Tag: popular music

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Ariana Grande’s Image

Ariana Grande‘s thank u, next first piqued my interest because of a harmonic progression that initially contains bass movement of an augmented second. Upon closer inspection, I found this song to be very enjoyable as its message can seem to be pushy toward exes as to their poor treatment of her, creating a terrible environment to which she has an extreme desire to move on or a sincere thankfulness for these experiences that she has taken part in.

There are many references to an overall sense of power and comfort. First, we see her on a bed that is very elegant and surrounded by items of non-necessity. After that, we switch to her walking down a high school hallway, with what could be assumed to be a clique. She takes over the whole hallway and is not afraid to push people around, literally. Later on we see her getting out of an expensive car and wearing what would seem to be an expensive outfit. All these extravagant and luxurious items could be a way of visualizing that she has come out of the relationships with values, such as wisdom and personal emotional strength.

I-Sorta-Exist comments:

“Omg Mean Girls, 13 Going On 30, Legally Blonde…the best movies bihhh”

This comment is in support of the whole concept for the visual aid to give added context to her situation. Mean Girls (2004) is a movie that is involving a girl coming to a new high school. After a short period of time, she is accepted into one of the most popular cliques in the school. Her appearance to most everyone in the school is a sudden popular girl who gets her way because of her new found popularity. 13 Going On 30 (2004) is about a girl longing to be popular and proceeds to wish she was 30 years old in an attempt to get away from the constant incentive to be a popular person that she was trying so hard and failing to achieve. (IMDB) Lastly, Legally Blonde (2001) describes the near perfect life of an extremely popular college student who is (the president of her sorority, a Hawaiian Tropic girl, [and] Miss June in her campus calendar.” (IMDB) All of these movies would be known by most people born around Grande’s time, 1993. So these references could very well be a simple act of communication through known stories of her age group. This gives a sense of reliability to feelings that many have experienced through these romantic comedies .

Chainy MyKala comments:

“This is really everything, I’ll be honest I’ve never really been a huge fan of her, but more and more I’m finding myself drawn to her, she’s just really seems like such a good person, like her kindness in everything she does just like shines through. Ugh yep, definitely a fan now. “

This comment made me re-think my initial thoughts of what the lyrics were meaning. My interpretation, in the beginning, was that of sarcasm. Her lyrics made me think that she was thanking all of these people as a way of regretting those people in her life. With this comment, I am starting to think that there is actual gratuity to the people that, through her knowing them, taught her love, patience, pain. I also began to take the time to really think about all the lyrics instead of listening for just aural aesthetic. These lyrics upon good inspection reflect this pleasant attitude, compared to this bratty attitude I got from it through a few listens.

Manya Barot comments:

“Guys the beginning when they’re speaking…7 rings is playing

SIS WAS GIVING US A TEASER”

This comment brought an interesting idea to the table. The music video’s length is 5:30, while the single release is only 3:27. There is quite a bit of extra material in the video and I find it interesting that Grande included her song 7 Rings, because it happened to become the top single for the week of March 19th, 2019. She could not have known that this would be the case for the song, but this encourages the “popularity/success” idea. I find it highly interesting that she would include this song in the intro to the video since 7 Rings‘ content is about primarily “conspicuous consumption.” The fact that she left it out of the single is to preemptively avoid problems of copyright, as 7 Rings‘ melodic content is a blatant copy of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s and this is why when “Concord requested 90 percent of Ms. Grande’s song, and her representatives accepted without further negotiation.” (NYTimes)

I think this video is depicting how great her life is now that she has had all these experiences to better her attitude, outlook, and demeanor. Grande’s video conveys exactly what she means by her lyrics, “thank u, next.”

