Fashion trends, technology trends, and finally music trends define an a time. However these trends never focus on is how some of our top artist today are the most annoying, untalented singers of their generation. These so called talented famous people have taken abuse of today’s society by manipulating the ethos of the teens and children. These “role models” have just become plastic robots that no longer convey meaningful messages but thrive on the fame and fortune. In 2012 one of the most nationally hated songs was Rebecca Black’s Friday. This one-hit wonder, produce this single not based on her talent but on her family’s money, hoping to turn her into a pop star. However, it seems that all that money could have been put to use elsewhere like singing lessons, as a result, her single turned out to be an extremely autotuned song. Though it does not stop there. In her single she sung in such a nasal tone that it would haunt her for the rest of her career. Critics say even now that her voice is still heard by was in no way pleasant and many criticized her for having absolutely no talent in singing. …show more content…
Rappers that have taken over today’s teens have begun to also venture out into the singing world. The artist that rose into the celebrity world like Iggy Azalea and Nicki Minaj made the billboards. Nicki Minaj started off in the music industry with hits like “Your Love” that hit number one back in 2010. However as she strived for fame, this once talented rapper got consumed by society. In the past five years since she started her career this once natural rapper has become a plastic auto-tuned rapper. With seven plastic surgeries and music that is manipulated by robots, Nicki no longer proves to be worth of her celebrity
Overt sexual and gender stereotyped messages have become commonplace in the American music video scene. Nicki Minaj 's video for her hit single “Anaconda” is no exception, with its graphic images of scantily clad women with vibrating and shaking bodies dancing around in an exotic jungle setting with plenty of phallic imagery. Not all of the messages conveyed by this video are immediately apparent; upon scratching the surface, viewers will see gender messages that are far more covert. And while there may be a temptation to assume the worst about the video 's representation of power, gender, sexuality, and stereotype, the video is also strangely empowering. On the surface, Minaj portrays the female gender as highly sexualized and disempowered and yet some of the deeper messages in this video also reflect a sense of female empowerment, confidence, and an embracing of sexuality and sexual assertiveness.
Rebecca is a bittersweet novel. Some aspects of the story are exceptional and well written, while others are not. It contains powerful characterization and strong foreshadowing but too much imagery.
Instead of the characteristics that women are expected to have—to be feminine, good looking, passive, sexy, skinny, and domestic—they should be judged on their talent and not their attire. Women should be acknowledged for their creative ability instead of their physical beauty. Powers states, “For women in pop music, sexuality is both the most powerful force and the biggest trap” (2). There are also many people in the industry that agree with Powers. However, I disagree with Powers, because I still believe that sexuality is not a big source of success. Some men and women in the music industry believe female artists will only be successful if they dress in a provocative way. However, dressing sexy does not define talent, especially when female artists are performing.
In 2013, the self-titled visual album BEYONCÉ sold almost eight hundred thirty thousand digitally in the first three days, while her sixth number one and second visual album, Lemonade, only sold four hundred ninety thousand digitally in the first week. Although Beyoncé’s second visual album wasn’t numerically successful, both show a vulnerable, an artistic, and a controversial side of Beyoncé. Both albums have surprising visuals and stunning lyrical content with either an obvious meaning or a meaning we have yet to figure out, such as the famous line, “You better call Becky with the good hair.” (Beyoncé, “Sorry”). BEYONCÉ and Lemonade show that Beyoncé tries to better herself as an artist and make herself more vulnerable.
An interesting connection was made asking if Swift is the next Michael Jackson in terms of their impact on pop culture. As Bream (2015) explains, ‘Both were savvy enough to pull in unexpected collaborators — rock guitar god Eddie Van Halen on Jackson’s “Beat It” and hip rapper Kendrick Lamar on Swift’s “Bad Blood” — to help cross over to different audiences.’ Also interestingly, country sensation Taylor Swift played a rendition of Michael Jackson’s song during one of her concerts and then eventually turned from a country singer to a focusing on pop. The cultural appropriation from one genre to another over time is still in the music industry. Although both Swift, who dominates in today’s generation, and Michael Jackson, who left a lasting legacy resonating with many people, differ on many levels, they both have made cultural milestones and will be used in models for cultural appropriation for years to
Nicki’s apparent feminist agenda through her music and identity is being distributed to her wide audience, which covers a massive array of hip-hop and pop music fans. Her wide reach and continual influence has the potential to lastingly correct the anti-feminist, misogynistic tone of the male-dominated genre and culture. Despite her hyper sexualized image and defamatory lyrics, she is arguably a positive, albeit controversial, feminist role model, which is evident in her motivation for success, lyrical discourse, and use of and meanings behind her alter egos.
