War (universal): "Just a Dream"

Introduction

The next song I'm writing about is Carrie Underwood's "Just a Dream" (2007). It's definitely a more current song than any of the other ones I've done. The music video is also very beautiful. I don't want to spoil too much of it by explaining the full context now, so watch the video and then I'll write more.

Context

Okay, so now that you've figured out what's going on in this song, here's where the idea came from: "Hillary [one of the writers] had this thing in her head, 'Wouldn’t it be great to write a song about a woman where you think through the song that she’s getting married but then you suddenly realise [sic] she’s actually going to her husband’s funeral.' That’s how it started" (Wikipedia).

The Wikipedia entry that lists songs about war classifies this song under "General Peace." My opinion, however, is that it should be classified with current events, like the war in Iraq, because of when it was written. It doesn't specifically say anything in the song about the time period, but it was released in the context of what's currently going on. However, I do think it applies to pretty much all seasons of war.

Commentary

I think this song is great because it really allows you to feel the emotion that the woman in the song is going through. Especially watching the video, this comes across very strongly. I can clearly imagine that feeling of something so terrible happening, something that can't be taken back. No wonder she wants to think that it's "just a dream" - she hopes it's only a nightmare that she'll wake up from. You can hear and see her desperation as she sings, "This can't be happening to me." But underneath her denial she knows it's true.

This song reminds me of the Dolly Parton song I wrote about ("Daddy Won't Be Home Anymore"). The big difference, though, is that in Dolly's song, she and her husband had already been married for years, had kids, etc. They already had spent part of their lives together. In Carrie's song, she's not going to be able to experience that ("now I'll never know"). They either just got married or are still engaged, and all she has left are dreams of what they could have had.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anti-war_songs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_a_Dream_(Carrie_Underwood_song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLntFKtR66g