"Don't Take the Girl" by Tim McGraw

Tim McGraw born Samuel Timothy McGraw on May 1, 1967 in the small country town of Dehli, Louisiana. But in his life his accomplishments were certainly not small like his town. McGraw played a lot of competitive sports when he was in school and he was ecstatic when he got news of getting a full scholarship to college. But little did he know that was not the biggest accomplishment he would be making. In 1989 when McGraw’s musical hero died, Keith Whitely, he dropped out of community college and headed for Nashville to prove his talent to everyone. He signed his first record deal with Curb Records in 1990. He has released around ten albums including, Live Like Your Were Dying, Southern Voice, Everywhere and Let it Go. He has won over fifty awards for his heart warming narrative songs. McGraw has worked amazingly talented other artists like Faith Hill. In this song “Don’t Take the Girl”, McGraw uses several literary devices to help transfer the meaning behind the whole story. This song is an impeccable example of a true country narrative. McGraw accomplishes telling this motivating, heart warming and tragic story by using imagery in almost every stanza to paint the perfect picture of two people in love and alliteration to capture the listener’s ear into further listening.
In the song “Don’t Take the Girl”, McGraw uses imagery perfectly to allow the listener to paint the mental image each step through the song. Three lines into the song McGraw says, “A little girl came through the front gate holdin’ a fishing pole/ His dad looked down and smiled, said we can’t leave her behind”. This line right off the bat assists the listener in picturing the setting of the story. Further within the song McGraw states, ‘He held her tight and kissed her lips/ In front of the picture show/ Stranger came and pulled a gun/ Grabbed her by the arm said "If you do what I tell you to, there won't be any harm" ‘. The imagery that he uses portrays a perfect picture of what if occurring to them at that point in time. When he says, “Grabbed her by the arm,” this almost allows the listener to feel the fear that the girl must feel. One of his final uses of imagery shows the listener how much the man actually loves this girl and doesn’t want her to die. McGraw says, “Cause his momma's fading fast and Johnny hit his knees and there he prayed”. The quote allows the audience to feel the emotion and picture the scenery of his love being expressed to her while she is not doing well. McGraw’s use of captivating imagery makes his songs above all others because you can feel and picture the same emotions and sights that the characters feel.
McGraw uses alliterations in the song “Don’t Take the Girl” multiple times to capture the audience’s attention and to keep them wanting more. Right within the couple first lines McGraw names off a few of his friends with tongue twisting titles that capture the listener’s attention, ‘ "Take Jimmy Johnson, take Tommy Thompson, take my best friend Bo” ‘. The rhyming and alliteration is a fun way to switch things up and allow the listener to keep interested in what they are listening to. Now in the chorus McGraw repetitively says, “Same old boy/ Same sweet girl”. Like the first set of alliterations this one is to with hold the audience’s attention as well, and because this alliteration is in the chorus it repeats making the song captivating. McGraw does not use that much alliteration as most artist do but when and where he does is what matters; for the little that he uses he still captures the audience’s attention.

McGraw’s country talent speaks through every song he writes, and the literary devices he uses just makes his songs ten times stronger. His use of alliterations and imagery makes his impression so much more powerful. “Don’t Take the Girl” is just one of the many pieces of art Tim McGraw has created; and just one of the many heart warming, compelling narratives he has created as well.

Popular Music

The top 100 songs on the Billboard Top 100 tells a lot about of society today. Four out of the ten have sexual references within those songs. This shows many things, one being that people in this society arn't afraid to boast or discuss sex. Back in the fifties this would never been okayed or allowed. So this shows the change in soceity and what people are interested in now. Also four out of ten are some sort of love song and since the teenage world mostly controls the top 100 this shows what people are interested in hearing, what they can relate to or something that they find interesting. The popular genere at this point in time would have to be pop because six out of the ten songs had the genre of pop. This shows that soceity likes to listen to upbeat music that could probably put them in a better mood.

