Music Analysis: Meghan's All About That Bass

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Released in 2014, Meghan released the song “All about that bass” that was a number one success on the billboard charts and still one of the most watched videos on youtube. However, while this is all well and good for the pop singer, the song itself doesn’t come across as a positive message for body acceptance. Through lyrics that are one-hand uplifting, but then suddenly come across as entirely an attack on thinner women, and imagery like the “plastic dolls” and the role of the thinner women within the music video, this creates conflicting images and overall begs to question as to what the exact message of the video is. On one hand, Meghan is displaying body positivity for round women, but at the same time, projects the message that, perhaps, …show more content…

That photoshop creates preconceived notions that are destroying any other idea of what is beautiful in accordance with the human body. She continues this message as she speaks to never being like “silicone barbie dolls”. During these lines, the video displays Meghan and a male figure acting eerily as mannequin dress-up figures ala Barbie and Ken. These images are criticizing the portrayal of Barbie dolls that, like photoshop, that transpose the same corroded vision of beauty, but fit for a younger audience. It’s a sickening form of indoctrination that, while some may have a preference for curvier women (and some don’t), the universal message from dolls and magazines is something that really only a tiny portion of the global population even remotely resembles. However, despite how positive the video begins, as it continues, it begins to conflict with the message it's …show more content…

I know you think you’re fat.” With ease, she insults thinner women for not having what she has. On one hand, one could say it is warranted given the constant stigma of “fat shaming”, but instead it’s enabling more shaming. These lyrics interplay with the images of the video and confuse the messaging because throughout, there are multiple shots of round women and a black man dancing with joy, as Meghan sings. Meanwhile, at certain times, it cuts to a skinny woman (who embodies the silicone barbie doll motif) who comes across as moronic, stuck up, and not particularly liked by everyone

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