Patrícia BÉRTOLI-DUTRA
Cristiane M. BISSACO
(PUC-SP / UNITOLEDO)

ABSTRACT:This research aim was to find out the most frequent Themes in the songs of the Irish pop music band U2, as well how such Themes reflect the overall message in the lyrics, as perceived by Brazilian listeners. We hypothesized that the social messages presumably present in their songs would be encoded in the Themes. Thematic analysis was conducted with the aim of finding the most recurrent Themes. We analyzed Themes in 83 U2 songs. Subsequently, the lyrics were submitted to commentary by undergraduate students majoring in English. They were asked to read the song lyrics and categorize them in five main message topics: socio-political, love (man/woman), religion, existentialism (philosophical issues) and homage. The students’ comments were then compared to the Thematic analysis in order to see to what extent the Themes reflected the main message topics identified by the students.

KEY-WORDS: Theme, song Lyrics, message