ipl-logo

Born This Way Literary Devices

1912 Words8 Pages

The music industry has always been a reflection of the cultural and social situations of a particular audience. Every genre has its unique sound and style that expresses the attitudes and experiences of a particular time and place. Lady Gaga's hit song "Judas" from her 2011 album Born This Way was a significant cultural artifact of its time due to its use of religious imagery, camp aesthetics, and the combination of EDM and recession pop sounds. This paper analyzes how these elements express and reflect the cultural situation of a particular audience, comparing Lady Gaga's use of them to other artists and songs from previous decades, and discussing their extension to the queer community. By examining "Judas" in this way, this paper aims to gain a deeper understanding of how music reflects and shapes cultural trends and …show more content…

The narrator describes a love triangle between Judas, Jesus, and herself, using Judas as a metaphor for a lover who has betrayed her. The lyrics are overtly packed with religious symbolism and stories such as the crown of thorns and repentance for committed sins. The chorus in particular is rich with metaphors with lines such as "I'm just a Holy Fool, oh baby he's so cruel, but I'm still in love with Judas, baby" that suggest a complex and conflicted emotional state due to her betrayal. The cultural situation of Lady Gaga's audience can be seen in the way that she uses religious imagery and symbolism in the song. Lady Gaga is known for her outspokenness and advocacy on behalf of marginalized communities, in particular the LGBTQ+ community, and "Judas" can be seen as an attempt to challenge and subvert traditional religious narratives as religion has historically been weaponized against the queer community. By portraying Judas as a romantic figure and using religious imagery in a provocative way, Lady Gaga is attempting to push back against societal norms and

Show More
Related

Who Is The Christ Figure In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

973 Words | 4 Pages

There are striking situations or characteristics where the characters in the novel are like biblical figures. Billy Bibbit is like Judas because of their betrayal to their friend. In the book, Billy Bibbit betrays McMurphy by telling Nurse Ratched that it is “M-M-McMurphy

Read More

Relationship Between Hip-Hop And Indigenous People

213 Words | 1 Pages

In this particular article, Ivan Fernandez discusses the unique connection between hip-hop and indigenous people. In the past few years, many more indigenous music artists have begun to voice out their stories of oppression and their traditions that have been suppressed for such a long time through hip-hop. This is because hip-hop is utilized as a medium for indigenous artists to take back their culture and tradition. This is connected to the historical material that we have studied because it pertains to the history and background of hip hop. Hip-hop and its culture originated in the rough neighborhoods in South Bronx.

Read More

Rock 'N' Roll In America By Glenn C. Altschuler

443 Words | 2 Pages

In this extremely controversial work, Glenn C. Altschuler takes aim on the government’s accusations, the prejudice from the police, and the affect that rock ’n’ roll made in America through the late forties and fifties. Glenn makes many accusations of his own through the way he shifts the momentum of the story from time to time. Through the years back then and now, music has caused many racial and gender controversies. In this book, Glenn explains all these problems and what rock did to start or get of them.

Read More

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Crooked Smile By J. Cole

778 Words | 4 Pages

Music all over the world has been shaping generations for many years now. The rock n roll of the 70’s and 80’s, pop and hip-hop of the 90’s and early 2000’s and finally, many different popular genres of the generation we now live in. Music provides a means of expression for all types of individuals. Some music even goes against the social norm and tries to bring attention to social injustices. The song “Crooked Smile” by rapper J. Cole tackles the issue of unrealistic expectations of women with the songs exceptional lyrics, broad metaphors, and positive tone.

Read More

Review Of All Shook Up: How Rock And Roll Changed America

1380 Words | 6 Pages

Altschuler discusses media commentator Jeff Greenfield’s opinion about the influences of Rock and Roll on American youth. Greenfield states, “Nothing we see in the counterculture [of the 1960’s], not the clothes, the hair, the sexuality, the drugs, the rejection of the reason, the resort to symbols and magic – none of it is separable from the coming to power in the 1950s of rock and roll music.” He continues with “Brewed in the hidden corners of black American cities, its [Rock-n-Roll] rhythms infected white Americans, seducing them out of the kind of temperate bobby-sox passions out of which Andy Hardy films are spun. Rock and Roll was elemental, savage, dripping with sex; it was just as our parents feared.” (Altschuler, 8) Rock and Roll stood as a powerful alternative to the conformist ideals Americans had valued.

Read More

Compare And Contrast Douglass And African Americans

433 Words | 2 Pages

Modern globalization of entertainment allows artistic paradigms to respectfully intersect, appropriate, and evolve. In Music in America, Dvořák argues that the demographical origin of an artist cannot prohibit an artist from producing music of another origin. Throughout the excerpt, Dvořák provides numerous examples of artists composing famous pieces that possess musical characteristics of certain cultures the artist does not originate from like Verdi’s Aida and Bizet’s Carmen. In fact, Dvořák argues that proper representation “need not necessarily be of the same blood,” but instead, requires accurate expression of the underlying morals: “Our (musicians’) mission should be to give pure pleasure, and to uphold the ideals of our race.” Dvořák’s ideals of respectful appropriation can be seen in respected white hip-hop artists like Eminem and Mac Miller who share their experiences and ideals regarding social reform, mental illness, and poverty that resonate with the underlying ideals of rap and hip-hop.

