the lines of doing whatever you want and not caring what anyone else thinks. I’m sure everyone knows all about the phrase YOLO (You Only Live Once). This is a very familiar feeling among young people (especially college kids). We still have this air of invincibility about us that make us kind of cocky and ignorant. Obviously not everyone, but I feel like I fall under that stereotype. Although Aer is not from the ghetto or rap about dealing drugs and killing people, they still resemble the Hip-Hop discourse community. They use a rhyme scheme, and often reference drinking and smoking (what rapper doesn’t these days).The fact that these lines are so simple directly reflects their style of music. Aer tends to use slower, melodious beats with simple guitar parts that give off a warm feeling.

While I was trying to choose some good song lyrics, I kept going to RapGenius.com to make sure I was getting the right lyrics. When talking about L’il Wayne in class, we mentioned how different words have different meanings depending on how a particular discourse community views them. We touched on how an outsider might not necessarily understand all the references being made throughout the song, but RapGenius had a solution for that. Once you search the lyrics you are looking for, you can move the cursor over a particular line or phrase and a brief explanation of that line/phrase appears! I found this extremely interesting, as well as helpful. While I am fairly familiar with the Hip-Hop genre, I don’t know every “beef” artists have or every slang word they invent. While RapGenius doesn’t necessarily go in and evaluate the styles of particular lyrics, I felt like the explanations they provided were in some ways a type of close reading. I know it definitely helped me while I was close reading songs, and I feel like it goes to show how complex and involved the language of the Hip-Hop community has become. It was also something that I never really thought about before when I used their site. Interested me at least.

Mr. Brightside

The song I chose to analyze is Mr. Brightside by The Killers. It talks about the

jealousy and how it can doom a relationship. It can cause insecurities and make things appear very different from the way they actually are.

“Jealousy, turning saints into the sea

Swimming through sick lullabies

Choking on your alibis

But it’s just the price I pay

Destiny is calling me

Open up my eager eyes

‘Cause I’m Mr. Brightside”

The guy in the song is suspicious of his girlfriend and he starts to think that she is cheating on him.

The first line here mentions jealousy and what it did to the singer.

When we think of a saint we think of something holy, someone kind and innocent. Here, the songwriter talks about how jealousy can be so powerful, that it turns those saints into the sea. The sea is an allusion to the turmoil.  The rising and lowering tides correspond to the highs and lows of emotions, the instability that is present in singer’s mind. Jealousy can make us assume some very bad things about people who are completely innocent. On the other hand it could also mean that the singer was “the saint” who never did bad things, but this jealousy has made him emotionally unstable and capable of doing some very bad things. The next line talks about “ the sick lullabies”. These sick lullabies are probably various scenarios and bad thoughts that are “swimming” through his head.

He finds it difficult to believe the excuses she is making and he is “choking” on her alibies. In his head he thinks that she is lying to him and that she is probably having an affair.

Then, just when everything seems to be as bad as possible he seems to find the strength to look at the brighter side of his situation. He accepts what happened and realizes that it is time to get over the girl and continue his life and follow his dreams.

In the next line we see the acceptance of these circumstances as he says that this heartbreak is just the price he pays for falling in love, and that now he can think about his future, his destiny, in the singer’s case probably his music career. Falling in love stopped him from following his destiny and now he knows better, he won’t let it happen again. Another interpretation could be that the price he pays is the ruined relationship that is a result of all the jealousy and insecurities.

Now the last line can also be interpreted in two ways. One way is that now he is trying to think more positively and look at the bright side of the things, in this case it is his career as a musician. Another way of thinking is that he is being sarcastic here and calling himself Mr. Brightside ironically, because of all the bad things he assumed about his lover.

After reading closely through every line we can see that the singer is overthinking and having jealous thoughts about his girlfriend. This eventually results in heartbreak but he gets over it and realizes that it is time to follow his destiny. The other option is that he is still heartbroken but he realizes that it is all his fault and that next time he will know better than to let jealousy ruin a relationship.
The song has a sequel called “Miss Atomic Bomb” which tells the full story about what actually happened. It is about a girl that the singer, Brandon Flowers dated and it was written by one of the band members who was there for Brandon during the difficult times.

