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hh_clubs
Activity: History's Soundtrack
Points: Participation Only: 10 points
Deadline: Submit your songs by Monday, August 15th @ 23:59 UTC (timezone converter).
Details: Post a link (or embend a youtube player) to a song of your choice that remidns you of a certain Historical (can be Magical or Muggle) event, then write a short essay of at least 100 words about why you think the song fits the event.
You can't understand today without a look at the past. Join History of Magic today!
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Questions? Concerns? Cupcakes?
Date: 2011-07-31 05:03 pm (UTC)GRYFFINDORS
Date: 2011-07-31 05:03 pm (UTC)Re: GRYFFINDORS
Date: 2011-08-04 02:17 am (UTC)Event: 7th of July 2005 London Bombing
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? An obvious marker as to why this reminds me of the London Bombings would be the title of the song. In fact, there's a lot of debate as to whether or not this song was written in memorium of the people who died and were injured on that day in London. The band members have mentioned it was written with the bombings in mind, but it's from a more personal perspective (ie. a loved one is in the UK, and someone "back home" [Australia?] cannot seem to get in contact with them). The lyrics & melody are melancholic, expressing grief and loss in the simplest of things: tried to call your number/but you were lost forever/in the early days of winter, and other lines like: I stay up forever/try to find the answer/in the sun I wait for you. I think this was a great approach to the song - to make it more personal - because most people can relate to loss and grief. And, inadvertantly, it can be taken as a song in memorium of the victims of that day.
Word Count: 182 words.
Minya | Gryffindor
Re: GRYFFINDORS
Date: 2011-08-08 06:34 pm (UTC)Event: Multiple, but in particular, RL = 9/11, HP = Neville, Ginny, Luna during 7th year
Warning! Disturbing contact for many!
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? If you watch the video, you'll catch the obvious match, but this song really hits me for any moment when people try to reach out and save others during whether in a disaster or a war - 9/11, Katrina, those who risked their lives to hide and rescue Jews during the Hologcaust, etc. It's a reminder that while we cannot fix everything, we are not released from the responsibility to try. (For an HP moment, I would say Neville, Luna & Ginny trying to keep the DA alive in 7th year, as well as the Order of the Phoenix in the first war with Voldemort.)
Word Count: 109
Caitriona//Gryffindor
Re: GRYFFINDORS
Date: 2011-08-09 10:36 am (UTC)Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohOtDA3dTAA
Event: There are two of them ‘Wind of Change’ is practically the theme song for the ‘Berlin wall fall’ and the unification of Germany. But also think that the song fits Voldemort’s first fall when he failed to kill Harry.
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event?As I said it’s pretty much the theme song for the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the unification of Germany because it mirrors the happiness and relieve people felt back. It was a magic moment when they tore down the wall and complete strangers hugged each other crying with happiness that they aren’t separated anymore. But I think it fits also the drastic change that came about when Harry won over Voldemort for the first time as a baby. Almost everyone was happy that the terror finally ended and a new and hopefully peaceful future was ahead of them and for their children.
Word Count:114
Michaela/Gryffindor
Re: GRYFFINDORS
Date: 2011-08-10 02:53 am (UTC)Event: When Harry gives himself up to Voldemort
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? The song is all about the singer wanting to savor what little time they have left before they sacrifice something they can never have back. The lyrics: "I'd give you blood / If that's what you need to stay alive / You'll be free and I will die" exemplify that completely unselfish ability to give up everything, and reflects Harry's thoughts during that scene. He knew exactly what the costs of his actions were likely to be, but was still willing to give up his life to save the lives of everyone around him. The motivations behind both the singer’s and Harry’s actions are shown towards the end of the song as “[their] tragic ending saves the day.”
