M.I.A., born Mathangi Arulpragasam, is a highly polarizing artist of Sri Lankan descent. Arulpragasm, orginally an acclaimed visual artist, essentially stumbled into the music industry. Her first album, Arular, is critically acclaimed by several media outlets for its mix of pulsating beats, unique style, and symbolic lyricism. The main themes of that album are politics and society. With Kala, M.I.A pushes even further.
After listening to the Kala, I could clearly tell that M.I.A intended several main themes. Oppression, feminism, and politics are the key topics of the album. The album is a true counter-narrative; the song "Mango Pickle Down River" is mostly filled with raps from Aboriginal youths known as the Wilcannia Mob. The chorus, sung by these youths, talks about going to swim when it's hot and going fishing. I'm fairly sure that no mainstream musician would even consider children, let alone Aboriginal youths, basically have their own song.
M.I.A. continues the theme of making a voice for the unheard and neglected with many other songs.
"I don't read, yeah I just guess,
As the world turns, don't bother me with your mess"
-"The Turn"
"Sick of all the shit that's keeping me down,
If you're dead from the waist down, it's easy staying down,
I never thought about it twice,
But you do pay the price"
-"World Town"
While the two songs have similar messages, they take different approaches. "The Turn" is probably the closest thing that M.I.A. will have to a ballad. Its sparse beat already leads you to the conclusion that it is a sad song. The idea of the song is to learn and move on from ignorance. On the other hand, "World Town" is an extremely catchy and fun song that challenges oppression with the chorus of, "Hands up, Guns out, Represent, The World Town".
"How many no money boys are crazy, how many boys are raw,
How many no money boys are rowdy, how many start a war"
-"Boyz"
"People judge me so hard cause I don't floss my teeth set"
-"$20"
Both "Boyz" and "$20" have feminist points. Her words on "Boyz" in essence state that rich men start wars. Her lyrics on "$20" proclaim feminism and challenge the ignorance of popular culture with the lyrics such as,
"Like do you know the cost of AK's up in Africa, $20 ain't shit to you but that's how much they are."
The song I caught the most meaning from was "Bird Flu". While I didn't find the actual music and beat catchy or particularly interesting, I saw a ton of symbolism and messages in the lyrics. There are many examples, such as:
"Big on the underground, what's the point of knocking me down,
Everyone knows I'm already good on the ground"
-This alludes to the fact that she thinks she deserves mainstream stardom but gets pushed back.
"I need a man for romance,
Streets are making em hard, so they selfish little roamers,
Jumping girl to girl, making us meat like burgers"
-This is truly feminist; it speaks on the sexism of men
"Bird flu gonna get you, made it in my stable,
From the crap you drop on my crop when they pay you"
-We created our own problems as a society
Almost every song had a thumping, crazy, throbbing beat. M.I.A.'s use of many unusual instruments and sounds make Kala extremely different from normal hip-hop or dance to the point where it is fairly difficult to even classify it. From rare Indian samples to unusual Jamaican instruments, M.I.A. did her best to be truly distinct. When you combine it with her lyrics, M.I.A. is beyond a counter-narrative, alternative musician; she is in her own class.
Class, please let me know what you thought of the album. I didn't think it would be right to go through each song one by one and point out narratives so I just picked the ones that were most appealing to me. Overall, I enjoyed "World Town" the most.
Post by Eric Samaniego
4 comments:
Eric, I agree that M.I.A.’s main themes for this album are oppression, feminism, and politics. Through her lyrics and eclectic music style, M.I.A. is in a class of her own. Her lyrics address world issues which are often ignored or deemed unimportant in the eyes of the U.S. media.
The fact that she is now making more money and becoming more mainstream is irrelevant when you consider the fact that she is still giving voices to the oppressed and the ignored. People suffering in poverty and violent situations don’t have the luxury of being able to voice their concerns and exposing the real “truths” of their country’s history, both past and present. Therefore, it is up to those who do have the power and the capability to make the neglected stories heard. It is a privilege that M.I.A. has, but she is aware of that privilege and can sometimes try to take things a step further in order to evoke a response.
You can’t forget that she is a performer, a creative artist, with an always expanding fanbase of listeners waiting to see what she will do next. Performers “play” with images, in the case of M.I.A., she is playing with the images which the media associates with terrorists to expose and complicate the definition of a terrorist. Intentionally wearing a t-shirt with a hand grenade on it for promotional photos is playing with the assumptions of what “Western” society views as “terrorist,” acknowledging the past and present images which can blur the non-terrorist reputation of these same Western nations.
One can easily judge a performer by the appearance or image that performer is portraying to the public. But how would one react to these lyrics involving poverty, violence, and war, if they were sung or rapped by a male performer?
When i first heard her album i just thought her music was annoying. After looking at her lyrics and talking about the meaning of the songs and why the beats are so unique it made me appreciate it a little more. Before i knew what she was trying to say it all seemed irrelevant and confusing. Now her controversial music makes a lot more sense to me and i actually really like all the messages she is trying to convey through her music.
getting past the initial catchiness and upbeat mood of M.I.A.'s music was the first step for me - it's so easy to get caught up in the dance-beat and reggaeton-esque atmosphere. once i started tuning into the actual lyrics, i began to really hear the heavy material she addresses.
like i mentioned in class, the channel M.I.A. chose is a smart one. what better way to access the brains of those all around the world (especially in regions where music is circulated in the blink of an eye via internet, tv, radio, etc. like the U.S.).
see, the messages that M.I.A. wants to deliver involving: oppression, the need for awareness, the call for attention for suffering, and the issues in how the powerful do not help the weak are all messages that need to be spread amongst the complacent and ignorant. those who are actually LIVING the worse parts of her messages don't need to be reminded of their own reality... it's the countries and societies that have forgotten about the rest of the world that need reminders. relatively wealthy countries like the united states are the intended audience for M.I.A.'s sharp revokes and call for change.
like you, eric, i was drawn in by the unusual mixture of beats and rhythms in M.I.A's album, but the significance of the themes and the narratives in the tracks were not lost on me either. wonderful post, and excellent attention to the lyrics that jumped out at me as well! i thoroughly enjoyed both your post as well as M.I.A.'s creative performance.
Jennifer, I'm glad you agreed with my opinion of what the main themes of the album are. I like how M.I.A. is attempting to send messages through her music but the fact that the majority of her lyrics are basically incomprehensible is a bit of a bad thing. Her lyrics are almost cryptic. It took a deep look into them for some sort of understanding. A big portion of the class, including myself, were still relatively confused after reviewing the lyrics together. I had a difficult time looking through the lyrics for examples to use in the blog. I agree with your idea that M.I.A is trying to complicate the image of a terrorist. In many cases, one persons terrorist is another persons freedom fighter. Many male musical artists have produced songs about war, poverty, and other gruesome topics. I'm not sure if there is a bias against M.I.A. because she is a woman. For example, highly political rap groups such as Public Enemy and N.W.A. released music more aggressive and violent that M.I.A. They were chastised just like M.I.A.; in many cases even more. However, they gained critical acclaim from the media for originality and symbolism, which is exactly similar to M.I.A.
Clara, while I was doing research for this blog, I came across an article with a segment covering the song "World Town". In it, M.I.A. talks about playing the song in Liberia to kids and their enthusiastic reaction to it. M.I.A said that she wrote the song feeling like an "outsider" and was happy when the song "translated" to those children. Overall, I think M.I.A.'s music is intended for all types of people to hear. Whether you like the beats, or the lyrics, or the rhythm, or the uniqueness, I think it's pretty cool that this album has them all wrapped into one.
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