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Discourse Analysis of a Song Lyric Entitled "We Will Not Go Down”

Article · September 2016

DOI: 10.18326/rgt.v9i1.524

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Discourse Analysis of a Song Lyric Entitled "We Will Not
Go Down”

Faizal Risdianto
IAIN Salatiga
[email protected]

Abstract

This library research aimed at finding the three aspect of discourse

analysis: contextual, grammatical and lexical aspect of Michael
Heart’s song lyrics entitled “We will not go down (Song for Gaza).
After analysis it can be found that the life experience and background
of the song writer and singer is closely related to the idea proposes
within the song lyrics. Whereas, the result of the grammatical and
lexical analysis gives a depiction of cohesion and coherence of the
song discourse of “We will not Go Down (Song for Gaza)”. There are
eight (8) forms of first plural personal pronoun of “We”, four (4)
second plural personal pronoun of ‘You” and seven (7) third personal
pronouns in various forms. On the other side, it is difficult to find
lexical aspects of this song discourse. There is only one form of
anaphoric repetition. The repetition of the sentence “We Will Not Go
Down” seven times is to influence the hearers whether they are
supporters or opponents of the idea brought by the singer/the author
that whatever happens Palestinian people will not surrender to every
force, nation or people that want to colonialize them.

Key words: Discourse analysis, Song for Gaza, Palestinian people.

Abstrak

Riset pustaka ini bertujuan untuk menemukan tiga aspek analisis

wacana: kontekstual, gramatikal dan leksikal dalam lirik lagu berjudul
“We will not go Down (Song for Gaza)” karya Michael Heart. Setelah

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Discourse Analysis of a Song Lyric Entitled "We Will Not Go Down”

diadakan analisis dapat diketahui bahwa pengalaman dan latar

belakang kehidupan seorang penulis and penyanyi lagu sangat
berkaitan dengan ide yang dikemukakan dalam lirik lagu tersebut.
Sedangkan hasil analisis gramatikal dan leksikal memberi gambaran
adanya kohesi dan koherensi dalam lirik lagu. Terdapat delapan (8)
bentuk pronomina pertama jamak, empat (4) pronominal kedua jamak
dan tujuh (7) pronominal ketiga dalam bentuk yang bervariasi. Di sisi
yang lain, sulit menemukan aspek leksikal dalam wacana lagu. Hanya
ada satu bentuk repetisi anaforis. Pengulangan tujuh kali kalimat “We
will not go down” dimaksudkan untuk mempengaruhi pendengar
entah mereka mendukung atau menentang ide yang dikemukakan
penulis atau penyanyi lagu bahwa apapun yang terjadi orang Palestina
tidak akan menyerah kepada kekuatan, bangsa atau orang yang ingin
menjajah mereka.

Kata kunci: Analisis Wacana, Lagu untuk Gaza, Orang Palestina.

Introduction

Human is social living being, who always need company in

their life. It is hard to imagine that they should live alone without
anyone to accompany them. They always need others in order to
facilitate their efforts to provide themselves with their necessities of
life. To carry out the cooperation among others, they need a means of
communication, which is called ‘language’.

Hornby (1992:62) defines that language is a system of sounds

and words used by humans to express their thoughts and feelings.
Other definition is given by Carrol as quoted by Ramelan that
language is an arbitrary system of sounds or sequences of speech
sounds which is used or can be used to interpersonal communication
(Ramelan, 1992:10). In other words, it can be said that language is a
system of sounds used as a means to communicate human’s feelings

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 Faizal Risdianto

and thoughts with others. Ramelan states that the use of language
enables the members of a social group to cooperate with one another
for their own benefits .Regarding the use of language, the writer can
say that the role of language is very important in human life as a
means to communicate ideas, feelings and desires among individuals
as the part of social community. By the use of language, we can
communicate and express our ideas, our feeling and also share
information with other people. One way to communicate with
language is by the use of music.

The word “music” was derived from Greek word “mousike”

taken from the name of God which led the world of art and science.
The primary subject matters of music are feelings and sounds. These
imply that the content of music is a revelation of feelings and sounds
and that music gives us more sensitive understanding of them.
According to Webster (1983:781) “music is the science of art ordering
tones or sounds in succession, in combination and in temporal
relationship to produce a composition having unity and continuity as
well as rhythm, melody, and harmony as its elements”. Greek
philosophers and ancient Indian philosophers defined music as tones
ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies.

