“Jack and Diane”, a song by Mellencamp John Cougar, was written to explain true love between two sixteen-year-old teenagers. This song tells a short story about two normal kids and what goes on during their everyday life. A ballad is a song that tells a story. “Jack and Diane” clearly fits the definition of a ballad. Since ballads ere the poetry of the people, just as popular music is today, their subjects were predictably popular: domestic tragedy, false love, true love, the absurdity of husband-wife relationships, and the supernatural. Unlike today’s music, the ballads were not copyrighted by a singer, but were passed down orally from singer to singer. Using a strong beat and repetition, the ballads were a gift of story passed from performer to performer, from generation to generation.
“Oh yeah life goes on, Long after the thrill of living is gone…” This quote comes from Jack wanting something from Diane, but Diane is giving life lessons. Do what you want to do now because long after the thrill of living is gone. The content of this song deals with true love and absurd relationships. “Two American kids grown up in the heartland…” These two kids show each other’s affection when around each other. Ja

A refrain is a repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines. The use of the refrain contributed to the song’s rhythm and often reinforced its theme. In this modern song the refrain or chorus talks about how life goes on, and long after the thrill of living is gone. This part helps the song flow from one verse to the next, often helping an artist who sang from memory and often improvised. Flowing from one verse to the next with the refrain in between gives the song a strong beat/rhyme. The beat is slow but strong since the artist is explaining the story throughout the song. The irregular rhyme scheme gives the song little to know rhythm in between each chorus. These devices are similar to traditional ballads based on how the story is being told inside the ballad. When the refrain comes there is a pause that lets the reader think back to what the artist just talked about, and than realize that life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone.

This modern song tells its story in between each refrain, bringing the refrain its reality based idea. I like the fact that this song tells a story with an irregular rhyme scheme. Most modern songs today tell stories insides its rhyme scheme. This song was different in its scheme and told more of a story. “Changes come around real soon, make us women and men…” This part is interesting becaus