“Yeah, it's a party in the USA” (“Party in the USA”). In the 80s Cyndi Lauper was the wild child. She had crazy hair, her outfits were unusual, and she had music that was revolutionary for her time. But now, Miley Cyrus has taken on Lauper’s role. Miley cut off her long hair; she is now wearing shorter, tighter outfits; and her dancing has been more provocative in the past year or so. These two seem pretty different, but are they? One might say that they are pretty alike. In examining the lives and causes of Cyndi Lauper and Miley Cyrus, one can see that American culture has changed drastically over time in terms of music, fashion, and manners.
Cyndi Lauper’s music has had an influence on women in the 80s. Through it, she showed women that it is ok to be themselves. In her first number one song, she was able to show that girls can just have fun being themselves without having men or boys around. In another one of her most famous songs, she told women that “Girls just wanna have fun” (“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”). In this song she spoke to her father about having fun with self confidence and not relying on boys. In fact, according to one article, “ Lauper’s success is the culmination of years of hard work and sacrifice” (Cyndi Lauper). She never gave up on her dream. The fact that she was so successful in music, gave women the will be strong. Sometimes people would tell her to give up, but she would not give up and this made her work harder for her dream to become success. In his article about her, Kurt Loder wrote about Lauper in the Rolling Stones: “A wild and wonderful skyrocket of a voice Lauper's extraordinary pipes connect with the right material, there sults sounds like the beginning of a whole new golden age.” T...
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...wing Up: 'You Are Supposed to Be a Mess' in Your Twenties ." NY Daily News. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.PR Newswire.
"Cyndi Lauper Celebrates Her Record Breaking Debut Album with She's So Unusual: A 30th Anniversary Celebration." Http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=SUIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=view&displayGroupName=News&limiter=&u=columbiatrial&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&source=&search_within_results=&p=SUIC&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CA356260979. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.
"Miley Cyrus Talks Fashion OCD." About.com Celebrity Style. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
""Party In The USA" Lyrics." MILEY CYRUS LYRICS. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
""Girls Just Want To Have Fun" Lyrics." CYNDI LAUPER LYRICS. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
Cultural Analysis Queen Latifah played a big role in the hip hop industry as a female MC, and still is relevant to this day. She influenced millions of people especially in the black community for equality between women and men. She’s an American song-writer, actress, fashion producer, model, female MC, feminist, television producer, record producer, and talk show hostess. The Hip-hop culture began around the 1970’s in Bronx, New York and it was mostly amongst the Black and Latino community at that time. Hip Hop emerged out of an atmosphere of disappointment, anger, hate, discrimination, and disillusionment which; made it easy for the audience to comprehend and enjoy the music not as a song, but as a public personal message for each person to understand.
Objectification of women and misogyny is a common trend in song lyrics, but it is often socially accepted and further perpetuated. Finding a song in which the roles are reversed and a woman depicts a man as a sex object is incredibly difficult because when women try to break norms in the music industry, they are often criticized. In “Blah Blah Blah” by Kesha, she reverses the typical gender roles in song lyrics by objectifying men. Kesha has her own struggles within the male-dominated music industry because her producer sexually abused her and trapped her into a record deal. However, Kesha lost her court case, which illuminates gender issues within the music industry and the larger society. In 2010 when Kesha’s songs were popular, people weren’t aware of her battle with her producer. Instead, her lyrics classified her as more of a party figure and people even saw her as “trashy.” This song
Aretha Franklin is a well known pop, R&B, and gospel singer. She has been nicknamed “The Queen of Soul” and is an internationally known artist and a symbol of pride in the African American community. Her popularity soared in 1967 when she released an album containing songs “I Never Loved a Man”, “Respect”, and “Baby I Love You.” Throughout her career she has achieved fifteen Grammy Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Legend Awards, and many Grammy Hall of Fame Awards. In 1987 she became the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Time magazine chose her as one of the most influential artists and entertainers of the 20th century. She sang at Dr. Martin Luther King’s funeral and at former President Bill Clinton’s inaugural party. Although she has all these accomplishments and awards there are other reasons that have driven Franklin to fame and landed her on the front cover of Time magazine on June 28, 1968. The reasons I believe allowed Aretha Franklin to become so successful are the following: Her family’s involvement with religion, the inspiring people that surrounded her, and the pain she suffered.
... youth’s culture, it still shines brightly and shows its effect on popular culture. Miley Cyrus is still twerking and making a fool of herself on stage. Justin Bieber is still trying to portray himself as a “thug” or “bad boy”, an image we all know, he doesn’t have. White pop artists still use gritty streets in urban neighborhoods as the backdrop to their music videos.
Coupled with its relatability during the rise of feminist movements in the 1970s was Simon’s ability to share feelings harbored from past relationships with men. Simon’s new work was “playful, vulnerable, and romantic,” and her commitment to independence helped her to finally be seen as a meaningful voice within the industry. Her ability to put her career before romantic relationships and above conforming to traditionalist views of women “set her apart from her closest female peers” (Weller 168). Later songs like “You’re So Vain” continued to show that Carly was a force to be reckoned with as an artist who was unafraid to share negative feelings about men (Weller 343). Like King, Simon’s struggles surrounding society’s dictations of her role in her relationships with men and that allowed for her mistreatment by music industry professionals held her back in the short term, but when she was able to come into her own as an artist, these same struggles served as source material for her hit
In this day and age, pop music dominates the airwaves at every turn. Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Kanye West, and many are commonplace names among teenagers and younger demographics not only in the United States, but all around the world. The United States has accepted the position of international, cultural role model long ago, dating back to the 1950’s when rock and roll caught fire as a hybrid of blues, country, and jazz and spread to the rest of the world almost infectiously. Since then, every major artist that comes out of the United States has easily become a global icon, regardless of the language or nationality of their adoring fans. However, one could conceive that this glamorized version of music comes less from the soul of the artist and is merely born of fiscal ambitions and visions of grandeur. The point made previously is not to critique any pop icon’s talent, which clearly they have proved to possess an abundance of it to keep the public swooning at their every whim, but instead, to show that there are musicians out there producing beautiful music without the threat of corruption and adherence to mainstream culture.
