In A World Gone Mad

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Slide 1: Introduction
The song I have chosen to analyse and deconstruct is called ‘In a World Gone Mad’ by The Beastie Boys.

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Slide 2: Introduction
The Beastie Boys started off their big career around the 1980’s and were a very popular punk and hip-hop band but was nominated into Rock and Roll on the Hall of Fame in 2007 because of their huge success.

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Slide 3: Subject matter
The Beastie Boy’s song ‘In a World Gone Mad’ was very relevant in the time that the 9/11 and the war in Iraq had occurred, but it was particularly protesting about the involvement of the United States in the war during the time. The song writer throughout the song has made it quite clear they’re protesting about war.

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This is evident in many parts of the song, for example ‘’ Due time we fight the non-violent fight’’ where non-violent means to have peace conversations and to negotiate and ‘’in a world gone mad it's hard to think right, so much violence hate and spite, murder going on all day and night’’. The song doesn’t only protest effectively about war but it also has many poetic devices within the lyrics throughout the entire duration of the song such as personification, rhyming, alliteration, assonance, paradox, and similes.

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Slide 4: Purpose
The song lyrics are calling to action, and trying to make people understand the importance of the damage that the war is causing and convincing people that think the way they are, trying to get a message across. It is also a humorous way of slandering George Bush for his greed and political motivations toward the war and ignoring the anti-war protestors.

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The message that the song writer is trying to convey is to increase society’s commitment to strive towards raising awareness for the people around them about George Bush’s attitude toward the war. The Beastie Boys thought that George Bush was pretending not to hear the screaming voices of anti-war protestors.

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Slide 5: Emotion
The emotion that the song is trying to create is a sense of disappointment and anger for the involvement of the United States in the war in Iraq as well as including humour within the lyrics about George Bush. The lyrics make the audience feel disappointed and angry at the president, George Bush for ignoring the opinions of protestors and the damage that the war is causing, which creates an emotional feeling towards the situation as well.

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Slide 6: Structure
The structure of the song consists of five different types of stanzas. Two of the stanzas consist of four lines which is called a quatrain. There are also two stanzas with 12 lines, one stanza with 16 lines and one with eight lines, which is called an octave.

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Slide 7: Language
The language used by the song writer in the song is very effective for the theme and purpose of the song. Their use of words helped to support the song writers’ goal in the song, which was to make the audience aware of the presidents’ attitude. Humour was included to make the song better in accomplishing its goal as well as making them feel disappointed. In the last stanza, the line “we need health care more than going to war” is an understatement as there is terrible public health care in America and it is clear that the government should be spending their money on more important things like health care than funding a war.

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The Beastie Boys included humour and symbolism into the line “They’re layin’ on the syrup thick/We ain’t waffles we ain’t havin’ it”. The “syrup” in this context symbolizes all of the propaganda advertised by the government that encouraged the war in Iraq. The last line says “You think it’s democracy they’re fighting for?” which is ironic because of America’s representation as a democratic society that only fights to change other countries into democracies.

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Slide 8: Imagery
Humour was incorporated through sentences such as ‘’ George Bush you're looking like Zoo Lander’’ Zoo Lander was a comedy movie starring Ben stiller and his character was made to be a foolish person who is completely brainwashed to do immoral things. The line “get your hand out my grandma’s pocket” is metaphorical language and symbolism. It represents the government’s extreme of taxing citizens to help fund the war that is hurting the citizens of America and targeting innocent like the elderly.

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Apart from the obvious use of personification in the title ‘’In a World Gone Mad’’, there are other uses of symbolic language such as ‘’axis of evil’ which refers to the speech George Bush delivered after the 9/11 in which he referred to Iraq. There is also ‘’I won't carry guns for an oil war’’ which refers to the feelings of America at this particular time that America was really only in Iraq because of the oil they had.

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The song writer effectively incorporated different languages such as the sentences ‘’As-Salamu alaikum’’, which is an Islamic type of greeting which means "Peace be upon you". I think that these are effective in helping achieve the song writer’s goal because it helps to grabs the audience’s attention and therefore encourages them to listen to the words.

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Slide 9: Movement or rhythm
The song has a bit of an uneven and choppy rhythm. The beat is catchy but irregular. The effect of the rhythmic quality is that it is catchy and makes the audience want to continue listening to it.

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Slide 10: Sounds
The line “You and Saddam should kick it like back in the day” is an allusion to how before 9/11, George Bush and Saddam Hussein had tried to get along and the U.S. had even helped Iraq by providing them with weapons in the war of Iraq. There is a paradox in the words “non-violent fight” and several examples of alliteration, assonance and allusions.

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. The line “cocaine and Courvoisier” is both alliteration and an allusion to both the heavy drug growing and job in Iraq, and to a brand of alcohol that is somewhat of a symbol in the hip-hop community made famous by people. Some of this alliteration includes, “corporate contributions” and “sleeping on your speeches”. The use of alliteration helps create a smoother sound when the lyrics are being read or listened to.

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Slide 11: Summary
Some of the symbolic language isn’t entirely common sense. Its intended audience may struggle to understand what the song writer is trying to achieve through certain lyrics such as ‘oil war’ which I had previously mentioned is the feelings of America at this particular time that America was really only in Iraq because of the oil they had.

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Use of language such as ‘axis of evil’ which means which refers to the speech George Bush delivered after the 9/11 in which he referred to Iraq have a great effect on the purpose of the song as each phrase or effective language that is used refers back to George Bush and his greed.

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Nevertheless, the song gives the audience a sense of anger and confusion about George Bush’s attitude toward anti-war protestors, which was what their goal was. The humour that the writer incorporated was effective in grabbing people’s attention to listen to the lyrics more carefully and to register what the artist is trying to say. In doing this, the writer’s goal in using the language chosen was successful in communicating their opinions to the society.

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