American culture through music

Amanda Paulhus

4/10/12

G period POS

Mr.Kefor

                The subject matter, content and point of view in today’s top songs differ extremely from those of past artists and generations.

The songs included in the current top 100 employ many aspects of American culture today. The music itself and the genre explain a lot about the people who listen to it in this generation. Today, most of the music on the top 50 or 100 is pop, or rap. Of course not all of the music on the top 100 is pop or rap but a vast majority of it is. Most of the music selection talks about life now and how the speaker either has made theirs better or worse. In many cases there are pieces about how someone or something has greatly affected the speaker’s life.  Songs such as “boyfriend” by Justin Bieber and “Rack City” by Tyga are high up on the billboard but contain little to none poetic merit. Some devices are used weakly such as  imagery and rhyme scheme in “Swag swag swag, on you \Chillin’ by the fire why we eatin’ fondue \I dunno about me but I know about you\ So say hello to falsetto in three two” and hyperbole or exaggeration used in “ If I was your boyfriend, never let you go “Keep you on my arm girl you’d never be alone\I can be a gentleman, anything you want\If I was your boyfriend, I’d never let you go, never let you go”. Though poetic merit is lacking in most popular songs there are still aspects of it. The lack of merit employs laziness in today’s culture as well as incompetence. This makes the people seem less smart because they aren’t approaching their full potential of merit in song but rather trying to make them catchier.  

                Gender roles are presented steadily throughout today’s music. Though both men and women artists portray a strong appearance and manner in their work, some show sign of weakness, depending on the artist. Artists like Katy Perry and Christina Perri show weakness in some of their songs like most artists but surprisingly more than others, their melancholy songs are the ones that always seem to be at the top. Gender roles are portrayed in songs like Adele’s “set fire to the rain” and Snoop Dog’s “young wild and free”. In Adele’s “set fire to the rain” she employs gender roles in lines such as “I let it fall, my heart, \And as it fell you rose to claim it” and “It was dark and I was over\Until you kissed my lips and you saved me”. In these lines she is implying that the “you” she is speaking of is a man and that such a man has control over her and her life. In Perri’s song “arms” she refers to the same idea when she sings “ you put your arms around me and I believed that it’s easier for you to let me go” and “ you put your arms around me and I’m home”.  The fact that gender roles are somewhat presented in today’s music shows the idea that gender roles take place in our everyday lives, which they don’t as much as what is implied.   

Success is measured, in music, by how many people listen to it and whether or not it makes the top 100 or so. If a song never reaches the charts it is viewed as not as popular or successful. Most of the music proffered today lacks meaning unlike much music from an earlier generation. Much of the music today that has meaning doesn’t make the top 100 but is still popular with certain groups of people. People today, mostly, conform to a stereotype and, again mostly, listen to whatever is popular for the time being and follows the crowd when what’s “cool” changes. The music that is most popular in our culture today does not represent all of Americans just the majority. This generation does not compare to past ones, the thought behind its music is lost.