Taylor Swift's Music Video 'Wildest Dreams'

Killing the elephant while it is peacefully eating grass symbolized the barbarity of colonialism as a whole. For instance, China was “peacefully eating grass” on its own, until the conquerors invade it and ripped the peace away.

In the video Vice Guide to Liberia, Shane Smith uses different rhetorical devices to display situations throughout the entire documentary. The video has a certain negative tone which portrays the wild side of the country, surrounded by filth, drugs, and teenage prostitution (Vice Guide to Liberia). There are a series of allegories included within the video to add more negative effect on the series of situations. The imagery is crucial to the video because of the scheme played by Shane Smith which contradicts with the video. Techniques used in this video to lay out the situated themes, justifies what the overall video goes through and which results to be expected.

First, the author uses imagery to describe Africa and the horrors of it. In the text it says, “so feverishly and startlingly real that you could feel the prickling fur on your hand, and your mouth was stuffed with the dusty upholstery smell of their heated

In the comparison and contrast essay, “Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa,” by David Sedaris, the author talks about the jealousy he feels towards the excitement present in his friend Hugh’s life. David Sedaris explores the contrast in the dullness of his own childhood with the adventurous lifestyle of his friend’s childhood. Using descriptions, personal experiences of his friend and himself, and language, Sedaris explains why he takes satisfaction in passing his friend’s stories as though they were his own since the stories were more interesting. The field trips, environment, and activities all contribute in the development of the difference in lifestyle between them.

“Images” that are dedicated to humanism, conceived by, and based on African Americans and their encounters.

Just like Taylor Swift's song, it started off with a blank space, 5 blank spaces.

In musical superstar Taylor Swift’s music video for her song “Blank Space,” she is portraying herself as the high maintenance and dramatic girlfriend that the media believes she is. The speaker of this text is the media’s perception of Taylor Swift and her message is about the disconnect between who Swift really is and who the media sees her as. I believe Swift has two purposes for this music video. One is for her character in the music video to warn her audience about the type of love that boys want, and the other for real life Taylor herself to poke holes into the media’s concept of her love life. The video is filled with satire and paradoxes to convince us that our idea of Taylor Swift is not an accurate opinion of her.

Have you ever seen the famous music video “Same girl” starring R. Kelly and Usher? This movie follows the same story line but the college edition! Two girls that are best friends are excited to be dating this new boy. He is tall, fine, nice, and drives a nice car. But they realize that both of their new boys sound very similar. After discussing the similarities the two girls realize that they are dating the same boy. So the girls go to confront the guy and find out that in fact it was not the same guy but the boys were twins! I guess there is such thing as the perfect

The artwork of philosopher and intellectual W.E.B DuBois and African photographer Malik Sidibe is prime example of the power of photography to influence, challenge, create, and recreate ideas that impact society. Both individuals used their piece of work as a political tool to challenge negative ideals imposed by western views about the African diaspora, and empower their perspective communities. The correspondence of the artwork of W.E.B DuBois and Malik Sidibe is the result of the common struggle that African Americans and African people share. Thus, these individuals work goes beyond than just photography, it can be seen as counter part to a movement focused to liberate and educate individuals to tell their own stories and shape their own

Taylor Swift, a pop icon and polarizing figure, is often known for her empowering music, feminist attitude, and meaningful lyrics. Many of her fans praise the feminist messages some of her songs deliver, however others say she comes from a position of privilege and only advocates for white women. Still, a common perception of Swift is that she has evolved from an innocent country singer into a more controversial and sometimes provocative pop singer. What is ignored though, is that despite this perception, themes depicted in “old” Taylor’s music still displayed highly problematic concepts about gender, just in less obvious ways. Particularly in her music video for “You Belong With Me,” the audience if presented with a fulfilling love story involving a nerdy girl getting the popular. On its surface, this concept may seem normal, but the narrative of this video unintentionally conveys significant gender issues in today’s society. Thus, through her 2008 music video for “You Belong With Me,” Taylor Swift ironically presents herself as the ideal nerdy girl next door who gets the guy when she suddenly turns beautiful while demonizing a cheerleader, revealing problematic notions of how women are supposed to look and behave in society, as well as reinforcing negative female stereotypes.

Music is a creative art form that allows the artist to construct something that expresses a purpose. It evolves over time and changes as the world changes, taking on many different motivations behind the melody and lyrics. In today’s society, anger, oppression, racism, and negative opinions rule the media and popular culture. I believe that African Americans need to show their self worth and not let white people hold them back. With the music in white culture often mocking African American culture and portraying negative stereotypes, African Americans have to find ways to gain respect. In acknowledgement of the negative portrayal of their culture, African Americans respond by creating songs and videos that express their pride in their culture and heritage, react to white oppression, and communicate their independence.

In his article “Daily Life in Black Africa: Elements for a Critique,” author Paulin Houtondji offers his perceptions of several aspects of life in Africa. His statements are explicit, observant, harsh, and backed up with examples and anecdotes. Many African pop musicians provide similarly critical assessments of various aspects of African life, but they choose to do so in a much subtler way. Houtondji’s criticism of Africa for its serious failure is similar to that of artists like musician E.T. Mensah, who uses upbeat music to lessen the sting of his subversive lyrics. In fact, so deceivingly happy is the sound of the music that missing the entire message of the song is highly

My room-mate had a single story of Africa; a single story of catastrophe”. Adichie also tells how growing up in Nigeria reading only American and English children’s books made her deaf to her authentic voice. As a child, she wrote about such things as blue-eyed white children easting apples, thinking brown skin and mangos had no place in Literature. That changed as she discovered African writers.

those who spent their lives studying Africa are aware of how complex and diverse the

When trying to understand and learn about world literature, we often find flaws in literary works. In most cases, the stories about Africa are written by those who are not African, who did not live to experience the struggles of natives but happened to be observers. In Heart of