Take, for example, Mark Knopfler’s “Done with Bonaparte”, which is sung from the perspective of a soldier in Napoleon’s army.
So, if you want to say something like “The x of the song is a soldier in Napoleon’s army”, what would x be?
It can’t be singer, since Mark Knopfler isn’t a soldier in Napoleon’s army. Narrator doesn’t seem quite right, since he’s not really narrating a story. I can’t think of any better terms though.
Don’t know if there’s perfect word for it. I would probably just say, “The perspective of this song is that of a solider in Napoleon’s Army.”
Protagonist?
It’s not from the Author’s perspective, but it’s still a first person perspective of (whoever it is).
Narrator?
That was my first thought.
Singer. “The singer of the song is a Napoleonic soldier.”
I would say “narrator” or “protagonist”, the same as for a poem or story. I’ve also seen “singer” used. So I think you’d be fine with any of the three.
The trouble with ‘protagonist’ is that it doesn’t say anything about the song’s point of view. Who’s the protagonist in “She Loves You”? (I’d say “she” is, in this case, whereas the song’s POV is that of friend of both romantic leads.)
‘Singer’ is closer, but too ambiguous, IMO. I know it’s not likely that the actual singer of the song is a Napoleonic soldier, but in a less obvious case, you’d want to be much clearer. E.g., “the singer of ‘Only the Good Die Young’ is a cocky wannabe seducer of young Catholic virgins.” Probably a good idea to be waaay more clear that you’re not actually referring to Billy Joel.
So I think ‘narrator’ is the best bet. It doesn’t expressly state POV, but it’s much clearer than either of the above.
I seem to recall, from high school English, the word “speaker” being used for the person from whose perspective a poem is written, but of course songs aren’t spoken.
Ray Davies uses the term “singer” in this meaning (in his liner notes to Other People’s Lives), and I know of at least one singer/songwriter who uses the term “narrator” for the character from whose viewpoint he sings.
[quote=“1920s Style “Death Ray”, post:6, topic:526057”]
That was my first thought.
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me three…
That’s an occupational hazard of any artist, but especially songwriters and poets. My wife once wrote a poem imagining her mother’s death. She would read it and the room would get deathly quiet and she’d have to tell them that her mother was still alive.
People tend to think the first person is the person speaking. You had the same issue with a few rappers who got condemned because they talked about killing the police while singing a song, though it was clear they were speaking as another persona.
In Swedish it’s common to use the expression “the I” or “the I person” to describe the person whose perspective the story is told from. I haven’t realized how handy that is until I saw this thread. It makes it easy to distinguish between the narrator and the… well, the I.
If the song lyrics are written in the first-person perspective then “narrator” does explicitly refer to the person from whose point of view the story is being told.
Oh certainly, if you already know the song is in the first person. I just meant that if the listener to whom you’re describing the song hasn’t actually heard the song, you might need to be more specific, as in “the narrator of this first-person song” or whatever. Because simply saying “the narrator” doesn’t impart this info.
Some people might find “narrator” to be a more remote term for a disinterested third party, a sort of “once upon a time” storytelling figure. Like the guy telling us about Johnny challenging the Devil to a fiddle match down in Georgia, or that other dude talking about Tony at the Copa.
(Sorry for the ancient references; I don’t listen to modern pop music.)
How is this actually rendered in Swedish? Den Jag?
Pretty much this, with the addition of, if you recite a poem, that has a different perspective than your own, it remains “speaker”.
As this has not caused trouble for most people, I don’t see why “singer” can’t follow suit.
Then again, you could have the opposite, where the actual person in present singing wishes to sing a song to reflect his or her views, with that of the “singer”.
Conan and Freebird.
When my english lit class was studying poetry, we used ‘persona’. I suppose it would be the same for songs.
I think “singer” could be very confusing. I can see that you could use it this way, but it most obviously refers to the actual person singing. “Narrator” suggests someone telling a story, which may not be the case.
How about “first-person protagonist”? (Not one word, I know, but there may not be one entirely suitable word.)
Maybe “persona” is right, but I think I have a pretty good vocabulary, and I did not know it could be used to mean that.
Jaget. The determiner is tacked on at the end of the noun.