Music and The Great Gatzby by Nyah https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq The importance of music in the great Gatsby en-us 2018-04-17 17:14:48 UTC 2023-02-24 23:51:38 UTC hello@padlet.com Songs within The Great Gatsby nyah_301679 https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/252684834 By, Nyah

]]> 2018-04-17 17:16:35 UTC https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/252684834 The Importance of Music in The Great Gatsby nyah_301679 https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/252686039 F. Scott Fitzgerald knew a thing or two about symbolism. From the colors he uses, to the song choices that play in the background. There are musical references littered through-out the book. The songs lyrics are writing into the scene with purpose and foreshadow in mind. Some scenes in the book are recommended to be read with a certain song played to further strengthen the tone and mood of the setting. It also plays a big role in placing the characters in to a setting as close as possible to his own.]]> 2018-04-17 17:18:45 UTC https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/252686039 The Songs nyah_301679 https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/252688169 There are quiet a few songs used in The Great Gatsby. Some include:

"The Sheik of Araby," By Fats Waller. Jazz

Lyrics:

"I'm the Sheik of Araby,
Your love belongs to me.
At night when you're asleep
Into your tent I'll creep.
The stars that shine above,
Will light our way to love.
You'll rule this land with me;"

"Ain't We Got Fun," by Van & Schenck

Lyrics:

-There's nothing surer
The rich get rich and the poor get children
In the meantime, in between time
Ain't we got fun?-

"Three O'clock in the Morning," by Paul Whiteman

(No Lyrics)
]]> 2018-04-17 17:23:08 UTC https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/252688169 What the songs mean/why are they important to the book nyah_301679 https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/252688446 "Ain't We Got Fun" seems to be about a couple talking about how the rich can be free to enjoy life without working to hard. While also saying that the middle and lower class are tied down to work and children. When Gatsby asks Kilpsinger to play a song on the piano, he plays this one. This one matches Gatsby's and Daisy's outlook on life. Always partying and being free from responsibilities. 

"Daisy and Gatsby danced. I remember being surprised by his graceful, conservative fox-trot-" (Fitzgerald page 105).

"The Sheik of Araby," the jazz standard, was played while Jordan and Nick were in the car talking about Gatsby and Daisy's relationship. 

"'Gatsby bought that house so Daisy would be  just across the bay," (Fitzgerald pg 78). 

With the lyrics also reflecting Gatsby's desire to have Daisy.
 
"Three O'clock in the Morning" is a lyric-less song that is a bit slow paced compared to some of the other songs. More of a waltz than a Foxtrot or Charleston compared the other songs used in the story. If anything, the song is sadder than the others. This was played when Daisy and Tom left Gatsby and his party. Daisy wanting to stay with Gatsby a bit longer, but having to go with Tom.

"What was it up there in the song that seemed to be calling her back inside?" (Fitzgerald page 108).
]]> 2018-04-17 17:23:45 UTC https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/252688446 Why These Songs Fitzgerald? nyah_301679 https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/252689701 "F. Scott Fitzgerald immortalized these "flappers," as the dancers were called, in his 1920 collection of stories, Flappers and Philosophers. His next story collection in 1922, Tales of the Jazz Age, helped to name an era characterized for its confusion of quick wealth with personal satisfaction. It was a time that destroyed the weak and those with a craving for power and money. Scott created the representative character of the era with his mysterious Jay Gatsby, who makes a fortune illegally in order to win the love of a rich girl. In the end, Scott himself became a victim of the Jazz Age, caught up in a lifestyle he could never escape." (Writer of the Jazz Age)

The Great Gatsby, at its core, is a commentary about the era that Fitzgerald lived in. Known now as the "Roaring Twenties." Reading this story not only immerses the reader into the setting, but it also give a glimpse into the 1920's. Fitzgerald did make up names of a song or two, but the rest of the songs are either referenced or used to set the mood of a given scene.   

"Before World War I the country remained culturally and psychologically rooted in the nineteenth century, but in the 1920's America seemed to break its wistful attachments to the recent past and usher in a more modern era," (Zeitz).

Fitzgerald captures that change really well, even the moral values. From drinks to cheats, a lot has changed. Even he was not immune to the change in values.

 "...but many in the younger generation loved the freedom they felt on the dance floor," (The Roaring Twenties)
...and their new found freedom in general. something even the characters in his novel, The Great Gatsby, love. So all the songs that were chosen for the story is not only fitting, but would have been song actual people would have listened to in that time
]]> 2018-04-17 17:26:25 UTC https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/252689701 My song equivalents nyah_301679 https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/252689918 "On Melancholy Hill" By Gorillaz
To mirror "Three O'clock in the Morning," by Paul Whiteman.

Lyrics:

"Up on melancholy hill
There's a plastic tree
Are you here with me
Just looking out on the day
Of another dream
Well you can't get what you want
But you can get me
So let's set out to sea..."

