Independence Day

In most popular music these days there isn't much meaning in the lyrics, but I recently found an older song by Martina McBride called “Independence Day.” It has a great story line. It's about an abusive husband who beats on his wife and children. The wife then takes matters into her own hands and sends the kids to the fair on Independence Day. She then burns their house down with her, and her husband inside of it. As you can see, the story line is quite different from many others.

There is one main conflict throughout the whole song, and that is the abusive dad and how his actions affect his family.  It is an example of a person vs. person conflict. In the song Martina McBride sings, "She tried to pretend he wasn't drinkin' again, but daddy'd left the proof on her cheek," and this proves that the father was an alcoholic. This is probably leading up from depression, genetics, or a bad childhood. Because of one of these or any other number of reasons, he released his anger through hurting his family. Sadly, this is a problem everywhere. Many men and women are abusive to others. This song is just another common example when it comes to the conflict.

In the song “Independence Day”, there is a very clear resolution. In the song Martina sings, "Well, she lit up the sky that fourth of July, by the time that the firemen come, they just put out the flames, and took down some names, and send me to the county home". By that, she means that her mother burned down the house while the children were away. If you go deeper, you'll find out what was going through the mother's head. This crime was also technically suicidal. If her life was that bad that she would rather lose everything she has—including her life—instead of just going to the cops, the father must have been raging on her quite often. In the last part of the song it says, "Now I ain't sayin' it's right or it's wrong, but maybe it's the only way". By that, Martina is saying that the resolution for this isn't right because the mother killed her husband, but it isn't wrong either, because he abused her daily.

This story is like many others, except for the burning house part. There was a book released called "The Burning Bed" which was later made into a movie that is based off of the Burning Bed incident in Dansville, Michigan. It is the exact same story as the song. Many say that the song is based off of the Burning Bed incident. 

Even though lots of popular songs don't have meaning these days, this one does--especially when it comes to conflict and resolution. Maybe burning down the house wasn't the best idea, but when you're being physically abused, your options are limited.