masculinity in music

For today’s blog, I was instructed to go to the iTunes website and pick a song from their Top 20 to analyze.  Unfortunately for me, the Top 20 is terrible.  So, rather than write a lot of BS trying to explain my analysis of a crap song, I figure I would do it on the song “Bell Toll” by IAME.  I have included the video for your viewing pleasure:

Now, the goal for today is to listen for how masculinity is portrayed in popular culture and the media.  To understand this, we must also listen for insights on femininity, hegemonic masculinity and heteronormativity.

In the first couple bars of his song, IAME flaunts his machismo by insinuating that the listener’s girlfriend is involved in relationships with him.  This seems to be a common theme in hip hop with all the bravado that is shown for others.  Lyrics like this also show that femininity is not the ideal; masculinity is.

Fifty seconds into the song, the word “bitch” is used in an angry conversation with machine dispensing change.  Now, I know there is only one instance of this word, but it is the normative factor that is the biggest shock.  By “norming” the word “bitch” society has decided it is perfectly normal to use this language even if it’s original intent was to denigrate women.

I also noticed something funny about the mentioning of Catholicism at the end of the first verse.  IAME relates the guilt that he feels even though he ended his involvement in the church long ago.  This provides a unique look into how deeply ingrained we are by the social institutions that have aided in our development.

The last piece of information I gleaned from this song occurs at the 2:20 mark.  IAME disparages women by calling them “whores” and questions the amount of deceit within them.  This seems to have connections to “the Creation Story,” and how women are blamed for the “fall of mankind.”  It was a woman who forced Adam to have a bite of the fruit.  You know Adam couldn’t handle Eve’s “ways.”