Preview

An Analysis Of Hozier's Take Me To Church

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
520 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
An Analysis Of Hozier's Take Me To Church
When Take Me to Church hit US airwaves in 2014 it took the nation by storm. Peaking as high as the number two on Billboard’s top 100 and number twelve on Billboard’s , the song certainly resonated with Americans. Many wonder where Hozier got his inspiration from as the song grew bigger and bigger. Some will say his inspiration comes from his love of a woman and is comparing her to a spiritual experience. Others will say it’s simply mocking religion as a whole due to his religious beliefs. If you analyze the song, its lyrics, the music video, and even the artist background; you'll discover that Hozier’s Take Me to the Church is more than a lover’s song – you’ll see it as a protest song, one that stands with the members of the LGBT community. …show more content…
In a Rolling Stone article by Andy Greene, Hozier went on to expand on how his upbringing and living in Ireland has inspired the hit song saying, "Growing up, I always say the hypocrisy of the Catholic church. The history speaks for itself and I grew incredibly frustrated and angry. I essentially just put that into my words (Greene, 6)." The particular scandal that inspired Hozier to write his chart topping hit was the Irish Child Abuse Commission 2009 when the Commission said in its harrowing five-volume report, that orphanages and industrial schools in 20th century Ireland were places of fear, neglect, and endemic sexual abuse (Gergely, 8). In these reports were multiple accounts of homosexual encounters between those high in the church and children. Th is the hypocrisy Hozier speaks of. How can a religion condemn homosexual practices when their pastors and people in higher power are doing the same thing in secret? And why should someone keep their love a secret? Hozier went on to find an anti-LGBT protest in Russia as another inspiration for another part of Take Me to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Oak Valley United Methodist Church is a rural, small membership congregation located in Tallassee, Alabama. In the two commentaries below are the order of worship services conducted on a normal Sunday and Holy Communion. The services are based on the United Methodist Lectionary C format with some freedom enlisted in content. Programs are printed each Sunday and a copy is presented to each congregant. Oak Valley purchases the lectionary inserts from Cokesbury Publishing and these are placed in the fold of the programs.…

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Song Analysis: Bailando

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I wanna be contigo, and live contigo, and dance contigo, para have contigo, una noche loca”. This is the chorus to Enrique Iglesias’ billboard hit, Bailando. If you listen to the song you can hear the rhythm of reggae, hip hop, Spanish flamenco, reggaeton among a cacophony of other sound. I hear beauty, see color and feel joy when I listen to this song. The success of this song according to Gary Trust, associate director of charts is due to “the fact that a quarter of this country’s youths are Latino. He comments that the market is so diverse that Latino artists don’t have to pick just one language or two.…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    These labelled ‘protest songs’ became anthems for the American civil-right anti-war movements. His songs, and lyrics, have incorporated various political, social, and philosophical influences and appealed to the generation’s counterculture of the time.…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Some common themes that Chrysanthemum deals with are overcoming differences, bullying in school, and self-esteem issues. This picture book is easy for children to relate to because they have all either felt these different feelings. The emotional themes I want to discuss about this book are excited and loneliness. With a new environment, new people and friends, a lot of the times students will become lonely because they do not feel like they fit in or they do not know how to socialize with their friends. In my observation, there is a student name Ryan and he feels very lonely everyday because he does not know how to talk to his friends in his table because he feels shy. He would not talk to anyone during dancing time, work time, lunch and snack…

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    From Eden Poem Analysis

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages

    An allusion is an indirect or passing reference to something else that a writer or an artist can take advantage of to portray a new message through someone else’s story. Hozier uses the well-known biblical tale of Adam and Eve to create a familiar medium between the artist and listener. In the song, the singer compares himself to the snake from Eden, the woman he sings about represents Eve, and the other men represent Adam. This is all proven throughout multiple lines in the lyrics, such as, “Innocence died screaming, honey, ask me I should know/ I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door” (11-12). The “innocence died screaming” references Eve losing her innocence once she took a bite from the apple that the snake offered her. In this case, the speaker to the woman’s innocence possibly sexually or romantically. “I slithered here from Eden” means that the singer tempted her to do what she was taught not to do in the past. Also, when Hozier sings “Oh, what a sin,” the idea of a biblical allusion is stressed. These lines bring the rest of the lyrics into context and make a connection that is familiar to the listener to better explain the…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Joel Roy Speech

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This past Sunday I went to Snyder Moral Baptist church to hear the music of Joel Raney. Joel is a very emotional performer I could tell he is very in touch with God. While I was there I learned that he began his career in Alabama by cutting his teeth on hymns and gospel music. He attended Juilliard School in NYC where he also worked in musical theater for a time. Listening to Joel’s music made me feel closer to God, he made me think about the finer things in life through his music. Like having a close relationship with God and letting God know I am what he has made me to be. He made me think about my faith a lot more about how being a Christian isn’t all about showing up at church. Being a Christian is…