Read More

Mcmurphy Symbolism In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

1619 Words | 7 Pages

The party in the ward before McMurphy’s lobotomy is parallel to Christ’s last supper before he was crucified. The narcotic cough syrup mixed with vodka resembles the wine and the two prostitutes, Candy and Sandy, are analogous to Mary Magdalene. Judas’s betrayal of Jesus is referenced with Billy Bibbit’s “betrayal” of McMurphy. Bibbit's betrayal is not in his attempts to push the blame of his time with Candy on McMurphy; it is with his suicide that follows.

Read More

Muddy Waters: Authenticity In The Music Industry

1000 Words | 4 Pages

“Authenticity” in music has been a widely debated topic within society. Many argue that authenticity is a necessary component in music, while others believe that it is an imaginary construct that distorts the genre. What is not argued is how “authenticity” can be a necessary component of music while distorting the genre. In this paper, I will compare Bessie Smith to the artist Muddy Waters to assess “authenticity” in the music industry regarding the distortion of genres. Authenticity, to me, is how an artist expresses themselves in their work.

Read More

Analysis: The Dialetic Of Disco

1073 Words | 5 Pages

For example, many songs that are hailed as gay anthems in disco, one being ‘I Will Survive’ by Gloria Gaynor, are not explicitly about queer experiences, but the overall messages they relay and sometimes the singers behind the message hold the power. There is an idea of gay ‘knowingness’, expressed in The Dialetic of Disco, that reinforces this idea of the songs being important to queer culture but not necessarily directly about queer experience. Songs like ‘YMCA’ are much more popular with those who are not queer, but they fail to see the homosexual implications of its content. Contrast this to songs which are openly concentrated on the subject of being queer, especially in punk, such as ‘I’m Illegal’ by Team

Read More

Blackface Minstrelsy In African-American Culture

664 Words | 3 Pages

In a time where sampling is a staple of hip-hop and other predominant, modern genres, it is not unreasonable for an artist to take ownership of past artifacts, even those which once were oppressed or used for oppression, as a way to reclaim the artifact itself, to subvert it, or otherwise reconstitute meaning. When we examine remixing and sampling in pop music in an academic way, we must consider how it is consumed by and therefore affects a non-academic audience. Understanding the audience is foundational to communication, after all. Radio listeners will not necessarily know where sampled pieces originate from, let alone their original contexts. And those effects should be further examined in the future.

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of Lady Gaga

930 Words | 4 Pages

Lady GaGa uses all kinds of media, social networking to promote herself as well as her passion of equality. The fakebook page shows her flamboyant outfits, links to YouTube videos and her own personal posting to her fans. The page provides many rhetorical forms

Read More

What Is The Impact Of Rock And Roll On African American Culture

1392 Words | 6 Pages

The music offers insight into how different groups and cultures interacted in the United States and that in turn can explain the music’s unique sound and popularity. While the genre no longer reflects racial relations in the US today, that message still exists in other forms of music, such as rap, soul, etc., created by artists all over the

Read More

Daybreak In Alabama, By Langston Hughes

284 Words | 2 Pages

In the poem "Daybreak in Alabama," Langston Hughes uses several complex figures of speech to suggest that music can bring people together. For instance, the poem begins with the metaphorical phrase "Daybreak in Alabama," which describes how the dawn in Alabama marks a fresh beginning for equality. The expression "Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist / And falling out of heaven like soft dew" compares the "purtiest tunes'' to the swamp mist and describes how music will descend from heaven. The phrase conveys a deeper and more complex meaning by stating that music will range in pitches from as low as the mist to as high as the heavenly sky.

Read More

Born A Crime Literary Analysis

842 Words | 4 Pages

Trevor Noah is a comedian who was born in South Africa under a system of racial segregation known as apartheid. He wrote the book "Born a Crime" to educate the readers on the struggles that South Africans faced while apartheid governed them. More importantly, he shows how strong, and determined his mother was and all the lessons he learned growing up under her care. Trevor also focuses on the troubles he experienced being born a mixed child, which at the time of apartheid was a crime and illegal. He explains how he had to secretly see his dad (who initially wanted nothing to do with him due to it being a crime) and had to pretend that he had a different mother in public so his parents wouldn't get caught.

Read More

Every Rose Has Its Thorn Analysis

845 Words | 4 Pages

In this song, the speaker is portrayed as a man who is hurting from his past relationship and so he tries to figure out what made things change and where they went wrong. Throughout the song the speaker reflects on how he was feeling while they were still together and now that they are apart. The song was written as a message to the antagonist, the woman that the speaker loved, and now, is no longer with; he wants answers and he wants her to know how he feels and just how much she hurt him. The speaker lets us know that the pain he is feeling from this broken love of theirs is internal by stating, “To hear that tears me up inside and to see you cuts me like a knife” (Poison).

Read More

More about Born This Way Literary Devices

Related Topics

Open Document