Critical Approaches to Gender and 21st Century Pop Music

This is an extended trailer of a documentary called "Miss Representation".  The documentary explores the effect that media and media's portrayals of women affect women in every day life.  The actual documentary is on Netflix and is only an hour and a half long, and is definitely worth the watch.

This article in xxl magazine discusses rapper Childish Gambino's recent Instagram pictures, handwritten notes explaining his fears, "I'm afraid of the future" for example, and how this "real" moment affects the potential of his forth coming album, and whether it makes him seem more genuine or not

Interesting article and interview with Lady Gaga that explores her use of image and persona.

This was so cool! I've been taking sign languages course for a while and I just got into a YouTube black hole of signed songs and I stumbles upon this one! enjoy everyone!!

This YouTube video ties into the discussion about discrimination and post-racial america. By watching this video it gives an amazing insight from the point of view of the youth and how gay marriage is perceived today. It would have been great to find a similar interview with children of the same age from 30 years ago and compare the opinions, just to see how perspectives have changed over the past decades. But what i found most intriguing is that some of the kids reactions where of confusion but when they were asked why they thought gay marriage was weird or 'crazy' they didn't actually know why. Is this because they don't understand what is going on, or is it because they actually think it weird? 

"...The song, the second that fans will hear from Britney Spears upcoming album Britney Jean, is a personal ballad that was co-written by Britney and Sia Furler, and produced by will.i.am. Britney has admitted that much of her new album was inspired by her break-up with ex-fiancé Jason Trawick, so the subject matter of "Perfume" shouldn't surprise you. It's an emotionally powerful song about jealousy and self-doubt... " I found these lyrics interesting because it seems the narrator of the song is aware their sig. other is cheating on them, but rather than "take action" and address the situation, the narrator uses more subtle actions and ultimately, damages herself. While one can appreciate Spears' attempt to encompass a large amount of deeper emotions, I personally believe this deters from feminism; these lyrics causes the woman to become the submissive in yet another aspect of life and seem like the cause of all issues.

Nancy Fraser discusses feminism in today's current economic climate

Following our conversion on the post-racial america, Bethenny Frankel and and Omarosa have had a dispute in regard to Bethenny supposedly having better opportunities because she has 'white privilege'.  It's sad to see that this type of prejudice is still apparent in today's society, 

This short article shows how Christina Aguilera was criticized in the media for being "not Latina enough." It demonstrates how heritage is tied to ethnicity. It also shows how she responded to claims of her ethnicity being inauthentic. On a broader scale, the article reveals how ethnicity comes across through signs that audiences either accept or reject as authentic.

I found this article with a picture of Nicki Minaj in her halloween costume which is basically next to nothing. I think it would be interesting to compare her halloween costume to Miley's as "Lil Kim" and how the media portrays these two performers based on their reputation.

This was a really good read! I totally agree with the person who wrote this article, I feel like girls are pressured to look "sexy" or it's ok for them to look that way ONLY on halloween and they can get away with it. I'm going to go look up Miley's costume now!

dubstep covers of pop songs is becoming increasingly more popular so I thought this one is a good one for people to listen too. Even if you dont think you'll like dubstep its pretty mellow and worth a listen

This website is called "Stuff white people like" it's a site that sarcastically lists things white people like and kind of plays with that idea. I read this a while back and thought it went well with our lesson on Thursday. This article talks about how a lot of music that is associated with "black" culture, such as jazz and rock have been adopted and owned by "white" people that when you think of those, you don't think of the black culture that started it. They also talk about how this is happening to pop music such as hiphop that is largely listened to a "whiter" audience, but they are actually listening to "commercial hiphop." I thought it was interesting how race plays a lot with music and which race has the ability to freely flow throughout any genre.

a discussion on the merit of pop music and lana del rey

Shows that people will take a singers art and make it their own. And this is done beautifully

I just found this amusing. The body swap between Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus is particularly funny as you could say they are known for being the complete opposite in where they stand.

More for a future reference on Parodies, here's one that makes fun of the music video.

And a parody of that parody, done by the same person. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3ejpPH7qro