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As well as raising awareness for the equality of homosexuals, the song also points out the fact that the word ‘’gay’’ is used as a derogative term in not just the music industry but also in the world, that the word “gay” has lost all its original meaning and is instead used in our everyday vocabulary because it has been embedded in our culture. (“We become so numb to what we’re saying” )…

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of my favorite songs, recently, has been J. Cole’s Love Yourz. This song relate to feelings that we can all relate to, feelings of envy and jealously. We often look at the life styles of those around us, and we see what they have, and we compare ourselves to them. We feel that if we don’t live a certain life style or drive a fancy car that we are not living a purposeful life. We fall into the trap of focusing on others blessings and ignoring our own. From personal experience I have done this. I have looked at the blessing of others, and wondered why my blessings were not the same.…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles dickens first published by Chapman and Hall on 19 December 1843 and adapted for film in 1938. The film tells the story of bitter old miserly protagonist Ebenezer scrooge who does not give to others and is only concerned with his own money and affairs. The film tells of his transformation resulting from ghost visits by Jacob Marley and the ghosts of Christmases’ past, present and future. As the years go by, he holds true to his promise and honors Christmas with all his heart.…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    J. Tillman

    • 1930 Words
    • 6 Pages

    So I guess I wasn’t really surprised last year, when I cyber stalked my new favourite musician and discovered that he, like my mother, had grown up in a hardcore Evangelical household. Unlike my mother, Joshua Tillman was born in Rockville, Maryland, which doesn’t tempt children with sin in the same way a big city like Toronto can. He was so isolated, that in 1991, at the age of ten, Tillman announced that he wanted to be a pastor, simply because that was the closest thing he knew to performing.…

    • 1930 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In a time where the majority of music is about making money, doing drugs, or having sex, it is complicated for music concerning other topics to gain attention. However, there are always a few jewels that beat the odds. Lecrae, the stage name of a Christian lyricist who piously centers his music around the teachings of Jesus Christ, is one of those jewels. In all of his songs there are explicit references that all of his energy is channeled into doing the will of God. Typically Lecrae’s genre of music is overlooked by the majority population because it lacks the pizazz in the beat that popular music has. As a result of this millions of people get deprived of the content of Christian music which has the power to change one’s perspectives for the better. Fortunately, Lecrae is one of very few artists who are able to blend the attractive rhythms of pop music with lyrics composed of the deep Christian concepts. In Lecrae’s “Chase That (Ambition)” the beat of the song alone captures listeners’ attention followed by critical lyrics of Lecrae convincing listeners that satisfaction in life would not be reached by chasing their own desires but by rather chasing to live a life after Jesus Christ.…

    • 1658 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This song that everyone is so willing to place above human lives and our common concerns was never intended to be a fascist stick used to compel, all, to come to attention at the altar of military worship. In fact, just the opposite, liberty, freedom, in the beginning, had been, just that, freedom to pray where you please, or not to pray at all, to believe in what you wish or not to believe at all. We now must all do exactly what is acceptable to the herd or be shamed and ostracized as if to be a heretic to the religion of, Mob...…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ennis, P. H. (1992). The seventh stream: the emergence of rocknroll in American popular music. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press ;…

    • 2721 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Our world has shrunk, and as a result societies are intermingling frequently. In the essay, “I, Too, Sing America” by Julia Alvarez, it discusses the struggles of assimilating into American society, during a time of prejudice against minorities. People face persecution when coming to a new country and it only stops if they assimilate. The tone of “I, Too, Sing America” by Julia Alvarez shifts from depressed and disappointed to hopeful and relaxed enhances the central idea.…

    • 514 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Protest Poetry

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Protest songs are the product of their times. Composers utilise the medium to make meaningful comment on the issues of their era in an attempt to influence viewpoints and bring back change. ‘Dear Mr President’ by Pink criticises the presidency of George w bush and the issues he raised with his decisions. These issues were homosexual rights/ marriage, homelessness, poverty, war/ us. roles, women’s rights and the justice system. “Sunday bloody Sunday’ by U2 criticizes the unnecessary bloodshed that occurred as a result of the violence connected with the Irish troubles on Jan 30, 1972. ‘skyscraper’ by Demi Lovado criticizes the issues of bullying, body image, and self mutilation in today’s society. These songs all express opinions about issues of relevance to their societies for the future. These songs all express opinions about relevance to their societies, ultimately in an attempt to enforce a positive change to the world.…

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays