Chapter Iii Method of Study

CHAPTER III METHOD OF STUDY

This study is, in general, aimed to describe how the song lyrics construct the identity of Avril Lavigne and to find out the types of processes predominantly used in the song lyrics in constructing her. This chapter describes the method of study of the research. It includes research method, data collection and the framework of the data analysis.

3.1 Research Method

As it is explained before in Chapter I, the systemic functional linguistic (The theory of transitivity) is applied as the tool of analysis to analyze the verbal text, and theories of reading images are applied to analyze the visual text. This study also uses framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) for analyzing the texts.

In the level of verbal text analysis, the focus is in the linguistic feature of the text. The linguistic features that can be analyzed from a text are transitivity, voice, mood, tense/modality, theme, lexical choices, and Pronoun/noun. This study, however, is focused only on the analysis of transitivity. The use of transitivity analysis, according to Janks (2005), can reveal the way(s) the text construct certain entity. The analysis of Pronoun/noun, in addition, will describe the representation of social actors (Fairclough, 2003). These types of analysis are considered suitable to answer the research questions stated above.

In the level of visual text analysis, on the other hand, the focus is on the images which are presented in Avril Lavigne album cover. The analysis is relied on the work of Kress and Van Leeuwen (1990) which allows precise description and interpretation of visual data. In revealing the representations depicted in the text, the images are to be analyzed using the visual system of transitivity. The data found from the linguistic and visual transitivity analysis of the text (description) will serve as the foundation for the process analysis (interpretation) and social analysis (explanation).

3.2 Data Collection

To find out the identity construction which is raised through the lyrics, the three albums of Avril Lavigne song lyrics were collected. Then, each album was taken 2 song lyrics as sample and so there are 6 songs lyrics to be analyzed in the present study.

The most significant characteristic that must be completed by these lyrics is that they should be written by Avril Lavigne during her adolescent period (because she undergo her music carrier from the first album until third the album when she changes from adolescent into maturity) since in the psychological perspective; adolescent period is the time when someone begins to establish his self identity

(Stone and Chruch 1957).

For that reason above, all song lyrics from Avril Lavigne albums were collected as the source of the data. It turned out that some songs’ writers other than

Avril Lavigne wrote several of Avril Lavigne song lyrics. In fact, there are so many lyrics that are written by Avril Lavigne herself. Thus, taking 6 of Avril Lavigne song lyrics would be regarded representative to generalize the findings of the study considering the fact mentioned.

The 6 of Avril Lavigne’s song lyrics published in different albums and different year of publications were collected as the source of the data. The titles of the lyrics are listed in the following tables:

Titles Albums The year of publication

I am with you Let go 2002

Anything but ordinary Let go 2002

How does it feel? Under My Skin 2004

Fall to pieces Under My Skin 2004

Contagious The Best Damn Thing 2007

Hot The Best Damn Thing 2007

Then, the album covers from each album also were collected as the source of the data that useful to be analyzed by using visual text analysis (reading image). Here the following albums cover of each album of Avril Lavigne:

Figure 3.1: 1st Album Cover: Let Go (2002)

Figure 3.2: 2nd Album Cover: Under My Skin (2004)

Figure 3.3: 3rd Album Cover: The Best Damn Thing (2007)

The questionnaire is also given to the respondents as a tool for collecting the data. The respondents are the people who are Avril Lavigne’s big fans or at least they know about Avril Lavigne’s music career. The questionnaire given to the respondents is in form of close questionnaire. There are 20 (twenty) questions containing information that is pertained to Avril Lavigne’s music carrier.

3.3 The Framework of the data analysis

When the data was selected and collected, the next step is analyzing it to answer the research question. In analyzing the data obtained from song lyrics texts, the writer followed the following procedures:

1. Identify the clauses that written in the song lyrics and identify which

processes predominantly used in song lyrics of Avril Lavigne albums. And

here is taken as example taking stanza from Avril Lavigne’s song lyrics:

I am with you Lyric by: Avril Lavigne Album : Let Go I (am) standing on a bridge Actor Pr: material Circumstances: location

I (am) waiting in the dark Actor Pr: material Circumstances: location

I thought that you’d be here by now Senser Pr: mental Phenomenon

There is nothing but the rain Pr: existential Existent existent

No footsteps On the ground Pr: existential Circumstances: location

I am listening but there is no sounds Behaver Pr: behaviourals Pr: existential Circumstances

(a) From the transitivity analysis above, there is “I” as participant. The lyrics

begin with “I” as participant in every stanza. Material process clauses, Mental

process Existential process and Behavioural process at the clauses were

identified.

(b) There are Material processes in the pieces of stanza of Avril Lavigne’s song

lyrics above. The Material process is related to the process of doing

something real. So, this process involves actors or active participants

(Halliday, 1990, p.231). The participant “I” in the lyrics is doing “standing ”

and “waiting” actions.

I (am) standing on a bridge Actor Pr: material Circumstances: location

I (am) waiting in the dark Actor Pr: material Circumstances: location

kind of process is related to what people thinking and feeling. This process is

not related to physical sense but more about thoughts, feeling and perception.

The participant “I” in the pieces of stanza using the word “thought” to

describe the Mental process. The word “Thought” is categorized as Mental

cognition process, that use verbs of thinking, knowing and understanding

(Halliday in Eggins 2000).

I thought that you’d be here by now Senser Pr: mental Phenomenon

(d) There is also Existential process in the pieces stanza of Avril Lavigne’s song

lyrics. This kind of process is just to complete the subject by using the word

there was and there is in the texts.

There is Nothing but the rain Pr: existential Existent existent

(e) The last process that found in the pieces stanza is Behavioural process. This kind of process is between Mental and Material process (Eggins 2000). There is word

“listening” , and listening is categorized as Behavioural process.

I am listening but there is no sounds Behaver Pr: behaviourals Pr: existential Existent

2. The second steps are identifying the experiential meaning using visual text

analysis to reveal visual representation and what ideology lies behind Avril

Lavigne album cover introduced by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1990).

Picture 1: 1st Album Cover: Let Go (2002)

Images play an important role in terms of advertisements and public

communications. Thus, the album cover is the significant medium when the

singer released their songs because it enhanced what the singer tries to convey

in their songs lyrics texts. In this visual text above (the Picture 1) we can

recognize several processes:

(a) A structured analytical descriptive process in which the woman (Avril

Lavigne) is Carrier in relation to a Possessive Attribute, black sport shoe. This

indicates that the person in the Picture 1 is a tomboy girl.

(b) At the level of symbolic process, we can see that the woman in the Picture

1 is wearing black outfit from top to toe. The color of black here dominates all

of the things surrounding. Thus, we could interpret this Picture by saying:

“this woman is sit on pins and needles”.

front of a crowded situation because behind her is a car and walking man, the

Goal. We could interpret that even in the world so crowded the woman still

feels all alone and need someone to carry on.

3. The third step is analyzing the questionnaire gave to the respondents. Here is

the example:

The following table is the percentage of question number one (1) identified

from the questionnaire given to the respondents:

Question No.1 Answer: A Answer: B Answer: C Answer: D

13-15 years 16-20 years 21-35 years 26 years old-

old old old above

How old are you? 10 % 40 % 40 % 10 % You= respondent

The table above shows that most of Avril Lavigne fans are in the age of 16-20 and 21-35 because there is equal percentages both of them. The age of 16-20 presumably considered as a transition from adolescent period to adult period. Thus, we could say that this period is recognized as the time when the people looking for their identity and also something new. However, the age of 21-35 is the period when people begin to be mature and have more experiences. There are also Avril Lavigne fans in the age of 13-15 and 26-above in the table. Thus, from that phenomenon we could say that the listeners of Avril Lavigne are from all ages.