In the field of Music Data Mining, Mood and Topic information has been considered as a high level metadata. The extraction of mood and topic information is difficult but is regarded as very valuable. The immense growth of Web 2.0 resulted in Social Tags being a direct interaction with users (humans) and their feedback through tags can help in classification and retrieval of music. One of the major shortcomings of the approaches that have been employed so far is the improper filtering of social tags. This thesis delves into the topic of information extraction from songs’ tags and lyrics. The main focus is on removing all erroneous and unwanted tags with help of other features. The hierarchical clustering method is applied to create clusters of tags. The clusters are based on semantic information any given pair of tags share. The lyrics features are utilized by employing CLOPE clustering method to form lyrics clusters, and Naïve Bayes method to compute probability values that aid in classification process. The outputs from classification are finally used to estimate the accuracy of a tag belonging to the song. The results obtained from the experiments all point towards the success of the method proposed and can be utilized by other research projects in the similar field.

Throughout history women have been subject to oppression by patriarchal society. However, there have always been those who have tried to rise against it. This study will shed light upon one example: a female artist who personally defies the patriarchal norms at the same time as her music encourages others to do the same. The musician in question is Christina Aguilera, and the album studied is Stripped. What this study shows is that Stripped can be read as a feminist statement. The lyrics deal with two main themes: patriarchal society’s objectification and oppression of women, and the struggles of love and relationships. What these two themes have in common is that they both encourage women to stand their ground and believe in themselves. However, the lyrics on the album also suggest that Aguilera is aware of the fact that her message will not suit everyone. She knows that she works within an industry whose goal is to make money out of its artists, and therefore she has to keep repeating like a mantra to herself and to others that she, and her music, is not just a product of this industry. The message her music brings actually matters. To come to this conclusion I have examined Aguilera’s lyrics in terms of what messages they bring and who their narratees might be, all in accordance with feminist narratology. Secondary sources from the fields of popular music studies, media studies and gender studies as well as interviews with and about Aguilera and biographies have been consulted.

This essay researches the prevalence of Gnostic influences in contemporary music lyrics, more exclusively within the context of the extreme metal scene. A resurgence of such topics has also been evident in contemporary music; not surprisingly, as music in general is part of the foundations of culture, and in a wider aspect, of society at large. The essay is performed using a hermeneutic method, interpreting music lyrics and discussing them from a background of cultural and religious theory. The purposes of researching the influences of Gnosticism in this environment are to determine the presence of Gnostic thought in extreme metal lyrics, research the eventual re-interpretations of historical sources of Gnosticism, and to discuss the acknowledged Gnostic influences in the displayed art form in a contemporary cultural perspective, related to cultural aspects such as secularization, modernity and globalization. Sources include music lyrics appropriate to the subject matter at hand as well as previously published interviews. The results of the investigation demonstrate that there are multiple interpretations of Gnostic thought apparent in extreme metal lyrics, varying from slight re-interpretations to more extensive ones, as apparent in what is identified as a chaos-gnostic current. The Gnostic material has in the latter scenario been integrated into an originally satanic worldview and as a result has become a major part of the chaos-gnostic belief system. The chaos-gnostic current has appeared in a highly secular surrounding, and the results of the essay propose that a secular surrounding can breed elements of trangression within individuals, leading to the resurgence of oppositional counter-cultural characteristics and an awakening of alternative spirituality with oppositional overtones.

In a paper which appeared two years ago, I outlined some of the main features of the contemporary taarab world in Zanzibar, which is undergoing great changes due to economic, social and cultural factors (Aiello Traoré 2004a). A recent development that I highlighted is the vanishing of women\'s taarab clubs. The greater participation of women within the groups of taarab asilia has strated, in my view, an interesting confrontation between the tendency of conversation of the codes which are identified as \"traditional\" and the innovations proposed by female members in music and performance, as well as in the production of lyrics, an area where many women are now regularly involved. I will concentrate my analysis on the taarab lyrics being composed by Zanzibari women, which are of great interest because of the variety of cultural and social backgrounds, themes, techniques and poetical sensitivities.

The thesis focuses on the object-describing lyrics written by Chou Chin-Chen and investigates the selection of ideas, analysis of images, and artistic characteristics. This thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 is divided into two sections. The first section introduces the research motivation, the research methods, and literature review. The second section studies the origin of object-describing lyrics to describe the relationship of objects and literature and to define the concept of object-describing lyrics. Chapter 2 indicates the formation background of Chou Chin-Chen¡¦s lyrics. The first section discusses the historical origin and litery development of object-describing lyrics in terms of different dynasties: Early Chin dynasty, The Han dynasty, and Wei-Jin Dynasty. In addition, the section further investigates the civil object-describing lyrics in Dunhuang and intellectuals¡¦ object-describing lyrics in early North Song Dynasty. The second section discusses the factors of writing with the respect of the social and cultural background and makes the list of Chou Chin-Chen¡¦s lyrics in order to compare the background influences and literature characteristics. Chapter 3 analyzes the content of Chou Chin-Chen¡¦s lyrics based on the definition made in the previous sections. The chapter discusses 32 lyrics to analyze the selection of ideas with six categories: season, plants, nature, appearance and time. There are two seasonal lyrics (lantern and Chongjiu festivals), ten plant lyrics (plum flowers, willows, pear, lotus, sweet-scented osmanthus, and apricot), seven nature lyrics (snow, moon, and spring rain). The discussion focuses on the image analysis including prototypes and trends and further investigates the historical backgrounds, content structures, writing skills and historical evaluations. Chapter 4 studies and compares Chou Chin-Chen¡¦s object-describing lyrics in terms of the artistic characteristics, rhetoric skills, language styles, and content structures. Chapter 5 describes the comments and influences of Chou Chin-Chen¡¦s object-describing lyrics. Chapter 6 concludes the achievement of Chou Chin-Chen¡¦s object-describing lyrics.

