60 

 RAINBOW Vol. 8 (1) (2019) 

 

Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies 

 

http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/rainbow 

 

 

An Analysis of The Symbol in Westlife’s Song Lyrics 

  

Hanna Eka Rosita,Bambang Purwanto, Mohamad Ikhwan Rosyidi 

 

English Department, Languages and Arts Faculty, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia 

 

Article Info 

________________ 
Article History: 

Received 26 February 2019 

Approved 25 July 2019 

Published 29 July 2019 

________________ 
Keywords: 

Symbol, song, semiotics, 

westlife. 

____________________ 

Abstract
 

___________________________________________________________________ 

Song is one example of literature. Listening song is enjoyable activity, but the listener 

cannot get a pleasure if they do not understand the meaning in the song. Sometimes song 

consists of symbol to describe the meaning of a song. Based on the reason, it brought the 

researcher to find out the symbol and meaning in the song lyrics and to explain the 

impacts of symbol toward real life. This study applied a descriptive qualitative method. 

Through this method the researcher tried to analyze, explain, and find out the meaning 

of the symbols by using Charles Sanders Pierce’s theory. In this case, Charles Sanders 

Pierce developed a triadic model in illustrating the definition of the sign as a symbol. The 

triadic model consisted of three components; representamen, object and interpretant. The 

unit analysis of this study were Westlife’s songs, there were more than 145 songs in 11 

albums. Because of the large amount of the songs, the researcher chose 7 songs from the 

Greatest Album of Westlife that are Swear it Again, If I Let You Go, Flying without 

Wings, I Have a Dream, My Love, Uptown Girl, and You Raise Me Up. This study 

contained 5 kinds of symbols that were symbol of color (12 items), symbol of thing (19 

items), symbol of situation (18 items), symbol of sound (5 items), and symbol of 

imaginative (7 items). Furthermore, the most dominant symbol was symbol of thing. 

Symbols brought some impacts to real life to help the listeners or the readers to 

understand the real meaning toward real life.  

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© 2019 Universitas Negeri Semarang 

 
 Corresponding Author 

E-mail: hannarosita1995@gmail.com 

 

ISSN : 22526323 



 

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61 

 

INTRODUCTION 

 

Literature reflects the various experiences, 

ideas, passions of human beings in their daily life 

that express on several forms and styles of literary 

works. One form of literature is song lyric that is 

a part of the literary work which has the intrinsic 

elements like poetry. It is expressing a person’s 

personal feelings and thoughts, and connected to 

written for, singing. It is also a kind of poetry 

which is generally short and characterized by a 

musical use of language. It is the name for a short 

poem, that is usually divided into stanzas and 

directly expressing the poet’s own thoughts or 

sentiments. It is the word of a song and it is an 

important part in the creation of a song because 

song lyric is a tool that can be used to express 

ideas and feelings of the songwriter. 

In reading the song lyric, someone not only 

read or looked at the words that were lined up in 

the song lyric but he/she also tries to understand 

the meaning of the song lyric. The expression of 

idea in a poem sometimes comes in a form of 

sign, symbol, icon, or even code. Pierce (in 

Hawkes 1978: 126-128) that “sign is something 

for someone to represents something else.” Also, 

there is the ‘typology of signs’: starting from 

Pierce’s trichotomy are symbols, indices, and 

icons. Symbol is a mode in which the signifier 

does not resemble signified but which is 

fundamentally arbitrary or purely convention. 

Icon/iconic is a sign whose signifier bears a close 

resemblance to the thing it refers to. 

Index/indexical is a mode in which the signifier 

is directly connected in some ways (physically or 

causally) to the signified. 

Based on the elaboration above, the 

researcher is interested in conducting a research 

on analysis symbol in Westlife’s song lyrics. The 

researcher will find the symbols in the lyrics of the 

songs then classify each of symbols in order to 

find out the meaning and describe the messages 

to be conveyed. 

With regard to the background of the story 

above, there are several reasons for choosing this 

topic. First, Based on the fact of Semiotics, 

literary work is a (complex) sign system. The sign 

systems consist of symbol, icon, and index. 

Therefore, the researcher wants to analyze the 

symbol in Westlife’s song lyrics. Second, during 

the popularity of Westlife’s songs, which consists 

of some popular songs and they are still 

remembered. However, there are some impacts 

toward real life. 

A review of related theories in a general 

semiotic theory will be considered powerful 

according to its capacity for offering an 

appropriate formal definition for every sort of 

sign-function, whether it has already been 

described and coded or not. Semiotics is 

concerned with everything that can be taken as a 

sign. A sign is everything which can be taken as 

significantly substituting for something else. 

Charles Sanders Pierce / Piercian 

Semiotics said that there are three sides of sign. 

