Analysis Of The Song ' Thrift Shop ' By Macklemore And Ryan Lewis

Director Sut Jhally, in his documentary film, “Dreamworlds 3: Desire, sex, and power in music videos”, analyzes the issue of how women are portrayed in the music world. Jhally, in his film argues how music and media has become a proud industry when it comes to advertising women, all for the benefit of popularity and record sales. Jhally believes these videos both inform and misinform our culture about our dominant attitudes regarding femininity masculinity, sexuality and race. He uses an empathetic tone in order to appeal to pathos, the feelings and experiences in women when he presents video clips that are somewhat offensive to watch as proof that women have become a common necessity shown in music videos. Often presented as being sexually aggressive and submissive, being objectified by men. He also intentionally wants to try to stir up emotions as he introduces song lyrics of women being called inappropriate names and images of women being fondled by men throughout the film. Sometimes, aggressively without consent.

Robin Thicke’s music video to his song “Blurred Lines” avidly contributes to the patriarchy, while portraying sexism, gender standards, and beauty standards. His music video can be analyzed from a feminist theory approach, as it’s evident that his song and video contribute to a patriarchal society and its inherently sexist and sexualized ideologies. The ideology behind the song and music video is purely sexual and about male dominance. The lyrics to the song and actions in the video exhibit extreme over sexualization and objectification of the women. Analyzing this piece of popular culture through a feminist approach opens up a provoking conversation about how popular culture functions in a patriarchal culture. Analyzing pop culture though a feminist theory can allow for a larger variety and more in-depth analysis about the social aspects and political agenda within popular culture.

The appeal he uses most often is pathos, it is found throughout the song. Macklemore uses a word that is very hurtful to homosexuals: “faggots" (Haggerty, Lewis, Lambert, 2102). He uses it to show how people inappropriately use the word, but it is a word that causes a lot of pain to some people. His word choice is effective in bringing out emotion as in the line, “plagued by pain in their heart.” The choice to use the word plague describes just how bad the pain is. When people hear the word plague, we think of a widespread disease that affects hundreds and causes worldwide scare. He is saying that this pain is what they have in their heart every day. By using pathos to appeal to the emotion of love in every chorus, “my love, she keeps me warm,” Macklemore successfully tugs at a listener’s heartstrings because most can relate to the feeling of love in some way or another. Another phrase that he uses that applies to pathos is “some would rather die than be who they are.” In today's society, the topic of suicide is extremely emotional, which is what this lyric refers to. Macklemore uses a great deal of pathos appeal to reach out to his listeners and get his argument across.

This is what they call imagery. The singer is saying be yourself do not follow others, be yourself and don’t let your perse stop you. Later on in the song it say,”The ice we skate is getting pretty thin/ The water’s getting warm so you might as well swim/ My worlds on fire. How about yours/ That’s the way I like it and i’ll never get bored.” (Smash Mouth) This entire line of the song describes stress and it will try to stop you from being you, but when he rose up and he made a difference and forgot all about the stress he once had. The first part of the lyric is a simile. The final lyric in the song that is important is,” Somebody once asked could I spare some change for gas/ I need to get myself away from this place/ I said yep, what a concept/I could use a little fuel myself/ And we could all use a little change.”( Smash Mouth) What he means by this is people ask him what he did to become this famous and he said,”you have to follow your dreams.” This is an example of a

“Outlet shopping is perhaps luxury’s greatest ploy to get its goods into the hands of anyone and everyone,” (Thomas, Pg. 246). “But outlet shopping is the antithesis of the flagship, the antithesis in fact, of luxury itself.” (Thomas, 2007. Pg. 247) Columnist Karen Heller explained to Thomas after visiting Woodbury Common Premium Outlets in New York, “The clothes were marked down, picked over and repeatedly pawed, the opposite of how they were originally displayed. Their power to enchant seemed minimized, even at a third the price, smashed together like produce in a storage hold.” Thomas explains how luxury merchandise is purely just that, leftover “luxury” products: overproduction. No longer does luxury embody the experience of pampering nor does it signify class and wealth. Some

Today many people feel compelled to buy anything or everything with an expensive price tag. This includes Expensive designer clothes, latest gadgets, expensive vehicles and many other similar things. This form of consumerism has embedded itself in today’s society; where it's encouraged to invest in such materialistic possessions. Kanye West is an African-American rapper, producer, and entrepreneur, who articulates his struggle with consumerism and the struggle for those around him in his song “All Falls Down.” West, utilizes puns, rhyme, and juxtaposition to highlight the issues surrounding materialism that can be interpreted differently by different listeners such as African Americans and White Americans.