M. Stubbs' textbook (Stubbs 1983:1), discourse analysis is

defined as:
a) concerned with language use beyond the boundaries of a
sentence/utterance,
b) Concerned with the interrelationships between language
and society and

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Discourse Analysis of a Song Lyric Entitled "We Will Not Go Down”

c) Concerned with the interactive or dialogic properties of

everyday communication.
Discourse analysis is how texts relate to contexts of situation
and context of culture, how texts are produced as a social practice,
what texts tell us about happenings, what people think, believe etc.,
and how texts represent ideology (power struggle etc.) In this study,
the writer will focus on the implication meanings of the Michael
Heart’s song lyric entitled “We will not Go Down (Song for Gaza)”.

Michael Heart (born Annas Allaf ‎ ) is a Syrian American

singer-songwriter, recording artist, guitarist, producer and audio
engineer based in Los Angeles, CA. He was born in Syria and raised
in Europe (Switzerland and Austria) and the United States. In January
2009, he composed and released a song in support of the Palestinian
civilian victims of the Israeli war in Gaza. The song is called "We
Will Not Go Down (Song for Gaza)" and gained popularity on sites
like YouTube. The official YouTube video of the song was viewed
over 1 million times within a month of its release; the recording of the
song was broadcast on radio and television in many countries along
with blogs and websites worldwide and it was chanted in many
demonstrations in cities ranging from Sydney, Australia to London,
England. The Palestine Argentine Delegation Embassy website also
put the song with lyrics on its page.

Heart initially made the mp3 of the song freely downloadable

from his official website, which he reports has been downloaded over
500,000 times, encouraging the listeners to make a donation to United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near

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 Faizal Risdianto

East (UNRWA). After incessant emails from people asking why the
song hadn't been made available on iTunes, he finally uploaded it to
the Apple music site in July 2010.

There are many people who like to listen to this song, but they
don’t really know the true meaning of this song, especially in
Indonesia. So the writer specifies the problem through the following
question: What are the contextual, grammatical and lexical aspect of
the song lyrics entitled “We Will not Go Down” by Michael Heart?.
It is hoped that after reading this paper, the readers can be able to
know the true meaning of this song, so they not just able to sing it and
listen to it, but they can also understand it.

Research Methodology

In conducting this study, the writer used the qualitative

approach which means that the data were analyzed qualitatively. Berg
(1989:2) states that “quality refers to the what, how, when, and where
of a thing-its essence and ambience. Qualitative research thus refers to
the meanings, concepts, definitions, characteristics, metaphors,
symbols, and description of things.” The data in this study is in the
form of paraphrasing the song lyrics of We Will not Go Down by
Michael Heart. There are two kinds of data in this research: main or
primary data and secondary data.

The main data was taken from Michael Heart’s song entitled
“We Will not Go Down (Song for Gaza)”. The secondary data were
taken from the relevant sources from the internet that may support the
analysis and find the answer from the problems.

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Discourse Analysis of a Song Lyric Entitled "We Will Not Go Down”

The procedure of collecting the data in this study was divided

into several steps: (1) Reading - In the first step, the writer will read
and re-read and also listen to the song in order to get the meaning and
the feeling. (2) Analyzing - Next is analyzing the words which need
to be explained to find the meaning. (3) Reporting - The data which
had been analyzed will be drawn in the form of conclusion by
paraphrasing the song based on the implicated meaning.

The theme of the song is about the struggle of the Moslems

against the Zionist Israel’s army. People of Palestine still do not want
to give up even though Israel has destroyed homes, schools and
mosques of the Moslems. The Israel’s army has killed so many people
of Palestine. So many women and children killed in the war. However,
the Muslims still want to fight with Israel’s army.

Discussion & Finding

Text might be said that the term of the text is restricted to

written language. Modern linguistics has introduced the concept of
text that includes every type of utterance. For examples, text may be a
magazine article, a television interview, a conversation or a cooking
recipe. Besides that, according to De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981),
text is defined as communicative events which have seven criteria;
there are: cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability,
informative, situational, and textual.

The term of discourse is restricted to spoken language.

Discourse is influenced by contexts of situation and context of culture,
how texts are produced as a social practice, what texts tell us about

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 Faizal Risdianto

happenings, what people think, believe etc., and how texts represent
ideology (power struggle etc.). Discourse competence refers to the
selection, sequencing, and arrangement of words, structures, and
utterances to achieve a unified in spoken. This is where the top-down
communicative intent and socio-cultural knowledge intersect with the
lexical and grammatical resources to express message and attitudes
and to create coherent texts.