Word Count: 118
Oz // Gryffindor
Re: GRYFFINDORS
Date: 2011-08-15 04:33 pm (UTC)Event: Harry gives himself up to Voldemort during the final battle
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? The general tone of this song represents the journey Harry takes, venturing through the forest, knowing he must die - and then seeing his loved ones who had passed away through the Resurrection stone. There's a sense of calm in that moment, a unique sense of finality, where Lily reassures him they'll be with him no matter what. And yet at the same time, the song can take the perspective of those waiting for him back at the castle, those who don't know that he's chosen to face the Dark Lord on his own. From the first lines - "You say your time has come," - it almost feels like an accusation, then the persona admonishes, "I can't conceive living without you." Personally, I think this is how Ron, Hermione, all of Harry friends felt when they thought that he'd died for them, excluded them yet again. Which is why the chorus laments, "Burning beacon in the night... That single solitary guide, it must get lonely there sometimes."
Word Count: ~160
Kat//Gryffindor
HUFFLEPUFFS
Date: 2011-07-31 05:04 pm (UTC)Re: HUFFLEPUFFS
Date: 2011-07-31 06:49 pm (UTC)Event: The settling of the American West (particularly the expulsion of the Native Americans)
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? So maybe this is cheating, but this song actually is about European American settlers taking the land of Native Americans during the expansion of the American West in the 1800s. I think it really hits the tone of complete intolerance and apathy very well. White settlers and the American government really did not care about the Native Americans or their culture back then. They forced them to live in reservations that were either too small or far away from their true homes. Sometimes they were also forced to try to adopt the European American culture and allotted only certain plots of land for each family to live on, which went against their traditional view that the land belonged to everyone in the community. I think some more poignant lines of the song are:
"All I can say to you my new neighbor
Is you must move on or I will bury you"
Doesn't seem very neighborly, does it? And of course:
"Don't drink the water
There's blood in the water"
Word Count: 170
Lauren // Hufflepuff
Re: HUFFLEPUFFS
Date: 2011-07-31 06:51 pm (UTC)Event: The Final Battle Against Voldemort
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? This song reminds me of how, when ordinary people get fed up with the way their governments and oppressors are treating them, they will fight for their freedom. In the Wizarding world, this song reminds me of the final battle against Voldemort. It reminds me of how Minerva used Voldemort's name, how those adults and children who wanted freedom from fear and oppression willingly fought, and how even Mrs. Malfoy took an underhanded stand to save her son, and in the end, took herself and her child out of the final battle. This song also reminds me of any and all battles for freedom in the Muggle world. It reminds me of the fight for America's Independence, for gay people's right to marry and love, for an end to slavery, etc.
Word Count: 138
Anna//Hufflepuff
Re: HUFFLEPUFFS
Date: 2011-08-01 11:56 pm (UTC)Event: The rise of communism
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? This song reminds me of the rise of communism (more precisely Leninism) although that is far from what the song is supposedly written about. There is debate (as there is in nearly all of Vernon’s songs) over the lyrics, but whether the lyric is We're running their engine / Just like we ought to be for them or They’re running their engine / Just like you ought to be my idea remains the same. It makes me think about the proletariat and how they were the ones doing the work while vanguard party were really reaping the reward. It would be written from the worker perspective. It also speaks to having little faith in the word and believing that it’s a bit of a trap to be doing the same things in repetition with little reward, truth, and hope.
Word Count: 149
Mimi//Hufflepuff
Re: HUFFLEPUFFS
Date: 2011-08-08 04:46 pm (UTC)Event: The second wave of the feminist movement (1970s)
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? Well this song is all about well, sex not being the enemy and sexual freedom. During the 1970s in America women started to push for the Equal Rights Amendment and equality in all aspects of life, not just political. Before the movement women were expected to wait until marriage to have sex, marital rape was legal, and abortions were illegal.I won't feel dirty and buy into their misery/I won't be shamed cause I believe that love is free This song encompasses those feelings (and unfortunately they still apply today) of the women who were sick and tired of being second class citizens and were deciding to do something about it.
