{"id":62,"date":"2018-11-28T19:33:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T00:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-07\/?page_id=62"},"modified":"2018-12-03T11:34:57","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T16:34:57","slug":"lyrical-analysis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-07\/lyrical-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyrical Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One of Sleater-Kinney\u2019s defining characteristics, and something that is exemplified in the songs from their live performance, are the band\u2019s simple yet poignant lyrics. For \u201cStart Together,\u201d the song\u2019s opening lyrics, sung by Tucker, are a slow and sweeping \u201cIf you want me, it\u2019s changing\/ If you want, everything\u2019s changing.\u201d The themes from this song tie in nicely with the next song in the performance, \u201cBe Yr Mama\u201d from their debut album. This song has many subversive lyrics about motherhood and femininity, including \u201cYou\u2019re inside me\/ I\u2019m yr mommy.\u201d These two songs reflect the band\u2019s attitude toward the current social climate and their own feminist ideologies. The politics of third wave feminism have three central dogmas, all of which are accurately reflected in their lyrics. The third wave focuses on \u201c\u2026the collapse of the category of women\u2026multivocality and action\u2026[and] an inclusive and nonjudgemental approach\u201d (Snyder). Being called \u201cchallengers to the male Rockstar throne\u201d (McDonnell), Sleater-Kinney challenges the male structured cannon of rock music in their lyrics and performance, thus signifying the third dogma. The band, along with many bands in the Riot Grrrl scene, were feminist and pro-queer (Sleater-Kinney being define by some as queer-core, even). The songs are indicative of an anger at being trapped in traditional boxes of womanhood, as well as an awareness that things are changing.<\/p>\n

The final song in their performance is \u201cWords and Guitar.\u201d This song is pretty repetitive with it\u2019s ABAB structure with a bridge. The main chorus lyrics are \u201cWords and guitar, I got it\/ Words and guitar, I want it.\u201d The guitar is typically seen as a male codified or even phallic symbol in western music, so they are taking ownership of and reversing the coded role of this instrument, both in the lyrics and by actually playing guitar. The other thing that the band is trying to take ownership of are words themselves. According to first Whitley, \u201cWomen can only be described as the other\u201d (95), meaning that since language is male codified and male-centric, women will inevitably be \u201cthe other\u201d in this language. \u00a0Thus, saying that they \u201cgot words\u201d means that they are trying to take this language and utilize it for themselves. I say trying, because it is a feat that they ultimately cannot accomplish, since they say \u201cwords and guitar, I want it.\u201d This point is further elaborated in the song when Tucker sings \u201cI dream of quiet sounds\/ I hear the silky sounds.\u201d These are concepts that Tucker and Brownstein want to have, but cannot save for their dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of Sleater-Kinney\u2019s defining characteristics, and something that is exemplified in the songs from their live performance, are the band\u2019s simple yet poignant lyrics. For…<\/p>\n

Continue readingLyrical Analysis<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3551,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-62","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3551"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}