Lyrics (in singular form Lyric) are a set of words that make up
a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics
can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost
unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form,
articulation, meter, and symmetry of expression. The lyricist of
traditional musical forms such as Opera is known as a librettist.

Lyric derives from the Greek word lyrikos, meaning "singing

to the lyre". The word lyric came to be used for the "words of a song";
this meaning was recorded in 1876. The common plural (perhaps
because of the association between the plurals lyrics and words),
predominates contemporary usage. Use of the singular form lyric
remains grammatically acceptable, yet remains considered erroneous
in referring to a singular song word as a lyric.

Lyrics can be studied from an academic perspective. For

example, some lyrics can be considered a form of social commentary.
Lyrics often contain political, social and economic themes as well as
aesthetic elements, and so can connote messages which are culturally

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Discourse Analysis of a Song Lyric Entitled "We Will Not Go Down”

significant. These messages can either be explicit or implied through

metaphor or symbolism.

Contextual and Inferential Analysis

There are several contexts within this analysis that is socio-

cultural and situational contexts. Based on this contextual analysis
then it will be explained about inferential aspect.

Socio-Cultural contexts

The comprehension of cultural and social context can be

developed through the understanding of external context analysis of a
discourse (Sumarlam, 2003:5). In this case, it can be observed the
cultural and social context by trying to find out the background of the
making of the song lyrics. Reading articles from websites and blogs it
can be known that during the war in Gaza, Michael Heart wrote a
humanitarian song entitled “We will not Go Gown (Song for Gaza)”
in January 2009. It is written in order to support of the Palestinians
victims from the Israeli Aggression.

The song was very well-known in all over the world because it
is spread as a free MP3 which means it can be downloaded without
any charge. It has been downloaded by over half a million people
from the official websites and not yet counted from other web-sites.
More than 500 new clips have been made with “We Will Not Go
Down” by people all over the world, and thousands of websites have
uploaded the clip and posted the lyrics. As the first release, the official
video on YouTube has viewed by over one million people within the

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 Faizal Risdianto

first month. And the appreciations of the song are very high since the
statistic shows that over 10,000 e-mails, comments, and messages are
sent to respond this song. The protest towards Palestinians victims
can be seen from these lines of song lyrics:

(1) A blinding flash of white light

(2) Lit up the sky over Gaza tonight
(3) People running for cover
(4) Not knowing whether they're dead or alive

(5) They came with their tanks and their planes

(6) With ravaging fiery flames
(7) And nothing remains
(8) Just a voice rising up in the smoky haze

(9) We will not go down

(10) In the night, without a fight
(11) You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
(12) But our spirit will never die
(13) We will not go down
(14) In Gaza tonight

(15) Women and children alike

(16) Murdered and massacred night after night
(17) While the so-called leaders of countries afar
(18) Debated on whose wrong or right

(19) But their powerless words were in vain

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Discourse Analysis of a Song Lyric Entitled "We Will Not Go Down”

(20) And the bombs fell down like acid rain

(21) But through the tears and the blood and the pain
(22) You can still hear that voice through the smoky haze

(23) We will not go down

(24) In the night, without a fight
(25) You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
(26) But our spirit will never die
(27) We will not go down
(28) In Gaza tonight

(29) We will not go down

(30) In the night, without a fight
(31) You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
(32) But our spirit will never die
(33) We will not go down
(34) In the night, without a fight
(35) We will not go down
(36) In Gaza tonight

In addition, the song has also been translated into a dozen

languages and subtitled on numerous clips. Besides his popularity
achieved from the song, he also received some critiques. The first, of
course, comes from the Israeli politician because they would get the
disadvantages from it. Besides that, many people also claimed that
Heart is a follower of any particular religion. Therefore, to encounter
that, Heart explained that the song has nothing to do with religion. It is

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 Faizal Risdianto

only a humanitarian song in nature. Based on the above explanation, it

can be drawn to the conclusion that how phenomenal this song so it
can gain many respects, responds, or claims from many people around
the world.

