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| Lana Del Rey (left), Taylor Swift (right) |
Music is one of
the most popular mediums out there. Every day, different musical artists are
either venting out their frustration or writing aimlessly about a variety of
topics, all wrapped up in loud bases or soulful guitar chords.
On
the blog, we’ve discussed the issue of men portraying women controversially in
their lyrics and music videos, but what about female musicians? Have we ever
stopped to deconstruct the kind of messages they’re sending, and how they’re
unknowingly putting themselves in stereotypical female boxes?
Let’s take for
example Lana Del Rey, a singer known for songs like “Summertime Sadness” and
“Young and Beautiful”, the latter featured on the The Great Gatsby motion picture soundtrack. Her first album, Born
to Die, has sold 5 million copies to date, and due to the success of the
record, she released a follow-up called Born to Die: The Paradise Edition.
Questions to Ponder:
2. Do you think music artists reserve the right to write about what they want, controversial or not?
Despite
all of this success and attention, I feel that some of the lyrics in her songs
send a rather darker, subliminal message. Through most of her songs, like “Born
to Die” and “National Anthem”, she’s constantly pining over some boy, referencing
being crazy or depressed (“You like your girls insane”), and talking about all
the lengths she would go to be with the one she loves (“I will love you til the end of time/I would wait a million years”).
Through her music and image, she’s romanticizing serious issues like mental
health and possessing another person in the name of “love”. Nothing good comes
from obsessing over another human being to the point where you’ve lost your own
sense of self. Is that really the type of message we want to be sending to the
youth of today?
Even acclaimed singers like Taylor Swift have been criticized for her anti-feminist
lyrics. From slut-shaming in songs like “Better Than Revenge” (“She’s an
actress, whoa/She’s better known/For the things that she does on the mattress,
whoa”) and her general way of song writing that mostly has to do with boys
breaking her heart, or the fantasy of finding true love. While most of her song
writing is said to be therapeutic from real-life moments, it couldn’t hurt to vent about a broader range of experiences.
These
examples might not come across as that
controversial, but why do these female singers feel the need to
constantly present
their music in such a way that makes it seem like the only thing women
think
about is finding “the one”? There’s nothing wrong with being a romantic
or
writing songs about love. The issue is that in music and the media,
women are
constantly being labelled a certain way and it doesn’t help when the
women that
are being labelled do nothing about it. Instead of paving their own road, they end up letting the media categorize them under female appropriate stereotypes. Also, by using sensual, hyperbolic
lyrics in
their songs and enchanting cinematography in their music videos, at times they can be found over glamorizing and misrepresenting the ideas of love and femininity.
The
fact is that women need to stand together
or we’ll never be taken seriously. Musical artists like Lana Del Rey and
Taylor
Swift are in extremely powerful positions, ones that they should take more seriously, where they have such a stamp
on pop
culture that they affect the way women look at themselves and how men
look at
them. Being female themselves, it's necessary to set the tone on how
they want be represented in regards to their gender, especially in the
fast-paced industry of entertainment. Despite their right to freedom of
expression, these women need to rethink
the image and kinds of songs they choose to show the world, only because they
are falling into
the trap of representing ideas and stereotypes of women that are more
abstract
than they lead it on to be.
Questions to Ponder:
1. To the girls, do you think female artists are misrepresenting us, or simply being themselves?
2. Do you think music artists reserve the right to write about what they want, controversial or not?
3.
How often do you find that when watching a movie or listening to a
song, you feel like it's a wrong representation of your race, gender, or
religion?
I do believe most female musicians are somewhat misrepresenting females. This is because, like you said in your post, they are always singing about being madly in love with a guy or losing a guy and being depressed about it, which is not the reality of it. Sure they do reserve the right to write and sing about what they want, but they can't turn around and say otherwise when their gender is being picked on. I think majority of the time when watching movies or listening to music, there is always an odd reaction to some parts because, again, the dominate discourse prevails whether it be true or not.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's true. I just feel that the things they're writing about make it seem to the world that women all think and act the same way. I mean, don't get me wrong, I think Taylor is awesome. But when I listen to her music, I don't always have the strong connection to it that dominant discourse says I should have.
Delete*But when I listen to her music, I don't always have the strong connection to it that popular stereotypes of women claim I should have. For example, because Taylor writes a lot about love, and because I'm a girl and girls are perceived to be such romantics, it's automatically assumed that I must be able to relate to her songs on some level.