The music industry’s history is a convoluted mess. There is no real consensus on what the music industry IS and what paths it has taken. Were the Beatles the greatest band to ever exist? Maybe. Is there a hyper objectification of women throughout the “men’s club” that is the music industry? Probably. It’s this hard to define, frankly confusing business that is worth roughly $130 billion dollars today. With it’s flimsy and opaque edges, can the music industry ever be called into question on its wrongdoings? The racist undertone throughout its history may force it to. With the music industry as an ever growing business that seems to change almost every decade, the one thing that has not changed throughout time is an undercurrent of racism that
Pop charts domination is a grueling goal to achieve and it’s fair to say that no artist can claim the crown for the last decade like Rihanna and her near perfect resume. Her career started as a 17 years old Barbadian curiosity and almost immediately exploded, making her a mainstay of radio airplay, dancefloor, galas, gossips and fashion events. When it comes to Rihanna, what stuns the most is her constancy. Of her eight albums, only her first did not boast at least one number-one song – her début single Pon de Replay “only” reached #2 in 2005. She reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 a whopping 11 times as a lead artist and another three times through features. Only Mariah Carey (18) and The Beatles (20) managed that feat more often than
It is clear that the commercialization of hip-hop has immensely changed the subject and purpose of the culture, especially in rap music. As the culture and musical genre developed the potential to exploit it economically became so obvious that the art forms were destined for this impending commercialization. Unfortunately it has led to near complete control of the industry by money-hungry executives who do not care to promote artists capable of preaching knowledge. Being a lifelong fan of rap I have witnessed this gradual transformation as I have grown up and cannot say that I am a fan of rap’s current state. I have always appreciated the original intents of the music and hope that one day the business side will somehow allow the art side to once again exhibit its true wonders.
When I just started researching for this paper, I had difficulties on finding the song that arouses my interest, so I decided to go to Billboard to look for an interesting song. As I went down the list of Hot 100 on Billboard, a song with the title “Royals” by a 17 year-old New Zealand singer caught up my attention. The song is currently No.3 on the chart, but it was the No.1 song last week and it stayed as the most popular song for several weeks after being on the chart for 22 weeks. What makes this song so popular? What story or moral is this song trying to tell its listeners? With these question bear in mind, I decided to take a deeper insight into this song “Royals”.
It is a commonly heard criticism that pop music is becoming increasingly uniform. Scientific research is supporting the idea that musical structures are becoming ever more regular. Compounding this, the fact that many successful songs are written by the same group of people, the criticism is quickly becoming harder to refute. However, it is also important to refrain from quickly jumping to the conclusion that music is changing for the worse and to consider the reasons behind this shift.
Popular music is dumber, duller and more homogenized than ever before. This isn't a matter of taste or subjective opinion, it's an objectively provable fact. A ten year analysis of number one songs on the Billboard charts found that some lyrics are getting measurably less intelligent.
In the novel Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier tells the uncommon, suspenseful love story using a small range of characters with many different personality traits. The reader begins to feel as though they truly know these characters only to discover the unseen truth as their masks fall off. As these personalities develop throughout the novel one can discover that the narrator, Mrs. de Winter, strives to please people and feels very insecure in her identity. She tries to stick up for herself, but her words have no effect on her cruel, manipulative, controlling husband, Mr. de Winter. Mr. de Winter appears as a gentleman in the very early chapters of the book; however, the reader soon discovers that Mr. de Winter seems not to care about other people’s feelings, and that he contains controlling characteristics. Besides being controlling, he also verbally abuses his wife. In simple and plain terms, Mr. de Winter is a jerk. Later in the book, another malevolent and controlling character becomes introduced, Mrs. Danvers. Mr. de Winter’s controlling, abusive ways and Mrs. Danvers malevolent tendencies collide together as the new Mrs. de Winter strives to please them.
Sia Furler’s latest album, This is Acting, is unique and bold when compared to her previous released albums. During the promotion of Furler’s album the singer and songwriter revealed in actuality that each of her personally written songs and some co-written on the album had been rejected by various pop figures. The rejection of these songs by artist such as Beyoncé and Rhianna is what drew me to this album. It is not that I believe these ladies to be untalented, it is because of the rejection of the songs from mainstream artist such as their selves. Furler’s style has an earthy edge with a touch of a pop bluesy sound. Her voice has a raspy, roughness that seems to squeak or scratch when reaching higher pitches that seems controlled and intentional. That deliberate scratchy, slick voice brings an achiness
The first class of poor singers I would like to discuss is a little group I like to call the "Hello, my name is Britney Spears and these are my various other counterparts of the female and male persuasions” posse, or, simply "Biapse" for short. This group of artists is famed the world over. They own Top 40 radio and are infamous for paying as much as possible, for as little as possible (when it comes to their clothing, that is). They play "idol" for the young and the...not so young (both of which, disturb me equally) despite their obvious lack of singing talent, which they cleverly cover up by showing off their "range" using different techniques, like wailing, moaning, sighing, and combinations thereof. Despite their shortcomings, however, I must give credit where credit is due. These people are doing their jobs, and doing them well.