Situational Context

Situational context consists of physical, epistemic, social

context with personal, locational and temporal analogical
interpretation principle:

a. Physical context. These are some aspects of physical

context and its analysis.
(1) Based on locational interpretation, the real situation which
is expressed in this song lyric is in chaotic area of Gaza,
Palestine and the far away countries neglecting the
suffering of Palestinian people.
(2) The topic of conversation is the voice and steadfastness of
Palestinian people facing the dreadful terror of Israeli
murdered and massacred Palestinian people for years.
b. Epistemic Context

Based on epistemic context, it can be assumed that there is

a common understanding between the speaker/the writer of
song lyrics and the hearer/the reader about the bittering truth
and evidence of the misery of Palestinian people particularly in
the area of Gaza and the importance of establishing world’s
peace.

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Discourse Analysis of a Song Lyric Entitled "We Will Not Go Down”

c. Social context

In the perspective of participant’s activeness, this discourse

can be categorized as a monologue discourse (Baryadi,
2002:10). This discourse does not involve the hearer who can
turn as the hearer treats in this discourse remains to be the
hearer.

The interpretation about the hearer in social context can be

viewed by analyzing the speeches of the speaker. The misery
or the suffering of Palestinian Gaza is the saddening problem
that worries the speaker so much. It is a naked truth that the
more powerful terrorizing, murdering and destroying the weak
without any accepted rational and humanistic consideration for
normal healthy-minded people. In Social life this is a shameful
thing and a dreadful violation of human rights.

Grammatical Aspect analysis

Grammatical aspect analysis in discourse analysis consists of

reference, substitution, elliptical aspect, and conjunction. These are
some grammatical aspect found in the analysis of song lyrics of “We
will not Go Down (Song for Gaza)”.

1. Reference
a. Personal Reference

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 Faizal Risdianto

First personal reference found in song lyrics of “We will

not Go Down (Song for Gaza) can be viewed in line of these
verses below:

(9) We will not go down

(13) We will not go down
(23) We will not go down
(27) We will not go down
(29) We will not go down
(33) We will not go down
(35) We will not go down
The element of “We” in line (9), (13), (23), (27), (29), (33)
and (35) is the first plural personal pronoun reference. In this
case, the element of “We” refers to the voice of Palestinian
Gaza and for everyone who support the struggle of Palestinian
people to achieve their independence from the annexation of
Israel.

The second personal reference in this song can be seen in

line of these verses:

(11) You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our
schools
(22) You can still hear that voice through the smoky haze
(25) You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our
schools
(31) You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our
schools

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Discourse Analysis of a Song Lyric Entitled "We Will Not Go Down”

All the elements of “You” in line (11), (22), (25) and

(31) refer to the hearer. The use of the word “You” here refer
to plural personal pronoun reference.
The third personal reference in this song can be seen in
line of these verses:
(1) A blinding flash of white light
(3) People running for cover
(5) They came with their tanks and their planes
(8) Just a voice rising up in the smoky haze
(15) Women and children alike
(17) While the so-called leaders of countries afar
(19) But their powerless words were in vain
(20) And the bombs fell down like acid rain

All the elements of “A blinding flash of white light” in

line (1), “People” in line (3), “They” in line (5), “A voice” in
line (8), “Women and children” in line (15), “Leaders of
countries afar” in line (17), “Powerless words” in line (19) and
“the bombs” in line (20) refer to the third personal pronoun
reference. All of them consist of two category: the plural third
personal pronoun like “People”, “They”, “Women and
children”, “leaders of countries afar”, “powerless words” and
“the bombs” and there are only two data of singular third
personal pronoun found in the song lyrics “A blinding flash of
white light” in line (1) and “A voice” in line (8).

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 Faizal Risdianto

b. Demonstrative reference
Demonstrative reference is easily marked by the use of the
forms of “this”, “that”, “these”, and “those” and there is only one
data can be found in the song lyrics:

(22) You can still hear that voice through the smoky haze

The use of “that” on the phrase “that voice” refers to the voice of
freedom in the mind of Palestinian People.

2. Substitution

Substitution is the replacement of particular element which refers

to the same realities (Sumarlam, 2003: 28).

This substitution can be seen in the line of verses below:

(3) People running for cover

(4) Not knowing whether they're dead or alive
(8) Just a voice rising up in the smoky haze
(19) But their powerless words were in vain

The word “They” in line (4), “a voice” in line (8), “their” in

line (19) refer to Palestinian people that is simply wrote by the
song writer as “people” in line (3).

