Pink Floyd, The Wall

At the beginning of the 1980’s, Pink Floyd wrote one of their best-selling works of art with 30 million dollars claimed sales which had made it reach the third highest certified album in USA. After releasing “Dark Side of The Moon”, the band had demonstrated a unique and successful sound impact that made them gain millions of fans across the world. Furthermore, the band exceeded expectations with going beyond the objective way of writing the songs. Pink had took it into a higher level of self-expression by making the writing process of the lyrics more personal and self-centralized.  He described the world through his tough experience. The songs of “The Wall” offers an extraordinary attachment all through the album in which it gives a smooth and coherent transition from a track to another.

This album has been a huge success because it reflects a certain amount of tension against the pain and struggle the world will hand over. It has recorded as sales more than 11.5 million copies around the world and was placed by the Rolling Stone the American pop culture magazine in the range of the first 100 of the 500 greatest albums of all times list, more precisely number 87. The material offered to the fans of Pink Floyd in this album is characterized by story-telling trait. Many songs illustrate perfectly personal miseries and wounds of the songwriter Roger Waters which had made earn a valuable aspect. By this feature the audience will find themselves involved in each and every song because the lyrics express a relatable deep frustration. There is a questioning of the norms and values of the society which oblige us to be reflect and rethink our daily perception of the world. For example, the song entitled “Thin Ice” emphasizes Roger Waters’ childhood during which he found himself being disposed of his father at an early age. This song reflects the ideology of abundance shaped by the memory of his father he barely knew. The fluid use of words had translated his pain into lyrics reachable to the heart and mind of the listener, where both parties find themselves sharing the same heavy load of sad memories.

Pink realized that he was powerless when facing life’s unfairness early in his childhood, as mentioned by the song Another Brick in the Wall Part 1. Brick by brick, he built an inner wall to protect himself from those calamities. Since then, external factors such as his overprotective mother (Mother) and his cheating wife (One of My Turns) heightened his feeling of psychological confinement. Pressure and sentimental disappointments pushed him to contain himself internally. Humans are social beings, as stated by Aristotle. Such behavior is only the beginning of a death spiral which lead to bigger troubles such as bipolar disorders. Therefore, one may wonder if it can be considered as the only way out of the continuous struggle between the individual and the world. There will always be social and personal boundaries built out of dismay and anxiety, but it is our duty as conscious human beings to be consistently fighting to tear them apart and shatter what divides us in order to establish efficient social institutions. The lack of communication between people directly echoes on their abilities to integrate.

            However that same integration is heavily criticized in the album. It clearly expresses its objection and refusal of life responsibilities that society will oblige us to fulfill in a ritual manner. Giving the example of “Another Brick in the Wall Part II”, Roger Waters criticized the educational system that tended to produce typical and similar generations that would only be useful in fulfilling the needs of the manipulative government which treated its citizens like chess pieces. Following the rise of consumerism during the 20th century, social conformism was openly condemned by artists. It is a valid and understandable reaction seeing the consequences social conformity can have. When all what matters becomes the necessity of following our community's trend or our parent's footsteps, it does not allow to explore people's potential since "what's trendy" has already drawn limitation to people's own capabilities. In other words, conform will make "you" happy because it will make "us" happy to see "you" conform. However, it is the same as people digging their own grave since they will be making choices based on what will make the others content rather than themselves. In the end, everyone find themselves unhappy and unfulfilled chasing other's approval for an endless meaningless feeling of satisfactory conformism. So the question remains: How can we make the right decisions to be happy if our parents and the people of our society influence our choices with experiences that made them till now unhappy?

The wall is a revolutionary album since that it’s a combination of wild imagination and concrete experience of pain. This mix is brought together through furious rhythmic sounds and harsh lyrics written by Roger Waters. The name of the album is a description of the delirious idea to separate the band from the audience. It illustrates also the decision of Pink to isolate himself from the world as mean of protection seeing that he had difficult life that made him create his own universe away from any social judgment.