The Fear

            What drew me to Lily Allen’s music was her catchy and fresh take on pop, but I stayed for her cheeky lyrics. Sometimes, she is simply sharing her life experiences flippantly; others she is making genuine commentaries on society, and wrapping it up in a delightfully tongue-in-cheek package. The lead single of her sophomore album, “The Fear,” seems to combine the two perfectly. It is focusing on the consumerist behaviors and thought processes that plague our society, as well as what we have come to value through the years.

            The verses are written as if Lily really believes that looks, fame, and money are the most important things in life, while the chorus shows how she feels she is losing herself by the constant presence of said beliefs.

            I looked up an interview of Lily speaking about “The Fear,” and could not believe my eyes when I discovered the advertisement before the video was for an anti-aging skin product. I then noticed a picture ad next to the interview of L’Oreal makeup artists at the Cannes 2013 Film Festival. In the interview, Lily described the song as being about how she is “not really liking…the way the world has become so obsessed with celebrity culture and aesthetic beauty and money and consumerism.”

This obsession manifests itself in propaganda, and apparently is virtually unavoidable. Recently, there has been an increase of action against the perpetuation of shallow and degrading content in the media. Hopefully such voices will be heard and changes will be made. In the meantime, however, I will appease myself by listening to Lily’s powerful and feisty music.

            

Just who is Ms. Jackson?

I believe both of these musical compositions about "Ms. Jackson" are  good examples of symbolic interaction. Ms Jackson is a perception, and label in my mind. Ms. Jackson is an influential perception, and label.

In the case of Outkast's Ms Jackson, I think it is trying to show the other side of single mother hood, the struggles of the father who works, supports his children though child support, can barely take care of his self, yet still is looked down on by the mother who may or may not be caring for the child in the best ways, her family, and society.

On the other hand, Panic at the Disco's Ms. Jackson , to me is all about Ms. Jackson- the addiction. Addictions that range from smoking, drug use, sex,  gambling or alcoholism. 

Either way, I like these songs, Enjoy!

Are We Prisioners of Socialization?

How were you shaped by socialization? Family influences, and culture very much influence our perceptions about ourselves and they greatly influenced how we interacted socially as children. In addition to our family structure, our experiences within that structure and the quality of the other social structures in which we are exposed to greatly influence the self whom we grow into, the way we perceive society, and the way we behave within our life time.

Many of the people that I grew up around came from an educated and loving home environment. As a young child I developed many positive relationships with my peers and have fond memories of my elementary school years. But as "times grow longer, and children get older"...Interests, and activities differ between ourselves and others and often we grow apart; or we nurture those friendships, and spend lots of time socializing and growing up as great companions.

When you reflect back to your late childhood and early adolescence was your family dynamic still the same, as it was years before? For many of the same people I knew,  it was. Morals and reasoning skills begin to develop, and be used. Many adolescence are able to keep up with added volume of school work and extra curricular activities while being supported by their home environment. These adolescence  in-turn reflect positive social development, and academically continue to advance. But for others, school work has become more challenging, developing a true sense of self  is distracted by "identity searching" , morals, and healthy social relationships can also be merely absent because of the absence of a positively functioning home environment, and positive social support.

For the adolescent whom lacks the positivity in their early and latter development, often times begin to Deviate from the norms of society without the realizing that socialization plays such a large part in our lives. Sometimes the deviance continues, and then becomes harmful to the individuals and others around them. Either in form of gang activity, substance abuse, and or violent actions.

For some, the enlightenment of social order never comes,  and then deviance continues their entire lives. For others, this enlightenment comes later in life. Some are capable of make positive changes for themselves. but for some, however, only become aware of the social exceptions enforced by society after being stripped away from their self-identity and put into total institutionalization (Jail or Prison) 

The self awareness of  how society is shaped and the part we play within it;  is a very rich quality to posses in my own life. This way of thinking was not influenced by my parents. I think I am lucky to have the "light turned on" during my early to emerging adulthood after the experiences during my adolescence. The song I have chosen to apply my blog to is called  "You've Got Time" by Regina Spekor, it is the opening theme song to the Netflix Original Series Orange is the New Black. A show that shares the perspectives of institutionalized women in a prison in America.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis: Same Love

Published on October 2nd, 2012 was the song Same Love, by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. In this song he talks about a taboo in some parts of society, homosexuality.

