Soothing Song

     On the morning of my graduation from high school, which took place in June, tensions were running rather high in my house. I was very nervous about giving my valedictorian speech, my mom was anxious about my party that was to take place that afternoon following the commencement, and everyone else (my dad, oldest sister, and brother-in-law) were trying to find ways to make themselves useful. It seemed that I got to the point where my apprehension and uneasiness were almost too much to bear. I knew that I had to find a way to calm my nerves. 

     After much consideration, I decided to turn to my music. Scrolling through my song list, I came to a song that I knew always had a positive impact on my mood: Green Day’s “Jesus of Suburbia.”  I put on my headphones, and let the iconic sounds of Billie Joe Armstrong’s voice and Tré Cool’s drumming, underwritten with Mike Dirnt's bass line, wash away the stress that had been building all day. Somehow this nine minute song had the effect of helping my mood make a complete turnaround.

     In my case, the song “Jesus of Suburbia” was the sign, as it stands for something more to me than just another entertaining song. The object that it stands for is a state of calm, a relaxant even. Of course, the interpretant is how I became much happier and calmer after listening to this song. Beyond the immediate icon of “Jesus of Suburbia” being a Green Day song and resembling other songs of theirs, another icon is the resemblance that it has to other rock opera songs, such as The Who’s “A Quick One While He’s Away.” As far as indices, not only do I believe that this song brings calm, but it also calls to mind other images: when I saw Green Day for the first time in Chicago, one of my very close friends who passionately loves this song, and the scene for this song in the American Idiot musical. For me, these things go hand-in-hand with “Jesus of Suburbia.”

     People who love this song, including myself, view it as a sort of symbol that there is someone who understands the emotions that we have toward our world and ourselves, even though these emotions likely differ from person to person. In that way, the name of the song is a symbol of comfort to those who enjoy the song when they read or hear the name. Just the lyric “there’s nothing wrong with me/this is how I’m supposed to be” has such power to sooth anxiety and relax frazzled nerves. The frame with which I normally interpret this song is usually a much more relaxed frame in which I am already calm, so the song does not have as much of an impact on my emotions. However, this particular day, my frame was the state of mind I was in right before my big speech, and so it had a much greater effect on calming my emotions. 

     As for my speech, I can say that it went quite well. Even though I still felt very nervous while giving it to an audience of around two thousand people, this apparently did not come across to the people assembled in the gymnasium that day. I would like to think that I have Green Day's “Jesus of Suburbia” to thank for not only calming me, but also for my successful speech.