Word Count: 112
Kirsten//Hufflepuff
Re: HUFFLEPUFFS
Date: 2011-08-09 12:25 am (UTC)Event: The London Blitz
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? Well, to start with, a couple portions of the song have clips of Winston Churchill making speeches in the background. For some reason, the first thing that this makes me think of is the bombing of London in World War II. It probably helps that there are also muted sounds of bombs dropping. But, really, I think this song fits with the attitude many countries, such as England, had when World War II rolled around. They'd just been through World War I and they knew there were murmurs of things happening in Germany, but no one expected things to fall apart so quickly. They weren't proactive in preventing Hitler's rise to power because they had no idea what it would lead to, so when the war came into full swing it was just devastating.
Word Count: 134
Jennifer//Hufflepuff
Re: HUFFLEPUFFS
Date: 2011-08-10 02:40 am (UTC)Event: The protests in Egypt. The whole second war in HP.
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? The lyrics to this song are all about being oppressed and coming to the point where something has to be done. Obviously the people in both of these countries were being oppressed by their governments, and needed to do something to make a stand and show the world what was happening there. They refused to be pawns in a political game and wanted better lives. Thus, they had no choice but to protest and allow the world to see how their governments had been attempting to control and degrade them. It also fits in with the wizarding world well, and could very well be a theme for the Harry Potter lead resistance to Voldemort.
Word Count:123
Courtney Rose//puff
Re: HUFFLEPUFFS
Date: 2011-08-15 02:16 pm (UTC)Event: The Battle of Hogwarts
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? Whenever I listen to this song I always think of the Battle of Hogwarts, because they've all grown up in this place, they've all spent their school years there and made friends and learnt so many spells. And now it - the war - is coming to an end matches the lyric I believe it all is coming to an end, and it's here, at Hogwarts, where they grew up. Hogwarts is literally being destroyed. The lyrics I'm waking up at the start of the end of the world / But it's feeling just like every other morning before is so true in Harry's case, because it always seems like the world is going to end or he's going to die, and nearly every year he's had to face off with Voldemort. At the end of the Battle they see how far they've been on their journey as children through the school, as well as on their journey defeating Voldemort (or, in Draco's case, his own personal journey).
Word Count: 169
Fairy//Hufflepuff
Re: HUFFLEPUFFS
Date: 2011-08-15 05:41 pm (UTC)Event: 9-11
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event?
I think this song relates to 9-11 and the shock that the US was left in after the event. I see it from the point of view of those Americans trying to pick themselves back up afterward. To so many people, it seemed like it was the end of the world. Nothing was the same after it, and the people of the US were no longer individuals but bound together by this scar in history. Sometimes we just wanted to escape it all, to forget it, but together, we kept looking to the sky, waiting for the next terrible thing to befall us, but hoping it never did.
Word Count: 108
Sara//Puff
Re: HUFFLEPUFFS
Date: 2011-08-15 07:31 pm (UTC)Event: Stonewall
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? This song was actually written in response to the streak of suicides by gay youth in the States last year, but I think a lot of the lyrics are applicable to the push for LGBTQ rights in general. The song is a powerful callout of a system that continues to shame people for who they choose to love. The lyrics "Ae're calling for/Insisting on/A different beat/A brand new song" are very reminiscent of the people who took to the streets to protest yet another police raid of a gay bar. The statement that "Too much blood has flown from the wrists/Of the children shamed for those they chose to kiss" still rings true today, but was especially true in a time where it was so dangerous to be out in general.
Word Count: 135
Erica//Hufflepuff
Re: HUFFLEPUFFS
Date: 2011-08-15 09:37 pm (UTC)Event: The war in Afghanistan after 9/11
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? The song itself is about a soldier going off to war and not returning, but it specifically brings me back to those few months after 9/11 when soldiers were heading out to war in droves. It reminds me of all the sacrifices that were being made and all the people signing up to join the armed forces. It reminds me of the feeling in those first few weeks and months that people would do anything to make things right again and the hope that we could somehow prevent something like 9/11 from every happening again. It's a really sad song, but there is hope in it too, and a feeling that sometimes you have to do something you don't want to do just because it's right, and that is the feeling that reminds me so much of those months.
