New-York - U2

                     “New York”-U2

This song was written in 2000 and sung by the iconic group U2. This song is about how the city of New York is filled with confusion, doubt, sin, and many different ethnic groups. Despite all this, the people there wouldn't live anywhere else. She overflows of cultural references directed in generally to the immigrants, and it gives us an idea of the dark sides of the city and other many meanings, which are usually not remarked, that I’m going to explain.

PS: We chose one snapshot, that we think is the most describing one, from the video for each paragraph.

In the lyrics, I quote: ‘In New York freedom looks like

                                       Too many choices

                                       In New York I found a friend

                                       To drown out the other voices”

U2 are saying, that in New York there are different type of freedom that not everyone pays attention to, since in the society you got different categories of people, and there are clearly saying that they have to find other ways to try to forget to real problems that are present in New York. We could connect these lines to the snapshot in the video in which we can sight the statue of liberty that is rolling away from the camera, which could means that this iconic monument of New York isn’t accessible to everyone, and in this case to the immigrants and that the American dream is almost despairing. 

[pic 1]

I quote from the lyrics: ‘Voices on a cell phone

                                           Voices from home

                                           Voices through the hard sell

                                           Voices down a stairwell

                                                        In New York

                                           Just got a place in New York’        

This part is the sequence of the previous lines, in which U2 were talking about voices that people doesn’t want to hear but to forget. Here are exhibited the real routine of a major part of the inhabitants of New York (we could suppose that it is the message that U2 are transmitting) but the important for these people is just to got a place in the big Apple even if there are many consequences that they have to face every day. But to got a place in New York isn’t easy, and that’s why U2 are insisting on it considering the fact that many immigrants cannot access to the city of their dream, escaping from their past, and that why we can take a look a the snapshot, which is a getaway, with the illuminated signs on which are written “No cash” meaning that not every driver has the possibility to get in New York since only the drivers having a credit card or a pass can get in New York. 

[pic 2]

I quote from the lyrics. ‘In New York summers get hot

                                           Well into the hundreds

                                           You can walk around the block

                                           Without a change of clothing’

In New York, when it is summer, the temperature is so hot that sometimes it reaches 40/50 degrees, but U2 are saying that even if summer get so hot, you can still walk without sweating since there are so many skyscrapers which are standing one next to the other so they hide the sunlight. In the video, In a snapshot, a building was seen which didn't represent the typical New York, due to the fact that we don't have the usual skyscrapers, but a triangular shaped building. The building looks more French, and we have the impression that NY is losing its uniqueness. This building is called the Flatiron building, meaning that it was the first building built in a corner.[pic 3]

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