Writing papers sucks. That is, writing papers about topics that you're forced to write about sucks. But writing a paper about things you're interested, I have found, can actually be interesting, stimulating, if not a little bit fun.
I recently wrote a paper about the internet’s effect on rock music for my senior writing course. I argued that the internet has made it easier for women to succeed in rock music (even if the definition of “success” in rock music has changed), and I used Annie Clark (St. Vincent) and Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs) as my main examples.
I recently wrote a paper about the internet’s effect on rock music for my senior writing course. I argued that the internet has made it easier for women to succeed in rock music (even if the definition of “success” in rock music has changed), and I used Annie Clark (St. Vincent) and Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs) as my main examples.
tUnE-yArDs was a big part of my 2011. I first came across
the band after reading this Pitchfork review of
their album w h o k I l l. So I listened to the album. I distinctly remember
the first time I listened to it. I was at work. I normally waste a lot of time
while I’m at work. This time, though, I was actually working. I don’t like to
listen to music for the first time while I’m working – because I have to focus
on my work, I can’t pay enough attention
to the music. But I needed something to listen to so I said, “what the hell,” pressed
play on the album-stream on the NPR website, and minimized the browser to
continue my work.
My Country,
the first song on the album, began with a straightforward drum beat but a rhythmic
one at that, and I was down, bouncing along in my seat. Then Merrill, in her
ever-so-innocent voice, sings the opening line:
“My country tis of
the. Sweet land of liberty. How come I canot see my future within your arms?”
Woah. With the albums first lyrics, Garbus asks what the fuck
is going on in America. Bold. And the song built on it, all leading to the climactic
lyrics:
“When they have nothing why do you have something? When they
have nothing - the worst thing about living a lie is just wondering when they’ll
find out.”
Woah again. I was really struck by it – most bands’ lyrics
are indistinguishable upon first listen, and hers were not only clear but
poignant. She was saying things that seemed important, and saying them
aggressively, explicitly. It reminded me of how I felt when I first began to
understand Bob Dylan’s lyrics, like I could learn
something from her songs and lyrics.
W h o k I l l became my favorite album of the year and
dominated my playlists for months. In each song, I found a particular message,
sometimes multiple messages, that really hit home. Garbus expresses her ideas
and feelings in forceful yet simultaneously subtle ways with effervescent eloquence,
and she is one of my all-time favorite lyricists.
For my paper, I wrote 3 pages of lyrical analysis
demonstrating how Garbus addresses issues of gender and sexuality in her music.
It was a cathartic experience, finally expressing my thoughts about Garbus’s
lyrics on paper, and I liked my analysis very much. It’s very sad, then, that
my paper was 12 pages long with an 8 page limit; I had to cut the lyrical
analysis out.
=) -----> =(
But wait, I have a blog! Copied and pasted directly from my
rough draft paper, here’s my analysis of the songs Es-so and Powa, which you
can listen to below and find the lyrics here and here,
respectively. As with any lyrical interpretation, this is based on my personal opinion
and reading of the lyrics – comment and let me know if you totally agree with
my analysis or think I’m a total shithead!
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NLb8jWYvYmU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
For example, the song “Es-so” explores the pressure
surrounding female body image and potential eating disorders or depression it
can cause. From the perspective of a female character, she sings, “A piece of
cake / walk a mile along the lake…I’ve got to do right if my body’s tight
right?...Bathe it all in a wave of disgust / ‘I can’t believe I ate the whole
thing’…It is true, Daddy / I ran over my own body with my own car.” Through the
character’s navigation of conflicting emotions, from justification to
depression, about her body image, Garbus examines the effects of the pressure
on women to maintain an arbitrary “ideal” appearance.
Another song, “Powa,” shows Garbus exploring sexual
dominance of men in society. It begins with a female character who seems to be
begging her male counterpart to have sex with her: “I will never get to sleep /
Rebel, rebel, no … Baby, bring me home to bed / I need you to press me down
before my body flies away from me … Your power inside / It rocks me like a
lullaby.” With these lyrics, the
character at first seems to be treating sex as nothing more than an act
necessary to fall asleep. But she explicitly relates sex to power, as if this
her experience speaks to a larger point about the sexual power men have in
society. The song come to a climax, however, and reveals the character’s true
feelings with the lines, “Mirror, mirror on the wall / Can you see my face at
all? / My man likes me from behind / Tell the truth I never mind / Cause you
bomb me with life's humiliations everyday / You bomb me so many times I never
find my way / Come on and bomb me / Why won't you bomb me?” Here, the character
reveals that she feels humiliated by her partner’s sexual domination of her,
comparing their sex to being bombed. Still, however, she ultimately asks to be
bombed, exploring a conflict in which a woman chooses to pursue sexual
endeavors that are destined to degrade her, as if the female sexual experience
is a masochistic one. Interestingly, she addresses her partner as “rebel,” the
same word Reynolds and Press used to describe the archetype male rock musician;
perhaps the song’s message also applies to the male domination of rock.
Regardless, this song clearly demonstrates Garbus’s willingness to address
gender issues in her music.
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