"Fancy" by Iggy Azalea.
To mirror  "Ain't We Got Fun," by Van & Schenck

Lyrics:

"Trash the hotel
Let's get drunk on the mini bar
Make the phone call
Feels so good getting what I want, yeah
Keep on turning it up
Chandelier swinging, we don't give a fuck
Film star, yeah I’m deluxe
Classic, expensive, you don't get to touch, ow"

"Just a Friend," by Biz Markie
To mirror "The Sheik of Araby," by Fats Waller.

Lyrics:

-I took a couple of flicks and she was enthused
I said, how do you like the show?
She said, "I was very amused"-

-You, you got what I need but you say he's just a friend
And you say he's just a friend, oh baby
You, you got what I need but you say he's just a friend
But you say he's just a friend, oh baby
You, you got what I need but you say he's just a friend
But you say he's just a friend-

-About a girl named blah-blah-blah that adored me
So we started talkin', getttin' familiar
Spendin' a lot of time so we can build up
A relationship or some understanding
How it's gonna be in the future we was plannin'
Everything sounded so dandy and sweet
I had no idea I was in for a treat-

]]> 2018-04-17 17:26:54 UTC https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/252689918 Why These songs? nyah_301679 https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/252690205 "On Melancholy Hill" by Gorillaz was a my song choice for mirroring "Three o'clock in the morning" by Paul Whiteman. I feel as though it captures the emotion that Fitzgerald envisioned for that scene. As for the lyrics, I envisioned "Melancholy hill" as Gatsby's Mansion. Then, when the song asks, "Are you here with me..." (Gorillaz) I imagine Gatsby reaching out to the green light. Especially when next lyric goes, "Just looking out on the day, Of another dream..." (Gorillaz). That just screamed Gatsby to me. "He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right to the end..." (Fitzgerald pg. 92). That matched what Gatsby desired. Then when Daisy is leaving the party the lyric "Well you can't get what you want..But you can get me..." (Gorillaz) matched her internal conflict.

"Ain't We Got Fun" is a bit more direct in the message it conveys. It is about the rich being able to have fun and be free to do whatever they please. Compared to the poor having to work harder to just get by and are stuck to responsibilities like "...children..." (Van & Schenck). So I thought, what songs I heard that are all about having fun and being rich. Iggy's "Fancy" came to mind. The whole chorus is about how rich and fancy they are.  "Let's get drunk on the mini bar..." (Azalea). A lot in the book, a character is drunk, drinking alcohol, or with alcohol in some way. Like how Tom's character is always depicted with alcohol or getting a bottle of whiskey. "Feels so good getting what I want..." (Azalea). That is practically screaming, "Being rich and famous is fun!" 
 
"Just a Friend," by Biz Markie matched "The Sheik of Araby" in how the singer is saying to the lover that their love belongs to them. In Markie's lyrics he asked his girl, "how do you like the show?" with the girl's response, "'I was very amused..." (Markie). This sounds like Gatsby and Daisy's first dates, not in terms of a show or performance, but how they were together. Then, in the chorus Markie sings, "You, you got what I need, but you say he's just a friend..." (Markie) which mirrors how, later in the book, how Daisy's relationship with Tom is in the way of Gatsby and Daisy's love. ]]> 2018-04-17 17:27:30 UTC https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/252690205 Cites nyah_301679 https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/254504880 "F. Scott Fitzgerald: Writer of the Jazz Age." ["F. Scott Fitzgerald : Writer of the Jazz Age"]. F. Scott Fitzgerald : Writer of the Jazz Age, Mar. 2002, pp. 8-36. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=khh&AN=25951253&site=ehost-live.

Zeitz, Joshua. “The Roaring Twenties.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 24 Oct. 2011, wwww.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/progressive-era-new-era-1900-1929/roaring-twenties.

Fitzgerald, F.Scott. The Great Gatsby. Penguin Books, 1950.

Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Three O'clock in the Morning, New York, New York, 21 Aug. 1922, www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/8979/.

Benson Orchestra of Chicago. Ain't We Got Fun, Chicago, Illinois, 11 April 1921, http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/7859/

Twenties, T. (2018). The Roaring Twenties - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com. [online] HISTORY.com. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties [Accessed 28 Apr. 2018].]]> 2018-04-23 17:00:29 UTC https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/254504880 nyah_301679 https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/254530762 Jazz band of "Three O'Clock in the Morning" by Paul Whiteman]]> 2018-04-23 17:45:59 UTC https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/254530762 Musical Recordings nyah_301679 https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/256232210 Three o'clock in the Morning
http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/8979/

Ain't we got fun (Instrumental)
http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/7859/

The Sheik of Araby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOergMpEPzY

]]> 2018-04-28 15:42:45 UTC https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/256232210 nyah_301679 https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/256246522 2018-04-28 19:09:19 UTC https://padlet.com/nyah_301679/bsmv344bneyq/wish/256246522