American Pie Analysis
... It is a little song titled American Pie. ... folklore as hot dogs and apple pie. It is amazing how long Don McLean has kept secret the true meaning of American Pie, and perhaps it is his claim to fame. ... I believe, along with many other people that McLean relates clearly a defining moment in American history. ... ” It is across this decade that American cultural changed radically, passing from the relative optimism and conformity of the 1950s and early 1960s to the rejection of these values by the various political and social movements of the mid and late 1960s. Coming as it did near the end of this turbulent era, American Pie speaks about the precarious position we found ourselves in, as social experiments of the 1960s began collapsing under the weight of their dreams, while the quieter, hopeful world we grew up in faded into memory. ... “Bye Bye Miss American Pie” could simply be saying farewell to all the innocence of the 1950s. ... ” When we are asked if we remember what was revealed the day the music died, we realize that with the death of these American idols, America finally faced what had been a long time coming, a cultural revolution. ... In identifying its frequently overlooked theme of America’s lost innocence, the meaning of American Pie becomes more evident, as its’ cast of characters are better placed in their historical and cultural context. ... As American culture was transformed through the decade of the 1960s, the popular entertainment of the day registered these changes, just as it always has.