User:Magbatz/Album Themes

We created a list of what seemed to be the common threads between songs and compiled the themes that John and John return to over and over, consciously or not, and have the theme pages to show the results.

I want to see if there's anything to learn from taking this "data" and seeing which themes actually come up the most and in what ways - specifically on an album-by-album basis. I'll admit I don't know if it will be worthwhile or enlightening to see how albums vary in thematic concentration, but lucky for me, I'm bored enough to find out anyway. I'm sure there will be a bunch of stuff to sort through once I actually get the "data" and try to make something of it, but whatever.

Just now I did this for the Pink Album just to see if this is worth doing, and happily some of it actually makes sense - I'd expect on this release from my own feelings on the album for there to be a good amount of songs referencing the music industry, and sure enough there's a good amount of songs listed under music and References To Other Songs Or Musicians. Anyway, I'll stop talking because I really just wanted this page as a sandbox to look at the junk:

They Might Be Giants (1986)

• 10 - Transportation
• 9 - Animals
• 7 - Tongue-Twisters
• 7 - Questions
• 6 - References To Other Songs Or Musicians
• 6 - Music
• 5 - Telephony
• 5 - Self-Reference
• 5 - Occupations
• 5 - Oblique Cliches Or Idiom
• 5 - I Am
• 5 - Death
• 5 - Clothes
• 4 - Size
• 4 - Oxymorons, Paradoxes, And Contradictory Statements
• 4 - Long, Long
• 3 - School
• 3 - Recycled Material
• 3 - People (Imaginary)
• 3 - Money
• 3 - Me
• 3 - Love
• 3 - Loneliness
• 3 - Kingdom Of Loathing Reference
• 3 - Guy Songs
• 3 - Games
• 3 - Doors
• 3 - Cartoons
• 2 - Zombies Or The Undead
• 2 - TV And Movie Themes
• 2 - Title Not In Lyrics
• 2 - Talking, Not Singing
• 2 - Songs With Handclaps
• 2 - Sleep
• 2 - Sailing
• 2 - Religion
• 2 - Relatives
• 2 - Nonsense Words
• 2 - No
• 2 - Medical
• 2 - Love Gone Sour
• 2 - Letters Of The Alphabet
• 2 - Heads
• 2 - Funny But Sad
• 2 - Children
• 1 - Windows
• 1 - Weather
• 1 - War, Military
• 1 - Trade Names
• 1 - Titles And Honorifics
• 1 - Tableware
• 1 - Swear Words
• 1 - Streets
• 1 - Sea
• 1 - Rhymes
• 1 - Reading
• 1 - Puppets
• 1 - Presidents
• 1 - Precious Metal
• 1 - Poetry
• 1 - Plans
• 1 - People (Real)
• 1 - Paranoia
• 1 - Not In Common Time
• 1 - Non-John Vocals
• 1 - Movies
• 1 - Misanthropy
• 1 - Mind Control, Hypnotism
• 1 - Mathematics
• 1 - Lies, Deception
• 1 - Language
• 1 - I've Got A
• 1 - Intelligence, Espionage
• 1 - Insects
• 1 - Hotels
• 1 - Hotel Detective Series
• 1 - Gratitude
• 1 - Gleeful Irreverence
• 1 - Gender Issues
• 1 - Forgetting, Remembering
• 1 - Food
• 1 - Fire
• 1 - Falling
• 1 - Drums
• 1 - Drinking
• 1 - Dreams
• 1 - Criminal Activities
• 1 - Creative Drought
• 1 - Counting
• 1 - Colors
• 1 - Body Parts
• 1 - Bodily Mutilation
• 1 - Bad English
• 1 - Backwards
• 1 - Aversion To Work
• 1 - Ads
• 1 - A Capella
• 1 - 1964 World's Fair

Things to Consider:

• Not sure yet what I'll do with the single-themed listings (probably just chop em off)
• Maybe I'll group together those themes that have more in common (again, Music and Music Reference; Occupations and Aversion to Work)
• What to do with the non-thematic themes (KOL Reference)?
• Oh and I'll probably want to have a listing of which 10 songs have Transportation, etc.
• Should I be doing something special with things like Recycled Material and Self-Reference - in which each item might not be treated the same (in S-E, we group together songs referencing themselves as well as songs referencing TMBG; in Recycled Material there's a big difference between a song that was cannibalized later and a song that's recycling another).
• Should considerations as "central themes" be weighted differently from mere mentions of something in a song? (I'm guessing the big occurrence of Transportation just has a lot of little mentions)
• To what degree will I be changing this from a nice, data-oriented survey of song themes to a personal qualitative study of album themes if I begin tweaking such aspects to make things feel like they "fit" more?

