Shawn Mendes: Song Analysis

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.

For example, Smash Mouth writes,”i ain’t the sharpest tool in shed/ She was looking kind was looking kind of dumb with her finger in her thumb.”(Smash Mouth) This lyric describes the singer’s personality. He might not be the smartest person and people might judge him, but The singer is smart enough to make his own decisions. This is a great example of a hypole. Another examples of literary devices in the song is,”Fed to the rules and I hit the ground running.”(Smash Mouth) This lyric is an example of personification. It’s personification because it’s giving human traits to the rules. The lyric give detailed information about the singer listening to the rules, but people make fun of him for listening to every rule. That will not stop him for doing his best.

Throughout Kanye West’s prolific career, he has possessed an intricate sound that has separated him from his hip-hop counterparts. After the immense praise he received on his breakout album, College Dropout, it was no surprise that Kanye West would perform at the same level on his second album, Late Registration. West presented an innovative and soulful sound to the hip-hop industry, earning individuals’ ears and hearts.With lyrics that discussed themes of poverty, drug abuse, and domestic issues and samples that provided a sense of nostalgia, Kanye West was steadily transforming into a political icon far beyond the means of his hip-hop artistry. With such empowering and sincere lyrics, Kanye West served as the voice of historically marginalized people, whose voices were seemingly unheard before. In the song “Drive Slow,” West’s guidance and empowering message remained evident, as he joined forces with GLC and Paul Wall to create a soulful song that offered assistance on how to overcome barriers in life. Through the use of suggestive details, figurative language, and vivid storytelling, West utilizes the automobile culture to assert how individuals can achieve success of every field of human endeavor through constant efforts in the right direction. In addition, he also attempts to convey that one must “drive slow” in a car in order to appreciate the environment that consists outside of the automobile. West creates a double entendre of the word “drive slow,” expressing that

J Cole song, “Be Free”, showing the racism through the world and showing that Cole want everyone to happily and be free. Cole is showing problems people face every day through his powerful lyrics. “Every time I step outside I see my niggas die, I'm lettin' you know, that there ain't no gun they make that can kill my soul, Oh no.” (Lines 14-18). Cole is saying that every time someone look on the news, social media, or talking its always about someone dying never about some good news. Cole is also trying to state that he will never stop trying and he going to keep pushing till he time comes by God. Grow stated, “Cole dedicated the song to every young black man murdered in America, regardless of the race of the person who killed them. I pray that one day the world will be filled with peace and rid of injustice, he wrote. Only then will we all Be Free.” Throughout this song “Be Free” J Cole is also showing a tribute to Michael Brown and others. J Cole is also telling his pain of seeing other African Americans dying by racial profile, racism, and more. “And I'm in denial, and it don't take no x-ray to see right through my smile, I know, I be on the go, and there ain't no drink out there that can numb my soul, oh no.” (Lines 1-5) Cole is trying to say that today in society people get in others way when they trying to be successful and saying do not let that happen. Close out all the

Have you ever heard about how an artist gets his work copied by another artist? It could either be a popular artist who has their work plagiarized by another lesser-known artist.

Chris Stapleton released his debut album, Traveller, in the Spring of 2015. This album is characterized by what I would describe as a traditional country feel, but with a slightly more modern sound, or to be more technical, a country rock meets blues album. This record, and Chris Stapleton himself, went relatively unnoticed by the general public after initial release. It was not until the 2015 CMA awards when Stapleton performed “Tennessee Whiskey” with Justin Timberlake that his album truly took off (Welch). Since then, songs from Traveller can frequently be heard on national country radio stations, as well as on tour, a show I will be attending in May.

‘Stronger’ is a song by Kanye West an America rapper. The song was released the 31 of July 2007, it the second single from his third album, ‘Graduation.’ The song ‘stronger’ won the best rap solo performance on the 50th Grammy award it also tops the billboard hot 100, Spin and Rolling Stone name the song ‘Stronger’ as one of the best songs of the year.

Jay-Z’s “December 4th” was the first song on his Black Album, which was released in 2003, during one of the many peaks in the rapper’s career. The song includes his mother talking about his childhood in-between verses and is a very autobiographical song in the sense that he talks about his life up until he formed the persona that is Jay-Z. Although “December 4th” is thought to have been about the rappers’s presumed retirement, the song does not allude to an end to his rap career, instead,the “December 4th” is about the artist 's transition from Shawn Carter to Jay-Z. He tells the story, not of the end, but of the beginning of Jay-Z and he does this by separating himself from his former self, Shawn Carter; examining the importance that Carter played in the story of how Jay-Z was born and continues to live. This song is very indicative of a speaker who is narrating and advising his former self and showing the importance of accepting and how one came to be.

Is Vanilla Ice's song “Ice, Ice, Baby” an example of plagiarism? Of course, it is, and Robert Matthew Van Winkle, who known professionally as Vanilla Ice knows it. Vanilla Ice became famous for a while, not because of his talent, but because of the copyright of someone else baseline. Some people said that since the words were not the same, then it wasn't plagiarism. It was just an artist sampling another artist's music which happens all the time. To me, I believe that this is an example of plagiarism. Vanilla Ice can't go and change one beat in someone's music and call it new and original without giving the person any credit. He thought changing the rhythm of David Bowie’s “Under Pressure” baseline and not giving him credit would avoid him from any trouble. Vanilla Ice song “Ice, Ice, Baby” is an example of plagiarism, with evidence and proves that it was a number one hit just because it was based on the baseline of "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie.

This song produced by the artist j Cole. This song hit number on all charts in every category. This song was influenced by j Coles best friend who died saving his best friend. The part that is getting everyone's attention is that he was talking to his daughter the whole time.

I actually went into Gracie's Song with pretty low expectations. I was very happy when it turned out to be an absolutely beautiful book. This novel follows the story of a girl name Gracie as she goes back to her home town. Her hometown is like many where once you go, you never leave. Gracie finally returns for a visit after her mother passes away. No one knows why she left: her sister, her best friend, even her childhood best friend/high school sweetheart doesn't know.

Next, I will be talking about Kanye West’s album College dropout. College dropout was Kanye’s first debut album with his record label Roc-A-Fella Records, this album was released February 2004. Kanye spent the years 1999-2003 producing this album, College dropout also won grammy award for album of the year, American music award for favorite rap/hip-hop album, and lastly billboard music award for top R&B album. Kanye’s album did a lot of things for the hip-hop/rap world with this album. This album changed hip-hop’s direction, bridged hip-hop’s gap, it also embraced autotune, it also helped build hip-hop’s leading visionary. Kanye is very outspoken in this album because he lacked having a filter. On this album he “discussed” victims of hurricane

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.

to music critics Jackson’s album Thriller seemed to be inspired by “a mixture of several genres

My junior year of high school, I attended the Texas Music Educators Association Conference in San Antonio, Texas where the Texas All-State Choir rehearses and performs. I had auditioned and was selected as one of the top 28 singers in the state, qualifying to perform with the state choir. One of the songs we performed was titled “Even When He is Silent.” The text of the piece was taken from a poem written on the walls of Auschwitz, about believing in the power of God even when it feels as if He is temporarily silent. The performance of the piece brought me to tears, as I was able to see the power of music and the gospel come together to perform something of great power and meaning. Through specific direction within my patriarchal blessing,