No Love for Shinedown
Will there ever be love for performers of rock music? Every time there is news of a relationship involving someone famous in the world of rock, why is it always negative? Will there ever be an article with the headline, "Rocker Celebrates 50th Wedding Anniversary?" The majority of songs heard in rock that involve love are always negative or promote relationships in a negative way.
When listening to Shinedown's CD Leave a whisper we notice that they are no different when singing about the wonderful world of relationships. From "Better Version" to "No More Love" it seems as if every song about relationships has nothing nice to say about them. This makes us think that the songs were for entertainment only and didn't express the band member's true feelings. While doing research about the songs, several interviews with Brent Smith were found that revealed his songs as more then mere entertainment.
Leave a Whisper
Rock band Shinedown performing at a concert.
Us and Them (Shinedown album)In the first interview by Meg Enos, Brent stated, "When I'm writing, I'm only writing about what I've been through" (Enos, par. 22). In the other interview by Rod Harmon, "Smith readily admits his songs are based on personal experience" (Harmon, par. 14). After reading these articles we realize that Smith doesn't just write songs to entertain. He writes what he feels as well as what he has experienced in life. Leave a Whisper often focuses on relationships. We get the feeling they are not about love, but pain.
"No More Love" is the first song on Leave a Whisper to show Brent's negative experiences with love. He sings, "This made up army you fight in your head/destroyed your worth and pronounced you dead" (11-12). This shows that the person in his life at that time was having an internal...