Rhetorical Analysis Essay On Pouya

One thing that everyone is told at a young age is that “you must prepare for your future.” Your future is what your life will be like in the time to come later after the present. Your future will contain who you are with, where you live, your career, and many more aspects of life. For many people I think the thought of their future scares them and not being able to know what the future has in store for them wither it is good or bad. This is the message of the music video “41” that artist Pouya is trying to send. Pouya shows this message with the plot of the video, the lyrics, the setting, the tone of his voice in the song, and in Pouya’s personal life. Through all these elements of the video and who Pouya is as a person it will show that Pouya

is trying explain his fear of the future and what it has in store for him as a person and as a musician.
The plot of the music video is Pouya showing two different versions of himself, which represent the two different paths that can take place with his life and his music career in the future.

One path being that he becomes rich and famous, the other where he is poor and just another rapper who never made it. This is him showing the two paths that his future could possibly take, one being a good path and the other being bad one. I think the plot helps prove the point that the message is that we fear the future and not knowing what it has in store for us. The plot proves this by Pouya showing the two different versions of himself and how one portrays a bad path his life can take and one path that is

good.
In the lyrics, Pouya talks as if he is his future forty-one-year- old self and he talks about how since he’s got older life isn’t as fun anymore without the fame, money, and fans. For example, he says “What’s going on with me I used to be the man, nobody pulling up to my show no more.” This lyric means that he used to be popular but now that he’s old no one cares about him anymore. This helps prove the what the message of the Music video is because it shows he is afraid that in the future he will lose his fans and the people who cared about him once he is forty-one. Another lyric that I think is important is when Pouya says, “What to do, where to go, my sound cloud don’t play no more, I got to get it on the low.” This lyric shows that he doesn’t know what to do now that no one listens to his music and now that he no longer gets money from his sound cloud he has started to sell drugs. This helps prove the argument because it helps show how he is worried about how his future could end up being horrible for example him selling drugs to get money. Also The Website Rap Genius got a quote from Pouya in an interview about what his lyrics mean in the song “41” and he says, “41 is about me being 41 years old and a musical failure” (41 Lyrics-Rap Genius). This helps prove the argument because it shows he afraid in the future he will become a music failure.
If you take a deeper look into the artist from the point of view as a person off the stage and how they act and the way they feel about things you can get a deeper meaning out of the song. As an avid fan of Pouya I have watched many interviews on Pouya I have learned a lot about how he acts and who he is as a person. One thing that really sticks out about him is that he suffers from Panic Disorder. Panic Disorder is a psychiatric disorder in which debilitating anxiety and fear arise frequently and without reasonable cause and cause panic attacks. Pouya said in one interview “I start to panic before I preform because I’m so afraid of what the people at the show are thinking and what they are saying about me in their head.” (Pouya Interview-No Jumper). Knowing what Pouya is going through with his disorder Helps prove the point that he is worried about what the future has in store for him because he is constantly worried about what people think about him and he is always worried about something bad happening to him.
The setting of the music video is in two places one in a run-down area with old houses, dusty roads, dead grass, and an old trailer.

This gives the video a dark, gloomy feeling for while in this setting. The second setting is in a new fancy white BMW. The BMW gives off the sense of wealth and happiness. The setting can help portray how a charter feels. For example, when at the town homes it portrayed Pouya as being lonely and sad, as for the BMW it made Pouya seem happy and accomplished. The Setting also plays into the two paths he could take which helps with the plot of the video. The setting helps prove the point of Pouya’s message being the future is scary by making two possible settings he could be living in depending on how his future

goes.
A big part of any song is the tone of the artist’s voice. The tone of someone’s voice can change what someone is trying to say completely. The tone of Pouya’s voice sounds angry, sad, and upset during the song. It makes Pouya’s lyrics of the song sound like he is upset with how his life has become now that he is 41. For example, he seems to be yelling during the chorus of the song when he says, “The bills due and the walls got some mildew, I been looking at this bottle wondering what these pills do.” By Pouya yelling it helps give the lyrics this stronger meaning which makes it seem Pouya is agitated with what his life has become. Another example is when Pouya uses a lower town of voice when he says, “What to do, where to go, my sound cloud don’t play no more, I hope they don’t knock on my door.” This gives off a sad, depressed, and a scared feeling when he uses this low town of voice. By Pouya using these kind of tones I think this helps prove the point that he is afraid of the future because he is yelling which makes him seem angry or sounds low and sad. This makes him seem upset with what will happen if his future does go down the path that he describes in the song.
As you can see the message Pouya is showing his fear of the future and what it has in store for him as a person and as a musician through the music video “41”. Our future is who you are with, where you live, your career, and many more aspects of life. Pouya’s video relates to many people as many of our future scares us and not being able to know what the future has in store for us wither it is good or bad. Pouya showed this through the plot of the video, the lyrics, the setting, the tone of his voice in the song, and Pouya’s personal life. Therefore, the message behind the video “41” is the future is scary because we don’t know what it has in store for us.