Figurative Language in The Song Lyrics of the Terror Band Entitled “Keepers Of The Faith”
on
ISSN: 2302-920X
Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud
Vol 20.1 Agustus 2017: 253-260
Figurative Language in The Song Lyrics of the Terror Band Entitled “Keepers Of The Faith”
I Made Windu Ari Kusuma1*, I Nyoman Udayana2, Yana Qomariana3 123English Department Faculty of Arts – Udayana University 1[[email protected]] 2[[email protected]] 3[[email protected]]
* Corresponding Author
Abstrak
Judul dari penelitian ini adalah “Figurative language in the song lyrics of the Terror Band entitled Keepers of the Faith”. Lagu adalah satu media yang digunakan untuk mengungkapkan perasaan, dan menarik untuk di analisis karena menggunakan katakata yang beraneka ragam. Bahasa yang digunakan di dalam lagu biasanya memiliki makna yang berbeda dari bahasa yang biasanya. Lagu dibuat untuk memberikan kesenangan untuk pendengar. Di dalam penelitian ini ada 13 lagu dari album “Keepers of the Faith”. Diantaranya Your enemies are mine, Stight tight, Return to strength, The struggle, Shattered, You’re caught, Dead wrong, Keepers of the faith, Stay free, Hell and back, Only death, The new blood, dan Defiant. Penelitian ini menggunakan lirik lagu dari album “Keepers of the Faith” dari band Terror sebagai sumber data. Metode dokumentasi digunakan untuk mengumpulkan data. Teori yang digunakan adalah dari K.L Knickerbocker dan H.Williard Reninger (1963) dan teori kedua mengenai makna (semantic) dari Leech (1979). Hasil dari penelitian ini menemukan 4 tipe dari bahasa kiasan (figurative language) dan makna yang didapatkan adalah makna konotasi.
Kata Kunci: Bahasa kiasan, makna dari bahasa kiasan, lirik lagu, musik.
There are plenty ways to express our feeling through language such as writing a song. Song is one of media in expressing feeling, and also it seems interesting to be analyzed because the words used have various combinations of vocabulary and are very unique that they have their own function. The language used in a song usually has different meaning from ordinary
language because it is made for a specific purpose.
Song is a kind of art, in the form of poetry or song lyrics that expresses many aspects of life. It is created based on human consciousness and imagination. Song is one of those great, creative and universal means of communication to convey the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual concerns of mankind.
Nowadays, song is just like poetry since composing lyrics is similar to composing song lyrics. Song lyrics are the same as poetry in term of arranging the words of the lines. Song lyrics have stanzas and line too like poetry do. This song is very popular. It is not only for teenagers and children but also for adults, even for old people who love listening to songs. Song does not only provide a remarkable melody but it also provides us with deeper meaning through its lyrics. Creating song lyrics is not an easy job to do. The writer needs imagination and figurative sense to create the lyrics of the song to make it interesting for somebody to listen and to feel it. The writer can use his life experiences or his imagination of the environment for a subject matter. A writer uses his power of imagination combined with the sense of figurative expression. The language of song lyrics is presented in various ways and uses a lot of figure of speech.
The problems that are discussed in the present study are as follows :
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1. What kinds of figurative language are found in the song lyrics?
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2. What are the meanings of the figurative languages?
The aims of this study are as follows:
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1. To find out the kinds of figurative language used in song lyrics of Terror Band entitled “Keepers Of The Faith”.
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2. To analyze the meaning of figurative language used in song lyrics of Terror Band entitled “Keepers Of The Faith”
Research method is an important part of research because it helps the writer from preparation until writing the report. The research method includes: data source, data collection, and data analysis. The data were taken from the song lyrics of the Terror Band album entitled “Keepers Of The Faith”.
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V. Result and Discussion
Types of Figurative language
Personification has a unique characteristic, because it gives human characteristics to the lifeless object. This kind of figure of speech is often used by the song writers in order to make the songs more beautiful, because by giving human characteristics to an object, animal, or an abstract idea, the songs will be livelier and have a wonderful impression.
Human characteristics such as: emotions, desires, sensations, physical gesture, and also speech are possible to be given to an object. it is interesting because it is unusual to say that an object, especially inanimate one, has emotion, desire, or any human other characteristics.
In the album Keepers of the Faith, Terror, I could find some sentences that show the use of personification, there are:
In a world so sick
This sentence shows the use of personification. I can find the sentence “a world so sick”, as we know the world is the place where we stand or where we live. And the next word is sick, sick is about human emotion. In a world so sick that gives human characteristic to
an object, it makes the world have a human characteristic; the world is so sick like human feeling when someone hurts their feeling. The song writerclearly shows that something happened, and hurt him.
Drug infested streets
The sentence above is given human characteristic. Drug is a medicine or other substance which as a physiological effect when infested or otherwise introduced into the body. And as we know, street is a public road in a city or town, typically with houses and buildings on one or both sides. It makes the streets have a human characteristics, the drug infested in streets like human experience when human feels bad condition or sick.
This figure of speech is the most frequent to appear in the thirteen song of Terror band chosen as the data in this study. As has been explained before, hyperbole is an exaggeration used for special effect, it is figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression. It says something which is more than it should be. It makes something seem larger,
better, worse or more important, etc. than what really is. (Knickerbocker, 1964:367)
I owe your pain
From the sentence above, it seems that the sentence is exaggerated. It uses hyperbole. It is impossible if there is “I owe your pain”.I can find word “owe”. As we know, owe has an obligation to pay or repay something especially money in return for something received. The second word “pain”. Pain is physical suffering or discomfort caused by illness or injury. In realistic, nobody can owe the pain. So the statement “I owe your pain” is an overstatement.
