Lyrics changing the Stereotypes

By Komal Rajwansh

Music and lyrics are the two important components of a song. They both are inseparable and mutually dependent and share a symbiotic relation. Meaningful lyrics embellish the music and enhance its beauty. And as a human soul, music plants life in structure of lyrics. Today we have metaphorical lyrics with a profound connotation. Many songs subvert the Biblical stories by their radical lyrics and affect the fundamental nature of old stereotypical Christian notions of chastity and patriarchy.

In Judeo-Christian tradition the role of redeemer is given to the male. The role of savior is exclusively for males and the secondary roles such as the supporting role (marry) and role of a person in need of salvation (eve) are designated to females.

But Nicki Minaj in her song ‘’Your love’’ assigns a superior role to the female when she says,

” Anyway I think I met him sometime before
In a different life or where I record
I mean he was Adam, I think I was Eve
But my vision ends with the apple on the tree
S on my chest ’cause I’m ready to save him”.

The S denotes savior. Here the female is taking up the role of rescuer and the role of person in need of redemption is given to male. Christ is the savior of humanity. But here in this song the female is designated as the liberator. It resists the stereotypical notion of woman being the one who is in need of salvation. In this way this song gives a new aspect to an old convention.

Heaven is seen as an abode of god and angles. According to St. Jerome, “Marriage fills the earth, but virginity fills the Heaven.” He also said that, “If one marries a lovable wife, her love is compared with Hell….”

But going against this idea Bruno Mars in his song, ‘Looked out of Heaven’ denotes the woman as his Heaven when he says,

‘’Cause you make feel like,
I’ve been locked out of heaven
For too long’’(Bruno Mars- Locked out of Heaven)

The old monks believed that love of woman is a temptation and it is insatiable. She seals man’s faculty of reason and rational thinking. But this song equates the love of a woman to the love of God because heaven is the dwelling of God. So woman provides the Grace to man and her love have a quality of paradise as mentioned in this song:

You can make a sinner change his ways
Open up your gates cause I can’t wait to see the light. (Bruno Mars- Locked out of Heaven)

 Love is not always sexual and physical; there is a spiritual dimension of love. The understanding two people have, the moral support they give each other and the honesty and loyalty they have towards each other. A woman can be a driving force for man to accomplish his dreams so can be a man. As said in this song:

Never had much faith in love or miracles
Never wanna put my heart on the line.
But swimming in your world is something spiritual. (Bruno Mars- Locked out of Heaven)

 John Mayer one of the famous country singer denotes the body of woman as wonderland. He says for his lady that, “Your body is wonderland.” Wonder means something miraculous which evokes amazement in a positive manner. God has the highest ability to create something wonderful. But here John represents the body of a woman as wonderland which puts her in a higher category. It shows a fusion of joys of erotic and spiritual love.

The world of music is equally participating in flouting the stereotypes in society regarding the role of a woman. A woman is not always fallen, she shall be the savior. The chastity should be present in human mind. Being pure and chaste is a mental state. There is purity present in love we have to change our perspective and have to look at it with another standpoint. If you are physically pure that does not mean you are mentally in a pure state. Purity also stands for honesty and sincerity in love.