The first song by One Direction that I analyzed was “Midnight Memories.” This song is one of the singles off of the album of the same name. It has an upbeat pop/rock feel that describes a fun night partying with friends.
In the context of the Sex Role Perspective, the boys of One Direction are depicted as being very dominant, ambitious, willing to take risks, and assertive. Let’s take a look at some examples that represent some of these stereotypically masculine traits.
“Tell me that I’m wrong but I do what I please
Way too many people in the Addison Lee
Now I’m at the age that I know what I need”
This lyric, as sung by Louis, is very assertive and independent in nature. Louis knows who he is and what he wants, he isn’t going to let anyone change that. He is acting as the leader of his own life.
“You and me and all our friends
I don’t care how much we spend”
One stereotypically masculine trait as described by the Sex Role Perspective is “willing to take risks.” I don’t know about you all, but I could consider not caring about how much money you spend in a night a pretty risky act to engage in.
So how are women depicted in this song? It seems like this is just a harmless song about having fun with friends, right?
“Five foot something with the skinny jeans
Don’t look back baby follow me.”
Okay we have some stuff to unpack here. This is the only physical description that we get of a girl that is, according to the lyrics, hanging out with One Direction and friends. What do we gather about her physical appearance then? That she is around 5′ tall and is wearing skinny jeans. That’s it. We don’t even know what her face looks like or even the rest of her body for that matter. All the listener gets is the height and the lower half of her body. Nothing is important to mention about this girl except for those two factors. In the following line, Liam encourages this girl to follow him as they continue to party throughout the night. This line is a little assertive and implies that if the girl doesn’t choose to hang out with him, she is making the wrong decision.
“For tonight lets just pretend
I don’t want to stop so give me more”
Once again this is another example of dominance and assertiveness coming from One Direction in this song. In this lyric, Harry is saying that he doesn’t want to stop. Whatever this is referring to is not relevant to what this lyric is saying. Harry doesn’t want to stop so he asserts that the girl should “give him more.” This lyric does not take into consideration about how the girl in this situation feels and what she would like to do. Maybe she wants to stop whatever it is that they are doing.
Shared by: Gabby Kohn
Image Credit: The Hollywood Reporter