In the hip hop culture, especially in the R&B genre, there are conflicting messages sent to the listeners. Some songs send positive messages and other send negative messages. Regardless of the message, there is someone listening and is applying it to their own life. What I find to be very ironic is the messages that are sent to women. Many songs discuss how to keep a boyfriend or husband faithful, yet others discuss how to be independent of a man. Learning how to keep your significant other along with being submissive to him and learning how to be independent are on two different sides of the spectrum, and this can only cause confusion.
An R&B singer, Ashanti, wrote a song titled, ‘Good Good.’ The lyrical content in this song is referring to women and telling them how to keep their boyfriends or husbands; e.g, keeping the men sexually satisfied. Some of the lyrics are “I put it on him right, I do it every night/I leave him sittin' mouth open like whew/So I don't worry bout nobody takin' mine/Cause I know just the right thing to do.” These lyrics are clearly implying sex and being totally submissive to the man. Another song by the group, Destiny’s Child, also discusses being submissive. Some lyrical content of this song, ‘Cater to You,’ are as follows: Let Me Help You/Take Off Your Shoes/Untie Your Shoestrings /Take Off Your Cufflinks…I Got Your Slippers, Your Dinner, Your Dessert, And So Much More/Anything You Want Just Let Me Cater To You.” These lyrics would be clear to any female listener. Both of the above mentioned songs can be related back to what Laura Ouellette stated in her article.
“…transforming the class position of the…girl through a combination of self-management strategies, performative tactics, sexuality, and upwardly mobile romance…Brown’s advice to women offers a case study in the cultural construction of class…as a fragmented and sexualized identity.”
Ashanti and Destiny’s Child’s songs do not offer anything about how to be a woman outside of pleasing or being submissive to men.
On the contrary, there are other R&B songs that do not discuss women totally pleasing men. Ne-yo, an R&B singer, wrote a song titled ‘Miss Independent.’ In this song, he praises the woman who has a career and pays for everything she owns. This is the type of woman he wants to be with, some of his lyrics states “Cause she work like a boss play like a boss/Car and a crib she bout to pay em both off/And the bills are paid on time yeah/She made for a boss only a boss.” This song can inspire female listeners to go out and get a career and not depend on a man. In another song by Alicia Keys titled ‘Superwoman,’ she is also empowering women. The chorus to her song is “Cause I am a Superwoman/Yes I am/Yes she is/Even when I'm a mess/I still put on a vest/With an S on my chest/Oh yes/I'm a Superwoman.” This song can inspire women to be whatever they want to be and lets them know that they can overcome any challenge as long as they try. As Jean Kilbourne stated in her article,
“Girls are put into a terrible double bind. They are supposed to repress their power, their anger, their exuberance and be simply “nice,” although they also eventually must compete with men in the business world and be successful.”
The different messages in these songs can be very confusing especially to younger women. Although there are R&B songs that may lead women to want to depend on men, hopefully other songs like Ne-Yo’s and Alicia Keys’ can inspire them to be independent. The pictures in the collage show the different types of women that these songs address. It is very clear to see how much these pictures vary.
Works Cited
Kilbourne, Jean . The More You Subtract, the More You Add. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications,
2003. Print.
Ouellette, Laurie. Reinventing the Cosmo Girl: Class Identity and Girl-Style American Dreams.
Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2003. Print.
http://media.photobucket.com/image/ashanti%20-%20good%20good/chosen1234/Screenshots/AshantiGoodGoodVideo.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjU5kglraTzkV652F13JaSdbEPxBA-Rge-gqXDJ4G5uGrDdK6xvrOx3cjzeVV6yY8BfJyBJ1w_P7CTQQmflcETbT7qFWD2VYg2FCCLxmnirPhWa76szJT7q9nYZp0oaJztZTy12mw5il22/s400/ashanti.PNG
http://www.lyricsforall.com/images/artists/3227/10220533.jpg
http://www.upscaleswagger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/gabrielle-union-ne8b2aea.jpg
http://www.upscaleswagger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/gabrielle-union-ne8b2aea.jpg
http://www.crestock.com/images/270000-279999/279627-xs.jpg
http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/1491/PreviewComp/SuperStock_1491R-1015591.jpg
http://vip-files.net/pohv1009/30.jpg
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ashanti/goodgood.html
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/destinyschild/cater2u.html
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/neyo/missindependent.html
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/aliciakeys/superwoman.html
An R&B singer, Ashanti, wrote a song titled, ‘Good Good.’ The lyrical content in this song is referring to women and telling them how to keep their boyfriends or husbands; e.g, keeping the men sexually satisfied. Some of the lyrics are “I put it on him right, I do it every night/I leave him sittin' mouth open like whew/So I don't worry bout nobody takin' mine/Cause I know just the right thing to do.” These lyrics are clearly implying sex and being totally submissive to the man. Another song by the group, Destiny’s Child, also discusses being submissive. Some lyrical content of this song, ‘Cater to You,’ are as follows: Let Me Help You/Take Off Your Shoes/Untie Your Shoestrings /Take Off Your Cufflinks…I Got Your Slippers, Your Dinner, Your Dessert, And So Much More/Anything You Want Just Let Me Cater To You.” These lyrics would be clear to any female listener. Both of the above mentioned songs can be related back to what Laura Ouellette stated in her article.
