We don’t need no education: A stylistic analysis of Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’

What is it about?

This study is a stylistic analysis of Pink Floyd’s song lyrics Another Brick in the Wall (parts 1 and 2) and the interlude between them The Happiest Days of Our Lives. The aim was to explore various stylistic devices used in the verses to convey the main theme of the lyrics at different levels of language (phonetics/phonology, lexico-grammar, and semantics), and to see how all these stylistic features interact to make the lyrics mean what they do. The study covers different aspects of style including rhythm and rhyme patterns at the level of sounding, tense selection and transitivity structure at the level of wording and grammar, and the use of metaphor and irony at the level of meaning. The analysis shows that the verses make use of a variety of stylistic techniques to communicate the main theme of the lyrics, which is centred around the sense of isolation and abandonment, and to fit into the musical rhythm and feeling connected to it.

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