Pagrindinė darbo problema, inspiravusi temos pasirinkimą - poetės, vertėjos ir dramaturgės Aldonos Elenos Puišytės biografija ir kūryba, kuri nebuvo plačiau aptarta ir analizuota literatūrologų. Analizuojant autorės gyvenimo faktus buvo bandoma nustatyti, kokie asmeniniai ir istoriniai įvykiai turėjo įtakos jos pasaulėjautos formavimuisi ir kaip tai atsispindi poetės kūryboje. Remiantis jos išleistomis poezijos knygomis, esė, interviu su poete ir pasitelkus lietuvių literatūros kritikų straipsnius bei recenzijas, buvo pabandyta atskleisti jos kūrybos savitumą, išskirti bei apžvelgti poezijos žanrus ir dominuojančias temas. Siekiant išsiaiškinti A.E. Puišytės kūrybos savitumą ir išskirtinumą, pasidomėta religinės poezijos samprata lietuvių literatūroje ir nustatyta, jog poetės lyrika turi daug bruožų, leidžiančių ją priskirti prie religinės poezijos kūrėjų. Darbe išanalizuotas autorės santykis su laikmečio situacija ir filosofine mintimi. Siekiant išsiaiškinti poetės vietą lietuvių literatūros kontekste, buvo naudojamasi literatūros kritikų pasisakymais . Šis monografinio pobūdžio darbas, galėtų būti naudingas studijuojant vaikų, religinę poeziją bei lietuvių poemą, o poetės biografijos aspektai įdomūs ne tik literatūrologams, bet ir kitų mokslo sričių specialistams. / The main problem of thesis, which was got one’s inspiration - the biography and oeuvre of a poetess, interpreter and dramatist Aldona Elena Puisyte, which hasn’t been discussed and analyzed enlarge. Analyzing facts of the author’s public life I was trying to settle the personal and historical events which made influence to the author’s world-view and took place in the oeuvre. According to the author’s poetry books, the essay, the interview with the poetess and invoking Lithuanian reviewers’ appreciations I was trying to establish the author’s singularity, to overlook and mark poetry forms and dominant themes. Pursuing to find out the author’s singularity and oneness I attended to conceptions of religious poetry in Lithuanian literature, and established that the author’s lyrics has got lots of religious poetry elements. The author’s relations with the spirit of the age and philosophy have been analyzed in the thesis. Pursuing to discover the author’s place in the context of today’s Lithuanian literature I was using Lithuanian reviewers’ appreciations and outgivings. This monograph thesis could be useful studying an infant and religious poetry, Lithuanian poem and the author’s biography dimensions are compulsive not only for literary experts, but for other too.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether listening to music as an out-of-school activity, and English songs in particular, motivated a group of Swedish upper-secondary students to learn extramural English. One aspect that comes into focus is whether the students perceived that there were particular aspects of second language acquisition (SLA) that improved as a result of listening to music. The study focuses on the correlation between the needs of the listeners and the nature of their motivation for learning. This is a qualitative study based on the analysis of semi-structured interviews. The results show that all of the students perceived listening to music as an aid in their extramural English acquisition. A majority of the students had the intrinsic motivation for learning as they exhibited curiosity, emotions and internal needs as the primary factors that empowered them to expand their extramural English. The minority of the interviewees showed signs of extrinsic motivation to learn the vocabulary of the lyrics of the songs they listened to. The learning they experienced was linked to the expectancy in improving their academic performances. They may, however, have had a combination of the extrinsic and intrinsic forms of motivation where the former had a dominant position. In both cases the respondents showed awareness of the correlation between their extramural English acquisition and listening to vocal music. It is suggested that vocabulary acquisition was the primary aspect of language learning that benefited from listening to songs, followed by listening skills. The possibility to make their own choice to listen to music is linked to deep language learning, vocabulary learning in context and mastering listening skills.