Photo Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_Girls

https://www.directv.com/movies/13-Going-on-30-SXh6cGFtL2l5SmpIVll6OG1nUlh1UT09

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legally_Blonde

https://www.billboard.com/photos/8488625/ariana-grande-2018-woman-of-the-year-photo-shoot

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Think PYNK

So, about a year ago, Janelle Monáe blessed the world with her album Dirty Computer, which contained 14 super amazing tracks, and was also nominated for the Grammy Award Album of the Year . One of the most notable was her song PYNK:

As you can probably guess from the thumbnail, this video blew up the internet and simultaneously summoned the community of internet dwellers to emerge from the deeps of the net and provide Janelle with the worship and praise she deserves:

When discussing the nature of this song, Monáe describes something more of an anthem or manifesto rather than your generic 21st century love song, saying:

“PYNK is a brash celebration of creation. self love. sexuality. and pussy power! PYNK is the color that unites us all, for pink is the color found in the deepest and darkest nooks and crannies of humans everywhere… PYNK is where the future is born….”

The idea of the future being born with PYNK is prevalent throughout the entire music video. Right from the start, PNKY creates this futuristic and seemingly unearthly landscape: The floating car seen in the middle of an entirely pink-hued desert shows a different world where the freedom of “sexuality” and “self love” that Monáe describes is a reality, subtly implying that this pink world is what we should strive to have. Throughout the course of the video, the color transitions from the futuristic pink overlay (which symbolizes this new world) to more real world color, which implies that this “pink reality” is attainable and we are on the path towards it (but not quite there yet).

Throughout the piece, there are several visual images that create quite an impact. Most notably perhaps are the Vagina pants. These pants, whose coloring resembles the two tones that make up the labia majora and the labia minora, provide a powerful (and in the eyes of some commenters, “graphic”) visual representation of the “pink” she is singing about. It is also worth noting that everyone’s vagina pants look different: they are all different widths and sizes with different ratios of light pink to dark pink, showing that there is no one “correct” way a woman’s vagina, and by extension, a woman should look.

But, it’s not all about vagina. Like most of Monáe’s songs, the lyrics of PYNK are packed with multiple meanings. Monáe sings: “Pink like the inside of your…baby / Pink like the walls and the doors…maybe / Pink like your fingers in my…maybe / Pink is the truth you can’t hide / Pink like your tongue going round, baby” while the backup vocals reminds us that “deep inside, we’re all just pink.” So even though this song talks a lot vaginas and sex, it also focuses on the fact that in the end the other “pink” parts of a person, which Monáe mentions later in the song when she sings “Pink like the folds of your brain, crazy” and “Pynk, like the holes of your heart,” are equally as important and valued.

This song also isn’t all about female sex, from the opening line “Pink like the inside of your…baby” and when it is sung again in the second verse as “Pink like the inside of your…maybe,” Janelle Monáe acknowledges the fact that not all women have vaginas, therefore making the song about more about gender than a women’s sex. Monáe extends “pynk”-ness outside of physical genitalia, showing that being a woman and being “pynk” don’t have biological limitations. This is not only hinted at in within the lyrics, but also shown visually as two of the women are not wearing vagina pants; which really shows the incredibly amount of detail that went into crafting the subtleties of the song.

One of the most important things that PYNK does is find a way to display and celebrate female sexuality without trying to appeal to the male gaze. The male gaze, for those who are unfamiliar, is an artistic term coined by film critic Laura Mulvey to describe the depiction of women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male viewer from the masculine, heterosexual perspective. Monáe’s depiction of women visually comes out of a desire to celebrate the beauty of all women. This idea culminates visually during the second chorus when Monáe is sporting this number:

First the pubic hair, a direct act of rebellion against the male gaze, which bolsters the ridiculous idea that in order for a woman to be most pleasing or attractive to a man she must be hairless or she is considered unattractive or undesirable. The bold hands-on-hips confident stance that Monáe has in this moment is incredibly empowering; shattering the notion that only a person who looks a certain way can be confident. Then there is the “sex cells,” a fun play on words, with “sex cells” like reproductive organs and also the fact that sex sells. Of course, last but certainly not least, their is the pink background which emcompasses the video at all times.

Like any racy and progressive music video, PYNK received its fair share of negative reactions. Some were pretty outrageous and made some outlandish accusations:

It’s definitely the growth hormones in our food, they’re turning everyone gay and making them aware of the people around them. Better watch out, Tony.
Wow. Couldn’t the way the society you live in, TheyLive YouSleep, be considered a fascists suppressing a person’s ability to express themselves freely by imposing your preconceived notions of morality and decency on everyone and calling it “morally correct?”

