A Child Called It Analysis

C’mon Its just abuse

Introduction

Domestic violence, the connotation of the two words immediately invokes images in everyone's mind. Two songs will be discussed in this paper, these songs relate directly to the issue. The first song is “A Child Called ‘it’” by Buckcherry, released in 2008 on the Black Butterfly album. The second song is “Im ok” by Christina Aguilera, released in 2002 on the Stripped album. Buckcherry’s song, is based on a true story of a child that was abused by his mother. Similarly, Christina Aguilera’s song talks about her women who is being abused, you can tell this from the beginning of the song when she sings, “my father's fist would put her in her place.” Both of these songs directly talk about domestic violence and

this will be shown through analyzing the musical and lyrical connections.

Discussion of the social issue
Domestic violence is a terrible thing; to some it is a reminder about a horrid event in their life's, to others it is a idea that is evil to the core. Women are well known victims of abuse, dosomething.org stated, “85% of domestic violence victims are women.” The house next door to you could have a domestic incident going on inside, and you might not even known it. The violence on women is a prominent issue in todays society, women a brutally beaten and take advantage of. Equally important children also experience this too, according to National Collation Against Domestic Violence, “1 in 15 children are exposed to intimate partner violence each year.” Children are often too small to do defend themselves from any attacks, also they fear what might happen if they tell someone what is going on. Furthermore, children are not psychologically ready to handle these traumas, not that anyone is. Next we will further discuss how each of the songs lyrics and musically express and comment on this issue.

A Comparison of the songs
Theses two songs come from completely different genres, and it is apart in the instruments used in each song. In Aguilera’s “Im ok” mostly consists of acoustic guitar, the sound produced by the instrument gives the song a slow and sad feel. In contrast Buckcherry’s “A Child Called ‘It’” contains powerful electric guitars and heavy drum builds; it evokes a feeling of anger. The artist uses the sound to portray what they are trying to get across. In Aguilera’s song, the daughter is more concerned about the well being of her mother, and her own safety. She sings, “I still remember how you kept me so afraid, strength is my mother for all the love she gave.” She states in the song that she is in fear, and that through the whole incident her mother showed her love. Different from Aguilera’s song, Buckcherry’s song tells a specific story of a tragic situation involving a young child and his mother; this is displayed early off in the first versus they sing,” I count the days and nights, they are all numbered, She takes her time and hurts me like no other.” The song doesn't try to hide what is going on, it is blatantly obvious from the beginning.
In both of these songs the violence us obvious it is not hidden, it is made very clear in the wording used. However, the violence is seen in different ways between each of the songs. In “A Child Called ‘it,’” the violence might be known, but not seen by others. The song says, “She makes me stay inside under her cover, takes out her pain on me and not my brothers.” The song makes it seem as if he is the only one that is beaten by his mother, however it does not give us a reason why this happens. As spoken about earlier Aguilera sings the line “my father's fist would put her in her place.” Different from Buckcherry’s song the violence is known and seen, the daughter sees her mother get beaten on a regular basis and is not able to do anything about it.
The attitude of the two children are opposing in both go these songs

What does the tone of the music say
The next thing that is greatly different between these two songs is the tone of music used in each. Buckcherry’s song is your traditional hard rock song; the instruments used include: multiple electric guitars, electric bass guitars, a singer, and drums. The song contains a lot of builds and drop outs in order to add emphasis and take it away. In Aguilera’s song the tone makeup of the song is completely different, the song consists of mostly acoustic guitar, but also there are parts where you can hear other stringed instruments.
The two songs start very different from each other also, in “Im Ok” the songs starts with a lot of noise and different sounds.

Moreover you can hear the sounds of crying faintly in between all of the noise, also you can hear some sounds of a man talking. It is hard to make out what he is saying because it is muffled, but you can tell by his tone that he is speaking in a harsh tone. In “A Child Called ‘it” the song start with the singer screaming “Mother I really hate the way you treat me like no other!” Along with the intense lyrics the guitar lets some strong power chords ring out, also you can hear the heavy crash of the symbols which add emphasis to each of the phrases. After this there is an instrument that consists of a few guitar riffs and the rest of the band playing. In “Im OK” there are no heavy guitar parts its a completely different feel; once the music starts you just hear slow finger picking of the guitar. When Aguilera sings she has a short voice compared to the hard rock sound in “A Child Called ‘it.” In Buckcherry’s song after the strong intro the guitars quite down, the song switches the focus on singer singing, “I count the days and nights they are all numbered she takes the pain out on me and not my brothers.” The artist wants you to understand want is happening, the child has been singed out from his siblings and is being stuck and abused by his mother. After that he sings, “ keep it all inside, never see me cry,” the child is trying to be tough and doesn't want the mother to see that she is hurting him. As the singer sings this you can hear another voice behind the music yelling the something, they want to show the anger and the pain the child is feeling for this

abuse.
As the chorus starts to end they sing, “Please God don't let her destroy my life.” During this part there is a strong build between the drums and the guitar switches to a stronger power chords to add emphasis. One they transition back into the chorus the sing picks back up and all the instruments are playing at full power, the tone of the singer goes back to a harsh angry tone unlike the softer tone we heard in the verse.