The song "Woman in the White House," by Cheryl Crow, does not do a very good job at displaying a woman who would qualify to be in the White House. Both the song lyrics and the CD cover are a poor representation. To begin with, the lyrics are very stereotypical. For example, the lyrics, "There’d be a lot less fussing and fighting and carrying on ,there’d be a lot more loving, and listening and getting along," are not very factual statements. One could argue that women are just as guilty as men when it comes to fighting. The CD cover does a pretty poor job at representing a woman in the White House too. The fact that the White House is between a woman's legs probably was not the most appropriate choice, especially when she is trying to be serious about having a woman in the White House. She should have tried to use lyrics and a cover that would have represented a legitimate presidential candidate. For example, she could have tried to use lyrics that talked about actual politics, not things that woman can supposedly do better than men. As for the CD cover, she should have tried to make one that people could take seriously.
Overall, I believe her use of juxtaposition is very ineffective. Her song is mainly intended for women, which means her projected audience is smaller than it could have been. Her song's old-style, country background music is probably not the best genre to use considering it is probably one of the least listened to genres. When she calls women girls in her lyrics was probably not the best choice either because it discredits women. All of the aspects added up do not make her song as profitable as it could have been. I do not think she does a good job at furthering her message that a woman should be the president either. By poorly representing a woman who would qualify as a president, people probably won't take the song seriously. It is hard to believe that this is her being serious about having a woman in the White House.
David Sacre
(356 words)
I do find that the song was ineffective in regards to her point she seems to make in her song. I do, however, see that this song appears to be more towards selling copies rather than proving a point. The demographic is rather small, but those who are in it would most likely buy this CD in a heartbeat. You also have to take into account that the song isn’t very long and doesn’t have much time to prove any major points towards voting in an official. It does cause one to think about whether having a woman in the white house would be a good idea. I do not see the big issue here as to why it is important whether a woman is president or not. If I agreed more with a woman candidate rather than the male option, I would vote for her. I think the main points for this song is selling and getting people to think.
ReplyDelete-Codie Rome 161
I also agree with what you stated about how her juxatoposition was very ineffective. Her message was suppose to be powerful since it dealt with a woman being president, but the lyrics to her song were not very effective; therefore the audience will not take her song seriously. The song is very repetitive and upbeat, so I think that this type of rhetorical situation will end up selling some records but the audience will not be able to fully grasp the main idea of the song. I also agree with what you stated about Sheryl Crow's album cover. Right when you look at the album cover you will know what the song is mostly about, but this is another reason as to why the audience won't take the song seriously. I think one of the reaons why the album cover is like that is because most of the music industries these days believe that "sex sells", so if they have an album cover like Sheryl's, then they will make more money.
ReplyDeleteEmily Shouse
(171 words).