Sample Paragraph

                                                     Extract

(I’m singing my blues)

Used to the blue tears, blue sorrow

(I’m singing my blues)

The love that I have sent away with the floating clouds, oh

Under the same sky, at different places

Because you and I are dangerous

I am leaving you

One letter difference from ‘him’

It’s cowardly but I’m hiding because I’m not good enough

Cruel breakup is like the end of the road of love

No words can comfort me

Perhaps my lifetime’s last melodrama

Now its final curtain is coming down

This extract is the chorus and the second verse of a song called ‘Blue’ which is by a band called Big Bang. This song generally is a balled song and has a slow and sad message and feel to this song. Therefore in this extract I’m looking for elements that are used that show that the lexical choices associated with breaking up and if this is changed to suit the teenage audience.

The theory which I am applying to my investigation is the theory of Communication Accommodation. This suggests that the audience and context can change the way in which we respond and how we use language in response. As this extract is aimed at a teenage Korean audience, it has to use language in a way that would relate to people of this age.

The lexical choices give off a very stereotypical view of teenagers when they break up with their partners, as it’s very dramatic terms used. Therefore in this text the writer has tried to metaphors to show this such as ‘end of the road of love’.  The idea of breaking up with someone can be quite sad and, if for the first time like the audience could be going through, it portrays this feeling of loss. By using the abstract noun ‘love’ it makes the audience think that it was serious and that it they won’t find this love again, which first losing a first love typically feels like. However this isn’t true as they would eventually move on but this metaphor is used to highlight this feeling.  If this was aimed at and older audience for example they wouldn’t use terms that suggest they wouldn’t move on but instead use them to show that it will take time to heal. This exaggeration is a common trait that is associated with teenagers.

I would say what I have found would help show that the way in which these lyrics have adapted the audience, is through using language in a way that the audience might use. So exaggeration is often used by this age group, especially about aspects such as love. However I would say there are also many more examples I could have used to represent the same point but feel mine equally shows this point.

 

Hypothesis

Korean lyrics will use more complex and deeper lexical language and language features to show that it is more sophisticated than Japanese lyrics.

My hypothesis is based around the article that was mentioned in The Guardian, and written by Justin McCurry, that the Korean lyrics and bands that are becoming popular in Japan are “not the sugar-coated home-grown variety that has long clogged the airwaves”. Therefore I want to study the Communication Accommodation theory which suggests that people change their behaviour and language depending on the context and who they are interacting with.

Using this theory I would have to look at the adjectives that are used in these lyrics and how they are adapted for the teenage audience. Similarly I would have to see how using these adjectives can vary throughout the lyrics and be used in different contexts to influence the audience. Such as how they influence in a positive or negative way. I would have a short comparison to see if the ways these are used are the same as Japanese. However the main focus is on the way it’s used in the Korean lyrics.

To see if the impact is that the behaviour of the audience can be changed I will look at pronouns and see how they include or exclude to have an effect. By using inclusive pronouns such as ‘we’ or synthetic personalisation, this is mentioned by Norman Fairlcough, to see how the lyrics try to influence the behaviour or thoughts of the audience.  By trying to create a relationship with the audience the band have the power to make the audience think or behave in a certain way. Also convergence in the way they speak such as slang would help make the audience feel like they are the same as the band.

The topics that are mentioned will also be a factor in my investigation.  If the songs have a more serious topic or even a sad message, this would show that Korean lyrics are not always ‘sugar-coated’.  However they will have to accommodate the topics for the audience. Therefore one area I could look at are abstract nouns such as ‘love’ or ’anger’ are used and find out how often these are used to show the proportion of data that uses this.

 

Methodology 3

How Korean lyrics show they are more developed than Japanese Lyrics

I have chosen to look at how Korean lyrics are more developed and giving a more edgy feel through their lexical choices compared to Japanese lyrics.  Therefore I have chosen to look at three Korean bands that are currently active in South Korea. These bands were selected as they are my three favourite bands. Even though this isn’t the most reliable way of choosing them, I found that by selecting the bands in the data this way to be fairer then by choosing them based on different genres they come from or what gender as I would be knowingly adding more variables to my investigation.

 To collect the data I have decided to use the translated English lyrics from the three bands. To make the results more reliable I have taken these from the same site which would indicate that the translations were made by the same people so each song was recorded in a similar way.  From each band I have found an album that was released from the same year, which was 2012, and tried to find albums that were the closest in release dates for the best comparison between these lyrics.  Once the albums are selected I will use the lyrics from every song so there will be a large data sample to evaluate, which will help to eliminate the possibility of anomalies.

I will also have one Japanese song translated into English just to prove what stereotypical Japanese lyrics would compose of. I chose to only use the most popular song from the biggest selling band of this time as this would show what was popular at this time with the minimal amount of data. This would only be used to highlight how the two different types of lyrics are different and I have chosen only one set of lyrics as this isn’t the main part of the investigation that I am looking at. By seeing that the audience change can affect the lyrics, I can look deeper into the reasons why and how they would be different.

The data I have collected doesn’t have any ethical issues as they are there for the public to see and not designed to offend, they are used for entertainment.