“Damn Daniel” to Genesis: An Analysis of Songs about Select Environmental Events

Name: Gabriele Gajdos
Major: Environmental Studies
Minor: Music
Advisor: Setsuko Matsuzawa; Matt Mariola (second reader)

Within this project, I presented a contemporary topic connecting environmental studies and music. The primary purpose of this project was to relate environmental history and a possible call to justice in songs about select topics. This was done through a lyrical content analysis of seven songs. These lyrics were sorted into two categories to determine whether the song had more to do with the anthropogenic or natural world. The lyrics were then analyzed to get a fuller understanding of all the overall meaning of the song. Results show that most of the songs have more to do with anthropogenic subjects and actions, therefore concluding that within the selected songs there is a call for justice within humanity over the natural world. Overall, this work encourages further research of popular music within the field of study, and possible other media.

Posted in Comments Enabled, Independent Study, Symposium 2023 on April 14, 2023.

2 responses to ““Damn Daniel” to Genesis: An Analysis of Songs about Select Environmental Events”

1. Mary Neagoy says:

   April 21, 2023 at 4:13 pm

   Congratulations, Gabby! Your IS topic was so original and I was really glad to be able to hear you talk about it today. Burn on!

2. Prof. Claire Eager says:

   April 21, 2023 at 5:19 pm

   Congratulations, Gabby! I’d love to learn more about this project and the songs you used.