The piece of political music I chose is “Zombie” by The Cranberries.” The song has a direct purpose as it’s written about the internal war in Ireland in the 1900s. This conflict has been the primary cause of violence and death in Ireland. This song specifically is written about two boys that were killed by IRA bombs emphasizing the negative side effects of war. The musical genre is Rock, which has a long history of calling out substandard behavior in society. Many rock bands such as The Bettles, The Rolling Stones and Green Day have symbolic songs that involve politics as well.

When listening to the song there is a lot of direct lyrics that vividly express the situation. “But you see, But you see, it’s not me, it’s not my family In your head, in your head, they are fighting. With their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their guns. In your head, in your head, they are crying.” When reading these lyrics the singer is disassociating herself from the IRA and explains that killing innocent lives shouldn’t be the cost of freedom. Some symbolism is also used in the song as the word zombie is used in the chorus multiple times. According to Genius zombies are the supporters of war that are incapable of understanding anything else but killing. We can further emphasize this by the next lyric “What’s in your head, in your head? Zombie, zombie.” I believe an important musical characteristic is the use of dynamics in the song. When the band is playing the verses the singer and the band is usually quieter and softer. Then slightly before the chorus, the music slowly gets louder until it reaches its climax in the chorus. This can also reflect her anger towards the propagators of war because of how loud she gets to the point where she is almost screaming to get her point across. The use of dynamics plays a good role in highlighting the sentiment of the song

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