T.I. I'm a King Hip Hop (2008)
B.G. ft. Cash Money Millionaires "Bling Bling" Hip Hop (1999)
Cash Millionaires ft. Lil Wayne "Undisputed" Hip Hop (2001)
Kanye West "Power" Hip Hop (2010)
Gwen Stefani ft. Slim Thug "Luxorious" Pop (2005)
Liberation Songs:
Orianthi "According to You" Pop (2010)
Kristinia DeBarge "Goodbye" Pop (2010)
Keyshia Cole ft. Nicki Minaj "I Ain't Thru" R & B (2010)
Michael Jackson "They Don't Care About Us" Pop (1996)
Lil Wayne "Single" Hip Hop (2010)
In doing this assignment I definitely found songs about success to be more prevelant. It was also definitely seen the most in Hip Hop with talk about money, cars, clothes, and girls. I think that one reason for this is because after many of these artists who claim to come from poverty obtain a record deal, they find getting a record label as a type of liberation for them, therefore they're going to make songs talking about their success after liberation from poverty. I also noticed that, and I don't know if this is the same for everybody else but, while searching for songs that dealt with liberation it was much easier to find songs that dealt with life after a relationship. I think it's easy for people to relate too, because lots of people feel liberated after a relationship has ended, and they seek to change something about themselves, whether it's cutting or dying your hair, or buying a new outfit. I believe that the Western view of success and the Hindu view of success are the same. This is because they both believe success to be limited and competitive. We see that all the time in pop culture when artists have hit singles one moment and fall out of the limelight the next moment, and spend their money faster than its coming in, becoming in great debt. I believe that the Western view of Liberation differs from the Hindu view of and liberation. And I believe that, because with my experience with searching for songs about becoming liberated I came across so many that dealt with the ending of relationships, and it's because it's something that everyone in our society can relate to.
I like what you said when you stated that hip hop artists who make it big kind of see it as liberation because some of them come from humble beginnings. It's something I didn't think of and seems to be very true.
ReplyDeleteI agree about a lot of success songs relating to relationship breakups. However, while I do see your point that a person betters themselves after said breakup, I disagree with that being a part of liberation. To me, and I mentioned this in my blog post, the liberation that comes from a breakup that is related to the Hindu idea is, not having that added frustration. Therefore, one is able to be happy and not have to worry about frivolous people and things.
ReplyDeleteI also found the idea of hip hop artists writing about success because of humble beginnings insightful, I had not thought of that. Also, liberation from many unhappy situations seemed to be the theme to me, not just relationships. Addiction, ignorance, insecurity were also some of the topics of liberation I came across.
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