Research

Hotel California- The Eagles

"This could be Heaven or this could be Hell"
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year (Any time of year)
You can find it here

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
"Relax, " said the night man,
"We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! "

"The very first few lines of the song take us to the long, straight highways of California and the American southwest, which serves as a powerful symbol of freedom, desolation, and recklessness in songs by The Eagles. The song title suggests a sunny, laid-back place where people drink lots of pomegranate juice and practice yoga, but it also hints that the state of California (or, more accurately, the idea of California) is not really home to anyone. It's a place for people who are between destinations: transients. One central theme in "Hotel California" is the disconnect between popular perceptions of California versus the reality."

With all this money and success the Eagles soon found that they had become "prisoners of their own device." Fame, excessive partying, and drug use took its toll on the band members. According to Glenn Frey, "we weren't the [Rolling] Stones, but we weren't the Osmonds either, somewhere in between. But closer to the Stones." According to some interpretations, "Hotel California" is a song about drug addiction; others have viewed it as a song about a mental hospital, or devil worship, or – in one especially oddball take – even a real hotel run by cannibals. (That one sure puts a delicious new spin on "you can check out but you can never leave.")

http://www.shmoop.com/hotel-california-eagles/meaning.html

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Paparazzi- Lady Gaga

We are the crowd
We're co-coming out
Got my flash on, it's true
Need that picture of you

I'll be your girl
Backstage at your show
Velvet ropes and guitars
Yeah, 'cause you're my rockstar

I'm your biggest fan
I'll follow you until you love me
Papa-paparazzi
Baby, there's no other superstar
You know that I'll be your
Papa-paparazzi
Promise I'll be kind
But I won't stop until that boy is mine
Baby, you'll be famous
Chase you down until you love me
Papa-paparazzi


""Paparazzi" is perfect subject matter for Gaga's fixation on the artistic experience, since much of the experience of fame lies in the realm of the sensational and the absurd. The concept of "fame" itself is one of the most surreal abstractions we have. Fame truly is in the eye of the beholder and is as ethereal as fog, surrounding a person one moment and burning away the next. The notion of "celebrity" (from the root "celer" meaning "quick") is in essence a simulacrum (a copy without an original). Celebrities exist in a hyper-real space where what is projected is "de-flawed" for sale to us, the non-celebrity public. To have a relationship characterized by celebrity depends on the notion of distance; the idea that some kind of unbridgeable divide splits the famous from the rest of us. Our obsession with celebrity (and with particular celebrities) arises from our desire to cross that divide, so that we can escape reality and become one of the images—a piece of saturated perfection. And that's why we look at them, read about them, smell their perfume and taste their lip-gloss: so we can be a part of something that is not only not ourselves but in fact beyond ourselves as well. "

http://www.shmoop.com/lady-gaga-paparazzi/meaning.html

Mood Board- Celebrities/Pop Culture

White Rabbit- Jefferson Airplane

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all

Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's off with her head
Remember what the dormouse said
Feed your head

"This was a time of naivete, innocence, confusion, hard decisions, stress and thought provocation. White Rabbit acknowledges that advice from older generations do not seem to make sense in our current world, and we are more open to look to unconventional solutions. Everyone was looking for better answers or explanations and looking in some unfulfilling places (like drugs). This song seemed to offer some very good advise using an "Alice in Wonderland" analogy. Alice was naive, innocent and looking for answers. In pursuit of her answers she follows unfamiliar elements to a unreal world. As she wanders through this world looking for answers she experiences and learns many lessons. White Rabbit advises us to ask Alice (who has already tried the 'unreal' route looking for answers) before we accept, try or count-on alternate sources of answers - 'don't take drugs' is the message I heard. Keep learning and acquiring knowledge to fill your head with better understanding of the real world is the best course for us to follow and not get 'lost' down a rabbit hole. Open our eyes to see and live in the real world with all of its imperfections; not to retreat into a world made up of wishful, unrealistic 'trips'. WAKE UP! Learn from Alice's mistakes. Don't wish for things to be better...work for them to be better."

retrieved from: http://www.lyricinterpretations.com/jefferson-airplane/white-rabbit

The lyrics of the song draw from imagery from lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland story and the sequal through the looking glass. The song talks about drinking weird liquids and taking pills and smoking which are imagery displayed in alice in wonderland. It suggests that it talks about hallucinating from all the drugs taken. The song even references characters such as the doormouse, the smoking catepillar and the red queen.
The artist related the lyrics to the story alice in wonderland in particular because it was a childhood story that they remembered.
The band often creates songs suggesting the hallucinations from drugs as it was quite common for bands to be involved with drugs. The band songs seem to have a relationship to pop culture.