American society has always placed the weight of boundaries on to women, more specifically black women. Black women have had to deal with the standards of the Eurocentric life and the fact that to them we are not able to live up to what they expect from an “average” woman. Black women have always been the “runt of the bunch”. They are disliked and criticized for their hair, body shape, pigment of their skin color and many more things that they cannot control. Being in a society that is so bent on discouraging them from embracing who they are, it is hard to lift themselves back up after being put down by everyone around them. Feel good music makes the woman view herself differently. Between Laura Mvula’s “Phenomenal Woman” and Janelle Monae’s “Q.U.E.E.N”, they show the black woman to embrace who she is through eye catching visuals and deep lyrics. Although they both are uplifting women and encouraging them to be themselves, they differentiate through style of sound and style of visuals. …show more content…
Through vibrant colors and colors that weren’t as vibrant, deep lyrics that spoke to the audience, and castings of women who aren’t considered to be as beautiful as society wants them to be; they achieved a deeper meaning to the music than just a song being thrown together. They both showed what it meant to truly be confident in themselves and carefree regardless of what others may think. They tried to educate women to stay true to themselves and not change for anyone. Although they were basically saying the same thing, their different aspects of choice of outfits and visuals separated them as two different types of artists. Both artists tried to put out a feel good song to empower women which they both phenomenally achieved. Even though they are meant to say kind of the same thing, their way of expressing their sayings and showcasing it differentiates Mvula and Monae from each
Music all over the world has been shaping generations for many years now. The rock n roll of the 70’s and 80’s, pop and hip-hop of the 90’s and early 2000’s and finally, many different popular genres of the generation we now live in. Music provides a means of expression for all types of individuals. Some music even goes against the social norm and tries to bring attention to social injustices. The song “Crooked Smile” by rapper J. Cole tackles the issue of unrealistic expectations of women with the songs exceptional lyrics, broad metaphors, and positive tone.
Society has labeled African Americans as ugly ignorant people. They never show the improvement we have done over the years or how we are treated on a daily. The way I would look at Black America may be different from the way you and other look at it. When I look out I see beauty and style, southern living, harassed by police, and being ashamed of our own race so we run out and find a caucasian to build a relationship with. We’ve all heard the saying of a black person being called black monkey.
However, Simone did not shroud the meaning of her song in any way, and was in fact very direct. This is also interesting to consider when evaluating the effectiveness of the song. Because the song was received differently by different demographics of audience, it may not be considered effective by some, but might be considered so by
Aretha Franklin, the undisputed queen of Soul, was one of the most important figures of the 1960s. At the time, African Americans and females were struggling to achieve social equality. Therefore, when an African American woman stood up against the social injustices, many stood behind her. It was Aretha Franklin’s 1967 hit song “Respect” that defined not only that specific moment in time, but also an entire generation of individuals determined to fight social norms and bring about change.
Is hip-hop just a euphemism for a new religion? The soul music of the slaves that the youth is missing. -Kanye West, Gorgeous The music genre of hip-hop serves an important role outside of pop culture; hip-hop is an influential and relevant part of American society.
They are in fact so undesirable that Black Men are reluctant at best to marry such a women; could we even blame them for this mass divorce or abandonment of their women and their natural families. Black Women are more abrasive, confrontational, antagonistic, less caring, and motherly; they are in fact less lady like in every regard; Take one example of Black Women 's Failure to desirability, they have adopted a culture and a mentality to adorn weaves. (If you don 't know, a weave is human hair maid into a wig). This would on the surface appear mundane; however they invariably choose the hair of the Caucasian as the material. Black women do this because they emulate and desire ----; furthermore they degrade their own “natural beauty”, what Black Men should be most attracted to, causing a knock-on effect; As women are inferior to men, black women are inferior to white women.
They also had a readily constructed position of who they should be and how they should be in their homes, church and society at large. Like the dancer whose head was held up several times in the first part of cry, black women were proud of who they were irrespective of the challenges they faced. However, their pride was destroyed by the struggles they faced as subordinate beings in their society. They struggled really hard to oppose the hierarchical structure. This is represented by the manner in which the dancer pushed.
As Feldstein explains, “the young woman (…) agreed go have sex not in spite of her desire of respectability and self-restraint (…). Rather, the sex took place because of the nonviolent civil rights training that the young woman had recieved”. That song represents both a critique to the stigma of female sexuality in African Americans, as the mother asks her daughter not to go to the march “For they'll rock you and roll you/ and shook you into bed. /And if they steal your nuclear secret/ you´ll wish you were dead”. In addition to that, “Simone mocked, but not rejected, the value of passive nonresistance as a means to improve racial relations” (Feldstein 1365).
Nina Simone used her music as a way to defend the “Africana Womanist Perspective” and to show people the Anti-Black oppression. In a study, done by the women mentioned before, they found that in most of her lyrics talked about how “black” people were still being oppressed during the 1960’s. She helped to spread the word about the reality in those times, what people knew existed, but never talked about. Jennifer Lopez in collaboration with her sister Lynda Lopez have created a foundation that provides healthcare to children from every part of the world. This foundation is called “The Maribel Foundation” it links the physicians and specialist with those kids in need.
First, they are written around the same time period and both about blacks being discriminated. Both the poems gave African Americans a little bit of hope that one day they will be allowed to be around whites and looked at as the same. These poems may be different, but they both have the same meaning. If anyone is going through a rough time in their life, they can overcome it. Blacks were treated terribly and went through some of the roughest times, but they never stopped fighting and never lost hope.
Since the beginning of its creation in 1970 rap music has always been judged. People think of rap in a negative way because of the subjects it normally references. In some cases this is understandable but in most cases it is not. Rap just like any other form of music is a way to express thoughts and feelings that not everyone can relate to but this doesn’t mean individuals should be able to criticize the music and its listeners based off the lyrical content. Rap music has always been an intriguing topic in society.
In contrast, Sheeran is a white, male artist who did not achieve popularity until 2010 (“Ed Sheeran”). Beyoncé, a woman of color, has been a household name since her 1997 debut in the girl band, Destiny’s Child (“Beyoncé Knowles”). Despite these differences, one of the greatest distinctions between the two successful artists lies in their performance technique. Sheeran’s style is notably simplistic whether he is performing at the Grammy’s, world stages, or just in his home, he puts on a show with just himself, a guitar, and a loop pedal (Harris).
Nina Simone reacts to the ubiquitous attacks on the African American community with her song Mississippi Goddam. In it she describes the constant distress that is inevitable as an African American woman. She expresses her ache and resentment with definitive lyrics such as: “The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam And I mean every word of it”. Nina takes advantage of the stage and uses her voice, to convey the pain of her community.
Black feminism argues that sexism, class oppression and racism are interrelated factors that need to be overcome by black women and can also be defined as a process of self-conscious struggle that empowers women and men to actualize a humanist vision of community. Black feminism originated from the second-wave of feminism, with the first conference of the National Black Feminist Organisation in 1973. Several
Even they are both amazing songs, they have a few gender biases. The great boy bands portray gender biases such as men shouldn’t be weak, strong males are more successful, and being average or under average is unattractive. The first example of gender bias in these songs is men shouldn’t be weak. In the song “Face,” there is a boy being bullied.