Music and Self Image
Music is one of the great forms of expression available to everyone, in some form or another. With music, a person can express sadness, happiness, love, loss and anything else they can imagine. They can use music to tell a story about something important and meaningful, such as self esteem and body image. Self-image is a very important in current times as various media presses people to act, think and look a certain way – an unrealistic ideal that often has a negative effect on the youth of America. Because popular music reaches such a wide audience, artists can use their music to talk about these issues so that the listeners do not feel so alone or overwhelmed.
Body image is defined by the American Heritage Stedman’s Medical Dictionary as “The subjective concept of one's physical appearance based on self-observation and reactions of others” (Body Image, 2010). Body image is how a person views their self through what they see and what they think others see. Body image is tied into self esteem. Having a positive body image and high self esteem is important because it means that someone doesn’t feel that they are worthless, ugly, or unimportant; a negative body image can create many issues such as depression, poor self esteem, and even lead to suicide. Because body image can easily be affected by outside sources such as movies, magazines, and music, these forms of media can create either positive or negative body image in the audience and many artists make an effort to help reinforce a positive body image and boost self esteem with their lyrics.
The group TLC often recorded songs that were on a reflection on issues within society: their song “UnPretty” is their input on self esteem and body image. The song discusses how a person can have poor body image due to someone else in their life if this person makes them feel that they are nothing special, in this song specifically referring to how the boyfriend makes his girlfriend feel that even though she once thought that she was beautiful, she is not and that she needs to get a hair weave, get a nose job, and use make-up to make herself be pretty (TLC, 1998, track 9). The narrator of the song feels that she has to change her appearance so that others will like her but this only leads to the feeling that “My outsides look cool/My insides are blue” (TLC, 1998, track 9). She never used to feel this way but after changing so much of herself to make someone else happy, she has lost herself and no longer loves the person that she has had to become. The song is from the hip-hop/pop genre and was aimed mainly towards young girls and women that allow other peoples comments and opinions make them feel that they are unattractive. The targeted audience is often the majority of the people in the world that have a poor self image and will use so many extreme measures to make themselves attractive to please others. The targeted audience can relate to the sing because it is from another female’s perspective, sang by a female group with strong female singers.
Another song about a person feeling that they have to be someone else for others is “Breathe No More” by the rock group Evanescence. In this song, the main character stares into a mirror, seeing a person in the mirror that is entirely different from the person that she sees in real life: “But I know the difference/Between myself and my reflection” (Evanescence, 2005, track 8). This song could mean two things: that her reflection is the way that she has to be for other people in her life and it isn’t the person that she is inside or that the she spends a lot of time looking at her reflection and seeing all of these horrible things about herself that are not really true. Either way, “All the little pieces falling, shatter… Too sharp to put back together” (Evanescence, 2005, track 8) are causing her to feel that she is broken and bleeding inside and that she cannot be fixed. She even hopes that this is nothing but a sickness that will go away so that she can be better but she knows that it is not. The group’s lead singer, Amy Lee, is not just aiming this song towards females that feel bad but to everyone that has felt this way. She uses euphemisms and roundabout language similar to poetry to discuss the issue of self image in this song.
The all-male hard rock group Linkin Park’s song “Crawling” is another song about a person that feels lost within because of a drug addiction that they cannot quit. The lyrics “Crawling in my skin/These wounds they will not heal” (Linkin Park, 2000, track 5) refers to both the physical consequences of the drug addiction and the mental wounds that the addiction is causing. The drug addiction has caused the person to feel so low that “Against my will I stand beside my own reflection/It’s haunting how I can’t seem/To find myself again” (Linkin Park, 2000, track 5). The song uses a mix of faster and slower temp for different parts of the song, alternating between quieter singing for main lyrics and a louder, angrier chorus.
Pink’s “Don’t Let Me Get Me” is a song about someone who doesn’t like the person they are because of the way they behave and how others want them to change. The subject of the song feels that she is never part of the group and does not fit the ideal of what people expect of her and this leads to her hating herself, shown in the lyrics, “Everyday I fight a war against the mirror/I Can’t take the person starin’ back at me/I’m a hazard to myself” (Pink, 2001, track 2). In the chorus, she wants to change who she is and be someone else because she has started to dislike herself so much that she wants to “be somebody else” (Pink, 2001, track 2). Pink’s music is part of the pop industry, although a little ‘grittier’ than most of the music by female pop stars. Pink denounces changing yourself to fit the normal standards or emulating musical artists that are more style than substance, telling young woman that they can be much more than just a pretty face. This helps her audience to relate to her music and listen to its message because she is telling them that it is okay to be smart.
