Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off”, the first single off of her sixth album 1989, debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in late August of 2014. Swift, whose start as a country-pop performer had thrust her in the limelight when she was sixteen, cemented her transformation from country sweetheart to pop superstar with the track and subsequent album. Dealing with the many criticisms she had faced over the years, particularly the sexist accusations that she was a serial dater and crazy girlfriend, the song’s universally-appealing message of resilience combined with its catchy and carefully crafted sound ensured its positive reception. This popularity served as motivation for its inclusion on the song list for the A.V. Club’s Undercover …show more content…
“Shake It Off” is a clear example of a dance-pop anthem, centered around a few particularly catchy hooks with lyrics that are easy to learn and a chorus that is fun to sing. Furthermore, the track contains an upbeat tempo with an emphasis on the beat that encourages dancing. Pop lyrics are often relatively straightforward and deal with universal themes in order reach the widest audience; in this case, Swift focuses on empowerment and shrugging off the criticisms of others, a fairly common uplifting theme. Music producers also have a large role in the process of creating a pop song as they are responsible for ensuring each component builds a cohesive and marketable whole. In contrast, the hallmarks of punk rock include a general sense of getting back to basics and rejecting the consumerism and perfection of popular music. This goal is accomplished through a reduced role for the music producer, less polished sounds, often political/anti-establishment lyrics, and a basic rock instrumentation of electric guitar, drums, electric bass, and vocals. Screaming Females were faced with the challenge of moving from one set of genre expectations to the other. This transformation results in a pop-punk fusion of the pop sensibility inherent in the composition of “Shake It Off” with the band’s harder rock performance
“Fire away. Take your best shot, show me what you got. Honey I’m not afraid (Chris, Lines 4-5)…” Strength, love, heartache, all words that many people can identify with, but what about mental illness, depression, and suicide. These words are those that humans avoid, pretend they are not there, but in reality those three words effect many more people that was ever thought possible. Over 18.2% of United States citizens suffer from a mental illness (Depression), 6.7% of United States citizens suffer from depression (Depression), and each year in the United States there are on average 42,773 deaths by suicide (American). Now, many people can relate to the words love and heartbreak, but many more can identify with the three words that the world
Taylor Swift’s debut album contained such songs as Our Song, Teardrops on my Guitar, and Picture to Burn. Swift’s approach is perhaps more country than the Dixie Chicks in a few regards. The banjo is featured throughout the record and more traditional country percussion, as well as more country-style lyrics. However, she stands out with a crystal-clear voice and excellent use of metaphor throughout her songwriting. In terms of musicality, Swift may not be the most gifted, aside from her voice. But in her songs, her personality shines through in a way that pulls light through into your ears, noted especially in her song Love
Music is regarded as a method of passing a message. Though some songs do not intend to do that, the message in them is still perceived. The song, “Get up, ...
Taylor Swift’s Shake it off video contains elements of cultural appropriation that exhibit stereotypical tropes which have been used to define African American women and, in particular, their sexuality for years. The video perpetuates the negative stereotypes that have placed Black women on the opposite side of respect for centuries. The video involves White women twerking in a way that conforms to the male gaze, for profitable success. Twerking involves thrusting hip movements, low squatting stance, and shaking of the derriere. White women are able to perform the twerk without being socialized as hyper-sexual, whereas Black women are. Hence, the different conceptions of White and Black womanhood. The inability for Black women to escape their skin color is the one of the many reasons they are ridiculed. Their skin color assigned them to the category that defines them as unholy, dirty, and promiscuous White women have the ability to hide behind their skin color, which classifies them as pure, and innocent in society eyes. The cultural appropriation of twerking is an exercise of White women’s privilege. Black women are judged harshly for
On the night of December 13, 2013 Beyoncé, released her fifth self-titled album on iTunes. The album caught many people by surprise because Beyoncé did not set a date for the album, nor did she use any promotion; she did release a video on her Instagram asking her followers if they “were ready”. The buzz spread through social media like wildfire. With no promotion or warning, Beyoncé album took the world by storm and made it for her audience and critics to take in the album and its contents. Many people loved the album for not only its catchy songs, but also the growth and “looser” conservative Beyoncé.
In today’s world, celebrities are often misunderstood, especially singer/songwriter Robin Rihanna Fenty, referred to as Rihanna. Rihanna’s sexual behaviors in her videos have been talked about in negative ways for some time now, but what [eople do not understand is that it is all for fame. Celebrities will do anything to keep their career going strong. If one really took the time out to take a deep look at Rihanna, they will notice how humble she really is. After going through the abusive relationship with Chris Brown, Rihanna has struggled with gaining that strong confidence with who she is. Her critics believe that she is still trying to discover herself and figure out who she really is as a person. Rihanna is often given two choices, to do what she is being asked to do, or throw her career out the window. She either gives the crowd the sexual acts they want or let her career die down. In the song “S&M,” Rihanna was really exposing herself to the crowd, as well as “Good Girl, Gone Bad.” She is basically telling the crowd that this is the person she is, but is it really? For my original piece I will be creating a journal, expressing the feelings Rihanna felt as she overcomes her struggles. Rihanna’s sexual behaviors in her videos are really all for fame and therefore, are easily misunderstood.