Starting this song off were some important lyrics, explaining what and who make him think he is gay. 

When I was in the third grade I thought that I was gay,
Cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight.I told my mom, tears rushing down my faceShe's like "Ben you've loved girls since before Pre-K, trippin"Yeah, I guess she had a point, didn't she?Bunch of stereotypes all in my head.I remember doing the math like, "Yeah, I'm good at little league"A preconceived idea of what it all meant.

Lets break this down a little bit so you have a better understanding of what this all means. First we will start off with:
"When I was in the third grade I thought that I was gay,

Cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight."

When Macklemore was a kid he thought he was gay due to the fact that he was good at art. Society views art as more of a feminine trait and things like sports as a masculine trait. Macklemore also had four uncles that were gay, growing up around not only a family of gay people but a town of gay people was a huge influence on him. When it comes to him keeping his room straight, that was another stereotype that he was fed as a kid. He believed that because other boys were so messy and he was very neat and clean, that he was gay. 

The next part of the song that we are going to break down is:
I told my mom, tears rushing down my faceShe's like "Ben you've loved girls since before Pre-K, trippin"Yeah, I guess she had a point, didn't she?Bunch of stereotypes all in my head.I remember doing the math like, "Yeah, I'm good at little league"A preconceived idea of what it all meant.

Macklemore said he has tears rushing down his face when he told his mom because he knows that homosexuality is not accepted and he was scared of her response. The rest of the text in this verse demonstrates the range of the word gay has to children, all the stereotypes kids think associate with homosexuality. 

In this song, Macklemore is trying to open our eyes about homosexuality and why it is wrong to discriminate against it. Really expressing how gay is synonymous with the lesser and it should be human rights for everyone because there is no difference between a straight person and homosexual. Hopefully you all can take the time to listen to the video and see what this songs true message to society is, because it is a strong one.

Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers

      Secretly, who doesn't love this song? I remember blaring this song on road trips growing up and nearly everyone in today's society has at least heard it before. Once you hear it, it kinda sticks with ya. Anyways, this song is really great. It's pretty obvious that this song is about California, mainly Hollywood, and it's 'fake' appearance. To begin with, we will look at the lyrics ... then we evaluate the video with the meaning of lyrics as well. First of all, in the first chorus, it talks about "steal[ing] your mind", and little girls from Sweden dreaming of "silver screen quotations". Then, it ends this chorus by stating"If you dream of these it's Californication". This song makes Hollywood and California out to be a form of a little 'cult' and even more so, it's own subculture. It shows how Hollywood has it's own little trap with "stealing your mind" and the "little girls" shows how many girls dream of Hollywood and get almost 'sucked in'. Another good line is that Hollywood "sells Californication, Pay your surgeon very well, To break the spell of aging". This really highlights the fake Hollywood world and false images it portrays. As far as selling Californication, the lyrics point out that everything about this 'subculture' is fake and materialistic. 

     The music video does a really good job of showing the fake attributes that this song tries to highlight. The entire music video, as you can see, is a video game with a whole bunch of ridiculous outrageous things happening.. but they all look really fun and are pretty entertaining. Isn't that what Hollywood is all about? Entertainment and fakeness? That's why this song is showing!! I first of all noticed that the characters don't have shirts on and are running around with little six packs looking like studs. Within just the first few seconds one of the characters outruns cops and a big "bonus" pops up. This itself gives a lot of images about society and suggests that California almost gives 'kudos' to rebellion, going against the norms, and acting out of sorts. The entire 'video game' music video is stinking hilarious because it is so fake and outrageous. Another thing I noticed with the 'video game' for the music video is that the main player throughout switches appearances or characters several times. Kinda showing how in California you can become whoever you want to be, once again with having lots of money and "pay[ing] your surgeons well". There are a whole bunch of hilarious situations with the players swimming against sharks and dodging them effortlessly, skateboarding and surfing in thy sky, and even riding bugs through Hollywood above all the tall buildings. 

      This whole song basically depicts how fake California is and the many things that are wrong with Hollywood and the many bad images they show for "little girls". It has a line of how Hollywood is changing ideals of little girls from "unicorns" to "hardcore softporn". This part of the lyrics really highlights the main points this song is trying to make. The ending of the music video is hilarious as it just says "game over" and the 'video' ends ... makes me laugh because it reminds us once again that "Californication" in Hollywood is a big fake game  that will suddenly end when you don't meat its ever-changing standards. 

