For this last and final week and blog post, I chose the artist Reggie Watts and particularly his song F*ck Shit Stack. If you guys don’t know it, be warned: it is very vulgar. There are a couple of really interesting things about this song in particular that the lyrics really bring out, as opposed to just the music. Number 1: it is extremely vulgar for a reason! Watts didn’t just add in all the swears he could think of (exaggeration) for the fun of it. Plot twist! he uses it in a satirical manner. Much like the song, This Is America, he is trying to make a point with regards to music nowadays. It is way way way more vulgar than any song or band that we have seen throughout this course (or not) and by using the language that Watts does, he is pointing it out and making fun of it. Secondly, he continues on his satirical rant when he talks about weapons: our lives have been turned upside down by violence both in terms of music and not. If songs themselves are not violent, their music videos most often are. Yes, rock was considered to be violent and vulgar in and of itself but compared to music today, it was nothing but pure self-expression. Thirdly, he discusses sexism within the music industry, particularly with what is portrayed in rap and hip-hop songs. All we see are thin, sexy females with barely any clothes dancing around. And that is all. They are portrayed as objects in our videos. This quote, in particular, is very telling on how the music industry uses women today:
I like women
I like women
I like the concept of a woman
I like to take that concept and reduce it to an object
I like to take those objects and put ‘em in my videos
Have them shake they jiggly bits so they looks like hoes
And it’s true! What we see in music videos are not people, they’re object on top of other objects on top of other objects, such as that new car I just bought. Which brings me to my fourth and final point about this song that Watts is making: the materialistic society we live in now. We show off not by using our talent, but by using that new ride we just bought, or those new shoes, or that new phone. Is anything real anymore? Artists use their music and music videos to portray a world so far from our own that we can barely relate to it. Yes, we all have that contemporary song that we really love and that is true to us, but can you truly relate to most of what is produced? We all have heartbreaks, yes, but why does every song need to be about being heartbroken? We all have that crush on that girl or guy that’s far out our reach, but does every song really need to portray the objectified human beings we have become? Yes, we all like to show off, in one way or the other, our new car or phone or computer, but does society really have to revolve around us spending money and do we really need to be singing about cars, alcohol, and girls? But that is what a lot of the music industry is today. Where is the original thought? Is it still possible to get it back sooner rather than later? Do we need another Beatles or Bowie or Queen or Cobain influence to turn our world upside down and back to creativity and originality? I think it’s very interesting that Watts uses present-day styles to comment on what is going on in the music industry. I think it is very concerning that the industry is, in a way, so very narrow-minded and I believe we need more people like Watts to step forward and really challenge what music has become.
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