Similarly, the auditory elements of “ Bad News” are more significant than the song’s lyrics.
Textual analysis on its own would not be able to come to this conclusion. While the text analysis showed me that cold could be a theme, listening to the album helped me to understand what coldness truly means: it represents Kanye’s loss and loneliness. In the song, he indirectly talks about his mother passing away and his ex girlfriend he is cold from the loss of those he once loved, so cold is a metaphor for his heartbreak. In the cold trend chart above, I noted that I believed coldness would be a theme but after listening to the album, specifically the song “ Coldest Winter,” I realized that cold refers to Kanye feeling as though he has lost himself. The majority of the album is about heartbreak, which I concluded before the content analysis however, listening to it also taught me that 808s is equally about alienation and losing a loved one. The impact of these sounds goes beyond words or lyrics, which is why if I had only analyzed the album using Voyant, I would have missed an opportunity to interpret significant elements from 808s.Īlso, after listening to 808s, I discovered other themes that were not apparent just by looking at the lyrics. Although there are no lyrics during this part of the song, Kanye uses the sounds to convey the themes of heartbreak and desolation.
I found that listening to 808s’ songs, rather than just analyzing the lyrics, provided a more comprehensive and vivid understanding of the album, particularly because the use of synthesized sounds, auto-tune, and drum beats conveyed messages that the lyrics could not.įor instance, in “ Say You Will,” the last two minutes and 30 seconds of the song consist primarily of sounds, not lyrics - specifically a repeated drum sequence, random electronic beeps, and distant choir vocals.
Also, Kanye consistently uses a drum sound - known as TR-808 - to make unique, yet distorted, beats in the songs. If I had just completed a content analysis and not listened to the record, I would not know that the album primarily consists of electronic sounds and auto-tune - unlike Kanye’s previous records which feature typical rap beats. After listening to 808s & Heartbreak, I understood the album in an entirely different way.
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