Lincoln (1988)

• 6 - Telephony, Telegraphy (5 Telephony, 1 Telegraphy)
• 6 - Questions
• 5 - Size
• 5 - Me
• 5 - Death
• 5 - Colors
• 5 - Body Parts
• 4 - Transportation
• 4 - Trade Names
• 4 - Love
• 4 - Love Gone Sour
• 4 - Kingdom Of Loathing Reference
• 4 - I Am
• 4 - Friendship
• 4 - Clothes
• 3 - Weather
• 3 - Tongue-Twisters
• 3 - References To Other Songs Or Musicians
• 3 - Real Estate
• 3 - People (Imaginary)
• 3 - Oxymorons, Paradoxes, And Contradictory Statements
• 3 - Oblique Cliches Or Idiom
• 3 - Music
• 3 - Mind Control, Hypnotism
• 3 - Heads
• 3 - Criminal Activities
• 3 - Coffee
• 3 - Cities
• 3 - Animals
• 2 - Upside-Down
• 2 - Spanish
• 2 - Sadness
• 2 - Rhymes
• 2 - Religion
• 2 - Recursion
• 2 - Problems with Liner Notes
• 2 - Occupations
• 2 - Money
• 2 - Misanthropy
• 2 - Loneliness
• 2 - Lies, Deception
• 2 - In Back
• 2 - Holidays
• 2 - Gleeful Irreverence
• 2 - Furniture
• 2 - Funny But Sad
• 2 - Fire
• 2 - Egoism And Pretentiousness
• 2 - Drugs
• 2 - Drinking
• 2 - Aversion To Work
• 2 - Artificial Body Parts
• 2 - Addiction, Compulsion
• 2 - 1964 World's Fair
• 1 - Windows
• 1 - Water
• 1 - War, Military
• 1 - Trees And Other Plants
• 1 - Titles And Honorifics
• 1 - Title Not In Lyrics
• 1 - Talking, Not Singing
• 1 - Tableware
• 1 - Swear Words
• 1 - Swapped Vocals
• 1 - Streets
• 1 - Space
• 1 - Songs With Samples
• 1 - Sleep
• 1 - Self-Reference
• 1 - Sea
• 1 - Screaming
• 1 - Science
• 1 - Sailing
• 1 - Recycled Material
• 1 - Presidents
• 1 - Precious Metal
• 1 - People (Real)
• 1 - Paranoia
• 1 - Not In Common Time
• 1 - Nonsense Words
• 1 - Non-John Vocals
• 1 - Mathematics
• 1 - Jail And Imprisonment
• 1 - I've Got A
• 1 - History
• 1 - Hair
• 1 - Guy Songs
• 1 - Geography
• 1 - Forgetting, Remembering
• 1 - Food
• 1 - Epistolary Songs
• 1 - Dreams
• 1 - Bad English
• 1 - Backwards
• 1 - Age

Flood (1990)