Breakdown of Imagine: John Lennon's Communist Manifesto

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

            Despite the fact that we analyzed a rap song in class I chose to pick a set of lyrics that fit my genre of music a bit better.  I’m sure at first glance most, if not all of you know who sang these lyrics. Despite these being lyrics from the song Imagine by timeless artist John Lennon, many people don’t actually know what they mean. Imagine is one of John Lennon’s most well known songs. But what is he actually trying to say? I chose this particular verse to start with because I think the first line gives the listener a powerful clue. “Imagine there’s no countries” is the most basic ideology of communism. Once that word, “communism” is in your head the whole song seems to unravel and find meaning. The song is basically a clear description of the communist ideology.

            Communism is a highly unrealistic and theoretical ideology. The idea that there can be no countries, no religion and pure equality across the entire world seems a bit foolish. Granted I recognize that this is my opinion and there are people who would disagree with me, especially in the 1970s when this song was written. John Lennon was known for his “hippie” beliefs. He wanted equality and an end to conflict. This song was an anthem for all of those that believed the same. At a time where America was fighting a far off war in Vietnam to try and preserve democracy and stop the spread of communism, this song shot to popularity with the exact opposite intention.

This was arguably the most popular song of his career, but did Americans really understand what they were listening? And more importantly did they agree with his argument? Now I was not alive in the early 1970s, so I really cannot answer that but I can tell you that when I have asked most people if they know what this song means, they actually don’t know. I asked both of my parents, who were very much alive during this time period and regularly listened to this song, and neither of them mentioned communism to me in their description of the song. I guess that just means that everyone has a different interpretation of what they hear, but John Lennon has admitted that his intention was to convince listeners to accept the idea of a world in peace, with no attachment to material possessions, and no religion. Once I told my parents that they immediately started talking about communism. I wonder now if I changed their attachment to one of their favorite songs of all time. Their beliefs are basically the opposite of communism, instead focusing on the free market and democracy. But does this mean they won’t enjoy the song anymore? I hope not. My intention with breaking down these lyrics has never been to deter people from listening to it, rather I just find it fascinating that most people have heard the songs hundreds of time and have no idea what the artist is talking about. 

The fallacies of nursery rhymes

“Sticks and stones have made me smarter

It’s words that cut me under my armor”

This comes from the song “Paris is Burning” by St. Vincent. These lines allude to the English language nursery rhyme “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”. The phrase itself reminds me of my childhood, when I was first told to ignore the hurtful words other kids used. Ironically enough, I used my words (the phrase) to signify to others that words could not affect me. I’m not sure if children use this phrase now, but I know you have to be a part of an English-speaking discourse community to understand the meaning of this phrase, and to understand the way St. Vincent manipulated it.

The nursery rhyme itself is very literal – sticks and stones are physical things that can literally break someone’s bones. Words, on the other hand, have no physical qualities and could not to any real physical damage to any person. I interpreted St. Vincent’s line to be a rebuff to that. “Sticks and stones” are basic attempts to hurt someone – they’re basically all the same; eventually you know what to expect if people are throwing them at you, you can count on your armor to protect you from them. Words, on the other hand, have meaning. When people use words to hurt others, that can really cut deep.

The whole tone of the song is very ominous and dark. I’m not sure exactly what she’s alluding to in the song as a whole. The title itself and the rest of the song suggest that the song is about the student riots in Paris in 1968. Paris is Burning is also a documentary film about the minority transgender community in New York City in the 1980’s and early 1990’s.

I love the way St. Vincent plays with words in her lyrics. I think she has an incredible mastery of language. She also used this nursery rhyme long before Rihanna did.

Hey Macklemore, Wanna Go Thrift Shoppin?

I wear your granddad's clothes

I look incredible

I'm in this big ass coat

From that thrift shop down the road

The lyrics above are from Macklemore's song Thrift Shop.

The song is mainly about the artist's passion about thrift shopping, singing about all the good things he can find to maintain a lifestyle like anyone else by making small investments. By doing this, he is criticizing the international community's lifestyle and overspending for objects one can find easier and cheaper at several other places that are not luxurious brands.

What this particular stanza refers to is the pursuit of happines. By "shopping at the thrift shop" or chasing the lifestyle the girl has, he is trying to impress her. He is attempting to show off the fact that he can give her the same lifestyle her father has given her throughout her life; the lifestyle her family wants her to have. The fact that the thrift shop is only down the road could have the significance that his life is down the road as well, meaning he can give her what his father gave her, so he's not far from the expectations she has in a man.