As the title of the paper suggests, I chose Kendrick Lamar’s song “Blacker the Berry” off the To Pimp A Butterfly album. When selecting a song, I actually took to Twitter to ask my followers what song I should write about. I personally do not listen to Kendrick Lamar so I decided to ask people who enjoy his music to recommend songs that an analysis should be written over. Several people mentioned “Blacker The Berry”. Although I did not hear the many rhymes and metaphors at first, after reading the lyrics along with listening to the song I was quick to realize how creative, witty and almost unintentional the rapping’s of Kendrick Lamar are. Another reason I decided on this song is because he raps about current violence of high profile crimes

Furthermore, the goal of the music video is to inspire the LGBT community to be proud of who they are, promote the gay right movement not only in America but globally and to make a change toward all of humanity with speaking his belief. Macklemore’s “Same love” targets teenagers, adults, any race, any gender, in efforts, to raise awareness and stop discrimination, support equality and gay marriage. To begin he starts by targeting adolescents who are suffering from feeling different from the norm of society, then proceeds through the life span of a homosexual stressing the need for expectance. The older generations are a little more old school and have a harder time accepting changes in today’s society, such as, homosexuality for this reason some do not believe in equality like gay rights. The strictly religious communities follow what they were taught in the bible resulting in not believing in gay rights because God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Bob.

Ludacris does a remarkable job of portraying his message about the struggles that some adolescents are faced with. “Runaway Love”, by Ludacris, featuring Mary J. Blige (2007), represents the theme of struggle through hip-hop and rap music. It is about little girls who are “stuck up in the world on their own.” They have to take care of themselves because the people they are around do not care about them. They range from nine to eleven years in age, and their goal in life, at such a young age, is to run away from home. Ludacris is trying to get the listener to realize the struggles that even children have to face because adults are not the only ones who have problems, like most people believe. He is very successful in

Kelly Fox presents as incredibly emotional about the subject, and her article comes off as more of a rant than the rhetoric she intended it to be. With a title like, “BOW DOWN, MACKLEMORE,” in all caps, and with her closing statement of, “I don’t need

Macklemore uses logos to explain the logic of same sex love. The first lyrics in the song helps the audience grasp what the song is about, and the problems with it. By Macklemore stating his interaction with his mom about being gay creates rhetorical examples because his personal experiences will trigger memories, and experiences people have gone through to make them connect more to the song. The song uses ethos by trying to have people believe in the positive things about being a homosexual, and wanting to change the societal norms and stereotypes people have against homosexuality. The concept of pathos in the song is all about the emotion, and how a person feels when they are listening to the song. The song is suppose to trigger emotions in someone so they can fully understand the perspective of the song, and it’s full purpose.

However, while Macklemore supported the Black Lives Matter movement, he questioned whether "You speak about equality, but do you really mean it?/Are you marching for freedom, or when it 's convenient? (Woods, Jamila. White Privilege II. Macklemore. Ryan Lewis, 2016. Google Play Music. Web. 19 Nov. 2016.)" He wonders if he 's actually making an impact on improving the lives for blacks or if he 's just doing this to feel good about being white and a successful artist. One may be skeptical on why Macklemore supports the movement, but considering not all

For decades now, humans have always been so quick to judge a book by it’s cover; one’s clothes help create the cover to this book. Norton brings up various styles individuals wear and how it displays their character to the world. For instance, “a display in the window of polo provides an embarrassment of semiotic riches” (Norton 88). One who wears the brand polo is someone who is of the upper class due to it’s vogue aesthetic and price tags. This goes for any high end designer brand like Michael Kors or Chanel; if one is seen covered in such a luxury, there is no doubt they are living in wealth. By wearing this clothing, one is being told to attain the typical preeminent behavior of the rich, having an attitude that they surpass all others. Moreover, Frank focuses on a particular group who have this rock and roll flare. He believes “we consume not to fit in, but to prove, on the surface at

Fashion is everything to society and the media. The fashion industry has transformed into a necessity in the life of people. Everyone wants to look good, feel fabulous and feel as if we belong with everyone else. The envy and desire to wear certain things and look a certain way all come, from wearing the latest fashion handbags, accessories, dresses, shoes, and the list goes on. But, when is considering fashion into an individual’s life going too far to the extreme? Many do not consider the whereabouts of fashion materials and how the environment is affected by the mere existence of certain garments. Some may believe these objects grow on trees. But that is clearly not the case. Even though it would be nice. The fashion industry as a

In my opinion, Kendrick Lamar, an award-winning rapper and songwriter, has one of the best abilities to describe his distressed and abused lifestyle in Compton, California. He is not your original cliché artist who does not speak about anything meaningful. Kendrick, also known as K. Dot, is one of the most well known and most respected rappers in this era. Not only does he speak about his gloomy past, but he also speaks about his fortunate future. His ability to give detailed representations of his struggles and his story telling allows me to, metaphorically, enter the mind of Kendrick Lamar.