"Just a Dream" by Carrie Underwood

Carrie Marie Underwood was a small town girl born and raised in Checotah, Oklahoma. She spent twenty-one years of her life in Checotah before moving on to make it big, when she got her audition with American Idol in 2004. Little to her knowledge she made it through all of the seventeen sounds and came out with the win; and became 2004’s American Idol. Underwood is now one of the most admirable singer-songwriters in America for her moving and inspirational country music. She was raised as a respectable Christian which was later shown in some of her first songs like, “Jesus, Take the Wheel”, which won over three awards. Underwood released three remarkable albums including Some Hearts, Carnival Ride and Play On. She has won an outstanding sixty-one awards for all of her musical creations. Underwood is known for her encouraging and uplifting narrative country songs. A perfect example of one of her narrative work is in the song, “Just a Dream”. In this song, Underwood succeeds in creating a modern and tragic narrative through the use of comparisons, alliterations and her picture-perfect imagery.

In Underwood’s musical masterpiece “Just a Dream”, she uses comparisons like similes and metaphors to assist the listener to capture the feelings of the widowed army wife. In the chorus she repeats the metaphor, “This is just a dream”, comparing to her experience at her husband’s funeral to a dream because it is so unbelievable. This comparison make you feel the astonishment that this woman must feel of losing the man she loves. Another line that supports the character’s unimaginable experience is, “It’s like I’m looking from a distance/ Standing in the background”. This simile shows how it feels as if this is not even happening to her and how impossible it feels to her. Finally one of her last comparisons is the simile that explains all the pain that she feels in her heart, “And it felt like a bullet in her heart”. Underwood’s final comparison really touches the listener’s heart and makes you feel the pain that the army wife feels. Her talent of conveying feelings within her songs is what makes them so moving.

“Just a Dream” uses alliteration to capture the listener’s attention and lock them into the powerful feeling of the song. In the first verse Underwood places the alliteration, “Sixpence in a shoe, something borrowed, something blue”. This line obtains the listener’s hear and allows her voice to flow into the narrative. In the third verse Underwood expresses the character’s feeling when she hears the congregation sing, “all stood up and sang the saddest song/ that she ever heard”. This alliteration apprehends perfectly what the character is feeling and relegates it to the listener. Underwood’s last use of alliteration also finally catches the ear’s attention for the closing of the song, “oh, now I’ll never know”. Her outstanding use of alliteration is what captures the fan’s attention and to have the beg to listen to more.

Underwood’s phenomenal use of picture-perfect imagery is what tops off the whole experience of listening to her music. In her this song “Just a Dream”, she uses imagery all throughout the song to paint an elaborate picture on what occurred within the song. In the first verse she sets off with the picture of what the character looks like by telling us she is, “All dressed in white”. Underwood further explains the wife’s actions by telling us, “ She put her veil down/trying to hide the tears”. This imagery allows us to picture a women dressed in white tragically heart-broken. Then later in the song she permits us to see how lost the woman feels because all she has left is her husband’s army flag, “Then they handed her a folded up flag”. This line shows us a picture of the widow’s lost hope. Underwood then allows us to picture and hear the occurrences in that day by saying, “And then the guns rang one last shot”. This line outstandingly endorses the listeners to hear that final, ringing shot before her husband is laid to rest. Underwood’s use of imagery exceeds the overall picture in our heads of what occurred within the lyrics.

In “Just a Dream” Underwood’s use of comparisons and imagery paints a perfect picture of the events in the song. But, then her amazing use of alliteration captures the listener’s attention and pulls us in for more. “Just a Dream” allowed Underwood to claim her place in the music industry with her outstanding narrative lyrics and moving words. In this song, Underwood succeeds in creating a modern and tragic narrative through the use of comparisons, alliterations and her picture-perfect imagery.

Declaration March 2, 2010

I chose this theme-genre because country music is my favorite type of music and I did my project and i enjoyed the cohesive narrative themed songs so i created "Storytelling in Country". I know a lot of songs in country music so i would be able to discover songs quicker that i think might tell a story. Storytelling is not too broad but it also is not too specific so finding certain songs would be fairly easy. I originally wanted to do love and heartbreak in country but i though that narrative songs would be more unique. This is how I came to my decision of doing storytelling within country.