• 10 - Questions
• 7 - Heads
• 6 - Size
• 5 - Problems With Liner Notes
• 5 - Oblique Cliches Or Idiom
• 5 - Kingdom Of Loathing Reference
• 4 - Tongue-Twisters
• 4 - Religion, Supernatural
• 4 - Love
• 4 - Friendship
• 4 - Death
• 3 - Weather
• 3 - Water
• 3 - Title Not In Lyrics
• 3 - Self-Reference
• 3 - References To Other Songs Or Musicians
• 3 - Recycled Material
• 3 - Oxymorons, Paradoxes, And Contradictory Statements
• 3 - Occupations
• 3 - Not In Common Time
• 3 - Jail And Imprisonment
• 3 - I Am
• 3 - Forgetting, Remembering
• 3 - Food
• 3 - Drinking
• 3 - Doors
• 3 - Animals
• 3 - Accidents
• 2 - Violence
• 2 - Transportation
• 2 - Time
• 2 - Telephony
• 2 - Songs With Handclaps
• 2 - Sea
• 2 - Screaming
• 2 - Sailing
• 2 - Recursion
• 2 - Real Estate
• 2 - Music
• 2 - Money
• 2 - Medical
• 2 - Love Gone Sour
• 2 - Loneliness
• 2 - Letters Of The Alphabet
• 2 - G Major
• 2 - Funny But Sad
• 2 - Egoism And Pretentiousness
• 2 - Drinking Glasses
• 2 - Colors
• 2 - Clothes
• 2 - Cities
• 2 - Aversion To Work
• 2 - Artificial Body Parts
• 2 - Age
• 2 - Addiction, Compulsion
• 1 - Windows
• 1 - Two Chord Songs
• 1 - TV And Movie Themes
• 1 - TMBG Remakes
• 1 - Titles And Honorifics
• 1 - Tableware
• 1 - Super-Human Qualities
• 1 - Stories
• 1 - Spines
• 1 - Songs Used In Commercials
• 1 - Sleep
• 1 - Shapes
• 1 - Science
• 1 - Sadness
• 1 - Rhymes
• 1 - Precious Metal
• 1 - Politics
• 1 - People (Real)
• 1 - People (Imaginary)
• 1 - Non-John Vocals
• 1 - No
• 1 - New York City
• 1 - Mythology
• 1 - Movies
• 1 - Misanthropy
• 1 - Mind Control, Hypnotism
• 1 - Me
• 1 - Lies, Deception
• 1 - Islands
• 1 - History
• 1 - Hair
• 1 - German
• 1 - Geography
• 1 - Furniture
• 1 - Fire
• 1 - Falsetto
• 1 - Educational
• 1 - E Major
• 1 - Dancing
• 1 - Criminal Activities
• 1 - Coffee
• 1 - Cartoons
• 1 - Body Parts
• 1 - Bodily Mutilation
• 1 - Bad English
• 1 - Backwards
• 1 - Altered Voice
• 1 - 1964 World's Fair

...

Venue Songs (2004)

• Eh, but not now. You get the idea/You know what I mean.

And if you have any ideas for directions to take with this (looking at these three albums' numbers has made me think differently about this just now even), definitely feel free to talk to me about it or add your suggestions.

The Else (2007)

• 6 - Questions
• 5 - Body Parts
• 5 - Heads
• 4 - Animals
• 3 - Forgetting, Remembering
• 3 - Oblique Cliches
• 3 - Lies, Deception
• 3 - Love
• 3 - Transportation
• 2 - Colors
• 2 - Death
• 2 - Food
• 2 - Hair
• 2 - Insects
• 2 - Love Gone Sour
• 2 - Music
• 2 - Nonsense Words
• 2 - Paranoia
• 2 - People (Imaginary)
• 2 - Personification
• 2 - Recycled Material
• 2 - Sea
• 2 - Weather

• not included: single-song themes.

i suppose the else is both rather short and relatively new for there to be lots of themes, but this is at least approximate. -- 01:22, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

The Spine (2004)

• 7 - I Am
• 7 - Transportation
• 6 - Questions
• 5 - Forgetting, Remembering
• 4 - Food
• 4 - References To Other Songs Or Musicians
• 3 - Animals
• 3 - Clothes
• 3 - Death
• 3 - Denial
• 3 - Friendship
• 3 - Me
• 3 - Misanthropy
• 3 - Paranoia
• 3 - Recycled Material

• 2 - Addiction, Compulsion
• 2 - Altered Voice
• 2 - Bodily Mutilation
• 2 - Body Parts
• 2 - Backwards
• 2 - Bad English
• 2 - Criminal Activities
• 2 - Falling
• 2 - Games
• 2 - Guy Songs
• 2 - Insects
• 2 - Love
• 2 - Mind Control, Hypnotism
• 2 - Money
• 2 - Music
• 2 - Nonsense Words
• 2 - Not In Common Time
• 2 - Oblique Cliches Or Idiom
• 2 - People (Imaginary)
• 2 - Plans
• 2 - Presidents
• 2 - Songs With Handclaps
• 2 - Recursion
• 2 - Size
• 2 - Spines
• 2 - Swear Words
• 2 - Telephony
• 2 - Time
• 2 - Weather