The Hollywood music industry has a tendency to emulate the idea that musical bands or artists express “their” individual thoughts and beliefs through the music they produce and more importantly the lyrics they preform. From gangster rappers portraying a tough or thug lifestyle in their dress, actions, and lyrics, to various boy bands constantly being portrayed as sensitive heart throbs singing countless love ballads. However, when it comes to these “individual identities” they are often nothing more than carefully constructed “characters,” that have their lyrics crafted and perfected in order to appeal to certain groups of people. What is interesting about the modern idea identity, is that one can observe clear changes in the “identities” of targeted demographics based on the types of things that massively successful artists sing about. Specifically one is able to see a link between certain behaviors of adolescents, and popular music subject matter.
...espect," "Freeway of Love" and "I Say a Little Prayer” (“Biography”). She’s also still alive and her most recent album, “Aretha: A Woman Falling Out of Love” was released in 2011.
Hunter, Margaret. "Shake It, Baby, Shake It: Consumption and the New Gender Relation in Hip-Hop." Sociological Perspectives 54.1 (2011): 15-36. JSTOR. Web. 2 May 2014.
Media is forcing today’s youth to grow up faster and faster. Miley Cyrus was unfortunately used as the poster child for young girls trying to be older. After the shoot, which was obviously not initiated by her, she had to come out and publically apologize. On top of that, Disney also threatened to void her contract if adult like behaviors continued (Toomey 1). With it being well known that only a few companies control most of the media we see, does it not appear ironic that Miley Cyrus was exemplified in such a negative light? From the time her publicist was con...
Nicki’s apparent feminist agenda through her music and identity is being distributed to her wide audience, which covers a massive array of hip-hop and pop music fans. Her wide reach and continual influence has the potential to lastingly correct the anti-feminist, misogynistic tone of the male-dominated genre and culture. Despite her hyper sexualized image and defamatory lyrics, she is arguably a positive, albeit controversial, feminist role model, which is evident in her motivation for success, lyrical discourse, and use of and meanings behind her alter egos.
However, just this year a song by Miley Cyrus sparked a “twerking” outbreak, and there simply is no denying the impact it had on teenagers throughout the entire country. The problem, though, is that hip-hop music promotes things far worse than the provocative dancing that was advocated in Cyrus’s song. Others argue that culture is not actually being affected by the music, and it is actually the opposite. They claim that the lyrics in hip-hop music are poetry of the streets, and it embodies black victimhood in the ghetto. However, if we accept this, we are accepting the fact that the “ghetto life” is so hopeless that an explosion of violence is justified. By encouraging rappers that promote this type of behavior we are deeming the behavior acceptable just because the “ghetto life” is tough. However, rape and murder should never be seen as acceptable, and nor should the advocacy of it
Miley Cyrus is a cultural icon. Since the time she was fourteen the media has been scrutinizing every move she makes. From whom she is dating, to what roles she chooses and what she says. But nothing is scrutinized more than her performances; most specifically Miley’s performance at the MTV VMA’s. Miley preformed her song We Can’t Stop and along with Robin Thicke preformed his song Blurred Lines. This performance led to a huge backlash in the media. Every major new station covered it. CTV even brought in psychiatrists and experts on the media to analyze her performance. The next morning Miley’s news story had even beaten out the Syrian war crimes. The experts all came to the same conclusion that she was out of control, and a slut. Miley was most heavily criticized on her attire, and her interactions with Robin Thicke. Everyone was claiming that she was setting a bad example for young girls; CNN even went so far as to claim her “performance sets girls and women back” (Wallace 2013)
Madonna is a controversial legend whose attitudes and opinions on sexuality have forced the public to take notice and change the image of females in society. Madonna believed women’s sexuality was a natural aspect of life; therefore, she dared to challenge the rules and definitions of femininity and sought to expand the meaning of it. In a male dominated world, she wanted to focus on the importance of women and let them have a voice of their own. Madonna shattered all the myths on traditional beauty standards and made her statement on sexuality and feminism, which changed how society viewed the standards of beauty. She impacted female power by encouraging sex- positivity into her music and her style. It is mainly because of Madonna that ordinary women, and women in modern entertainment have more choices and freedom which continues to influence further generations.
Hip hop has not only become one of the most listened musical genres in the past decades, but it has also become the top among young American’s. “Of all the radio musical styles available in the BIGinsight database, Hip-Hoppers skew the youngest. In fact, the second youngest audience, Alternative fans, is almost three years older on average. Almost two thirds of the audience is between the ages of 18-34. Very few are over the age of 65. If this is the youngest format audience, it stands to reason that the members of the audience have made the least progress in pursuit of a career – and that is why it comes in dead last among format groups in terms of annual household income. It skews very high in the number of students, military and unemployed individuals in the audience.”