Intertextuality

A good example I have experienced of intertextuality is mainly in music.  When you listen to the lyrics you sing along sometimes forgetting what the actual words and song mean.  When you carefully examine what you are singing it makes a lot more sense.  An example that I have recently experience is the song “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”, by the Beatles.  When you sing this song obviously you don’t picture someone holding a gun that is physically warm.  You just sing it because it catchy.

            Most Beatles songs though do a good job of explaining what is happening around them and where.  Their songs were talking about history and telling it in their point of view.  The song is about the theme of that decade.  It’s about having a desire, a need, a want, or some sort of addiction.  This is right round the time drugs were really starting to be talked about.   They are explaining how it feels when they feed and fulfill this addiction that they crave so much. 

In my own personal experience I remember reading about the Beatles in my history books and just thinking that they were a typical popular band of their time.  Reading about this decade was easy to do because I had learned most things though there music mainly in their metaphors.  At first I didn’t think that there crazy songs had meaning since they all go into so much detail.  I know that Justin Bieber's song baby has no historic background meaning.  

Most of their songs have deep metaphors and some are more obvious then others.  Some of the songs are “Strawberry Fields Forever”, talking about Liverpool and where they are from, and “You Never Give Me Your Money”, discussing the relationship between Lennon and McCartney leading to the break up of their band.

From This Song is Sick