Protest Song Presentations Reactions

 For this blog post, I want to discuss last week's protest songs and my reactions to them. I had to leave early and wanted to share my reactions to the ones I didn't get to see and interact with in class. Doing this, I have listened to the songs and gone through the presentations to give my reactions on all of them.

Protest Song: Mental Health 

I loved this song, to be honest, I think the lyrics are really impactful and convey a balance between understanding and acknowledging the struggle while also not giving up. For isntance the lyric turn all the noise down inside my head is literally such a specific way to deal and describe with anxiety, and uses that aspect of not only the nervous side of anxiety but basically metaphorically descibe the feeling of being overwhlemed, and then the line I don't need to fix it all is one of the lines that really stuck out to be me mainly becuase it really shows some things are simply just out of your control you wont ever be able to fix everything and it really establishes this productivity guilt that people with mental health issues struggle with because essnetially "if I can't fix this I am a failure" is such a more common thought than some think. 

I think the use of the song "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten was clever and transforms the project into something really important because of how popular this song was, and it essentially created a movement. When I listen to this song, it reminds me of how big a mental health anthem this was when it came to not giving up. It acknowledges that before we can fight for external change, we often have to win the internal battle against self-doubt, overstimulation, and depression. 

Protest Song: Everyday Racism

I love the fact that J Cole was used for this song. I think it is nothing new, understanding that J Cole is one of the few rappers who really speak about being a black man, and growing up in a place where being a black man was basically a free ticket to prison or death. So the emphasis of using J Cole's instrumental to Love Yourz already sends that clear message because the original aspect of the song is how you cannot find true happiness until you learn to appreciate your own life, family, and blessings, rather than chasing things that can only give you serotonin for the moment, especially if that has to come with comparing yourself to others. 

There was a lyric in the beginning that really stuck out to me, "heart beating fast just a brother walking through the aisles.... can't walk around without getting racially profiled." This literally encapsulates being a person of color regularly even something like shopping something so innocenet that others take for granted there are always eyes on us wondering if we are shoplifting, doing something disruptive etc, and it captures the topic of this protest song "everyday racism" another lyric that peaked my interest was "talking they be like how articulate" I think this is also another thing that people don't understand when it comes to racism because even saying this in the most innocent was emeplifies this microagression that not all black people are "well spoken" even though we speak in AAVE, Ebonics, etc the concept of being able to articulate works is something that people can't seem to fathom. 

Protest Song: Abortion 

Abortion is always a good topic because there is truly one simple message, my body, my choice and that should be all, so the song was really good. My Body My Choice is a powerful anthem, and it demands attention, not just asking for it. The song really taps into the social and political resonance; the lyrics are less performance-wise and more like a manifesto, while keeping the vibes of the song catchy and also just simply important and bubbly. 

This is not really a song you'd put on for easy listening; it really hits the head on being a call to action. It is designed to provoke this thought and spark a conversation on why others make choices about our autonomy and don't even have it. In 1:30 seconds, it really captures the defiance and strength while being bold. I also liked the way the presentation was laid out and showed the different litigations and legal processes that.

Protest Song: Toxic Masculinity 

Using "Manchild" by Sabrina Carpenter is also so niche because she is known for her hyper femininity, and while some may say she "appeals" to men, I beg to differ; she is very much about punishing men and using what she has to lure men in and completely disregard them. She is also big on feminism, so everything that fits perfectly when it comes to creating a song about Toxic Masculinity, especially because the original song Manchild is about dating attractive men, but who are also just emotionally immature and stupid because yeah you are cute, but there is such a frustrating aspect when it comes to you quite literally being incompetant. 

There's a lyric where it mentions getting a gold star for tying your shoe not only is this funny it really dwelves into the rabbit hole of toxic masculinty because a gold star is given out when it comes to praising an individual so intially the lyric is hinting at over prasining a man for something so basic, like tying your shoe is something that is expected of everyone so stating this behaviour is something you'd praise a kid for not a grown man and that alone shows weaponized incompetence, essentially this grown man needs his ego stroked and needs validation just to function. 

- The group Pronouns went before my group intersectionality so I was in class to interact with that but I really did enjoy that song, it really gave Charli XCX vibes and that whole queer hyper pop scene great work!