Bruno Mars, an American celebrity, published his new song “The Lazy Song” on February 11, 2011. From his debut studio album, Doo-Wops and Hooligans, Mars reached No. 3 on the Billboard album charts, and its follow-up singles, “Grenade” and “The Lazy Song,” surpass the top 10 on the singles chart. “The Lazy Song,” endorsed by Mars celebrity, humorously resonates with the audience as it highly represents the voice of the young generation through the coping mechanisms: imagery and elision.
To persuade the audience that life is better off by being on the couch and having fun, Mars paints humorous picture of himself learning how to do a hip-hop dance. “[Mars] be loungin’ on the couch just chillin’ in [his] snuggie. [Flips] to MTV so [the] [performer]
American Writer James McBride, who wrote the essay "Hip Hop Planet", spent most of his life disliking the culture of hip hop, but after some research and personal experience, he had a change of heart. The purpose of his essay is to shine a positive light on hip hop culture and move his audience-- people who think it is all bad-- to have a change of heart like him, and to achieve his purpose, he uses rhetorical strategies including appeals, specific diction, and meticulous sentence structure.
Music is part of everyday life and serves as the center of many cultures across the world. Music brings out the best parts of a movie, a car ride, or even a special event. The purpose of music varies from artist to artist and different cultures. Every piece of music carries a unique message, but a song, in particular, carries meaning. “Runaway Love” by Ludacris, featuring Mary J. Blige, exploits the struggles of young girls by using rhetorical techniques, such as pathos, ethos, logos, tone, and visual rhetoric throughout the music video to raise national awareness about youth runaways.
Shallow lyrics that fail to evoke much thought can be detrimental to a listener's intellectual health. Many developed countries have seen declines in reading proficiency and the superficial
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
Music is a universal way in which people connect, and it does this through its use of literary devices to make the songs meaningful while still appealing. The song, “Wait and See,” uses literary devices like similes and metaphors to contribute to the theme of society’s mistakes and their impacts on the
Throughout Kanye West’s prolific career, he has always possesses a intricate sound that has separated him from his hip-hop counterparts during the early twenty first century. After the explosion and phenomenal praise he received on his breakout album, College Dropout, it was no surprise that Kanye West would perform the same with his second album. West presented a innovative and soulful sound to the hip-hop industry, garnishing fans 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 artistry. With such empowering and sincere lyrics, Kanye West served as the voice of historically marginalized people who often were stripped from their voices. 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 and mellow that helped to get people through with their day. Through the use of suggestive details, figurative language, vivid storytelling, and repetition, West utilizes automobile culture to metaphorically assert how individuals can achieve success of every field of human endeavor through constant efforts in 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
The hippie aesthetic implies a song has a message to convey to the listening audience by any means at their disposal (Covach & Flory, 2015). My interpretation of this would be exemplified in the song “War” by Edwin Starr released in 1970 on his album titled “War and Peace”. Written as a protest against the Vietnam War (War by Edwin Starr), the listener cannot misinterpret the intended message. Most songs are not as direct as to their meaning but are none the less passionate about the topic. “Silent Running” by Mike and the Mechanics is one such song. Other songs are not as ‘global’ in their message but take on a personal connotation and elicit the listener’s emotions, such as “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper.
Hozier’s 2015 song “Work Song” suggests that true love comes from hard work, devotion, and sense of faith. The author creates a story that illustrates how someone who is miserable and at his lowest point, can find love and finally have a greater purpose. Hozier’s song encourages his listeners by showing them that true love can make someone strive to be better. As the song progresses, rhythm, the juxtaposition an image, and careful diction convey that above all, love is the root of happiness, but it is not achieved without laborious work.
Throughout history, music has been seen as a medium in which different people all over the world can relate. Adorno criticizes, however, that songs that have the most “hits” on the top music charts or are most listened to, otherwise known as popular music, are being produced for and consumed by the masses as a commodity. He identifies popular music as being a part of a culture used for capitalism, and that we as listeners, are falling into a trap in which we believe songs have individuality and that we have the freedom to choose what we listen to. He argues that in reality these popular songs are all standardized and made to seem different through various elements that are added. In this paper, I will display how Adorno’s critique of popular music being used for capitalism applies to the song,1-800-273-8255, by hip-hop and rap artist Logic, through its standardized elements in both its content and marketing; however, I will argue that although it contains these elements, the audience is actively listening and responding to the song as it brings awareness to mental health and suicide prevention that is changing and saving lives all around us.
