Analyzing Song Lyrics for Gender Messages and Rewriting Them

Part 1: Overview of the Song and its Lyrics

You will analyze the lyrics to a song that you think reproduces dominant or problematic messages about gender. You can pick a song you like or a song you don’t like. Specifically, you will focus on the lyrics of the song and what those lyrics convey about gender. Your analysis should be based on what we have covered in class so far. You will then discuss how you would rewrite the lyrics based on what you’ve learned in class. Your song analysis should be long. At the end of your paper, you should include a references page as well as the full (original) song lyrics.

Part 1: List the song name, artist, and when it was released. Provide a general overview of what the song is about and how you know this (e.g., is it a love song? Is it a breakup song? Is it a song about hooking up at a party? Which lyrics indicate this meaning to you?). When you provide an overview of what the song is about, reference specific lyrics from the song that support your claims.

 

Part 2: Analyze what messages about gender are conveyed through the lyrics of the song you picked. Pay attention to both explicit and implied messages about gender in the lyrics. For instance, are there messages about, for example, masculinity and manhood acts, femininity, heterosexuality, gender and race, or gendered expectations tied to sexuality, (or many other topics) in the lyrics? Does this song reproduce and/or (potentially) challenge these meanings based on the lyrics? Note: you do not have to touch on all of these topics, but this gives you an idea of what topics you could focus on in your analysis (i.e., you may only focus on masculinity and gendered understandings of sexuality in your analysis, or gender and race, etc.).

For example, if you are focusing on a song about hooking up with people at a party, does the artist talk about gendered expectations in that interaction? Are there roles that are assumed in the lyrics based on gender (e.g., men chase women)? This is just an example of the type of things you should pay attention to in this section of your analysis, but you should pick 3-4 parts of the song to focus on in this section. When you present this section of your analysis, you should reference specific lyrics that illustrate your points. In this part of your analysis, you must specifically support your analysis with three class sources. 

 

Part 3: How would you rewrite the song? In this section of your paper, you should discuss how you would rewrite the song to challenge dominant meanings about gender. How would you change the lyrics or overall focus of the song? Pick a few lines from the song, and illustrate how you would change the lyrics to achieve this different meaning (literally rewrite them).

 

Part 4: Conclude by explaining what the new message(s) about gender are in the song based on your rewrite of the lyrics.