      I hope you enjoy this song and see how it relates to sociology through both the lyrics and the music video! Even if you don't see how it relates to sociology, I hope you enjoy the hilarious video..but really, I don't know how you could watch this video and not see how it relates to sociology. 

ENJOY!!

Unpretty by TLC- How the media effects us

The media today portrays an extremely unrealistic body image of both woman and men. It is all around us. Women and men all over the world are trying to look like these photoshopped surgery enhanced people in the magazines. Because it is such a normal thing to see, people think it is realistic and normal, but its not. Unpretty by TLC is a very obvious example of how the media effects people. Here are two healthy looking girls who are influenced into thinking that they don't look okay and they have to change the way they look to be accepted by society. This also goes for the boy in the video. He sees pictures of women in the media and he thinks that that is how real women look, and so he tries to have his girlfriend change herself by getting breast enhancement surgery to fit that image. It seems like he doesn't even notice he is doing anything wrong because it has become so normal. At the end of the video both of the girl realize that if it weren't for these influences they would be fine with who they are and how they look already.

Adolescence

Song: "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman" By: Brittany Spears
          Adolescence is the time in life where a young person hits their "puberty" phase and develops from a child to an adult. In this song it explains how being a teenager has made her hit a phase where she is not a girl anymore but she still knows that she isn't mature enough to be a woman. She is realizing that she has to start growing up and learning how "real life" is. She is developing into an adult. She explains how she is starting to notice that she does not really know everything like every teenager thinks they do. Also, that life is not fair and that she needs to face her own problems. She also explains how since she is going through the adolescence phase; she can make her own decisions and learn from her mistakes, and that with her being a young adult she has seen more than what the average adult thinks she has.

When we stand together by: Nickelback

This song has been one of my favorites for a long time. Nickelback does an amazing job with not only making their music fun, upbeat, and classy; they also provide lyrics that mean more than what they appear. This song is sending multiple messages about the American society and its individuals.

The first four lines of the song say, "One more depending on a prayer and we all look away people pretending everywhere it's just another day." Everyday there are people praying for help on the streets and we just turn our heads because it isn't "our" problem.  It actually is our problem since we do live in a global society. If you know anything about the psychology of a society, you know every detail is interconnected.

This song also speaks of war and how Americans know it goes on around us, yet we turn off the tv or our minds from it since it is happening across the world. Nickleback sings of how our society is apathetic to the poor, the wounded, and the hungry. If we all stand together, we could change our society around.

This video is the official lyrics video and I thought it would have more meaning the official music video. Enjoy!

"Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster The People

A song one could listen to relaxed on the couch, but also a song one can get up and dance to has a darker message embedded in its lyrics. In the song, "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster The People, there is a sociological perspective about it that can tell us about the possible epidemic that has hit our culture. I believe this song is about how some of our youth are being bullied into an isolation and developing mental demons from this.

The song starts off with the lyrics saying, "Roberts got a quick hand. He'll look around the room, he won't tell you of his plan." This shows that this young man has developed an urge to harm his fellow peers in a shooting. The next line that had a big impact on this song was, "Yeah! He found a six shooter gun." This shows that urges of harming his fellow peers are taking over, Robert wants to act on these urges. In a following line the artist states, "Your hair's on fire, you must have lost your wits, yeah?" showing Robert has lost his mind as the a fire eats away at his subconscious telling him right from wrong. "All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, You better run, better run, faster than my bullet." This line has the most meaning in the song. This line finally shows that Robert is acting upon these urges of harming his fellow peers in a shooting.

These lines are examples of what is going on in Roberts head. All these lines relate to sociology because what part of Robert's life drove him to want to commit such a horrendous act, and would this way of thinking be different if his life was different? This act seems to be happening more and more frequently in the last 20 years. Our youth of this culture are becoming more and more isolated. This isolation is having a mental affect on our youth. If we can not stop these mental demons from developing in this culture, these horrendous acts will keep happening.