DeleteI'd like to disagree and say that these artists are being themselves, or mainly artists who write their own songs are being themselves. As the saying goes "write about what you know" and I guess if you find that these songs are repeatedly talking about the same topic, maybe that artist just hasn't grow in experience or grown as a person. I guess in the case of Taylor, maybe she's just been in a romantic rut. I think that's all part of being human, sometimes we learn from our experiences and sometimes we don't.
ReplyDeleteThat's understandable. I mean, it is their music, and they do have the right to write about what they want. I just wish there was a bit more of a variety of musical role models for girls to listen to, and that more of them cared about feminism.
DeleteChelsey, i totally agree with your point on disagreeing with Rebecca because I also believe that these artists are being themselves and are responsible for their own selves and not the rest of the female population. To add to that, i also think that these singers are open about their lifestyle and thoughts, and that is what they put in their music. Just like you meant to say, they should be allowed to say whatever they want because they should have that freedom. They should be allowed to express their thoughts and feelings controversially. It up to them how they want to produce music. If we have a problem with that than we should not listen to them.
DeleteHi Rebecca! I think that personally speaking I don't think that the artists are misrepresenting us because in most cases, the songs you hear can be based by experiences that the artist has dealt with the their past. However, I do think that love is being portrayed in ALOT of the songs I mean if its not romance its sad romance. Or if its not those then it could be about sex as well sometimes right?
ReplyDeleteHi Erica! Yes, most of the songs out there are based on real-life experiences. Definitely! Love is a wide-range topic that musical artists have dragged out for a long time. My problem is that regarding females, it's always the same idea of romance, like how we're all waiting for a guy to make our dreams come true. The issue becomes even worse when females themselves sing about similar things, therefore in a way validating the stereotype.
DeleteHey, Rebecca. I would like to first say that this is a great post! To be honest, I do believe a few female artist out there are misrepresenting females. I believe some of their lyrics in their song show the public that women are weak and would do anything for the guy but that's not the case. Personally, I don't think that's true. I wouldnt want to change for anyone, especially for boy.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Selina! Yes, I definitely feel the same way. Women are not lifeless creatures that only have meaning when a man is beside them. I would not want to change for anyone either, and I think that's the type of message we should be sending to young men and women.
DeleteI believe female artists are misrepresened because females are seen commonly mistaken for writing songs about only there feelings and past experiences. In the case of Talor Swift, the only reason why people think all her songs are based on her relationships, is because all her hit songs are about romance and love. There are many artists that relate their songs to other aspects in life. An example would be Katy Perry who bases many of her music and music videos in an imaginary life setting.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting point. Indeed, Taylor has written many different songs yet is always criticized for the ones about her experiences with love.
DeleteWonderful post Rebecca! I could agree with you to many points. Though I'd like to answer your third question. I feel that very often when watching a movie or even an ad I find that my religion, Islam is being wrongly represented. For example the singlemuslim commercial is very annoying and racist and represents Muslim's wrongly. Also there are many films that have a wrong representation of Islam. For instance, recently there was a film in which Muslim's were being represented wrongly and there was even a protest about it. Here is a link to show what I'm talking about: http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/world/story/1.1173051
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, I believe that is not right for media to have races, religions, and genders being wrongly represented.
Thank you! I definitely can relate to your experiences with the media, as many others can. Media has such a powerful way of controlling society, and it's unfortunate that it chooses to misrepresent religions, genders and many other things.
DeleteWhen it comes to artists like Lorde and Taylor Swift, I find them very annoying. Yes they could have good music but does every song have to be about a guy who broke their heart? I'm not too familiar with Lorde but I know Taylor for a fact does this all the time. I'm sure more than 75% of Taylor's songs are about a guy and certain songs you can tell who they're for. I think these women are making other women look bad. If I were a guy I'd probably assume that any female who writes songs will only write songs about a breakup and how depressed they are and so on and so forth. They do have the right to write these kind of songs and do whatever they want just like some, like me, have the right to not listen to their constant cries for pity.
ReplyDeleteAh, I can feel your distaste through the computer screen! Yes, there's a certain way women like to present their music, that at times can come off as a stereotypical. I don't think the artists I mentioned make women look bad per say, because most of their inspiration comes from real experiences, just that I think they're falling into boxes that the media put them in.
Delete