Music language investigation
Music artist use various linguistic techniques to portray their message through lyrics which includes discourse of verses and phonological features. I will explore if there is any difference between the way male and female artist use language in their songs. I will be discuss how the way they use language could have contributed to their success as an artist. I believe there must be a reason why there songs has reached popularity and I believe it is linked to how they use language.
Another way artist use songs to portray a message is through story telling and making the songs relatable. In the song "Wet Dreamz" J.Cole discusses how he loses his virginity. I think the reason this song became so popular reaching 12th place in rap songs charts of 2015, is maybe because it is taboo. As a society we don’t talk about sex openly so when Cole wrote a song about it, it was relatable. To an extent taboo subjects could be said to be the most relatable. In music more often than not it is more common that males talk about taboo subjects, for example in the sub category of music RAP (rhythm and poetry) which is a male dominated genre, typical topics are drugs, sex and violence which are all seen as taboo. There is a only a small percentage of female rappers that can be representative of women.
Though this is typical for men to be more likely to speak of taboo subjects and use taboo language, some females artist do touch on more taboo subjects also. In Miley Cyrus' song BB talk she talks about how she only wants a sexual relationship and nothing more. This would be considered taboo because it goes against what stereotypically how relationships should be. She uses taboo language throughout the song and especially repeats a taboo phrase. "Fuck me so stop baby talking".
Taylor swift in comparison is much more subtle in the way she tackles taboo subjects. In her song "This love" she is very metaphoric to give ambiguity so the listener has have a pragmatic understanding of what she is talking about. "tossing and turning through the night with someone new" though this utterance has an ambiguity most people would interpret it as being promiscuous.
You could do a gender investigation on how songs by men and women handle the taboo topic of sexuality or, more comparably, look at how relationships are described, exploring the use of taboo language, euphemism etc, perhaps exploring some aspects of deficit theory?
ReplyDelete