However, some people did express some alternate points of view that were more…earthly:

Although it is understandable why some people may have viewed PYNK in this way, there are several holes in these arguments that show a lack of understand of the entire concept of the video. The “too styled” and “too obvious” nature of PYNK that lisa evers complains about was the Monáe’s intent. By creating a highly stylized and obvious cinematic world, Monáe is more successfully able to exaggerate how crazy it is that we need to have music designed specifically to empower women in the first place (shouldn’t female empowerment be a given in our society?). By creating an obvious overlay, Monáe is also able to more effectively include the hidden meanings and double entendres throughout the entire piece, making them more understandable by a broader range of people (did you catch the “I grab back” @ to Donald Trump at 2:26 or all the trophies showing female athletes at 2:51?).

In response to TheBlackBird WhoAnnoyedPoe; the song and video, solely based on the fact that there is so much symbolism and is so well constructed verbally, makes it impossible for it to be “dumb,” regardless of whether or not you like the music or not. You can disagree with the concept and the execution of the video, but it technically isn’t “dumb” due to the sheer amount of intelligence needed to create symbolism in language. The point of how “men don’t going around empowering themselves in dick costumes” is a rather interesting one. Yes, that doesn’t happen in modern society, but perhaps it’s because we in exist in a world where men are born into a position of empowerment automatically and therefore these drastic measures of reclaiming the power behind their genitalia is unnecessary? This comment also highlights the stigma around genitalia that Janelle Monáe addressed through the use of her vagina pants: Why is it that a vagina is only viewed positively when it is associated with sex and male pleasure (especially in heteronormative culture)?

That is part of the beauty of Janelle Monáe’s PYNK; it addresses all of these unanswerable questions in some way shape or form. PYNK highlights powerful message of self-love, acceptance, and the embrace of female sexuality in a way that is playful and a little outlandish while still having incredible meaning and symbolism behind every choice. PYNK is an anthem for empowerment, an song to inspire and celebrate women in modern day society.

PYNK Fun Fact courtesy of the internet:

Here’s the link from the comment (beware, it’s in Dutch): https://www.ad.nl/utrecht/centraal-museum-utrecht-koopt-beroemde-vaginabroek~a84e666d/

#1 Best PYNK Video Comment:

…(edited)
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Protest Pop Music: the Value in Comprehensibility

The quote “We write symphonies” on it’s own sounds harmless enough, right? Unfortunately, the context is what breaks the innocence of this statement: it was used in one of president Trump’s speeches to promote the superiority of white western culture.

In a New York Times article, writer Anthony Tommasini responds to this statement in a piece of writing titled “Trump Is Wrong if He Thinks Symphonies Are Superior.” In it, he explains why Trump is wrong through the principle that difference does not equal superiority. His argument was quite effective as it was concise yet still detailed and not completely one sided. Admitting that classical music’s culture can foster ideas of classical music as the superior music genre made his writing easier to accept and consider. Then ending his article by comparing ticket costs of classical and pop music concerts proves his point that classical music in our day isn’t really as elite compared to other music genres as some may think. One specific reason touched on by Tommasini why classical music is considered the “elite genre” is because it can be harder to comprehend by the general public. I personally agree with Tommasini’s views because in my opinion, the comprehensibility of a piece shouldn’t be the defining factor of its value because comprehensibility will vary from person to person. For instance, those with little experience in the classical music world may not be able to understand classical music as classical musicians would.

Different from classical music, popular music – especially when it includes lyrics and a music video – can be more easily comprehended by the general population, making it a valuable form of protest.

Fight Like a Girl by Zolita is a good example of the lyrics and visuals being used in pop music to spread a politically responsive message. Written the day after Trump became president, the lyrics and music video speak of woman empowerment and acceptance across all ages, races, and religions. In addition to discouraging discriminatory hate, this song directly responds to Trump and the derogatory comments he has made against women in a way that promotes women having full control over their bodies, specifically through the lyrics ” My body, My choice, My rights, and My voice” that are emphasized through repetition near the end of the song.

