CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the writer presents topics such as: background of study, statement of problem, purpose of study, significance of study, scope and limitation, and definition of key terms. Each section is presented as follows. 1.1 Background of Study Art is a free mind owned by human being which produces an extraordinary artwork. Besides, art is an amazing imagination which plays mind beyond human logic. This is relevant to Sunardi s ideas. He says that the art creating a way to peek at the infinite, the infinite of presenting with the finite. The formula is really just to say what we often call 'imagination'. Art gives us the space to go beyond the art room itself (2012: 14). Music is an art that changes the world. Music is a part of human life as an inspiration and appreciation of the works of art which produces in beautiful and amazing in the form of a beautiful melody and harmony. Therefore, music became the wonderful of many people. Hornby (in Mahzumi: 2006) states that song lyric is a short poem and number of verses set to music intended to be sung. Based on the statement, the lyrics of song are categorized into poem. It is a medium to express the author s imagination, illusion, idea, feeling and message to the people. 1
Message is delivered in the form of something that the content or the meaning of both orally and in writing. View of song, message is something that reflects what the singer wants to express to the listener of his/her song. Zain is one of the famous singers in the world nowadays. He (born March 16, 1981) is a Swedish R&B singer and songwriter. Zain is the new star of Modern Islamic Music with his meaningful songs that aim to inspire and entertain people and send a message of peace and hope to the world. Besides, he is a music producer of Lebanese origin, that concern for religion, peace, love, support and activists who save the world and give sympathy for the supremacy of freedom and human right. Zain s debut album Thank You Allah is his first album was released at 1 November 2009 and consisted of 13 songs with an exclusive Percussion Version and a French Version released shortly afterwards. He sings mainly in English, but also, amongst others, in French, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish and Malay. Each of this songs mostly tells about religion. In early March 2010, his debut album Thank You Allah (released by Awakening Records) was the No.1 highest selling album on Amazon (in the world music section). Besides, Zain s debut album Thank You Allah reached the number 1 spot on Amazon s World Music Chart and number 9 on the R&B charts. The social network at Facebook page with over 2 million Zain s fans comments about song lyrics Insha Allah (God Will) and For the Rest of My Life at Maher s debut album Thank You Allah. Most of them say this songs have soul messages because they are very touching our deepest heart. Besides, this songs are very interesting because the song lyrics Insha Allah 2
(God Will) and For the Rest of My Life have beautiful lyric, tune and amazing messages that make us inspire every time we feel down. These songs makes us keep smile and spirit to face life so that we can have optimist personality every time. In other words, this songs invites us to do the best in our life with positive way so than we can have the best personality and useful human. Then song lyrics Insha Allah (God Will) and For the Rest of My Life could be motivate people to act like Fastabiqul Khairat (Race to Virtue) in the world and after here. Some research have been conducted to reveal cohesion devises and meaning in songs. Umar (2010), in his research showed that the message of song lyric Black or White talks about harmony despite many differences, which is the meaning inside the song that is racial harmony in the world. Besides, every different individual or race is expected to colour the life of human being all over the world, where there is no superiority upon particular race or nation and all people can live in unity. In this study, the reseacher performed several steps. First, he read carefully and understands every word listed in the text of the song. Then he must rephrase sentences that were difficult to understand. After that, he identified the general and detail meaning of the song contained in the lyrics before finally draw conclusions about the message contained in the song. Hence, understanding the general and detail meaning of the song in literary works is important because he would be able to understand every message contained in literary works. Therefore, the writer was inspired to conduct a study of analyzing the messages in the lyrics of English song since many people like singing song 3
just for fun without knowing the meaning. At this time, the writer took Zain s songs in Insha Allah (God Will) and For the Rest of My Life as the objects. Besides, these songs are interesting and inspiring because the messages behind each stanza are very touching, motivating and have deep meaning about optimist. That is the reason why the writer is interested in finding the general and detail meaning of Zain s songs and messages behind the songs. This study focuses on the Insha Allah (God Will) and For the Rest of My Life lyrics of Zain s album Thank You Allah. Additionally, the contrubution of this study to the languange learning is that the students or readers are able to learn English more easily. Both in speaking skill, listening, reading and writing. Besides, the students may spur more enthusiasm to learn English and to learn because it is done with pleasure. 1.2 Statement of the Problem Three problems are going to be accomplished in this study, namely: 1. What is the general meaning of Maher Zain s song lyrics Insha Allah (God Will) and For the Rest of My Life? 2. What is the detail meaning of Maher Zain s song lyrics Insha Allah (God Will) and For the Rest of My Life? 3. What are the messages of Maher Zain s song lyrics Insha Allah (God Will) and For the Rest of My Life? 4
1.3 Purpose of the Study The purposes of the study are focused to answer all of the research problems above, they are : 1. Describing the general meaning of Maher Zain s song lyrics Insha Allah (God Will) and For the Rest of My Life. 2. Describing the detail meaning of Maher Zain s song lyrics Insha Allah (God Will) and For the Rest of My Life. 3. Describing the messages of Maher Zain s song lyric Insha Allah (God Will) and For the Rest of My Life. 1.4 Significance of the Study The writer of the thesis will give a brief explanation about the significance of the study for English students, in which song can develop their ability in studying English. In this case, English popular songs will be media to improve language learning skill, such as; listening, writing, vocabulary, and speaking. Beside for the readers, in the main time, this study can be complementary information about the poetic value and meaning of literary works especially in Maher Zain`s song lyrics. For the literary works, a song in lyrical poetry is a valuable work of literature. Investigation in the lyrics work will contribute to the understanding of various form of literature. Meanwhile, for the learning aspect, this research can makes students or readers are able to learn English more easily. Both in speaking skill, listening, 5
reading and writing. Besides, the students may spur more enthusiasm to learn English and to learn because it is done with pleasure. Finally, it is hoped that this study will give useful information to all readers and will help to analyze a song. 1.5 Scope and Limitation Music consists of many elements that can be analyzed such as melody, rhythm, sound, lyric, etc. For the writer of this thesis; it is difficult to analyze the whole elements as stated above because it will spend much time and energy. The writer of this thesis focuses on the analysis of the messages in the song lyrics Insha Allah (God Will) and For the Rest of My Life. In other words, this study is limited to the messages found in Maher Zain s song lyrics Insha Allah (God Will) and for The Rest of My Life. 1.6 Definition of Key Terms In this study, the writer uses several terms. For the clarity sake, those are defined as follows: 1. Study is analyzing the message in Maher Zain s Song Insha Allah (God Will) and For the Rest of My Life. 6
2. Messages are something that reflects what the singer wants to express to the listener of his song. 3. Song is a lyric poem adapted to musical expression. Song lyrics are usually short, simple, sensuous and emotional. There is no satisfactory classification for the various types can be divided, for instance, a variety of working songs, dance songs, love songs, war songs, play songs, etc 4. Lyric is any fairly short poem, consisting of the utterance by a single speaker, who expresses a state of mind or a process of perception, thought, and feeling (Abram: 1999:146). 5. Insha Allah (God Will) and for the Rest of My Life are an titles of Maher Zain s song which is discussed in this study. These songs were released in 2009. 7