Hozier’s 2015 song “Work Song” suggests that true love comes from hard work, devotion, and sense of faith. The author creates a story that illustrates how someone who is miserable and at his lowest point can find love and finally have a greater purpose. Hozier’s song encourages his listeners by showing them that true love can make someone strive to be better. As the song progresses, rhythm, the juxtaposition of images, and careful diction convey that above all, love is the root of happiness, but it is not achieved without laborious work.
At that time, Bruno realized he continuously took her for granted. While he once thought nothing of his choices the second she was out of the picture brought him in a dark place; bringing it to his attention the importance of waking up next to her genuine love—becoming all too serial to him. Losing his sense of comfort he was so use to having. To further understand, he incorporates the simple fact of the radio. Regardless of one’s mood, the radio is a source people rely on to deal with mental stresses. Music helps bring people out of a funk. It helps them feel what is needed to be felt in order to overcome different emotions. Bruno Mars sings, “Our song on the radio, but it don’t sound the same” (1.2.) Significantly, spending an enormous amount of time with a person indefinitely draws an emotional connection to the other. It means that the smallest details will turn into one of the greatest memories. At one point in time the song had was a very catchy and uplifting tune to it. Signifying the love and happiness they felt for one another as a couple. After the breakup he refers to the same song but with a different tune, only to represent her absence in the relationship. Minifying the sadness and heartache he felt; the feeling of emptiness in now a contributing factor to his persona. Serving as a constant reminder of what he once had and lost.
Artists across music genres are at the forefront of new protest songs in response to the rise of President Donald J. Trump and his words in the media. One political track, titled “Land of the Free” by Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott, speaks to society through a bouncy beat in contrast to its blunt, politically-charged lyrics. Brooklyn based rapper Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott, otherwise known as Joey Bada$$, released his single “Land of the Free” on January 20, 2017, the day of President Trump’s inauguration. According to Scott, “Land of the Free” was inspired by African-American civil rights leaders such as Marcus Garvey, Dr. Umar Johnson, and Malcolm X (Scott, 2017, Land of the Free). In the song, Scott discusses the racism and prejudice today towards minority groups, especially African-Americans. He also touches on how former President Barack Obama’s presidency was not enough to cause big enough change on the inequality in America. The message in the track, along with the correlating album, “All-Amerikkkan Bada$$”, challenges Americans to speak up and “start a new coalition against corrupt politicians” (Scott, 2017, Land of the Free). Using the cluster analysis method, the song’s word choice is accurately analyzed since clustering the words gives the lyrics a fresh perspective on the political meaning, and it helps evaluate Scott’s motive for wanting change. Scott critiques the political indifference America has towards the ongoing issue of inequality using the key terms free, just,
The fact that replicating a seventeen-years-old song can still become a hit in 2017, demonstrates that there is a pre-designed pattern for popular music in which changing a few characteristics to make a new songs sound “unique” can still result in success. For this reason, Adorno argues that the music industry produces music in an “industrial” way--popular music is centralized in its pattern and modifies some characteristics to seem “individualistic.” Though Shape of You and No Scrubs contain different keys, tempo, and of course, lyrics, they both rely on a chord progression of i-ic-VI-VII in a common time (MusicNotes, 1 & FindSongTempo, 1). Shape of you takes advantage that the audience is accustomed to listening to the same pattern and it is modified to fit the current era and thus, result in a significant monetary income.
Do you ever wonder what is the meaning behind what you so proudly sing whenever you hear it? Music is an art form of culture which organizes sound with times It first came around in prehistoric times, however, as times passes, music is drastically changing. As a result, in the last decades music has experienced drastic changes in the themes they are talking about. These changes are due to the generations and what they are living, political and social actions of the time. For example, the decade of the 80s was the rise of hip-hop and rap music from a local phenomenon to a worldwide known genre of music. Previously, a crack cocaine epidemic had stroke major cities in the USA and it coincided with the rise of hip-hop in black communities as these
Hip-hop dance is a popular and energetic dance genre, usually accompanied by hip-hop music. It has enjoyed popularity among young people all over the world. I have been interested in hip-hop music and dance for a long time. I can show my love for life and exercise my body by practicing hip-hop dance. Young people like hip-hop dance because they can invent their own moves. It offers young people a new way to express their own personalities and emotion. Hip-hop dance also shows that they feel good about life and that they are not afraid of problems. With a history of about 40 years, hip-hop dance first began in the 1970s in the US (Pabon, 1999). In early times, people in New York and Los Angles began to perform hip-hop dance. It was first