Of course, speaking of Lizzo, she recently faced severe backlash and accusations of being an ableist when her single “GRRRLS” released. So the argument could be that the “she” they are referring to may be from the African-American community, which sounds like a far-fetch but who knows, when you have a team of songwriters that have written and won awards for such big names as The Weeknd, The Kid Laroi, Katy Perry, Lil Nas X, Lizzo and more, maybe there is just an assumption that every pop song needs to incorporate AAVE to sound more “urban”. In fact, for the majority of the listening audience, they wouldn’t even realize it. Melodically, singing “she be poppin’ it” and “she was popping it” would actually have made no difference. I ask this because I think about what exactly it took for Smith, Petras and the five other credited non African-American songwriters – hit-maker heavyweights Ilya Salmanzadeh, Blake Slatkin, Henry Walter, Omer Fedi and James Napier (Jimmy Napes) – to greenlight this. So, what happens when one community appropriates another? Do they get a free pass? Should we simply say that because there’s been another struggle in your life, you can go ahead, sign and perform lyrics in a way that you’ve never actually spoken. They both have also worn their identities and their pronouns with pride (I even once got death threats for inadvertently using the incorrect pronouns for Smith!). As non-binary and trans-woman performers respectively, both artists have struggled to achieve success and acceptance. What feels particularly troubling about the Sam Smith-Kim Petras single is that of all the artists out there, they should know better. Whether intentional or not, their widespread impact continues to dilute the impact and unique significance of the African-American community.Īlso See #RSDailyMusic: Here’s What We’re Listening to Today From Billie Eilish donning a “blaccent” on Instagram Live (which even her brother called her out on) to Olivia Rodrigo, younger artists feel this need to look or sound cool, almost with the idea that AAVE is their foray into additional markets. It seems that lyrically and musically, we are much more okay with this form of appropriation than with speaking it or with the culture. To their credit, they’ve both made sure that the appropriation remains in the music and not outside. This could perhaps explain why artists like Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber have seemingly gotten free passes with their music as it is deeply rooted in soul and hip-hop. In many ways, a lot of language and phrases that were once unique to AAVE have now become a part of the broader vernacular. Previously known as – quite controversially I may add – Ebonics, the modern-day way of speech has become quite mainstream, particularly as a result of the success of rap and hip-hop. ‘AAVE’ is short for African-American Vernacular English, considered by academics as a specific way of speaking within traditional African-American English (AAE) aka Black English. Okay, so nothing really offensive, right? Well, not really unless you think about the fact that the lyrics clearly include AAVE, and as far as I know, neither Smith nor Petras are African-American. “Mummy don’t know daddy’s getting hot / At the body shop / Doin’ somethin’ unholy / He’s sat back while she’s droppin’ it / She be poppin’ it / Yeah, she put it down slowly,” the lyrics go. While the track itself feels like just another naughty pop single, there was something that bothered me upon watching the umpteenth TikTok video quoting it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |