Born on March 10, 1983 in Checotah Okla, Carrie Underwood has become one of the most recent and popular uprising stars in the country music world. Most people know her from the winner of American Idol in 2005. While still in college Carrie decided to audition for American Idol since the opportunity would never be given to her again. Carrie was a finalist and ended up winning the whole show at only the age of nineteen. After American Idol, Underwood released her first single “Inside Your Heaven” which became the best selling song in the nation, with sales reaching over 170,000. The song later made its way to number 1 on billboard’s Hot 100, the first country song to ever do so since the year 2000. Carrie Underwood’s first album was Some hearts which was also considered to be a big hit. Carrie’s next album released, Carnival Ride features a heart wrenching song, “Just a Dream”. “Just a Dream” is one of the more emotional songs that Carrie Underwood has produced since the beginning of her career. The song is very emotionally evocative because of the story line, the song describes a relationship between a man and women. They were a young couple and the man was in the military. Unlike the girl had wished, instead of walking down the aisle to marry the man of her dreams, she was walking down the aisle to place a flower on his casket. The song holds universal relevance because many people everyday losses their loved ones to the military, army, navy, and more. Throughout the song, there are many examples of imagery to help make the song feel more real. While opening the church doors for the funeral, the setting is explained, “the church doors opened up wide she put her veil down trying to hide the tears”. In the women’s dream she would be crying because her husband is waiting for her down the aisle, but now the women is in morning for the death of her loved one. Carrie also uses imagery to help make the song even more emotional, “she heard the trumpets from the military band and the flowers fell out of her hands”. The woman is crying as she lays down the flowers on the casket, as the military plays in the background. The song also uses a lot of alliteration to enhance the creativity of the lyrics. During the ceremony the congregation, “sang the saddest song”. By using alliteration it makes the song a little bit more interesting, without completely overdoing it. While talking about the ceremony, the military men gave the women his flag, “folded up flag”. Folded up flag is alliteration and the flag is also a symbol for her husband.
Through the past years Carrie Underwood has created many great songs, one of them being this one. “Just a Dream” is a great narrative song that expresses the pain so many people go through every day. Death is not an easy subject to talk about, but Carrie Underwood does an amazing job at incorporating it into a song. Ultimately Carrie Underwood’s song shows the importance of living for the moment, for things can be gone in the blink of an eye.