“…transforming the class position of the…girl through a combination of self-management strategies, performative tactics, sexuality, and upwardly mobile romance…Brown’s advice to women offers a case study in the cultural construction of class…as a fragmented and sexualized identity.”
Ashanti and Destiny’s Child’s songs do not offer anything about how to be a woman outside of pleasing or being submissive to men.
On the contrary, there are other R&B songs that do not discuss women totally pleasing men. Ne-yo, an R&B singer, wrote a song titled ‘Miss Independent.’ In this song, he praises the woman who has a career and pays for everything she owns. This is the type of woman he wants to be with, some of his lyrics states “Cause she work like a boss play like a boss/Car and a crib she bout to pay em both off/And the bills are paid on time yeah/She made for a boss only a boss.” This song can inspire female listeners to go out and get a career and not depend on a man. In another song by Alicia Keys titled ‘Superwoman,’ she is also empowering women. The chorus to her song is “Cause I am a Superwoman/Yes I am/Yes she is/Even when I'm a mess/I still put on a vest/With an S on my chest/Oh yes/I'm a Superwoman.” This song can inspire women to be whatever they want to be and lets them know that they can overcome any challenge as long as they try. As Jean Kilbourne stated in her article,
“Girls are put into a terrible double bind. They are supposed to repress their power, their anger, their exuberance and be simply “nice,” although they also eventually must compete with men in the business world and be successful.”
The different messages in these songs can be very confusing especially to younger women. Although there are R&B songs that may lead women to want to depend on men, hopefully other songs like Ne-Yo’s and Alicia Keys’ can inspire them to be independent. The pictures in the collage show the different types of women that these songs address. It is very clear to see how much these pictures vary.
Works Cited
Kilbourne, Jean . The More You Subtract, the More You Add. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications,
2003. Print.
Ouellette, Laurie. Reinventing the Cosmo Girl: Class Identity and Girl-Style American Dreams.
Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2003. Print.
http://media.photobucket.com/image/ashanti%20-%20good%20good/chosen1234/Screenshots/AshantiGoodGoodVideo.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjU5kglraTzkV652F13JaSdbEPxBA-Rge-gqXDJ4G5uGrDdK6xvrOx3cjzeVV6yY8BfJyBJ1w_P7CTQQmflcETbT7qFWD2VYg2FCCLxmnirPhWa76szJT7q9nYZp0oaJztZTy12mw5il22/s400/ashanti.PNG
http://www.lyricsforall.com/images/artists/3227/10220533.jpg
http://www.upscaleswagger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/gabrielle-union-ne8b2aea.jpg
http://www.upscaleswagger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/gabrielle-union-ne8b2aea.jpg
http://www.crestock.com/images/270000-279999/279627-xs.jpg
http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/1491/PreviewComp/SuperStock_1491R-1015591.jpg
http://vip-files.net/pohv1009/30.jpg
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ashanti/goodgood.html
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/destinyschild/cater2u.html
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/neyo/missindependent.html
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/aliciakeys/superwoman.html
I do agree with you on the conflicting messages that the R&B genre gives out. Come to think about it in most cases debates are started because of the words to these typical songs and bad messages they give out to the children and women. Rappers and artists always get criticized for their words that put down women are degrade them as it is said. I believe, in my words, that this is arguable to prove the messages these songs give help influence the way women want to be.
ReplyDeleteMaureen-
ReplyDeleteWell done-- the most paramount issue here seems to be the conflict between being told to do multiple, opposing identity-related changes all at the same time. The conflict is also one perpetuating women's identity as externally influenced, malleable, and ultimately, expected to be fluid so that external influences can augment a woman's understanding of herself, other women, and who she wants to be (and how she sees herself in relation to the messages as they relate to the paradoxical demands).
Using R&B as an approach for this assignment is unique and works well! I liked the change from the ads to your idea to use this segment of the music industry to focus on the conflicting messages.
The one issue I see here (and this post demonstrates a huge improvement from the first!) is just that you need to cite the quotes in MLA format by using the page number at the end in parenthesis. To do this format, see below:
Formatting Quotes
Format your quotes so that they facilitate your analysis. This format is also the correct one for the paper in terms of the writing structure/mechanics (content of paper and mechanics are related issues/components of any form of writing). Remember the following:
A quote needs to be integrated into a sentence with an introduction to the quote (even the shortest bit of intro material will suffice here).
Examples:
Kellner contends, “Academic scholarship in cultural studies has evolved and is not your mother’s cultural studies” (3).
According to Kellner, “Gender representations in advertisements illustrate this culture as a hegemony of conflict” (Crane 33).
Notice the period is after the parenthetical citation. Also, if your sentence includes the name of the author whose work is the basis for the quoted material, then only page number(s) are necessary. If the sentence doesn’t include the name (see example 2) then put the author’s last name before the page number inside the parenthesis).
Nice work!
:o)
Jessie