This episode was by far my favorite of the series. Over the past several years we have seen more and more leadership in pop culture, especially in music. A lot of the time it is easy to disregard what an artist is singing or rapping about but when you take a closer look you can find all sorts of unimaginable deep meanings. One specific example I want to talk about is H.E.R.’s song I’m not okay. When you first listen to the song you hear the sad piano and breathtaking voice of H.E.R. singing about the anxiety and pain that comes with a relationship, specifically when worrying whether or not your significant other is drifting away or even worse, cheating on you. These are the exact same feelings I felt when I first listened to this song. Then I looked up the music video and my perception completely changed. The song came out in 2019 but in the wake of George Floyd’s death, H.E.R. released a music video for the song that featured dancing that depicted the emotions and actions of police brutality. In that instance, I looked up the words to the song and quickly saw the connection she was able to make to police brutality. While the song expresses all of the emotions discussed above, the song has an even bigger meaning. I’m Not Okay depicts the emotions of worrying about whether or not a loved one has been the subject of police brutality and if that same loved one is still alive. The song is so much more than it appears to be. The video features dancing that helps to perfectly describe the actions and emotions of police brutality. H.E.R.’s I’m Not Okay is just one instance of leadership within pop culture. Artists have taken an enormous leap in our lifetime in regards to creating emotional and impactful music about issues such as racism. I think that the continuous growth of leadership within pop culture is both impactful and necessary for the next generation. Artists are able to give voices to the voiceless. There is still work to be done in order to eradicate racism from the world, but seeing leadership grown not only in pop culture but also in places such as professional sports is extremely powerful.
Here is the music video:
This is a great example of how the use of visual media gives the artist even more power to influence people. Another example of this is Donald Glover’s “This is America”. The song is upbeat and catchy when you first hear it, but upon watching the video, you realize that he is calling out the unfair perceptions and treatment of black people in America. Combining the visual and audio allows for a sort of layered message.
This is a really interesting take on the podcast! I agree with you, music plays a large role in pop culture and has a large effect on the younger generations. Nowadays, artists use their performances and music to reach their audience in a different way. This can be seen with Beyonce’s half time show at the Superbowl. She used her platform to spread awareness.
I agree 100% that there are artists and music today that is really making an impact in our society and speaking up about things like mental health, relationship abuse, police brutality, racism, etc. A rapper named Lil Baby has a song called “Bigger picture” about police brutality and specifically about the death of George Floyd. I think some older generations would be quick to dismiss this song and not even take a rapper named Lil Baby seriously, but if you actually take a second to look at the lyrics, you can see that he is rapping about real issues in our world today, connecting with people who know how it feels to lose someone to police brutality, and helping stand up against social injustice issues. His performance of the song at this year’s Grammy’s showed a police shooting, protests, looting, and it was definitely one I recommend anyone watching. It has been inspiring to see celebrities use their platform for good, and use their voices for change.