The first song I have chosen is Bad Girls by M.I.A. I chose this song because it emulates a sense of women’s empowerment and is heavily weighted on the fact that Arabic women face discrimination and inequality compared to their male counterparts. Upon initially hearing it, you might not be able to discover the message until you watch the music video. The music video plays a vital role in this since the women are all wearing Arabic clothing and the video itself takes place in Morocco. The women in the video are also all driving cars intensely and fiercely, in advocating for Arabic women’s rights to be able to drive, along with just women’s rights in general. M.I.A.’s intent in this song was to instill power in women, more specifically Arabic women. I know that in Saudi Arabia, it is now legal for women to drive, but I think this song still sends an important message nonetheless considering this law was only lifted in 2018.

I think through research and more in-depth analysis of M.I.A’.s background as an artist, I will be able to further uncover the messages she displays in this song. As an artist, M.I.A. has a unique sense of style, which is what makes her such a popular and important figure in music culture. Because her music can’t fit into one specific category, it further shows her uniqueness and rebellious persona. I’ve been a big fan of this song for a long time because I felt like it was just an empowering and uplifting song for women. However, I had never really dove into it much more than beyond the surface level. After watching the music video and looking more in-depth at the background of it all, I realized there’s much more to this song than I thought there was, which only makes me want to analyze it so much more. At the moment, I wouldn’t say I have any big concerns about this project or this song, but I will be sure to make a note of it if any issues arise.

 

The second song I have chosen is Alright by Kendrick Lamar. I chose this song because a lot of Kendrick Lamar’s music is targeted toward advocating the Black Lives Matter movement, which has been extremely important and relevant in recent years. This song in particular came out during a time (2015) in which it was crucial for there to be a rise in awareness of the issues regarding racism in the justice system, as well as police brutality. This is clearly still relevant and vital today, so I think this song still holds to be true and critical within our society. A big portion of the song is expressing hope and faith that things will get better and these issues will hopefully no longer be a problem one day. This song was also popular during a lot of Black Lives Matter protests.

Kendrick Lamar’s style of music can be considered as rap/hip-hop. He does a bit of a mash of the two, which in turn leads to a very catchy song, making it perfect to protest with. Getting people’s attention about important matters can be difficult to do, but if you put it in a catchy song it makes it a bit easier. I think that as I keep researching I will have a better sense of what this song and his songs in general are really getting at, including him as a person. I’ve always loved this song since it came out and I had a small sense of what it was about, but again, hadn’t really thought much into it. Going even just a little more in-depth, I was able to see the true message and I would have no problem really diving into this song more. As for concerns, I’m pretty content at the moment and don’t foresee any issues, but as I said before, I will make a note of it if any were to arise.