The sides are representamen, object and 

interpretant (Peirce 1940:101). In that book, 

Peirce says that a sign is something stands for 

something. Peirce gives a definition of 

representamen as the sign itself, the object is the 

thing which is referred, and the interpretant is the 

product from the connection between 

interpretant and object. Taking the example 

above, according to Peirce the word pen is the 

representamen, yet the object is the pen 

physically. For the interpretant is what thought 

which is appeared when someone hears pen, such 

as “writings”, “ink:, “paper”, and so on. It means 

that those sides (Representamen, Object, 

Interpretant) are something which should always 

be together. They are inseparable in semiosis 

because they have their functions to determining 

each other so that semiosis process can describe 

or determine the sign clearly. 

 

METHODS 

The research designs used in this study are 

mixing between descriptive and qualitative study, 

which merely focuses on the analysis of the 

textual data. The simplest way to define 

qualitative study is to say that it is a type of 

research which involves interpreting no 

numerical data. The data are the textual data 

obtained in the song lyrics. According to Creswell 

(1994: 1) suggested that “a qualitative study is 



 

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designed to be consistent with the assumption of 

qualitative paradigm.” 

 The object of the study entitled “Swear it 

Again”, “If I let You Go”, “Flying without Wings”, “I 

Have a Dream”, “My Love”, “Uptown Girl”, and 

“You Raise Me Up”. There are number-one-tracks 

during the popularity of Westlife in Ireland and 

Britain and it is very entertaining. 

 In gaining the data, first, the researcher 

was read all the song lyrics and paid more 

attention to the symbol which is used on it. 

Second, the researcher was identified the symbol 

which is found then look for the meaning of the 

symbol in those lyrics. Third, the researcher was 

analyzed the lyrics carefully and understanding 

the figurative language, describe the symbols of 

the song lyrics, and find out the meaning. Fourth, 

the researcher crosschecked the analysis of the 

symbols to the research advisor thus the data 

were regarded as valid because the data were 

already approved by an expert in literary analysis   

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 

After conducting this research, the 

researcher conduct five symbol categories; the 

symbol of color, the symbol of thing, the symbol 

of situation, the symbol of sound, and the symbol 

of imaginative visualization (Santoso, 1993:5). 

1. Swear It Again 

The general meaning and symbol of the 

song entitled Swear it Again tells the readers and 

listeners about the struggle of The Man to show 

his seriousness of loving The Girl. The Man will 

do everything to make The Girl happy and prove 

to the world that they are completed each other. 

The symbol represented of the song is Promise. 

Swear it Again shows the personal style of showing 

his feeling to the girl that he loves. The man 

promises to love her through happy and upset, 

health and sick, bright and dark, ups and downs. 

Loving the girl is not only brings a joy and happy 

but also it brings a pain and doubt. Moreover, the 

man promises the girl to holding hands each 

other, to face the future together, and make the 

love stronger. The impact of symbol toward real 

life is people have to simply make a promise with 

ourselves to reach the success in study, in career, 

in family, in some fields surrounding. Then, 

make a promise with our family for not break 

their trust to us by not doing bad things. For 

example: free sex, drugs, smoke, alchohol, and 

show off the part of body which may not be 

visible. Afterwards, make a promise with partner 

for not betray the relationship and always keep 

the love stronger. Later, make a promise with 

people surrounding for not heart breaking each 

other by keeping the spoken, action, behavior, 

and respect. So, someone can spread love, spread 

good vibes and life happily. 

2. If I Let You Go 

The general meaning of If I Let You Go tells 

the readers and listeners about the feeling of 

worry and scare of losing the love from The 

Man’s life. The Man is very scared if it is all 

happen in his life, The Man cannot imagine his 

life without The Girl because he is really love The 

Girl. The Man would never give up of giving his 

best to The Girl. The symbol represented of the 

song is Doubt. If I Let You Go shows the man’s 

depressing and worrying because of too much 

thinking the negativity. He is doubtful if the girl 

leaves him someday, on the other hand, he 

believes the power of their love is unbreakable. 

The impact of symbol toward real life is someone 

has to realize about two-sides of live. There are 

good and bad, happy and sad, up and down, 

positive and negative, health and sick, also black 

and white. People should not stuck on one side 

only, but people have to be balancing the two-

sides in life. Someone can decrease the negativity 

by doing more positivity. Thinking the negativity 

too much can broke himself, so someone should 

be steady to face the risk that will happen in the 

future. 

3. Flying Without Wings 

The general meaning of Flying without 

Wings tells the readers and listeners about 

someone’s believe in something impossible. The 

Man always thinks positively and never give up 

on surviving his happiness in life. The symbol 

represented of the song is Optimism. Flying 

without Wings shows the confidence to face the 



 

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problems alone and the new hope to motivate 

him about something better in the future. 