Word Count: 139
Kristine//Puff
RAVENCLAWS
Date: 2011-07-31 05:04 pm (UTC)Re: RAVENCLAWS
Date: 2011-08-05 04:21 pm (UTC)Your Song: It's the End of the World as We Know It, by R.E.M. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY)
Event: The Cuban Missile Crisis
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? This Cold War event was arguably the closest the world ever came to a true nuclear attack. By placing missiles within firing range of the US, the Soviet Union - and our response to its actions - brought us to the absolute brink of war. Both sides understood that we had mutually assured destruction. Once one side fired, the other would retaliate, and that could quite literally have been the end of the world as we know it. The fast-paced nature of the song, as the lyrics just spit out people and events one after the other, puts me in mind of how the minds of the nations' leaders must have been constantly churning and moving from one thought to the next, wondering what was going to happen. Finally, the fact that the song claims the singer "feels fine" about the end of the world reminds me of the Sixties in general, and the whole hippie counter-culture. How many "regular" people understood at the time how close we came to destroying ourselves?
Word Count: 181 words
Shannon//Ravenclaw
Re: RAVENCLAWS
Date: 2011-08-09 02:03 pm (UTC)Your Song: I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General (http://youtu.be/wYZM__VdEjk) (the actual song starts about a minute into the video)
Event: The Charge of the Light Brigade
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event?
Okay, before people come after me for associating a comedic song with a tragedy… hear me out. The song is all about how the “modern major-general” is chosen for his class and background, rather than for his military expertise. He comments that he is still waiting for the day when he has a “smattering of elemental strategy” and that his military knowledge is limited. The Charge of the Light Brigade was near-suicidal military charge which was partially caused by bad communication… and partially by officers like the one described in this song. The Earl of Cardigan, for instance, was very high aristocracy but very limited military talents (and coincidentally he was a Major General at the time of this battle!). I’m not blaming him for the fiasco, since the details are still fuzzy, but he was definitely not a military genius. And in addition to bad blood between the officers and bad communication in general, bad strategy was a factor in the deadly charge. No doubt the officers were well-educated, but that didn’t make them good military leaders – like the Major-General in this song.
Word Count: 184
Ellen//Ravenclaw
Re: RAVENCLAWS
Date: 2011-08-12 03:24 pm (UTC)Event: Final Battle against Voldemort
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? I really enjoy this song because it's so warm and really embodies the power that particular relationships can have in our lives. I think it fits the last battle and the events surrounding it because it's a song about friends holding on to one another and getting through the darkest of days because they have each other to support and rely on. Considering that one of Voldemort's greatest challenges and weaknesses was his inability to have something worth fighting over and not having any love in his life, I think this song demonstrates the power of friendship and love in the face of adversity, and how so long as you have people who care about and who care about you, you'll be able to get through the darkest of days. It's extremely cheesy, but I think it fits.
Word Count: 138
Sam//Ravenclaw
Re: RAVENCLAWS
Date: 2011-08-12 04:44 pm (UTC)Event: 9/11
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chxlz8Pw6Dw
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event?
This song I think could work well for many things. I wanted to do match it up to the Wizarding world after Dumbledore died and how the ministry fell, and the way that the wizards would feel. The Wizards who were were fighting to do what was right. Yet every time I hear this song I think of 9/11. Its getting closer to the tenth anniversary, and I feel that this song captures the sensations of that event in spine tingling ways. The world though it continued to move felt as though it had halted, everyone was holding on to something, raising up and joining arms. We were scared, wondering where the next plane would crash, shocked that anyone could even do that. It rattled our little American pride down to the core. Yes there is battles, but for us back at home, we don't think of it. We don't think anyone can touch us, and 9/11 proved us wrong. I think the line that is sung about the leader stuttering and mumbling, and how people laughed at him (Bush) and the way he spoke. Was the attitude of most Americans. Then the line is repeated, after the event. Now we are not laughing, now we are scared and angry, wanting to know for a surety just exactly what he did say.