A little bit of a sad love song, but also a musical statement on our society; the song "Cruel Cruel World" by Ezra Furman I believe has a couple of really good sociological statements, and one that specifically relates to Medical Sociology.

The song opens up with the line "Lost my job, lost my money in a flash. Watching my old life turn to dust and ash." now this may not be a sociological statement by itself, but the idea behind it certainly is. It speaks to a fear that all of us may have or have had at one point in time- losing our jobs. This is an underlying stress in many people's lives because so many other factors in our lives rely on the money we make at our jobs. Ezra went very quickly from losing his job to his life being over, "watching my old life turn to dust and ash", when in fact it may not always happen that quickly or at all. But when we lose out jobs we may feel that way right away. We may jump straight to "my life is over". I think that this stress is even greater on people that are financially responsible for others. A great example is a single parent, many single parents may work two jobs and losing one will put even more of a stress on them than having both jobs and taking care of their children.

From there we move to the next impacting line, which I believe is, "Took the bus on the highway tangled up. Felt the billboard's images fuck me up. Buy and sell yourself awake. Fall in love with a new thing everyday". I think this line speaks to how society affects the choices that we make. We see so many advertisements just on a daily basis and some of us may not fully realize how seeing those ads change us and sway what decisions we make about what. Billboards, advertisements and commercials influence us on things to buy or things to not buy, "buy and sell yourself awake, fall in love with a new thing everyday". And it is not just cosmetic ads or ads about clothes, but ads about healthcare, or who to elect for what position, what measure to vote for or not to vote for. These ads may affect a society as a whole negatively or positively ( Ezra seems to think negatively) either way they are impacting our society.

The last line I want to discuss I believe relates to Medical Sociology specifically, and happens to be my personal favorite line in the song; "Out of work like a true American. Got real sick with no healthcare benefits. Everything turned black and blue. The government says 'We can't take care of you'". This part of the song I feel is really relevant to our country right now. The first part, "got real sick with no healthcare benefits, everything turned black and blue", this is what happens to many people in our country, when we get sick we hang on for as long as possible and hope it gets better because many of us cannot afford to go to the doctor. But inevitably as Ezra says, "everything turned black and blue" the condition you may have will get worse and worse and in some cases may lead to death. This also plays to preventive medical care. There are many tests that are recommended for certain people at certain ages depending on your gender, age or family medical history. These tests are put in place to try and find "something" and treat it before it gets too bad. Well when you cannot afford it and "the government says we can't take care of you" the condition may be overlooked until it is too late.

Take a look at the song, tell me what you think. And even if you don't think it relates to Sociology at all then hopefully you will just flat out enjoy it like I do!

Social Commentary is in the Ear of the Beholder

My role as a sociologist mirrors my personal outlook: the goal is not to find THE answer, but to gather as many answers to as many questions as possible, to get the fullest picture of our confusing yet ordered social system. Musicians and artists often provide commentaries on our social system in their projects. What is a social commentary? A social commentary is a way to provide insight on issues in a society, using words (or lyrics). Social commentaries may be used to promote or provoke change in a society, resonating with our deep seeded desires for peace and justice for all.

Although I am not an "artist" in the classical sense, putting together ideas and creating subject matter and conversational fodder in the world of teaching sociology is very much an artistic endeavor. Sociology graduate students feeling frustrated at their perceived lack of progress or ability to pull successive 12 hour work days might take heed: do artists plug away for hours every day? Of course. But more often the creative spirit takes hold at a given moment, with an onslaught of productivity, only to be followed by hours, days, months or years of artist block. Stringing together ideas and building on a body of work that only shows its iceberg tip in academic articles is a creative process that should be given respect and breathing room. In my view, incorporating the artists' perspective into the practice of sociology can lead to a fuller discipline and alleviate such professional anxiety.  After all, teaching sociology provides a captive audience in which the social norm is to more or less pay attention and please you. Imagine a singer/songwriter getting this treatment on the daily! Artists are constantly taking these social risks, in part by offering social commentary. Sociologists too take risks in being the ones on campus breaching the uncomfortable (and in some cases unacknowledged) social issues, such as racism, abuse, the class system, and of course the task of caring for our elderly, our veterans, and our disadvantaged citizens.