Imagining something that is impossible is 

allowed if someone still realized which one is real 

and which one is fiction. The impact of symbol 

toward real life is someone has to be optimism of 

what he has to do. Someone does not have to be 

surrender before we fight. Also, someone does 

not need to be so much expecting on someone or 

something because expecting would hurt himself, 

and the fact is not as beautiful as what someone’s 

expected before. So, the important thing is 

someone should be fight for something that 

makes the dream comes true and reach the 

happiness. 

4. I Have A Dream 

The general meaning and symbol of the 

song entitled I have a Dream to motivate the 

readers and listeners of faced the problems in life 

and to reach the goals of life. Also, it tells us for 

always be confidence and optimism to face the 

future. The symbol represented of the song is 

Hope. I have a Dream shows the beautiful 

imagination of person. Everybody is allowed to 

have a dream because dreaming can motivate us 

to reach it. By doing some steps or efforts to make 

the dream comes true. But we have to see the 

capability to reach which dream that can achieve 

and which is not. The impacts of symbol toward 

real life is someone should have to be a motivator 

for ourselves and be someone else motivator, too. 

Giving the motivation is easy but applying to the 

real life is uneasy. It takes time and it needs 

processes to give a life lesson. The researcher 

found a quote from Colin Powell “a dream does 

not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, 

determination, and hard work” as well as what 

Winston Churchill said that “success is not final, 

failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue 

that counts” that two quotes mean that we need 

some efforts, times, and hard work to reach 

someone’s dream. 

5. My Love 

The general meaning of My Love is tells the 

readers and the listeners about The Man’s 

journey and passion of loving the girl. Having 

The Girl makes him happy a whole day, and 

seeing her smile is The Man’s goal in life. The 

symbol represented of the song is Loyalty. My 

Love shows how the man treats the girl and it 

shows the loyalty. It does not matter how hard to 

prove and how difficult to make the girl happy a 

whole day. The impact of symbol toward real life 

is as the researcher knows that the basic principal 

to have a relation with other people is loyal. 

Loyalty is the most important thing that should 

someone has in personal character because 

someone does not only have a relation with one 

or two people. So, someone has to be consistent 

and loyal to other people. 

6. Uptown Girl 

The general meaning of Uptown Girl tells 

the readers and listeners about the modesty of 

The Girl’s life style. She looks an old-fashioned 

but it shows the purity, humility, and loyalty. The 

symbol represented of the song is simplicity. 

Uptown Girl shows the modesty, humility, and 

loyalty of an uptown girl. The lack of the girl does 

not limit her to show her purity and it makes her 

look more beautiful just the way she is. The 

impact of symbol toward real life is as the 

researcher knows the quote “do not judge book 

by its cover” it is as well as do not judging people 

by their appearance. Someone would never know 

their real character just by seeing their 

appearance. In this era, someone has to be smart 

of appreciate someone else. People do not need 

someone with beautiful make up, beautiful suits, 

beautiful accessories, and being glamour to cover 

his/her real character in which fake, arrogant, 

grudge, and egoist. Moreover, someone should 

be a simple person, kind hearted, honest, and be 

yourself. It can make people comfortable and 

happy be with you as a friend, as a partner, and 

as a family. 

7. You Raise Me Up 

The general meaning of You Raise Me Up 

tells the readers and listeners about disaster. As 

we know this song is made for all tsunami victims 

in Aceh in 2006, twelve years ago. All of world is 

grieving at the disaster and Westlife too. This 

song present the Westlife’s cares and supports to 



 

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them, to make them did not to give up because 

the incident. The symbol represented of the song 

is strength. You Raise Me Up describe about that 

victims that so straw because the disaster. They 

were down and so weary, they get troubles and 

their heart burdened is. While they can do 

anything just stay and silent, may they do not 

know what should they know, until the help 

come. While the help come they raise them to be 

strongest than before, face the problem, and do 

more things than they can do. The impacts of 

symbol toward real life is we have to be strong of 

face the problems in life. Someone should be 

believed that there will be happiness after the 

sadness, there would be rainbow after rain. 

Someone needs to be thinking positively because 

thinking negatively is only breaks the dreams and 

break the positive minds, too. Also, someone has 

to be someone that can give someone else’s 

strength to raise up from the down and continue 

their life. 

.  

CONCLUSION 

In the lyrics of Westlife’s selected songs 

contain symbol that is helpful in understanding it. 

The symbols that have been found are promise, 

doubt, optimism, spirit and motivation, loyalty, 

simplicity, and strength.  

According to the symbols that have been 

found in the song, the researcher can conclude 

that these songs are dominantly told the listeners 

or the readers about life’s struggle and sacrifice. 

The researcher knows that life is not easy, and life 

is complicated. So, these songs can be a 

motivation song to face something in some sides 

to see a good side and bad side. Moreover, by 

listening to the song people can see the life 

experiences and get some moral value inside the 

song lyrics. Symbols bring some impacts to help 

the listeners or the readers in understanding the 

real meaning of the song.  

 

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