Poetry in Music, the Weeknd

Prince Royce is mainly trying to say that people should not judge or be judged by their physical appearance but by what they have and feel in their hearts. This song is trying to capture women who think they are not good enough. They think of themselves as something lower and have difficult time to see themselves but rather see what they don’t have. They feel not beautiful and have low self esteem. He also tells that he also is not perfect and that love never see faces but hearts.

|Spend about 1 hour on this section. Think carefully about the poems before you write your answer. |

This is what they call imagery. The singer is saying be yourself do not follow others, be yourself and don’t let your perse stop you. Later on in the song it say,”The ice we skate is getting pretty thin/ The water’s getting warm so you might as well swim/ My worlds on fire. How about yours/ That’s the way I like it and i’ll never get bored.” (Smash Mouth) This entire line of the song describes stress and it will try to stop you from being you, but when he rose up and he made a difference and forgot all about the stress he once had. The first part of the lyric is a simile. The final lyric in the song that is important is,” Somebody once asked could I spare some change for gas/ I need to get myself away from this place/ I said yep, what a concept/I could use a little fuel myself/ And we could all use a little change.”( Smash Mouth) What he means by this is people ask him what he did to become this famous and he said,”you have to follow your dreams.” This is an example of a

Peer pressure. Bad decisions. Close calls. Consequences. In the reflective song “The Art of Peer Pressure”, Kendrick Lamar details a day where he was under peer pressure, made bad decisions, had close calls, and narrowly escaped the consequence of his actions. Lamar was with some friends smoking blunts that ended up to be laced with PCP. The combination of the PCP and peer pressure from his friends caused Lamar to agree to go along with his friends plan to rob a house. Throughout the song “The Art of Peer Pressure”, Kendrick Lamar creates a moralistically conflicted voice with a combination of diction choices, imagery and syntax choices.

The song is written about an attractive woman that appeals highly to Robert Plant. He speaks of the way she moves and her physical appearance in a very sexual

Your first thought is the love between the couple is toxic and lethal yet, he cannot resist his partner. But, really it is a reference to Cocaine. Cocaine is given a female voice. He uses personification by bringing the drug to life, where it can communicate with him and become part of his life. He knows that this “girl” meaning, Cocaine is going to be the death of him. While in use of Cocaine he gets numb. “But at least we’ll both be beautiful and stay forever young/ This I know, (yeah) this I know” (3-4). You say again, that he is singing about how the love is so very satisfying. But he is actually meaning that his desire for this young and beautiful woman makes him feel good. He feels as if he is invincible when he has her. Even though he seems to be aware of the consequences that come with feeling young and beautiful; with the use of Cocaine. “She told me, ‘Don’t worry about it.’/ She told me, ‘Don’t worry no more.’/ We both knew we can’t go without it/ She told me you’ll

Kendrick Lamar took the music industry by storm last year after his release of his sophomore album To Pimp A Butterfly. Immediately, the album quickly became critically acclaimed and resulted in multiple awards such as winning four grammys this past winter. The album goes deep into Kendrick’s personal struggles as new found celebrity, while also touching on subjects surrounding the black community. For this paper I took a look at the standout song off the album Institutionalized, that deals with the internal struggle people go through in life because of the barriers of thinking they are imprisoned to in their lives. Along with this, the song also has elements that tie

An ode can be defined as a "ceremonious lyric poem on an occasion of dignity in which personal emotion and universal themes are united" (Ode, 2012). While hip-hop is known for its violent, masculine, and often, misogynistic lyrics, "Dear Mama" (1995), the first single from Tupac Shakur's album, Me Against the World (1995), can be considered to be a modern ode. Tupac Shakur, also known as 2Pac, one of hip-hop's most influential rappers, intended to pay homage to his mother through this song and frequently referenced it in many of his later songs. "Dear Mama" (1995) contains many elements that allow its lyrics to be analyzed from a literary perspective including tone, theme, and lyrical style.

Promised to be action-packed yet sentimental, the track and the music video itself had been previewed with a mesmerizing film-poster leaning on the horror genre. Feel The Weeknd as he was during the start of his career, all tied up by an unknown masked-man, denoting his struggles as a neophyte in the industry. Starboy will unleash the constrained The Weeknd, destroys all evidences from his bleak past, breaks everything that comes his way, run amuck to release a brand new version of himself. Much drama was intended to be seen on the video, and the song is the ultimate bonus on the music video experience.