3. Elliptical aspect

Elliptical grammatical aspect can be viewed below:

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Discourse Analysis of a Song Lyric Entitled "We Will Not Go Down”

(3) People Ørunning for cover

(4) Not knowing whether theyØ're dead or alive
(8) Just a voice Ørising up in the smoky haze
(21) But through the tears and the blood and the painØ.
(22) You can still hear that voiceØ through the smoky haze
The actual grammatical construction is:
(3) People (of Palestine are) running for cover
(4) Not knowing whether they (are) dead or alive
(8) Just a voice (which is) rising up in the smoky haze
(21) But through the tears and the blood and the pain (of
Palestinian)
(22) You can still hear that voice (of Palestinian) through
the smoky haze

4. Conjunction

There are some elements of conjunction which can be found in

the song lyrics “We will not Go Down (Song for Gaza)”:

(4) Not knowing whether they're dead or alive

(5) They came with their tanks and their planes
(7) And nothing remains
(11) You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our
schools
(15) Women and children alike
(16) Murdered and massacred night after night
(19) But their powerless words were in vain
(20) And the bombs fell down like acid rain

154
 Faizal Risdianto

(21) But through the tears and the blood and the pain
(25) You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our
schools
(26) But our spirit will never die
(31) You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our
schools
(32) But our spirit will never die
There are 11 forms of conjunction “And” in line (5), (7), (11),
(15), (16), (20), (21), (25) and (31) whereas there are four (4) forms of
conjunction “but” in line (19), (21), (26) and (32). There is only one
data of the form of conjunction “or” in line (4).

Lexical Aspect Analysis

Lexical aspect used in this discourse to support cohesion and

coherence in semantic perspective. There are some lexical aspects in
the song lyrics “We will not Go Down (Song for Gaza)”.

1. Repetition

The terminology used in this repetition refers to the

terminology used by Gorys Keraf (in Sumarlam, 2003:35). In this
discourse there is only one form of repetition that is anaphoric
repetition. Anaphoric repetition is the repetition of lingual
constituent in a form of word or the initial phrase on every verse
or subsequent sentence. The sentence “We will not go down in line
(9) is repeated in the sentence in line (13). And it is also repeated
without change in line (13), (23), (27), (29), (33) and (35).

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Discourse Analysis of a Song Lyric Entitled "We Will Not Go Down”

(9) We will not go down

(13) We will not go down
(23) We will not go down
(27) We will not go down
(29) We will not go down
(33) We will not go down
(35) We will not go down

The objective of the repetition of the sentence “We will not

go down” seven times is to influence the hearers whether they are
supporters or opponents of the idea brought by the singer/the author
that whatever happens Palestinian people will not surrender to every
force, nation or people that want to destroy and take the legacy of their
ancestors. The Israeli may burn up Palestinian mosques, homes and
schools but they cannot destroy their zeal or enthusiasm to fight
against the enemies or colonialists.

2. Synonymy

Synonymy can be found in these verses:

(1) A blinding flash of white light

(20) And the bombs fell down like acid rain

In the first line of the song lyrics there is a phrase “a blinding

flash of white light” which has a synonymic relation to the phrase “the
bombs” in 20th line.
Conclusion

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 Faizal Risdianto

The song lyrics “We will not Go Down (Song for Gaza) has
been analyzed based on the aspects of discourse analysis. Contextual
aspect illustrates a vivid picture of song lyric reality and song writer’s
reality. Many efforts had been made to comprehend contextual aspects.
One of them is investigating the background and the life experience of
the song lyric author and singer and then it is connected to the
speeches of the verses or lines produced in the song lyrics. Music
news from internet gives great contribution to the understanding of the
contextual meaning and analysis.

The result of the grammatical and lexical aspect gives a

depiction of cohesion and coherence of the song discourse of “We will
not Go Down (Song for Gaza)”. It can be seen that there are eight (8)
forms of first plural personal pronoun of “We”, four (4) second plural
personal pronoun of ‘You” and seven (7) third personal pronoun in
various forms like the elements of “A blinding flash of white
light” ,“People” ,“They” ,“A voice” ,“Women and children”, “Leaders
of countries afar”, “Powerless words” and “the bombs”.

On the other side, it is difficult to find lexical aspects of this

song discourse. There is only one form of anaphoric repetition. It is
the repetition of the sentence “We Will Not Go Down” seven times is
to influence the hearers whether they are supporters or opponents of
the idea brought by the singer/the author that whatever happens
Palestinian people will not surrender to every force, nation or people
that want to destroy and take the legacy of their ancestors.

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 Discourse Analysis of a Song Lyric Entitled "We Will Not Go Down”

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