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211-730, fedorchukova@ssea.runnet.ru

LANGUAGE OF POP SONGS

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Pop songs are the part of culture of any language. Lots of people enjoy
listening to pop songs in English. But not everyone can always understand them.
There are several reasons for this misunderstanding:
1. often the words cannot be heard clearly,
2. a lot of special vocabulary and contractions are used,
3. the word order is often unusual,
4. the stress and intonation are often very different from normal spoken
English,
5. unnecessary words are often included,
6. language is often used which would normally be called incorrect.

We distinguish four peculiarities of the language of pop songs. They are:

1. Contractions.
2. Missing letters and other strange spellings.
3. Incorrect or ungrammatical language.
4. Special vocabulary.

Lets dwell upon each peculiarity.

Contractions are very often used in pop songs. Many of them are the same as
in everyday spoken English, but some are special. Here there is a list of the most
common ones with their full forms and some examples from songs, which were
popular between 1980 and 2010.
gonna - going to - A hard rains gonna fall;
I always said that I was gonna make it;
I know that everything is gonna change;
My life was never gonna be the same.
It is interesting that some of these contractions you can find in certain
electronic dictionaries with their translation.
 Missing letters and other strange spellings

Missing letters is very common for English songs. First of all it is very
common with the -ing ending, where the spelling becomes in.
Talkin about Smackwater Jack;
You proudly knowin that;
Your fathers doin the right thing now;
From the endin to the endin, never got to begin;
Maybe you really forgave us knowin we was confused.
The letter a at the beginning of away, across, about is often omitted
too.
Im goin way down South;
Well, you know my love not fade way.
In addition to contractions and missing letters, there are a few others unusual
spellings.
cause, coz, cos because - cause he was in the mood for a little
confrontation;
cause the outlaw had been seized;
cause you speaking that slang;
Dont tell me cause it hurts.
You and your is sometimes written and pronounces as ya.
What ya body got a young boy ready to do.
The English group Slade, has even deliberately mis-spelt their song titles, in
order to emphasize that their music is not intellectual, but simple, basic rock - Coz
I Luv You and Take Me Bak Ome.

Incorrect or ungrammatical language.

Most of the language used in English pop songs is completely normal English.
Sometimes, however, incorrect language is used; it does not follow the usual
grammatical rules. We can see some examples of incorrect language in the songs
Smackwater Jack by Carole King, Dont Speak by No Doubt, Happy Birthday
by Flipsyde, Rise n Fall by Craig David and Sting.

A Smackwater Jack, he bought a shotgun. You and me, we used to be together

B You cant talk to a man, when he Maybe you really forgave us knowin' we
dont want to understand. was confused?
C I wont do you no harm. But this game I'm in don't take no
prisoners
D Wish that she was here. Think about it every year, so I picked up
a pen,
E We got to ride. Tom-boy running around, hanging with
all the guys.
F Then the loud sound did seem to fade. -
 A. In the example under the letter A, we can see that both subject noun and
subject pronoun are in the same sentence. In the second example you can see three
subject pronouns in the same sentence.
B. In the example under the letter B, we can see the use of do and dont
with the third person singular instead of the correct forms does and doesnt. The
use of was with the third person plural in Past Simple instead of the correct form
were.
C. In the example under the letter C, we can see double negation. In fact,
this is commonly used for emphasis in colloquial speech, but still not considered to
be correct.
D. In the example under the letter D, we can see that the subject is omitted.
E. In the example under the letter E, we can see that the have of have
got is omitted. Similarly, is/am/are are often omitted from the going to
construction.
F. In the example under the letter F, we can see the use of did in the Past
Simple positive without a special reason. This sentence is not emphatic.

Special vocabulary in pop songs changes very quickly, so it is difficult to give

a full list of words. We show some words which occur frequently, with their
approximate meanings.
blue with approximate meaning sad, depressed - Im feeling kinda blue;
awful - with approximate meaning very - Things they do look awful cold;
baby, babe - with approximate meaning darling - Its too late, babe, now its too
late.
So, baby, dont worry, you are my only.
The special language of pop songs has been influenced by American English,
the language of folk music and Blues, and colloquial British English.

Summing it up one may say that these peculiarities of English pop songs can be
noticed not only in the British and American songs, but today we can find them even
in some songs of Russian singers, who use the English language and those singers
who perform in Eurovision. Some contractions and special vocabulary are included in
some electronic dictionaries with explanations. We can compare the language of pop
songs with the language of old poems of early modern English period and it means
that they form special part of the history of the English language. In the old poems we
can see such old words like thee, thou, thy and so on. They are features of this type
of literature. They are not used in the official language. The words gonna, wanna in
modern songs, just like the above mentioned thee, thou, thy are not used in the
official language. They are used only in colloquial language, very often in songs.
Moreover, they are explained in dictionaries and reference books like old English
words.
In the early modern period the English language was influenced by other
languages and cultures (Latin, Greek, French and Spanish). As far as songs are
concerned, the changing of their language also took place under outer influences.
Like in archaic words, we find the written evidence of this influence. We have a lot of
records and scripts of songs, many people listen to them and learn the language by
them because they are easy to learn by heart, you can hear them everywhere. That is
why these changes stay in the language.
The origin of these changes is worth mentioning. Weve made an attempt to
trace the changes back to 1960. The typical features of songs bring rhythm and make
these songs sound soft and tender. Such words as blue are metaphoric by their
origin. They enrich the message of the song especially in quiet songs.
Nowadays most of these phenomena we can find in rap. This type of song was
introduced by Negroes and showed their resentment to white people. They convey the
rapidness of oral speech and make the song more expressive. The black creators of
rap didnt know the English language quite well. They began to change the common
language and spelling.
Thus, we can say that the language of pop songs has its own history, origin and
it is recorded in dictionaries and reference books. The language of pop songs became
a sufficient part of the English culture and the traces of it are found in many layers of
the standard language and need to be studied thoroughly.