Sunday, September 26, 2010
"Love The Way You Lie" - Eminem featuring Rihanna
In our modern society there are several provacative topics in media that get a lot of attention and popularity for talking about things that are taboo. One such taboo topic is domestic abuse. In one of his latest songs called "Love The Way You Lie", rapper Eminem goes in depth into his story of domestic abuse with his significant other This song is vivid and fully depicts the anger, frustration, and emotion that Eminem has for the topic. Eventhough we all know that domestic abuse happens it is not something that is usually discussed in public or intentionally brought to the light. In this case, Eminem not only brings it to the light, but he spends three whole verses reiterating the same story with more passion and anger than he did the verse before and ends with the bone-chilling line "And if she ever tries to leave again I'll tie her to the bed and set this house on fire!" This is a song that makes light of domestic abuse, and arson, but is one of the most popular songs due to the fact that it has a good flow and Rihanna's beautiful voice on the chorus. It probably was not in my generation, but I'm pretty sure there was once a time where something like this was not tolerated. Oh how times have changed.
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Great post Bradley. Could it be that in today's media, we make light and glorify topics we shouldn't? Violence in music & video games, etc. But on the other side maybe this is his way of telling his story and as an artist his form of expression is his music, vs. him writing a book or something. Would you see it as self-expression, or praising violence to sell records?
ReplyDeleteMikal asks a legitimate question--is he prasing violence, or to reenact the scene of domestic violence in order for society to critique it?
ReplyDeleteTo answer this question, it must take a much more closer analysis of the lyrics before you make any judgments.
When you lament "Oh how times have changed" could it have been that the way to read/interpret lyrics has changed? While you read the denotative meaning of the lyrics (as the traditional way goes), the audience nowadays read the connotative meaning instead? Just a guess.
Interesting artifact. Could expand further to justify your nostalgia at the end.
c.d.e.