Who Is Jussie Smollett's Good Enough

Over the past three decades, hip-hop has become an important element in every American’s journey, influencing everything from music, fashion, and language to politics and attitudes toward gender and race. In 2006 Kanye West told MTV, “Everyone in hip-hop discriminates against gay people.” While bravely condemning homophobia he added that the genre isn’t alone: “Not just hip-hop, but America just discriminates.” Still, till this day, the homophobic discrimination is uprising due to moral or religious

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 first verse of the song shares the troubled relationship between the father and son, when it said, “he came to the world in the usual way, but there were planes to catch and bills to pay. He learned to walk while I was away.” This verse explained that he was away on some type of career to make money for the family, and provide for the son financially. However, he wasn’t able to spend quality time with him, and missed important milestones in his life, such as taking his first steps. His career obviously came before his son and family, and he made excuses for that. Then it finishes with the chorus, which says, “when you

Finally, the last way the music video argues for the rights of homosexuals is through logos. Logos refers to persuasion by means of logical appeal or reason. The video uses logic to show that the main characters do not deserve the treatment they receive. They are shown in the video doing nothing that would cause their house to be destroyed or beat up. It is only logical that people should treat others the way they want to be treated.

The first stanza, which contains the son’s childish speech, is short, only three lines. However, by the stanza which contains the son’s angry talkback, the stanza is double in length, having four lines. Each line represents a literal level of maturity and growth that the son has gained. As time moves on, he is able to gain more and more experience in life. As his experience accumulates over time, so does his hostility. His terse, childish begging for his father to simply read another story turns to an angry speech about how he no longer beleievs in his father as an authority figure. Despite this, the son’s psyche changes back, as all this maturation is played out in the father’s head, and when he returns, he is back to his childish self, bu this stanza is the longest in the poem. This suggests that when someone is able to mature enough, they are able to comprehend more of the world than they did before, and are able to act

In a world of heterosexual dominance, many are out of place, in other words, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community are outsiders. In America, nearly 9 million people identify themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. (Slick). Ben Haggerty, better known as his stage name Macklemore, from Seattle, Washington took this global conflict and created the very popular music video “Same Love” which has over 126 million views on YouTube. Around the world, homosexuals are looked down upon, discriminated and are left feeling ashamed. The LGBT community wants equality therefore, supporter of gay rights, Macklemore took action into his own hands to spread the word by creating

These allusions contribute to the continuation of the poet’s story and a sense of moving forward. Since the poet is moving out of the house, the second stanza develops the story along with various famous landmarks to help the readers imagine the journey to the current house. When the poet writes, “Instead we went to North Dakota, then up to Winnipeg / to visit the cousins…Going onto Palo Alto...Arriving on Labor Day, Grace Slick’s concert / spilling into the new backyard… Our first night in the house, and not our last. / Johnny come lately, there’s a new kid in town,” (36-52) the readers are able to envision the journey the poet took to arrive at their current house. The songs correlate to the imagery according to the poet’s memories. These songs amplify the emotions that the readers are able to further sense from the poem. These allusions, alongside with songs create a new memory into the new

The emotions shown in the song is a lot of encouragement. It is not a story but more of words of encouragement to a child from their father or parent. Life can and will at some point be challenging, but he wants his kids to know that no matter what, they will always have someone that loves them. He wants the best for his kids and he wants life for them to be all that they want it to be. He encourages them to keep and strive for their dreams while keeping their worries small. He also gives advice to “always forgive, and you never regret,” “help somebody every chance you get,” and “always give more than you take.” Rascal Flatts’ shows their credibility by the members of the band actually have kids and feel the same way toward them. They also show their logos by the repetition of the phrase “my wish” emphasizes to get message across to the audience of success. “My Wish” the song can be written to you (the reader), as written in the song, or from a parent to a child. The sound of the song is uplifting with an increasing faster beat. It increases loudness and beat at the peak of the chorus and back down for the next stanza giving more emphasis to the chorus. The lyrics of “My Wish” correlate well with each other and the sound. The song ends with three lines “This is my wish, I hope you know somebody loves you, and May all your dreams stay big,” with the repetition of the lines in the back ground, also adding

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.

Intro: Like various art forms such as film, television, and literature allows artists to express their own sense of identity, that being nationality, race, class, ethnicity, gender or sexuality. In this case, Queen uses music to illustrate the themes of gender and sexuality through their music video I Want to Break Free (1983). This essay will attempt to discuss how Queen’s music video, I Want to Break Free, explores queerness in relation to queer theory. Firstly, I will introduce the ideas and arguments of queer theory through Gilbert Herdt article Same Sex Different Cultures (1997). I will then discuss Queen’s portrayal of drag within the music video and how it can be seen as queer rather than heterosexual. Lastly, I will argue that

However, in the following stanzas, Carter changes his tone and tense to show how he felt growing up with his father. He states, “I despised the discipline / he used to shape what I should be” (7-8). This shows Carter, even though he disliked the means of reprimand his father implemented, understands his father’s ways were to help him become the man he “should be.” Through this insight, Carter says, “not owning up that he might feel / his own when he punished me” (9-10). This is possibly saying not only did he bear the chastisement, but his father sensed the “pain” as well. Yet again, maybe Carter has a deeper message and is saying fathers and their children share the same troubles and triumphs. In addition, Carter remembers how he “didn’t show [his] need to him, / since his response to an appeal / would not have meant as much” (11-13). Furthermore, he states “his response,” (12) “would not have… / …been as real” (14). Telling such a harsh reality, Carter contrasts his statement and relays to the reader through “those rare [hard] times,” (15) “…the pure joy / survive[d]” (16-17).

Another hit songs that show his emotional side is Mockingbird. It is a personalized heartfelt lullaby that revolves around his daughter Hailie and memories. For the most part the song is specifically for her explaining how he is trying to make her childhood better than his but in doing so it has separated them. Also, Kim had developed a drug habit and had an alcohol problem. Marshall’s lyrics cater to what he perceives as Hailie’s viewpoint of missing her mom and dad being together as a family. Some of the lyrics are, “...Hailie I know you miss your mom and I know you miss your dad…Well I'm gone but I'm trying to give you the life that I never had…Daddy's always on the move, mamma's always on the news… Papa was a rollin' stone, momma developed a habit And it all

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.

John Legend wrote “All of Me” for his fiancée, Chrissy Teigen. There is no doubt that the song was for her. The whole song is about love and about giving up something, to gain so much more. This song consists of the couple loving each other and understanding sometimes things are hard and will not always make sense. But they also know that if they persevere through those hard times they will be unstoppable.

When he sings this line in the song I begin to think about how my generation treats our elders. Depending on how we were raised they are either stuck in a nursing home and forgotten about or they are visited all the time. Meaning they are cold or warm. I wonder why the elderly are being put in nursing homes and most of the times it is because the children don’t want to deal with them. Lukas Graham’s song “7 Years” reflects on what our lives are like based on what we observe growing up. Their habits shape