Anna+P

= = =21st Century Kid by Jamie Cullum =

//**Cathing Tales Album, 2005 **//
There's maybe a way I can tell you  'Cos with everyday things continue  To get more compromised,  So who will fantasise  A new generation politicised

 When things are done in our own name  Are we as much to blame?  Now it's become clear to me,  But only lately  And the ground is removed underneath

 Shout it from the brink,  You're louder than you think

 [Chorus:]  21st century kid, you're surrounded by illusion and confusion, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> So maybe if you're holding out for the truth now, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Could it be the greatest weapon? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Could it be the greatest weapon? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Your weapon

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Nothing is certain except a memory <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> And that's soon washed away by a low sea <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Now sit yourself down my one <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> And see what you become, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Ignoring a smouldering gun

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> The white dove's flown <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> D'ya think we're on our own?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> [Chorus:] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> 21st century kid, you're surrounded by illusion and confusion. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> So maybe if you're holding out for the truth now, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Could it be the greatest weapon? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> 21st century kid, you're surrounded by illusion and confusion. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> So maybe if you're holding out for the truth now, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Could it be the greatest weapon? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Could it be the greatest weapon? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Your weapon

== "You come home and you think you're the big news, but really you're just the same," he modestly observes. "As one of my good friends so eloquently put it, 'Jamie, you're still the same twat you always were.'" ==

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Summary =


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Brief information about Jamie Cullum
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Aim of the song and reasons for choice
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Organised analysis of the verses and interpretations
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Final message: ** Truth is the greatest weapon **

= = =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Analysis =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">21st Century Kid is one of the most meaningful songs by Jamie Cullum, wrote in his album Cathing Tales (2005), in which he has the ability to speak to his generation, combining honesty and a wit to send a moral message.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Once again, the jazz singer, songwriter and Essex multi-instrumentalist expresses himself with a blend of jazz solo and pop song with a sad but optimist tone in the tunes and the lyrics. Cullum speaks to his peers telling them they are fuelled by apathy and encourages them with the idea to take the truth as their weapon. I think he does this very intelligently, all the things he says about the theme of the song are absolutely true and described with a lot of metaphors which makes it much more interesting to hear and to analyse. I find this song a different moral dose, and it actually talks to people from my generation making me feel more concerned by it.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> How does he achieve this? The most essential part in the way of him trying to do this is that he is one of them, he is from the 21st generation too. In the first line of the first verse his desire to convey and idea is expressed. With ‘there’s maybe a way’ he is not being totally positive about being succesful in his objective, as generation nowadays is as it is and it is difficult to change it, but he says he will try with this song. In the rest of the verse he talks about people everyday being more ignorant and with and an attitude of acceptance. He concludes that with a generation like this, who can fantasasie with another one or the next one being concerned about the world. He says this like a question and uses fantasise which emphasizes the fact that things have to change or unless it will be imposible to even dream about something better.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> In the second verse Cullum uses a rethorical question to say we shouldn’t fear to make things happen, we will be responsible for them and therefore may be blamed for them, but it is worth trying. He later uses a metaphor for the world depending on us, this is our support, we have to stand on what we think to keep moving on, we can’t lay on anything else as it says ‘the ground is removed underneath’.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Until now the artist has described the situation but with the next two verses he makes the inspiring touch of the song. First he says ‘shout it from th brink’: literally, brink is like the higher point of something, which symbolizes the message of the individual thinking by himself and having an opinion and saying it out loud to the world, to at least try to change things. It also means the point where a new situation is about to begin, it again talks about the generation needing an alteration. In the second stanza Cullum tells the individual he has more power than he thinks he has to change the world, he has voice. With this he encourages the generation to think, he tells them they have the means and that they should use them. In this part when he says 'you're louder than you think', before the music slows down and stops, and then he says the line emphasizing louder when he sings it to make a more impacting effect on the listener.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> The chorus tries to put the ‘kid’ back into reality explaining him he’s surrounded by illusion and confusion, that he has unreal views of the world and doesn’t understand and doesn’t know what to do because of his permanent ignorance. The suggestion, characteristic of the song, is made, to make a change and hold for truth, to use TRUTH to fight. Then another rethorical question is made: ‘Could it be the greatest weapon?’. It has a tone of hope, it means that if we actually change things can truth someday be our biggest armament, our most efficient and fearful method of protection and attack? It is what it should be like, and Jamie Cullum tells this to the 21st century generation, but also to the people in the world. He end the chorus saying ‘Your weapon’, telling us it’s our choice to use it because we got it.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> The next verse says about memories being the only thing certain in this world, as if nowadays nothing else has the truth in it’s ingredients, and how they go away easilu. It again basically wants the individual to think about himself, to analize his life and see what he has done for the world, which obviously ends up with the conclusion we have done nothing. Cullum describes us like we ‘ignore a smouldering gun’ this is a metaphor for us ignoring the situations in the world that really do exist, we don’t see them because we are not concerned and we don’t care. We have gotten to a point where, generally, society, politics or culture are no longer a matter of importance to the youth.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> The last verse states the white dove has flown, being a metaphor for peace in it’s own has gone, meaning it doesn’t stand for itself, we have to fight for it. A rethorical question ends it, saying that now that the dove has gone, are we on or own? This is supposed to wake up the generations minds, saying that they are not on their own if they stand up and try all together to take society forwards.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> In conclusion, my interpretation on what Jamie Cullum is trying to express is that holding for the truth will empower you because the truth is so obscured these days it makes it imposible to really know what is going on, so we have to stick to it no matter what, it is definitely as he says the 'greatest weapon'.



=Task: Fill in the gaps!=

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">There's maybe a way I can tell you <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> 'Cos with everyday things continue <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> To get more ................, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> So who will fantasise <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> A new ................politicised

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> When things are done in our own ........... <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Are we as much to ............? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Now it's become clear to me, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> But only lately <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> And the ground is ............... underneath

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Shout it from the ................, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> You're louder than you think

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> [Chorus:] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> 21st century kid, you're surrounded by illusion and ................, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> So maybe if you're holding out for the ............... now, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Could it be the greatest weapon? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Could it be the greatest weapon? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> ................ weapon

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Nothing is .................except a memory <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> And that's soon washed away by a ........sea <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Now sit yourself down my one <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> And see what you become, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Ignoring a .................... gun

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> The...............dove's flown <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> D'ya think we're on our own?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> [Chorus:] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> 21st century kid, you're surrounded by illusion and ................. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> So maybe if you're holding out for the ............ now, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Could it be the greatest weapon? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> 21st century kid, you're surrounded by illusion and ................. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> So maybe if you're holding out for the ..............now, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Could it be the greatest weapon? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Could it be the greatest weapon? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> .............. weapon

=Link to song:= [|21st Century Kid] media type="youtube" key="3Hn7zcsh__M?fs=1" height="385" width="480"