Form and Meaning in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Side Two
The second side of The Beatles' album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, uses the opposition of strict and free song forms to present its themes. The songs on this side present the theme of trying to find contentment. As we move through the songs, we find that they become less optimistic about possible success in this search, and the situations our narrators are searching in become more complicated. The Beatles show this by using elements of songwriting such as rhyme, song structure, and quadratic structure in either traditional ways, or ways that go against tradition. They also use form to present the other themes that connect all of these songs: loneliness, mundane and emotionless society, escape, and the old world versus the new world.