As Trump’s popularity increased, open acts of discrimination increased as well.

To many, Trump’s winning of the presidential election signified a win for acceptance of hate and discrimination, specifically because of ideas he has expressed against women, people of color, and Muslims. This obviously upset a lot of people while inspiring them to become active in the political scene, Zolita included. Throught Fight like a Girl, Zolita’s response this influx of hate was to create a video overflowing with love and acceptance instead of something bitter and angry. I thought this was a smart choice because it broadcasts that women are strong in a positive way. Her lyrics are pretty bold and defiant, so making the video appear angry could have resulted in people turning away, but this way you can’t fault her delivery of her message. In her music video, by the way she shows women of multiple races, religions, and ages of women, all as powerful, she is declaring that all kinds of women are valid and strong and none are lesser than others. Specifically, she includes women of Muslim faith wearing the hijab and shows them in a positive light. Trump has openly stated Islamophobic ideas on multiple occasions, and here, Zolita responds by taking a stand against Islamophobia, using visuals to show Muslims are people deserving of respect just as everyone else is.


Using imagery instead of just lyrics to convey a message of acceptance is in many ways more powerful than just using lyrics because often seeing something can make connections for people that words or melodies can’t. Visuals can often enhance lyrics and help the audience to grasp a better picture of the message of the artist. In this case, a short scene in the video shows a simple gesture of kindness in everyday life involving a woman wearing a hijab, signifying that people of all faiths should be treated with respect. If the simplicity of the moment makes seem small and insignificant, keep in mind the hate crimes and hate speech that Muslims in the United States (where we have “freedom of religion,” smh) have faced and are still facing. At a time when people somehow think it’s acceptable to rip a hijab off the head of a muslim woman, it’s important to spread the message that following a certain religion doesn’t make you any less (or more) human.

Using Lyrics to Rebrand Insults Against Women

In addition to her music video, Zolita’s lyrics also speak of woman empowerment. Specifically, one phrase stood out to me that also happens to be the song title: “Fight Like a Girl.” I thought this was especially clever because she turned an insult that belittles and stereotypes women into something to be proud of. Traditionally, if you’re told you “fight like a girl,” it probably means you’re weak. In fact, adding “like a girl” to any sentence can still make it sound derogatory as if being a girl is a shameful thing. But through her video and lyrics, Zolita re-brands the insult into a compliment by showing that fighting like a girl means to be strong enough to overcome oppression and stand on top and that being a girl is something to be proud of.

Another witty way Zolita uses lyrics is a direct response to one of Trump’s demeaning, derogatory, and disgusting comments about women. In the video above, one of the comments made by Trump reads, “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.” (He has since apologized, but I personally don’t buy it seemed more like an apology that he was caught making the remarks than an apology for the remarks). Not only is this morally wrong but it also suggests that men should have control over women’s bodies and treat women disrespectfully or even sexually harass them if they please. Zolita clearly disagrees, and near the end of her song, background vocals repeatedly sing “can’t grab me by the – .” Here, she took Trump’s own quote and flipped it so it still acknowledges that such ideas do exist but that she is above them, women have the rights over their own bodies, not men.

Zooming Out

Zolita’s Fight like a Girl demonstrates the value of popular music in response to political issues: lyrics and music video visuals can be used to communicate a message in a readily comprehensible way. The catchy melody of the song and relatively easy-to-memorize lyrics also made it stick to my mind, which encouraged me as a listener to think more about the message Zolita was trying to convey. It is a different form of political response than a symphony for instance, but because the two are so drastically different, they should not be compared in terms of value because each brings unique aspects to the table. In terms of popular music, I didn’t fully realize how much the music video could impact the message of the artist until discovering Fight Like a Girl. By only listening to the lyrics, I would have only gotten the message of woman empowerment, but the video communicated woman empowerment for women of all ages, races, and religions. Fight Like a Girl showed me how artists can marry multiple aspects of a pop music production in order to convey a multifaceted political statement.