That line always gets me. Because that is exactly how it felt. Everyone's attitude changed even if it was a brief change. We were all scared and angry, shaken. Its a point in history that Every American who was old enough to remember it will not forget it. What we were doing that day and that moment. They way we clung to religion, friends, family, and people we didn't even know.
“When the rich wage war, its the poor who die.” - Linkin Park
Word Count: 307
Becca//Ravenclaw
Re: RAVENCLAWS
Date: 2011-08-13 08:19 am (UTC)Your Song: Karate Kid, By: Dan Black (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b29OiRwlV3k).
Event: The few months after the Fall of Voldemort
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event?
Karate Kid first off has a deeply bittersweet quality to it. For those who have survived it is just wonderful that a normal life can now start but that begs the question: Exactly what is a normal life without Voldemort? People have to start rebuilding both their lives and the wizarding world itself. In the few months after the fall of Voldemort, all of the survivors are plagued by nightmares of the battle and of the ones they have lost. The song talks of the relationships you'll need in order to let go of some of those demons. Most importantly the refrain of the song repeats that no matter how hard or impossible to may seem, life will go on. The song ends on a hopeful note, that although things haven't gotten better yet but they "will soon start living."
Word Count: 140
Jessica//Ravenclaw
Re: RAVENCLAWS
Date: 2011-08-13 12:13 pm (UTC)Event: Harry and Neville's birth
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? This song remembers me of Harry first of all because in many instances Harry felt annoyed that everyone admired him or hated him for something that he didn't remember doing. When in Order of the Phoenix he found out about Trelawney prophecy, he also found out that his life could have gone differently. But it wasn't because of anything he did, and he made the best of it.
Likewise, I'm sure Neville often felt miserable because of what happened to his parents, and because in his first years at Hogwarts many people mocked him for being almost a squib, but then he became awesome. True Story.
Word Count: 105
Ren//Ravenclaw//can't do srs when hogsmeade is on
SLYTHERINS
Date: 2011-07-31 05:04 pm (UTC)Re: SLYTHERINS [SPOILER: PG-13/R for strong language]
Date: 2011-07-31 05:45 pm (UTC)Event: The Great Chicago Fire (1871)
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? "We don't need no water... let the motherfucker burn" sounds extremely appropriate for a song designed to match a city just burning. But why THAT song instead of one of zillions of others (Fire Water Burn - Bloodhound Gang the most famous and The Roof Is On Fire - Rockmaster Scott and the Dynamic Three from 1984 is the original) which match the same chorus? The answer is as follows: the original song and the Bloodhound Gang versions "on fire" refer more to the dance floor being crazy and dancing - and even Dystopia from Yacht is more a complete dystopic feel. So, Rancid's version - Burn - is more left as having the feel of a city actually being on fire as opposed to a planet being burnt to the ground or a number of people just dancing!
Word Count: 138
William//Slytherin
Re: SLYTHERINS
Date: 2011-08-02 11:31 pm (UTC)Event: The whole Second Wizarding War/The Final Battle
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? This song has always screamed Harry Potter to me. Particularly lines like "and the one poor child who saved this world/and there's ten million more who probably could" say a lot to me. In my mind, this refers to Harry as the "one poor child who saved this world" and the other half of the couplet refers most obviously to Neville. But it's also an interesting comment on something I've always believed of the Harry Potter series - that there are so many other people who probably could have managed in Harry's position, that he was just the one unlucky enough to end up in that situation.
I think of this song as being from Neville's (or Harry, but mostly Neville) point of view during his seventh year and the final battle. He's talking (or singing), maybe to Luna or Ginny about how more than anything, he just wants things to be okay, and I think that's a big theme in the series as well.
