Music analysis

Analyze how music implicitly or explicitly makes ideological arguments. Chose one or two music videos on which you will focus in the paper. You must analyze both the visuals and lyrics in order to craft an argument about not only why the video is ideologically appealing but also what explicit or implicit arguments the musician/band seems to be making.

This paper has a few purposes:

To demonstrate you understand both verbal and visual rhetoric and can make connections between the two.
To demonstrate your close reading abilities.
To demonstrate that you can critically think about how popular culture we consume daily has ideological effects.
Questions to consider in formulating an argument:

How does this music video use diction and images to appeal to its audience?
What mythologies of race, gender, sexuality, class, etc. seem to be present in this music video?
Is the music video implicitly or explicitly espousing those mythologies?
What meanings do the signs in the music video carry?
Is the diegetic world of the music video meant to reflect certain realities of our own world?
Why did the musician/band make this song/video? What do they seem to be arguing?
Do the music video and lyrics seem to contradict? Why might this be?