Month: March 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZtAQQh-yYA

Emily Marks

Musician Lupe Fiasco is about to release a new album and I think as part of a promotional tool he created a video called we are not losers that I stumbled on recently. The lyrics for this video are

“We will not compromise who we are to be accepted by the crowd.
We want substance in the place of popularity.
We want to think our own thoughts.
We want love, not lies.
We want knowledge, understanding, and peace.
We will not lose, because we are not losers.
We are LASERS.”

It’s very inspirational for a contemporary musical artist to create something like this. This is such a relevant topic in our society , but it’s not talked about by the media. This is Lupe Fiasco’s official website http://wearenotlosers.com/. He is trying to raise awareness about the hidden truths about the media.

Musician Justin Bieber’s video is called “pray.” He sings about poverty and his feelings about his visions of making a difference. I found this song to be very powerful because once again it’s another contemporary artist singing about problems in the world. The lyrics to this song are on this website Pray Lyrics .

I’m not going to even bother posting the lyrics to Lady Gaga’s Telephone because they are about as unprogressive as lyrics can get but the video however provides a parody on fame culture and American consumerism. She blatantly uses product placements- some brands fake, most real- some were paid some were just for aesthetics- as a way to poke fun at American obsession with brands. The height of the product placement as parody can be seen towards the end of the video in the kitchen scene where she is using Miracle Whip and Wonder Bread in a recipe to kill every patron in the diner and in the corner the logo says “Poison TV” – a jab at TV and the mindless consumption of anything and everything by the American populace. She pokes fun at fame culture in the way that she is released from jail after killing her boyfriend in the “Paparazzi” video- the celebrity jail system is not at all the same as the penal system for us regular folk. She is also commenting on the dependence of America on technology- everytime the song “messes up” so too do the humans in the video.

Samantha Zaruba

http://www.metrolyrics.com/byob-lyrics-system-of-a-down.html

System of a Down’s BYOB (Bring Your Own Bombs) is as blunt as songs get. They talk about our endless war in the middle east begging the question: Why don’t presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor? The comparisson of going out to party can be taken as picking at the sensationalistic PR campaigns that our country uses to bring us into war.

Samantha Zaruba

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvh4WaMFnRg

Lost in the World by Kanye West featuring Justin Vernon from Bon Iver isn’t a progressive song until you get to 4:15 in the song and the bit about America needing a revolution and comparing the idea of “Freedom” as a rapist in disguised gives an honest depiction of the lazy youth (“programmed”) and the hypocrisy of our country using the words “freedom” and “democracy” as mere excuses to do whatever suits our financial interests.

Samantha Zaruba