Word Count: 165
Cayenne//Slytherin
Re: SLYTHERINS
Date: 2011-08-09 11:56 am (UTC)Event: the second incarnation of the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army during the Second Wizarding War
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? This song is sort of the ultimate "fighting back against the big bad" kind of song. The lyrics are about hiding, running, resisting, etc, all common elements in the stories of rebels or resistance fighters. There's a lyric which makes me think of corrupt governments, such as the Ministry of Magic, which goes "Kill your prayers for love and peace / You'll wake the thought police" which is essentially saying not to bring attention in a police state type of environment by talking about frowned-upon ideals. A lot of the lyrics specifically remind me of the resistance movements against Voldemort during the Second Wizarding War. In particular the line "Love is our resistance," reminiscent of Dumbledore's repeated words about love being a powerful magic that was on their side. Love is their resistance, and is a big part of what ultimately leads to their triumph in the end.
Word Count: 148
Noelle // Slytherin
Re: SLYTHERINS
Date: 2011-08-10 08:30 pm (UTC)Event: Gulf Wars
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? "Some folks inherit star-spangled eyes; ooh they'll send you down to war. And when you ask 'em 'How much should we give,' they only answer 'more, more, more.'" This song is all about how the elite in this country use those with less privilege or connections. Not just the Gulf Wars, but they're more current than others. WWI would be a good one for Europe, considering the utter pointlessness of that war, and the futility of the fighting. The people fighting our wars for us are not "fortunate sons," and even though this song was written long ago it continues to apply because the rich continue to start pointless wars and send the poor to do the fighting. We try to tell the poor to be nationalistic and do their duty paying taxes, fighting, working hard, but the rich and privileged do nothing of the sort.
Word Count: 146
Rita//Slytherin
Re: SLYTHERINS
Date: 2011-08-12 04:38 pm (UTC)http://youtube/Byaq5AP6_jQ
Event: After Voldemort's first defeat.
Essay: The song reminds me of Voldemort's first defeat and more specifically Lily and James Potter and everyone else who died fighting against Voldemort for freedom. The song describes how someone wishes that someone else was here so that they could see what they died for and the new life that they gave everyone. It’s about how wonderful the world’s become after their sacrifice and in the very first chapter of the first HP book it’s basically everything that’s being described. There’s all the celebration that’s going on, with the fireworks and shooting stars, and then in corners there are people mourning those who lost their lives.
Word Count: 106
Yasona//Slytherin
no subject
Date: 2011-08-13 04:34 am (UTC)Event: Woodstock
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? This song, in any form, makes me think of Woodstock. Joe Cocker's performance was one of the most memorable of the event, and it still known and recognized today. Not only is a great cover of the Beatles' song, it helped define a generation and era. It was a generation of anti-war activism and bringing people together for a cause. The title alone exemplifies that ideal. "I get by with a little help from my friends." It was known that the goals the people of protests wanted to reach couldn't be reached alone, but with the help of many, they could possibly reach their goals and make a difference. It was a fitting performance for the weekend of Woodstock, and truly stood as a song to stand for the generation.
Word Count: 130
Kailyn//Ravenclaw
no subject
Date: 2011-08-13 02:30 pm (UTC)Event: 9/11
Essay: Why does the song remind you of this event? I was only 14 when 9/11 happened, but it had a pretty profound impact on me. I was in 9th grade and I remember all we did that morning was watch the news coverage...and then when my mom came and picked me up at lunchtime, I turned on the tv when I got home and watched until I went to bed. It was the most horrific thing, but there were also so many acts of kindness and heroism and instances of complete strangers helping each other just because it was the right thing in a time of crisis. Those acts of kindness bring to mind this lyric: "when the night is cloudy, there is still a light, that shines on me, shine until tomorrow, let it be." It was an unspeakably awful day, but the fact that strangers could be so kind to each other spoke to the hope that we could still have for a better future.
Word Count: 158
Heather // Ravenclaw