By saying he is wearing her grandfather's clothes, he is saying that he is wearing her grandfather's shoes as well. By close reading, I can understand this as he making it clear that he is now willing and able of setting down with her due to what he has acquired in life and at the thrift shop that he can now wear the same shoes as her grandfather. This means he can now settle down with her with his "big ass coat". A coat provides warmth, a luxury not everyone can acquire. His big ass coat can be a symbol of how warm he can now keep her, and the bigger the coat the bigger the layer of warmth and comfort in life, meaning less preoccupations for her and her family, offering himself and his lifestyle so that her family can understand who he is now.

The fact that his beloved thrift shop and himself are just down the road means he is not too far from her in the first place, and he wants to come closer and let his family know he is willing and able to give her a good life. He is  acting like the responsible figure they all think a grandfather, the alpha member of a family is. He is already wearing those shoes as well.

What does the thrift shop represent in all of this? Since he has made little investments for objects of quality, objects  that are going to make them happy and fulfill their needs which took little effort from him. This means he is going to make her just as happy as the thrift shop makes him since it involves little investment, meaning it is absolutely easy for him to love her the way he does. The availability and low prices of the thrift shop, since it is only down the road and so incredibly unexpensive to visit, he is guaranteeing her a lifetime of happiness since for him and her everything is simple and unsuperficial.

Riding out the Storm

“Riders on the Storm/

Riders on the Storm/

Into this house were born/

Into this world were thrown.”

These opening lines from the Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” form a simple, powerful, yet ultimately ironic message of the song when looked at through the frame of lead singer and songwriter Jim Morrison’s life. Morrison is considered one of the most influential and talented rock musicians of all time though he died at the young age of 27 due to a suspected heroin overdose and suffered from alcoholism for much of his young life.  While this element of his life can be seen clearly in many of the Doors’ songs, it is especially interesting to look at through a close reading of these lyrics.

“Riders on the Storm” while certainly a little ambiguous at first, seems to point to people in general having to ride out the storm of life. The fact that riders is used indicates that we are not simply leaves in the wind, completely at the mercy of the forces around us with no power of our own. Indeed, despite the fact that the Storm is a powerful, unpredictable, and at times, frightening place to be, we are still the daring Riders, always willing to fight back and cut our own path through the chaos. The repetition of this line here and throughout the song helps to emphasize and remind us of this message: that we are riding out this storm of life and one can’t stop doing so without being taken by it.

“Into this house were born” offers a more subtle and soft tone to build upon this message as a way to contrast the line that follows it. “House” and “born” almost makes one picture a baby being born and placed into a cradle in their home with family and friends around to welcome them into the world. Yet it also makes it a point to show that we are not in control of our destiny in this regard because it uses the passive voice to explain that we have no power over how, where or why we enter this world when we do.

Furthermore, this contrasts greatly with “Into this world were thrown” showing how despite the seeming comforts and lack of responsibility in our early lives, we are not closely guided through our whole lives and must at some point be thrown to the wind to learn on our own how to ride out the storm. With no real power of our own in the matter, each of us is thrown into our world of life and must either ride out the storm, or get swept up in it like so many leaves.

Morrison himself was thrown to the wind frequently in his life, forced to move often due to his father’s military career. However, despite his message here that we all must be the Riders and not the leaves in this storm of life, Morrison died young from a drug overdose because he could not handle the vices that life threw at him. His inspirational lyrics will remain long after his death though to echo the storm of his life and remind us to ride it out better than he did.

Thankfully Close Reading

I always think it's impressive how much meaning a single song can convey. One of my favorite bands, Bayside, has songs with often depressing lyrics. The cool thing about them is, many of those same songs are upbeat enough that you can listen to them in any mood, focusing on the lyrics when you're not in a great mood and the music when you're happy.