I pray to watch you burn
In this sentence we can find
hyperbolic. The sentence I pray to watch you burn means the song writer hated his enemy. The writer wished and prayed for his enemy dead with burns. Reality, nobody can pray or swear in someone. So, this statement is an
overstatement.
Force fed lies
“Force fed lies”, the sentence looks as a hyperbole. The emphasis of
the exaggeration in this sentence the use of the word “fed lies”. Everyone certainly feeds a healthy food for healthy body. Nobody can feed lies, this sentence is an overstatement. Usually human or people consume food and water for their body.
I pay them mind
If we read the sentence above, the sentence is highly exaggerated. This expression is used for the special effect. The emphasis, the exaggeration in this sentence is the use of the words “pay”, and “mind”. As we know pay is to give someone money, due to the work done, good received, or a debt incurred.The second word is mind, mind is the element of a person that enables him/her to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel. Normally, people or human can’t pay something like a feeling.
Steel in my chest
This sentence is a hyperbole because this sentence has unique characteristics and, of course, exaggeration. As we know steel is an alloy of iron and other elements, primarily carbon that is widely used in construction. Second, I can find the
word “Chest”. As we know chest that is a front surface of a person or animal body between the neck and the abdomen as, since no one in the world has a steel in chest. The song writer uses these words to exaggerate his body.
We walk through fire
From the sentence above, it is exaggerated. It can be seen from the use of hyperbole. It is impossible if they walk through fire. As we know, we usually walk on street. No one can walk through fire, except people who have the magic.
Irony indicates mockery of something or someone. The essential feature of irony is the indirect presentation of a contradiction between an action or expression and the context in which it occurs. In the figure of speech , emphasis is placed on the opposition between the literal and intended meaning of a statement. Ironic literature exploits, in addition to the rhetorical figure, such devices as character development, situation, and plot to stress the paradoxical nature of
reality or the contrast between an ideal and actual condition, set of circumstance, etc. Frequently in such a way as to stress the absurdity present in the contradiction between substance and form.
Your home is your hell
From the sentence above, the ironic clearly appears in “your home is your hell”. In this sentence, home is the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household. And as we know, hell is a place regarded in various religions as a spiritual realm of evil and suffering, often traditionally depicted as a place of perpetual fire beneath the earth where the wicked is punished after death. The writer of this song wants to describe home which has atmosphere like agrave yard and the reader and listener of this song imagine that the situation of this song is horrible.
Let them drink my blood
The sentence above is clearly ironic, from the sentence “drink my blood”. The writer literally tells that the listener that let drink my blood, the meaning from the sentence is indirectly letting kill me slowly.
Simile
As the explanation before, simile is the figure of speech that uses “like” and “as” to compare two essentially different objects, actions, or attributes that share some aspects of similarity. (Knickerbocker, 1963:370)
I feel like burning in the heat
The use of simile appears in this sentence. We can recognize that the sentence shows the use of simile by the word like. A simile always has the word like or as. It is clear that the writer makes similarity between his feeling and heat of burning. His feeling is so hot like a burning. This means his feeling so great.
Analysis of meaning
This part describes all of the data analysis of the meaning, beside the theory of figurative language and its kinds, this writing talks about a lot of words; therefore, the theory about meaning (semantics) is also involved Leech (1979:10-23). The data analysis is described below.
Connotative meaning is the communicative value an expression has
by virtue of what it refers to, over and above it is purely conceptual content. Connotative meaning is open in the same sense as our knowledge and belief in the universe that are opened-ended. There are a lot of sentences of the song lyric that contain connotative meaning. That is why someone who listens to or reads the song lyrics will interpret those sentences differently depends on their imagination. It is because in the song lyric, the song writer puts a lot of connotative meaning to express his or her felling, therefore, the listener or the reader of song can imagine and interpret by themselves about the exact meaning of that connotative sentence.
Your home is your hell
The main point that makes the sentence above has a connotative meaning. Home is the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household. Second, hell is a place regarded in various religions as a spiritual realm of evil and suffering, often traditionally depicted as a place of perpetual fire beneath the earth where the wicked is punished after death. The song writer describes the home atmosphere like a graveyard or hell.
In a world so sick
The sentence above contains connotative meaning from the sentence “in a world so sick” it means a human. As we know the world is the place where we stand or where we are living. And the next word is sick, sick is about human characteristics. The world is so sick like human feeling when someone hurt. The writer represents that life is so miserable and disorderly that it’s almost not worth living.
VI. Conclusion
This study analyzes and describes the data in the song lyrics that contains figurative language and meanings of the song lyrics in album “Keepers of the Faith” by Terror. Based on the analysis , there are several conclusions that can be described below. The existence of figurative language in the song lyrics such as hyperbole, personification, simile, and irony as the parts of figure of speech helps the listeners of this song to get clear imagination about the song lyrics in their minds. The figure of speech which is related with the special way of using words makes the song lyrics become more interesting. The listeners of the song lyrics will be entertained
while they also get the knowledge about the figure of speech that is used in the song lyrics. Each part of figure of speech in the song lyrics has its own important roles in building the song lyrics and listeners imagination.
This study also analyzes the meanings contained in the figurative language in the song lyrics in all of the song lyrics of the album “Keepers of the Faith”. The meanings found are connotative meanings. There are found six connotative meanings.
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