He begins the track by mentioning acquisitiveness and materialism while singing about the girls who wish to have “Nikes” and “needs a ring like Carmelo,” so they are desperately “looking for a check.” The lyric “All you want is Nikes” also refers to the materialistic mentality of young kids today who use high-end brands as a status symbol and fashion trends. Ocean also touched upon a boy named Trayvon Martin singing “R.I.P. Trayvon that n*gga look just like me.” Trayvon was a teen that was fatally shot while reaching for a bag of Skittles in his pocket. This part addresses the racial injustices that still exist and is occurring on a daily basis. Another song called “Solo” is another favorite song of mine. “Solo” is sung through the perspective of a solitary artist. In this chorus where he said “in hell, inhale, there are heaven” ties in with the theme of his drug usage. At times, Ocean considered drugs as a way to escape reality and the problems surrounding him. Furthermore, this song signifies the beauty of being in solitary and encourages those to not find misery in being alone but use this opportunity to find yourself. The simplicity of the instrumentation and production, consisting of only has an organ and Ocean’s voice, truly depicts the overall theme of this song. Last of all, “Ivy” is a song about the reminiscence of your first love. Young love, a love where there were no worries or limits. However, fleeting it was bound to happen during a certain time in your life. But just like the ivy plant, you will discover growth and maturity that wouldn’t be made possible if you did not encounter your first heartbreak. The production of each song gives the album a very unique and interesting feature. Certain songs seem to have altered voices while some maintained Ocean’s normal voice. Since each song varied in productions, this allows the audience to

The next few songs discuss his experiences as an adult. “One Of My Turns” speaks about love, heartbreak and the failure of his marriage. “Don’t Leave Me Now” sings of his abuse of women, whether it is the woman he married and then lost, or a prostitute who is paid to be with him. Pink needs someone to take his abuse, but who he does not intend to drive away - for example, he will get them to stay by apologizing with flowers ( CITE)

The song tells the tale of suburban hero, a working class teen without faith or direction. In telling his story, important issues are encountered with a focus on the working class teen. The shallow and hypocritical nature of mainstream media is also touched upon. The music flows between the five parts like a rock opera, and it works with the lyrics to give us a deeper sense of the challenges “Jesus” faces. The song also features a 14-minute music video including dialogue and a shortened version fitting only the song itself, which can give more indication of the song’s intended meaning. In part one, Jesus of Suburbia, we get a background of Jesus’ character, including the fact that he does cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, and cigarettes; and he doesn’t believe there is anything wrong with that. We see he lives with his divorced mother who is often gone. The music to this first act is standard pop punk, consisting of fast power chords, loud lyrics, and stop time. Lead singer Billie Joe delivers lyrics in his traditional full-of-angst fashion, and this reflects the attitude of Jesus. Additionally, the music video shows Jesus breaking up with a girlfriend and proceeding to have sex with multiple intoxicated girls and do hard drugs in a run-down area. In this section we see into the life of someone we might not want to even think about as well-off students at a good university. Though we don’t necessarily connect with Jesus yet, it is easy to pity his situation. After a few chords and two drum fills, we move on to the second

The song “Secrets” by The Weeknd portrays the jealousy that men face when they date a beautiful woman. In the song, The Weeknd suggests this in the progression of events that ultimately lead back to the claim that he knows his girlfriend is cheating. In the first verse, he states that she is desired by every man and he states “And I know that you want him too” to suggest there is a reoccurring man that she cheats on him with. However, while he is accusing her of infidelity, he calls her “my love” eight times to show that he still loves her despite her actions. In the second verse, he says “you told me not to worry 'bout those guys” essentially calling her out on the many times she lied to him. The chorus is the part of the song in which he

Barbadian singer and songwriter, Rihanna, song titled “Bitch Better Have My Money” was released in the year 2015. The popular song had previously landed as number four in Pitchfork’s, “Best of 2015” list. Just as the title of the music video proposes, the main concept is, “Bitch Better Have My Money”; a concept in which Rihanna is indicating how someone owes her money and needs to pay it forward. This is not the only notion an individual could get from the song lyrics. The song could be referring to demanding respect from someone, gaining ethnic dominance, instigation to violence, or even females being used as objects.

The Beat Generation of poets was created by a group of poets in the 1950s that were part of a new culture in literature. They chose to use their experiences in their writings which were widely criticized as well as loved by many readers. Two of the most influential Beat Poets of that Generation of writers were Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The Beat Generation poetry was the first poets to write about non-conventional subjects as well as using different forms of expression in their works. This generation of poets greatly influenced poets such as Anne Sexton, who wrote about personal experiences as well. The Beat Generation’s style of poetry have influenced many generations of poets after them.