**content warning: discussion of suicide**
Music. It's a part of nearly everyones daily life, especially mine. There's nothing that I love more than being at a concert or music festival. Finding new artists to listen too is a great pastime, and being able to learn about their background, stories and meanings just makes it so much more interesting. This particularly applies when I get to listen to artists from my home town, Newcastle. There's something so satisfying to know that someone who grew up in the same area as me is able to live such a big dream. A great example of this would be an artist called Sam Fender.
Sam Fender frequently uses rhetorical devices in his songs to elicit strong feelings and send a message. By combining these rhetorical strategies, he is able to create lyrics that move listeners to contemplate and feel connected to one another in addition to telling gripping tales of his childhood and youth.
Growing up in a town in Newcastle called North Shields, this particular town, and our city, is known to be working class and a place that has a lot of struggles. Sam has managed to make a career from writing about some of these struggles, that he or people around him have faced, and conveys it through his music. He is one of the most powerful, influential musicians of our time.
The topics that Sam mostly writes about is: poverty, suicide (particularly in men), and the harassment women face.
The Dying Light
The North East of England, (where Newcastle is situated), has the highest number of suicidal deaths, especially in men, in the country. This issue is due to the high levels of poverty and unemployment, as the government tends to neglect the north a lot more. The song 'The Dying Light' highlights this and is something that many of the listeners can relate to. Also, the fact that the song was written during lockdown, means that so many more people can relate as it was such a difficult time for everyone around the world.
Sam uses the line 'I'm alone here, even though I'm physically not' this draws in the audience using pathos and kairos as it is something that is so relatable to so many people, during the time of lockdown and for residence of the North East of England. It brings attention to the feeling of isolation in mental health and physically during the pandemic.
Ethos - "believable, authoritative voice that elicits credibility and audience trust."
Sam is a credible voice as he has grown up in the struggles and poverty that North East England faces. He is using his personal experience to voice these struggles and call out the government for not helping and doing more/better.
Kairos - "sense of appropriate timing when attempting to persuade."
The song 'The Dying Light' was written during the time of lockdown and released the year we began to come out, when Sam, the writer and singer, was at his lowest. The lyrics of the song start with talking about the perspective of someone that wants to take their own life. However, as the music builds from a solo piano to being joined by a drum, so do the lyrics. The lyrics pledge to keep going and living, for their loved ones and for all the people who haven't made it.
Pathos - "the use of appeals to feelings and emotions shared by an audience. Some of the general categories are fear, guilt, anger, love, loyalty, patriotism, and duty."
During this song, Sam uses anger and sadness to appeal to the audience. It pulls the audience to be empathetic to be able to either understand or relate to the song. This allows the people to have the sense of not feeling alone - others feel the same too. Natives of Newcastle, and the North East, tend to be extremely patriotic - they have a strong love and loyalty to their town and city. This sense of feeling allows them to be drawn to Sam and his music. Particularly, with this song, they are able to relate in a way that they will know people who have been in this struggle of being mentally down, whether it be because of the poverty, unemployment, etc.
To conclude, Sam Fender is a great voice and representation to people and the struggles in North England, and he is able to make music that the people can relate to. This makes people, for example the government, listen and create changes; small or big. His music has been majorly inspired by a 70s band from Newcastle called Lindisfarne, who were also a very political band. Other British artists can be seen in today's industry such Dave and Stromzy, have followed similar paths in the fact that they write about the poverty and struggles that they have grown up around and use their songs and platform to call out the government so that changes can be made. This is a use of Logos, as they convey their facts through music, which then reaches out tovan audience of a younger generation. This is a change from information always being passed through the news, who's audience only tends to be the older generation.