Christina Aguilera’s song “Beautiful” is targeted at people that feel insecure and have poor self image. While briefly touching on the issue with the lyrics “Now and then, I get so insecure/From all the pain, I’m so ashamed” (Aguilera, 2002, track 11), the rest of the song offers encouragement. The song is about knowing your own worth and knowing that you are a beautiful person, regardless of what others say and do and not to let them “bring you down” (Aguilera, 2002, track 11). The song is aimed at the listeners of pop music, mainly younger women. The way that Christina Aguilera seems to sing the song with her entire being, as well as the slower tempo, creates a song that is powerful and supportive.
The song “Crazy” by Simple Plan is a commentary on the issue of image in society and not a song from the perspective of someone with poor self image. The lyrics “Diet Pills, surgery/Photoshopped pictures in magazines/Telling them how they should be/It doesn’t make sense to me” (Simple Plan, 2004, track 6) express the band’s concerns over how young woman are influenced by unrealistic expectations in media and will resort to extreme measures so that they can attain this ideal image. The song urges people to quit being blind to the world around them and realize that something is very wrong in society when the things that are emphasized are material worth and appearance and not the things that should concern society, such as abuse, the homeless and the starving.
Music that helps others feel they aren’t alone in their struggles with the self image often help them get through difficult times, see that there is a problem, and reach out to get needed help in healing. After a short film about anorexia used a song by Eleanor McEvoy entitled “Sophie”, the song and film reached many other sufferers of anorexia and bulimia worldwide. After hearing the song, these people reached out to get the help that they needed to get better. McEvoy often hears back from the people the song has helped through her website and in person at performances. She says that she has gotten “some beautiful letters from people who’ve taken strength from the song and said they want to beat anorexia now” (Smith, 2009).
The influence of celebrities and media can also be used, as some of the songs previously in the essay, to encourage others to feel good about themselves and not let the ideals of others influence their opinions of their self-worth. Shaun Robinson, author of the book Exactly As I Am, interviewed celebrities to help young girls see that the images portrayed in the media are unrealistic. The musical artist India.Arie discussed how her image was considered a negative in the musical industry and was told that she would never have a place in the industry. Instead of listening to others telling her that had the wrong image and look, she said, “I hold a place and I speak for the girl who feels like an outcast” (Henderson, 2009) and continued on fighting to make a career in the way that she wanted.
The idea that music can be used to express social issues in society is frequently used within the classroom to help people that are familiar with these issues through everyday life and sometimes struggling with them in their own life. The use of music helps tie the issues into real life in a way that is often easier to understand than just talking about the issues. Each generation has issues that are a pressing concern to them and musicians often express and give voice to these concerns, bringing these issues into light with a much larger audience and making more people listen and know that these issues exist. Music can emphasize the immediacy of these issues to student lives, but also to inject a bit of the emotional dimension that social issues carry-something that music can effectively convey” (Lewis, 1999) .
Music is way to reach millions of people every day. While some music is just about having a good time or talking about personal issues, many musicians use it to reach out to people with a problem or talk about issues of concern within society. By using their music as a tool to open people’s eyes, make lives better, and showing that self image issues are abundant, musicians are helping people be informed and providing encouragement to suffers to get better and make it through the tough times.
References
Austin, D and Pink. (2001). Don’t Let Me Get Me [Recorded by Pink]. On Missundaztood [CD]. Arista Records.
Austin, D. and Tionne Watkins. (1998). UnPretty [Recorded by TLC]. On FanMail [CD]. LaFace Records.
Body Image. (2002). American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Company.
Bouvier, P. and Chuck Comeau. (2004). Crazy [Recorded by Simple Plan]. On Still Not Getting Any..[CD]. Lava/Atlantic Records.
Henderson, S. (2009, December). Boosting your child's self-esteem. Ebony, LXV(2), 118. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic.
Lee, A. (2005). Breathe No More [Recorded by Evanescence]. On Anywhere but Home [CD]. New York, NY: Wind-up Records.
Lewis, G. (1999). Traps, troubles, and social issues: Country music in the social science classroom. Popular Music and Society, 23(4), 61-82. Retrieved from ProQuest.
Perry, L. (2002). Beautiful [Recorded by Christina Aguilera]. On Stripped [CD]. California: RCA Records.
Smith, D. (2009, January 4). Focus: Music therapy. The Observer. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic.
Wakefield, M. and Linkin Park. (2000). Crawling [Recorded by Linkin Park]. On Hybrid Theory [CD]. New Orleans, LA. Warner Bros.
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