Wake Me Up When September Ends - Analysis
- Ved Sanyal
- Mar 14, 2021
- 4 min read
Introduction
Album - American Idiot
“Wake me up when September ends” is one of the hit songs from Green
Day’s album “American Idiot”. The album released in 2005. Its songs revolve
around the life of a teenage boy “Jesus of Suburbia”. The song is a retaliation
against the government's decisions like participating in the Iraq war. It is also
an effect of other events at the time like 9/11.
Song - Wake Me Up When September Ends
This song was inspired by the death of the father of band frontman Billie
Armstrong who died of cancer when Billie was 10. The obvious theme of the
song is loss. The song was released after a series of events including a major
Hurricane called Katrina. This is where the name was born. The hurricane
struck in the first few days of September. Thus, the narrator is begging for
the troubles to be over (September as a month is a metaphor).
The song became a symbol for all the hardships of the American public.
The music video of the song shows a couple that is broken when the boyfriend
signs up for the Iraq war. He repeatedly states that “the innocent can never
last”. This is an appeal to the government to respect the public and repair
the country.
Elements (Music)
Duration
The song is slow in nature. This emphasizes the feeling of sadness. This is
because slow movements are often related to somber and sadness in our minds.
The song is in the time signature of 4 4. It is a relatively long song (4 mins,
45 seconds). While there is a lot of repetition in the music, this duration
allows for the song to develop. As the song is moving through a multitude
of emotions and is developing, the duration aids this process.
Dynamics
The melody is playing throughout the song, it is on a moderate to low volume
level. This is because the lyrics are emphasized in the song. Like many
protest songs, the lyrics are the medium to spread messages, thus they are
at the highest level.
When the chords start playing for the first time, both the drums and the
chords increase in volume progressively. This has a direct relation to the
chorus. I believe that this depicts the anger and frustration of all the events
that the song is protesting about. The progressive increase in volume could
also show patience. How the narrator has waited to what metaphorically says
“sleep through September”. If we were to analyze the dynamics
this way. We could say that the narrator goes from being sad and appeal
ling to the heart, to getting slightly irritated, to frustrated beyond the level.
This modulation in volume is evident throughout the song.
Harmony
Like I mentioned above, I believe the harmony/ chords bring the emotions of
anger and frustration to the song. Moreover, the Harmony plays an important
role in keeping the audience hooked to the song. The chord progression
is an attractive set. I also believe that the harmony helps smoothen the
transitions in the song itself.
Melody
The melody is played throughout the song. I believe the melody helps giving
the song an identity. This certainly helped give it an identity as a protest
song and unit people with the same perspective. The melody is also the
primary hook of the song.
The melody is also a slightly sad one in my opinion. So, its repetition as
the “theme of the music” has helped reinforce that emotion.
Structure
The song has a very distinct structure to it. I believe that this shows progression
in the emotions as well as the story. If one were to look at the
music video carefully, that shows the stages of a person's life and how it was
destroyed because of events that the song is protesting about. I believe that
the organization in that specific way was intentional.
Another thing that I observed was that there is very limited variation
in the lyrics. There are namely 3 different verses. I think this is because
the chorus was very deep to the songwriter and thus there is an evident
repetition.
To be precise, the structure is.
Intro
Chorus
Verse 1
Pre-Chorus
Bridge
Chorus
Verse 2
Pre-Chorus
Guitar Solo & Bridge
Chorus
Verse 3
Texture
In slight variation to other songs of the band, this song does not have a very
thick texture. I believe this goes back to the inspiration of the song, the
feeling of loss, and the deep sadness. There are very few instruments.
The acoustic guitar plays the melody throughout. Using this instrument
gives it a slightly different feel (I’ll be exploring that in the next section).
The electric guitar plays the chords with slight hints of metal and distortion.
The bass plays the bass line to add depth to the song.
The drums play the beat to the song.
Timbre
Unlike most Green Day songs, this one has very limited effects on the electric
guitar, however, there is still a touch of metal to the guitars that are playing
the chords. Interestingly, the melody is played on an acoustic, I believe that
this was done because acoustic guitars have somewhat of a “soft” feel to them
and that goes well with the theme of the song.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to say that the song has a lot of aspects that
one wouldn’t realize when they listen to the song for the first time. I also
believe that this song was created and remains to be a symbol of sadness and
dealing with tragedies. Many times, I personally listen to this song when I
am feeling low. I feel that it has a brilliant way of transforming you from
sad to energetic which motivates you to “wake up” and fix the problem. The
song also reminds me how short 5 minutes is, that’s how good the song is.
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