Artist: Diet Cig
Song: Harvard Lyrics
Overview:
This analysis explores female-fronted punk/alternative rock bands and how their top song expresses emotions. I will be using The Sex-Role Perspective to examine what it means to be a woman according to women in a male-dominated genre. To best explore the Sex-Role Perspective, my analysis will consist of highlighting emotions that fall under stereotypically female and counter-stereotypical emotions pulled from Hyde (1995, p. 134).
Stereotypical emotions conveyed:
“Is she boring too in the / way I couldn’t stand?”
- Comparing yourself to other women
Contersterotypical emotions conveyed:
“And I’m not sorry / I just hope you trust her more than me”
- Self-deprecating but also aggressive
“Put your work shoes on / And talk about her at your shitty job”
- Aggressive
- Competitive
“Fuck your Ivy League sweater”
- Aggressive
- profanity
Conclusion:
This song’s lyrics feel similar to the All American Rejects’ Give you Hell where both artists account a relationship that ended and have their past partner move onto things they said they weren’t going to do or didn’t enjoy. This heavily relies on college and the more mundane life that can be associated with the golden prison of academia and is in the traditional 9-5 workforce. It highlights the frustration with someone conforming to the mainstream and how the all-consuming grind culture has taken another “free spirit.”
Shared by: Zoe Green
Image Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t770Oshlgg