Die Diplomarbeit \"Übersetzung moderner arabischer Lyrik am Beispiel der Songtexte von Arabic-Rock-Bands\" beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, wie man einen arabischen Rocksong so ins Deutsche übertragen kann, dass er genreintern so originalgetreu wie möglich nachspielbar bzw. nachsingbar ist. Als mögliche Herangehensweise an das Übersetzen von Songtexten im Allgemeinen und Texten arabischer Rockbands im Besonderen beleuchtet diese Arbeit einzelne Schritte und Aspekte des Songtextübersetzens und untersucht die stilistischen Mittel, die in den Songtexten von Rockbands Verwendung finden.

This thesis presents a new approach to the alterity of medieval texts in a psycho-literary analysis of the modes of consciousness informing one group of those texts, the Middle English religious lyrics. In a bilateral analysis, Part I establishes criteria for evaluating modes of ego and relates these criteria to what is known about medieval culture and mentality with examples from the lyrics; Part II examines textual evidence from these poems for indications of notions of the self and the way the self is experienced. The thesis argues that a major source of medieval alterity lies in the ready access in the Middle Ages to modes of consciousness comparable to that identified by the archetypal psychologist James Hillman as an imaginal ego. The imaging of various aspects of the self is surveyed: body-consciousness, modes of perception, and major self-awareness-enhancing experiences of life-suffering, woundedness, sickness, old age, and death. Hypnotic aspects of the lyrics are found to be particularly significant in maintaining this consciousness. (For complete abstract open document)

This research aims to offer an original reconstruction of Aristotle’s psychology of music that explains his views on the relation between instrumental music and emotions. I argue that, contrary to the relevant scholarship, for Aristotle instrumental music cannot convey emotions to the listener. What instrumental music does, I claim, is to cause an objectless mood or disposition (διάθεσις) that “prepares the way” (προοδοποιεῖν) for the emotions. Most interpreters of Politics VIII (1340a12-29) argue that for Aristotle a piece of instrumental music would be able to represent emotions and the listener would be moved to the same emotion by a sort of sympathetic contagion. However, this interpretation is inconsistent with Aristotle’s account of emotions. For Aristotle a necessary condition for the emotions is that those experiencing them “judge” (κρίνειν) a situation based on their beliefs. If it is accepted that there is such a thing as an emotional contagion through music, then the cognitive theory of emotion presented by Aristotle is at risk since no such a judgment would be required. The thesis is presented in three chapters. In chapter one the cognitive elements that give rise to emotions are analysed. The nature of the term παθή is explored as well as the difference between its use as a ‘general affection’ and its use as the mental process that we now call ‘emotion.’ In this latter sense the emotions are mental states directed to an object on which a judgment is made and that are accompanied by pain or pleasure. The nature of the emotional judgment is investigated and the possibility of its existence in non-rational animals is explored. It is concluded that, even if we accept emotions in animals, intentionality and predication of an object are necessary conditions for the existence of emotions. In the second chapter, I discuss two instances where it seems Aristotle makes an exception to the judgment as necessary condition for the emotions. First, emotions aroused by the perception of signs of emotions, like the mere voice of the orator (Rhet. 1408a16-26) and the spectacle in the theatre (Poet. 1453b1-10) and second, emotions aroused by bodily changes (De an. 403a25). I argue that in Aristotle’s view in both cases the factors at work (voice, sight, bodily condition) only facilitate the arousal of emotions, but the actual arousal requires an additional narrative context that supplies grounds for the judgment that in turn gives rise to the emotion in question. In the first case the orator’s voice and the theatre’s spectacle work just as a condiment (ἥδυσμα) that helps to intensify (συναπεργάζεσθαι) the object of judgment (Pol. 1340b17; Poet. 1449b25; 1450b16; Rhet. 1386a31). Our emotional response has as its object their story, not the elements that decorate it. In the second case, the bodily changes are the material constituents of emotions; facilitate the generation of emotions: hotness around the heart, for example, makes the subject prone to anger; but the emotion of anger appears only after a particular situation is evaluated by the mind. In the third chapter, I turn to the specific case of music. From an exegesis of Pol. 1340a12-29, I argue that the emotions ostensibly transmitted by music (μουσική) to the listener are due to the lyrics of the songs (μέλη), not to the instrumental music itself. Therefore the question about the nature of the emotional effect of pure instrumental music remains open. My answer to this question is based on the analysis of the causal mechanism by means of which instrumental music affects the listener. Aristotle’s physiology reveals the physical impact of sound on the sense of hearing, and from there to the heart, the first sensorium. Bodily changes in the organ create an objectless disposition (διάθεσις) in the listener by relaxing or agitating his body, without providing any content for the mind besides the perception of the sound. Exciting or relaxing the heart by means of music would leave the listener in the disposition of readiness to react emotionally, but the emotion would appear only once an intentional object, i.e., the content of the emotion, is presented and evaluated by the mind. Finally, I show the relevance of my interpretation of these dispositions to understanding the role of emotions in the education of character in the Politics. Aristotle proposes to use only a certain type of music in his educational curriculum, not one too relaxed or too tense, but a middle between them that puts the students in a stable and noble disposition that would, in turn, lead them to be guided by reason instead of their emotions.