Song Analysis Lorde

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.

inflicted” (King 77). This quote indicates the symbolic meaning that Lorde portrays because it displays how the past experiences can improve an individual’s life. Additionally, in “Man’s Child” by Audre Lorde, she focuses

Audre Lorde: “For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence.”

As the power of a song resides completely in its lyrics, it is no longer surprising that music can be healing, inspiring, or even motivating. After introducing this insight to my life, it became very rare for me to listen to any Imagine Dragons’ song without it leaving an impact on my life and my perspectives. Imagine Dragons is a rock band whose music tends to address both personal and social issues. It’s Time, one of their biggest hits and most influential songs, was written by the band’s lead singer Dan Reynolds during a difficult time in his life. “ I was not very happy with who I was, I guess, and I wanted to make some changes” says the singer in an interview with Purevolume , in which he addresses It’s Time as a poem he wrote to express

“When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something” (NP). This is a quote from U.S. Representative John Lewis’ commencement speech that he gave at Washington University in Saint Louis. Lewis was a civil rights leader who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The essay, The Fourth of July, by Audre Lorde is about her trip to Washington D.C., and the racism she experienced. As an 8th-grade graduation present, Audre’s parents took Audre and her sister to Washington D.C. In pre-civil rights America, racism was a powerful force experienced by minorities, limiting their opportunities to advance economically and integrate equally into America’s predominantly white society.

“They killed my son in cold blood,” lamented Eloise Armstead. Her husband, Add Armstead, was traveling to work with a companion on Saturday evening in the early 1970s. Thomas Shea and Walter Scott, responding to a call about a cabby that was robbed earlier that day, used this opportunity to rid the world of the wicked and gain a victory for the righteous. Walking along New York Blvd. in South Jamaica, Queens, Shea and his partner pulled alongside the two. Armstead says, as he recalls the incident, “We were walking, not saying anything to each other, and this car pulls up, and this white fella opens the door with a gun.” To him and his companion it looked like they were going to be robbed, so they ran. As the gunshots

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.

In the first stanza, Lorde is making it a mission statement to adults. “The difference between poetry and rhetoric/is being ready to kill/ yourself/ instead of your children” (Lorde). She believes that if adults had the power to do anything, it would be protecting children. This is implied as adults needing to act as protectors to children, especially from violence. Lorde is a mother herself. She is expressing her anger to adults who do not have a desire to save children. The children become a possession of the adult with “your”. Children immediately become the adult’s responsibility and they need to be in their care. However, she speaks out against wrong actions caused by hatred. The hatred comes from racism, especially when it was strong in the

Audre Lorde, author of the autobiography The Cancer Journals, reiterates her experience of having breast cancer and her decision to have a mastectomy through a series of journal entries. Throughout these entries, she expresses a range of emotions all across the board. This is not just to describe her battle with breast cancer, but to also highlight how her various identities intersect with her experience. Lorde looks to her journal to channel her fear of breast cancer in order to power through the experience as a black lesbian feminist. She writes not only to help herself cope, but also to help the thousands of women battling breast cancer who share those same fears along with her.

On the other hand, Lorde presents a unified front. Using pronouns such as we and our, she not only unifies the all women but includes herself as well. As opposed to the many yous, mes, and thems in Welty’s work, there is a distinct contrast formed between the two. Although all women are not represented by Lorde’s work, it can be expected that many women were in the same mindset during the socially transforming time after the 1960s when feminism became more widespread (Freedman). Lorde sets up an environment where women are free to express themselves and are accepted as equals, and in this the women are unified. In using poetry to engage the self and then create transformation, the women are to do this together. The language created by poetry

Blurred Lines is a popular summer song that is constantly played on the radio. A song like “Blurred Lines” should not be played on public radio. A big problem with “Blurred Lines” is that it attempts to normalize disrespectful behavior towards women. Robin Thicke teamed up with rapper T.I. and singer-producer Pharrell to deliver arguably this summer’s most popular song. The song “Blurred Lines” has placed number one on the billboard hot 100 and has sold over one million copies. Critical reception of the track is mostly positive. Yet with the success comes a not so positive response. When first listening to the song a person might find themselves nodding your head to a catchy tune, but perhaps once a person listens closely to the lyrics some people may not want this song on their iPods.

In presenting herself as a child on the verge of adulthood, Lorde indicated to the reader that the things she learned at this time would be pivotal and important for the rest of her life. For example, at the beginning of her essay, Lorde wrote that her trip to Washington D.C. was “on the edge of the summer when I was supposed to stop being a child” (221). In this way, Lorde’s trip to the nation’s capital and her experiences of discrimination there provided an intellectual

Within the album, “teeth” are used as a motif. Analyzing the tracks closely, it becomes apparent that O’Connor uses teeth and references to types of teeth as a way to represent class and social circles. In the hit “Royals”, gold teeth are mentioned in the chorus. This reference alludes to grillz- most commonly seen on rappers, and increasingly on female pop stars- and begins the list of superficial things that Lorde claims pervade every song.

Audre Lorde was a writer, poet, mother, feminist, civil rights advocate, and more. According to the Poetry Foundation, Lorde dedicated a large part of her life and creative talents to confront the issues of sexisum, homophobia, racism, and more. She was concerned with modern society’s excessive need to sort individuals into different groups of people. She believed in power and change within the world. Her poems and writings can relate not only to those who are in search for change, but crave love, fulfillment, and revolution. Throughout her poem, “Movement Song”, Audre Lorde captures the raw emotions one possesses while slowly letting go of a loved individual whie using poetic devices including complex methaphors, repition,

The song "U.N.I.T.Y." by Queen Latifah, released in 1994, is a hip-hop song with a theme about the harassment, domestic violence and sexist slurs against women, black woman to be specific. Should “U.N.I.T.Y” be considered literature, specifically is it a poem? I think that every song, no matter what the genre is free verse poetry. However, this artist and song are important in the hip-hop as literature genre movement because of both the artist’s credibility and the message that she is delivering.