It has been played in many other countries and is listed in many major hit charts in those countries. It became one of her best-selling singles. Beyoncé has been singing about women’s independence since she was in the hit group “Destiny’s Child”. Many of her songs support women’s lifestyle and keep cheering up girls with her powerful and expressive vocals (Armstrong). In addition to her songs and lyrics, her beautiful appearance fascinates many female audiences and influences from teenagers to grown-ups as if she was a role model. A negative side of the video is that the video gives the impression that men are always to be blamed and women are always “victims” of the relationships, which is not
“He don't smack that ass and pull your hair like that” is a rather vulgar and demeaning statement, yet it is freely sung in Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke, a song that was in the top ten on the Billboard list of the most popular R&B/Hip-Hop songs in 2013. Because hip-hop is a very large part of the African American culture, and many speakers of African American English (AAE) are portrayed through these songs, women are often highly influenced by the objectification of their bodies in hip-hop songs. Since the emergence of the hip-hop genre in popular culture in the 1960s and 70s, women’s bodies have been sexually objectified through this music. Although the impact of the sexualization of women’s bodies in hip-hop songs is still very prevalent, the effect of this in recent years has decreased because of a learned linguistic way to navigate the misogynistic words that diminish the humanity of women.
This song represented the time in 1993 when women in the hip hop culture were not taken seriously as males, so Queen Latifah had to call the judgmental people out. U.N.I.T.Y has the significance impact of feminism, just like her first two albums as an artist. How every man, she states calls a women “ho” or “bitch” she defends by saying “Who you calling a bitch?”. Another song that has been recalled as an importance of women in hip hop is the song (9) “Give It To You” by Da Brat. “So let it go, Cause my shit is tight, Take it how I give it, And enjoy the night”, she is talking about the males, if they have something to say about the women in the rap industry they should let it go before things get out of hand. The importance of this song was that ladies in hip hop are able to fight back stronger. In the song (10) “Lost Ones” by Lauryn Hill is about her talking about a person she has a brutal honest message to. This song has an important impact on women who would want to be in the hip hop culture because it is the woman's choice to decide what she wants to do. In 1998, she releases this song to brings an influence to women, if feeling threatened by men, women should refuse to be treated in any type of way that is
Today’s hip hop generation is criticized for its negative portrayal of women. Every music video that is produced features scantily clad women with dancing sensually. Feminists speak against them because they are continuing to sexualize the female form, degrade women by using terms such as “bitch” and “hoe” to describe them, and in all continuing to make them second class citizens. Radical feminism focuses on such oppression in society and the existence of patriarchy/male dominance. All of which is evident in Hip Hop.
There are many times when feminism is incorporated into song lyrics to give a sense of women’s empowerment in an audience. Alicia Keys is an American Hip hop and R&B songwriter and singer who wrote the song “Girl on Fire” that was released in her fifth studio album in 2012 (Girl on Fire (song), 2014), and was inspired by her son, Egypt. This song is about a lonely girl who is starting to be comfortable in her own skin. It says how everyone is staring at her as she goes by because everyone can see the flame burning and glistening in her eyes. In my paper, I will talk about how the lyrics in this song are very bold that can be applicable to all girls. I will analyze “Girl on Fire” using a method that was developed by Kenneth Burke called cluster analysis (Foss, 2009). Through this method, I can identify key terms in this song and put them into clusters to discover the meaning behind the key words explained: girl, hottest, and on fire.
So even though we have come a long way since the 1920’s with womens rights the music and media industry is still holding women back. All of these songs used as examples have been produced within the last ten years. Blurred lines was from last year alone.
According to what I understand a theme song is a song that appears more than once in a film/movie. The theme song I will focus on is, “Let it go,” In the frozen Disney movie.
The genre of pop rock has taken the music industry by storm, giving record companies enormous amounts of power and endless financial success along with a way to reproduce it. Owing its popularity to the “light” nature and simplistic, yet catchy melodies, pop music is one of the broadest genres. There’s no way of clearly defining parameters as to what distinguishes a pop music song from other genres. This is largely due to the genre's’ reliance on popularity. Pop music has taken many forms over the decades, keeping characteristics through each generation it passes through.
At the young age of just twenty-four, singer/songwriter Taylor Swift has already made her mark on the world. With four platinum records, several hit singles, and seven Grammy Awards, the young songwriter has been a source of both entertainment and inspiration for people of all ages. Unlike other artists, Taylor Swift is completely fearless with her songwriting. Whether she’s singing about her first day of school, falling in love, or breaking up with a boyfriend, Swift always shares intimate details about her personal life in her lyrics. Many people love this quality about her, but others think Swift gives women a bad reputation by appearing to be a flawless and blameless victim in her songs. Regardless of the negative thoughts some people have about her, Taylor Swift is undoubtedly a huge success and a role model for teenage girls all over the world.