The songs that I chose for my proposal are Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey and Hunger by Florence and The Machine. These songs intrigued me at first for the voice of the singers. Both voices are thick and seem to almost draw you in to what they are saying. Both of these songs are not completely evident in how they would be a protest song. Both songs are talking about this want and how it is almost a fear. Hunger by Florence and the Machine is essentially putting everyone on the spot by saying that they have this hunger for beauty and to be something different then they are, as well as a hunger for love. Young and Beautiful sounds almost like she is convincing herself that people will still love her when she’s older. In Hunger I think she is saying we all have “this thing” and I know we do even if we’re too scared to say it, she is being vulnerable enough to admit it. These songs contradict each other in a sense for one is almost avoiding their feelings and passive while the other one is confronting it head on and vocalizing that she is not the only one. I think Hunger intrigues me more for it can be taken as a literal hunger and an eating disorder but also just this hunger for more in life and the world and to get better. The story behind Hunger is really interesting because it was not even supposed to be a song at first it was just a poem she wrote and then was set to music. Her parents also did not know she was dealing with an eating disorder until the song came out. In Lana Del Rey’s case, I don’t think she directly was affected by an eating disorder but she was addicted to drugs and alcohol so I think she too was using those as a coping mechanism in a sense and she used men to hide her fear of herself and her personal demons. These songs I think are both going to really challenge me to delve deeper into them to really understand the exact meaning behind them other than just the blatant themes you hear when first listening. 

Right now there is still so much going on actively with Women’s Rights as well as more of a vocalization and normality about eating disorders. With apps such as TikTok I constantly am seeing videos of girls talking about their eating disorder, or not being pretty enough or thin enough, or literally sharing eating disorder behaviors that I don’t think they really even realize are one. I know, myself included, are always looking at others and comparing ourselves to others, having this hunger to be something more than we are. Both these songs artists fall under the genre of indie rock/indie alternative. That genre as a whole tends to have vocals that are almost melancholy or have an introspective feel. I think a lot of indie rock songs are deep and have a lot of meaning behind them so I think I will find more songs with common themes as the two mentioned. I feel as if I will be focusing a lot of research on body image awareness, eating disorders and self love. 

These songs are important because as a woman in this society I constantly feel as if I’m comparing myself to others wondering if I’ll ever be enough for other people or for myself. I have struggled with an eating disorder since I was 16. Hospitalized twice but music really was something that pulled me out of that and I used it almost as a distraction. Hunger, when I first heard it, was like wow there’s a song literally where she is telling the world she has an eating disorder. Me, up to probably a year ago, never would have imagined being able to talk about that at all. Over the past year and a half I would say I’ve definitely become more of an activist on body image and self love. I think it’s important that someone is able to be so vulnerable and I respect that quite a lot. Both songs have a lot more to them  then what you hear when first listening and I would like to give the songs that opportunity to be further analyzed. I am very okay relistening to these songs over and over again, big fan of both artists. 

For me my biggest concern, as usual, is just my time management skills, or lack of skill. It is something that I have worked so hard on and have gotten much better with but my course load this semester is insane so I just need to stay on the ball. I think as long as I am organized and schedule my time correctly I will be perfectly fine. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GHXEGz3PJg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_1aF54DO60