In their song "Thankfully" there is a shift to a faster tempo and generally less sad music while the following lyrics are sung:

"When we were young we never cared
And now we're scared of jumpin' in,
Like we've forgotten how to swim.
But if we try and if we tread
Then we can teach ourselves again
'Cause it's worth the chance we take.
When we were young we never cared
And now we're scared of jumpin' in
Like we've forgotten how to swim.
But I think that we should try and we should tread
'Cause if we never take another dip again
We'll never know the joy that failure brings"


The connection with swimming is an excellent way to access the emotion they're evoking, especially because for many the fear is irrational and something they don't want to have to be afraid of. The idea is that when you're young you don't think twice being reckless, you're young and fearless. As you get older fear (or something else) takes over and you can't even remember how to be risky anymore. The point that even failure can bring joy validates their point that it's worth learning to at least tread again. The difference in the words "swim" and "tread" is very important, they don't pretend it will be easy or as intuitive as it was originally.

This part of the song does move fast, but not so much that following the words on the first try is too hard. The pace creates a sense of urgency, and other voices join in towards the end making it feel more like a group effort - there's a definite contrast with the rest of the song.

I like how much personal interpretation can be done from these lines. Whatever personal failings or trials one is going through, there is often a fear of no longer being able to "jump in" - at least for many people. Much of this ties into the song as a whole, which questions God and the union that exists within that community and falls apart. Despite some of the sad allusions, it comes back to the point that no matter how bad things get the singer can keep his head up, even when it's his actions or way of handling things that cause him pain.

Adding further context, this song and the album that it's from, "The Walking Wounded," were all written after the band had a car accident and lost their drummer. A lot of the emotion in this album is questioning trying for something, death, general sadness and depressing, as well as moving on and learning to swim again.

I think that music doesn't have the same problem a lot of literature does in conveying meaning. Because in many ways, the emotion is the most important meaning. We've all had the English teacher who couldn't fathom a curtain being green just because the author liked the color green. Music has storytelling properties, but the connection to the emotion is more focused on. I think all good songs can be twisted into one's own meanings, applied to other lives and situations, so much that a song can mean different things to the same person at different times in their life. But, when you do hear what the inspiration or context was, it all makes sense and you can see the artists' perspective. This is why songs are especially great to close read, if the lyrics are written well it's hard to be entirely wrong.

Method Man

“Mammy wanna ride and play the Bonnie to my Clyde

If anybody try to kill me (Kill Bill), it'll probably be the bride

Like all jokes aside, I'm serious with mine

and now I'm on this grind like Method Man in his prime”

- A-YO - Redman and Method Man

The process of choosing what lyrics to close read was probably more challenging than actually close reading. I was trying to find a song that had interesting lyrics, that weren’t all about how amazing the rapper was and how the girls all loved him. Unfortunately, in most current rap music, that is the focus of every song and it is hard to find one that doesn’t talk about it. It has become part of the rapping culture to talk like this. There are rappers out there who chose to censor themselves or talk about things other than themselves and women, but they are few and in between.

This specific lyric is from one of Method Man’s verses in A-YO by Redman and Method Man. Despite the fact that it still talks about him and women, I chose it because I found it very interesting how he included so many different references to describe it. In the first line he says “play the Bonnie to my Clyde,” referring to the outlaw couple who were fiercely loyal to each other and robbed and killed people across America. By using this reference, Method Man makes it clear to the audience that he has a woman who is fiercely loyal to him.

In the next line, he references Kill Bill, the Quentin Tarantino film in which the bride is a former assassin. It is very interesting how easily Method Man entwines references into his lyrics. Bonnie and Clyde is a very well known historical couple that must people would be aware of. However, to properly understand the Kill Bill lyric, the listener has to have watched the movie. He has certain expectations of his listeners to understand the references he is making.

In the last line, Method Man speaks of himself in the third person. He compares himself to how great he is in his prime. “On his grind” is a phrase that he expects the listener to be familiar with. I took this as meaning on his work grind, meaning that he is working very hard. However, someone else might read it a different way. It is impossible to say all the listeners have the same realm of reference. In the first line, he refers to a woman as “Mammy”. Now it is clear to me and probably anyone reading this post that this means a woman, not his mother. However, if someone was placed with absolutely no knowledge of the rap world or any colloquial sayings and simply read this without any past reference or idea, they would not now this.

I chose this song because I think Method Man did a good job of making his lyrics interesting. He put a lot more effort into making it creative and interesting than other rappers have done. However, there are still a lot of expectations that he has for his listener to understand.