As an example, let's hear a favorite U2 song.  This song has killer drums and quite a hook--it's also a social commentary about social conflict. Specifically it recalls Bloody Sunday, of which there were actually two- one in 1920 and one in 1972, both involving British troops in Dublin. The latter event ended in 13 Irish citizens killed at a civil rights protest in Northern Ireland. Although its about a specific event, Bono of U2 actually altered the original lyrics, which condemned the Irish Republican Army, to make it a broad social commentary about the atrocities of war in general.

In the end, social commentary through music is in the ear of the beholder..so listen close.

A Musical Introduction to Sociology

I begin this week with a playlist that illustrates the idea of social commentary through music.  Sociologists and musicians share the feeling of being an outsider. For outspoken individuals and bands, music can be a way of highlighting social trends that mainstream media ignores or misinterprets. For cutting-edge sociologists, research is a mechanism to challenge old beliefs about how and why we behave in the ways we do. 

As you listen to some of these classic tunes, ask yourself what statement they are making about "larger society" and the messages we are hearing about what's appropriate, deviant, or valued in our communities.

Introduction to Sociology Playlist:

Human Behavior by Björk

Society by Eddie Vedder

People Are Strange by The Doors

My Generation by The Who

Fast Car by Tracy Chapman

Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2

Silent Running by Mike + The Mechanics

Turn! Turn! Turn! by The Byrds

Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen

Imagine by John Lennon

Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead
 Logical Song by Supertramp
Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival

And my vote for all time best sociology song:

What is Sociology?

Welcome to the magical world of sociology. In this forum we enter through the doorway of music.  Both studying sociology and listening to music can be ear opening, insightful and a powerful emotional experience. Sociology is the study of human behavior. Sociologists study patterns and trends in individuals' behaviors, and pin point the societal factors that influence our attitudes and actions. Sociologists observe social norms within communities. Social norms are patterns of behavior dictated by the larger cultures we are a part of. Your clothing, way of speaking, attitudes toward different groups of people, education and interests are all heavily impacted by your social location. Your social location refers to where you are in society. What groups do you belong to? What is your race/ethnicity, age, gender, income, or relationship status? All of these group memberships, part of your social location, are likely to influence who you are. What neighborhood to you live in? Where do you go to church, school, or to socialize? These societal factors also play a role in how you live your life and the types of opportunities that can be seized.

When we take the time to truly step outside ourselves and see the big picture, our world often disturbs us.  Some are more personally affected by what's there to find: injustices, inequalities, hatred and excessive consumption are alive and well in the universe. Some of us experience frustration daily when confronted with views, beliefs and behaviors that run counter to our own personal values.  There is no way to truly escape these social facts; only to ignore them. The global lines of communication are simply too widespread and interconnected to do otherwise. The study of sociology offers what early sociologist C. Wright Mills called the "promise of sociology": a way to understand the broader contexts that bear down on our personal lives. In this way, we do not need to change ourselves, or adopt a different way of life, or agree with the opinions of others.  The only change that occurs is a subtle shift in perspective, a widening out of our frame of reference. It is then when we see clearer the roots of others' actions, behaviors or culture. It is then when the promise of sociology is fulfilled; we become unshackled by our personal opinions and socialization. It is here, at this place of understanding, when we can transcend the discomfort, confusion and hopelessness that can so easily arise as we are bombarded by "the way things are".

The practice and study of sociology is not intended to change the world, or fix it. Just as many of our spiritual traditions suggest the world is not ours to change, but to live in, sociologists feed a desire to understand their world on a deeper level while remaining somewhat detached from personal opinion.  However, the life of the sociologist is one in which inequalities, discrimination and power structures constantly rise to the surface.  Findings from sociological research can influence public policies and individual attitudes with regard to such facets social life.  Applied or public sociology is a strain of the discipline in which social research is used specifically to solve problems, help institutions run more efficiently, and reduce the harmful effects of prejudice and false stereotypes.

This blog combines the creative energy and healing power of music with the sociological study of human behavior and societies. Many musical artists are also sociologists- individuals with a strong desire to understand their fellow humans, come to terms with injustices, and present ideas counter to the "establishment"- the politically dominant social structures of the time.

Do you have a favorite song that is also a commentary about our social world? Is there an aspect of society that you despise or do not understand? It's likely someone else felt the same way, and wrote a song about it. Every song on the radio is embedded in our social system.

And this is The Song and the System.