Friday

Rebecca Black's Friday is thought of as just some girl talking about her life, and the fact that she likes Fridays.

But in fact it is a far darker and introspective commentary on her apparent midlife crisis. For her, she has reached the middle of her life (which happens to be Friday), and she has come to a turning point. She can either take up the front seat and take charge in her life, or simply sit in the back seat and go where life takes her.

In a somewhat dark statement, she claims that everyone is looking forward to old age, and even death (the weekend). She realizes that what she wants in her life at the moment it to live to the fullest, and have fun fun fun fun. So she hops in her car and contemplates fun, again facing her decision to take charge or go with the flow. She ends up deciding to embrace her current situation.

But in that embrace, she thinks about her past (Thursday). She doesn’t like her past, so she gets herself to appreciate the present. But then she looks again to the future, Saturday, then Sunday, and life (the weekend) will be over. This thought depresses her, and urges her forward in the celebration of the present.

She forgoes her decision on whether to take charge or not, and decides that the question itself is flawed. It is in fact possible to do both, and still live a full life. The song ends as she repeats her excitement in her new found appreciation for the present, and acceptance that the future is inevitable.

Born This Way

Lady Gaga is not know for her mastering of philosophy, but her song "Born This Way" is clearly a commentary on determinism.

She claims that God made her a specific way, and that her path before her must therefore be the correct one. This is saying that she has no real choice, or free will, that her actions are entirely dependent on how God made her.

She then extrapolates this idea to how everyone should act in the way they were born, as God intended. She claims there is no reason to fight your destiny, but instead be proud of who you are and love yourself.

This is a very interesting take on determinism, as it is not saying you are unable to act against your predetermined destiny, but that you should not. She thinks your actions should be based on self-respect, as that is the way God wants you to act, so you will do well in life.

S & M

Tonight we will take a look at S&M, by Rihanna.  If you haven't yet heard the song, here it is:

Upon hearing this song on the radio a few weeks ago, a single line stood above the rest.  Rihanna sings,

"Cause I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it
Sex in the air, I don't care, I love the smell of it"

Now on the first, and second, and well even third and fourth listen, this line seemed to be pure nonsense.  However, earlier today, it came to me.  She is talking about our culture of instant gratification, and the sex in the air is her metaphor for this culture.  She then proceeds to say she not only doesn't care, but loves the smell of it.  In other words, she not only accepts, but embraces this culture.

She earlier speaks of how, "The pain is my pleasure cause nothing could measure."  She knows that this instant gratification can cause her problems, but she gets pleasure from it, so why not continue on the way she has?  With this thought, Rihanna has hit the nail on the head.  People do what pleases them, looking for instant gratification, with little regard for the long term.  When something goes wrong, there's no need to deal with the problem since there's bound to be some way to create more instant gratification.  Problems aren't problems if they are constantly suppressed and ignored.

Now, this culture of instant gratification may affect not only the person seeking gratification, but those around him as well.  Rihanna addresses this part of the culture as well, singing the chorus of,

"Na na na na
Come on, come on, come on
I like it, like it
[repeat]."

The repetition does make the song easy to sing along to, but it also serves as a taunt to those telling her to stop.  Come on, come on, just try and stop me, because I like it she tells everyone.  She doesn't care what other people think of her or how she's affecting others, and why should she?  She likes it and shes enjoying herself, so there's not reason to stop.  In fact, if everyone thought like Rihanna, then society would have fewer issues.  Everyone would suppress their problems through seeking more instant gratification, and any problems they created for others would be dealt with in the same manner.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is the secret to perfecting our society through instant gratification.