Eye of the Empire State.

For my eighties song I have chosen “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor, which was released in 1982. I chose this song for a number of reasons, one of which being its link to the film Rocky III which the song was originally written for as the producers were unable to gain the rights to play Queen’s track “Another One Bites the Dust”. Although the Rocky film series began in the 1970’s I feel it’s a significant part of the eighties, mostly due to its iconic soundtrack. The song was hugely successful, receiving a great amount of airplay and most importantly a significant amount of plays on MTV, which was the channel of the 80s. As well as this it went on to be nominated for an Academy Award, and won a Grammy.
I believe this song has a cultural significance because it is still such a popular song today. It is frequently played at sporting events, and on television shows such as Supernatural and The Simpsons. It has even been used in Spongebob Squarepants. Much to my distaste, it has been used in several Republican Party rallies such as John McCain’s 2008 Presidential Campaign.




For my current song, I chose Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. Released in 2009, it is still a very current song that gets frequent airplay on radio and music channels. With two different versions, one without Jay-Z, it is a song that has large appeal to many different audiences and has deeper meaning to those of New York and those visiting. The cultural significance of this song really came to me while I was in Australia. While watching Australian X-Factor, the boy’s category was taken to New York for the “Judges Houses” part of the show. A clip was shown of the contestants walking around New York singing this song. Much like the Phantom Planets song “California” which was the theme song for The O.C., this is clearly a song people of our generation think of when they go to New York or for some, even think about it. This could be partly down to the use of images in the video. The use of black and white film makes the city seem more spectacular and different to what we are used to seeing. The song has also been covered by the TV phenomenon Glee. The song also has an element of patriotism, something very prominent in the American Culture. This comes from its origin as the original writers of the song are both Brooklyn natives who wrote the song while homesick on a trip abroad. This song most defiantly reminds me of the 21st century, and will be a song I remember in years to come.