This is the MIA video that Dr. Bell mentioned in class yesterday. YouTube removed the video a day after posting because it is pretty graphic. Once I found it and watched it, I at first didn’t know how to respond. The video really interested me because it addresses things such as war, police brutality, and racism. Just google the title to this song and you will find numerous articles and discussions on the controversy of the video- many say that MIA may have been overstepping the statement with how graphic this mini-film is. Is it too graphic? Or do we need to be rattled like this, in order to halt continued injustice and cruelty that is all over the world?
After seeing the “Born Free” video, and realizing how much of a statement she was making with it, I thought it would be interesting to look at more of her music and see what other statements she was making. Pretty much every song I looked up on wikipedia, there was a “controversy” section--she obviously has a lot to say that many people are uncomfortable being faced with. An interesting quote that I found from MIA was “You can’t separate the world into two parts like that, good and evil. Terrorism is a method. But America has successfully tied all these pockets of independence struggles, revolutions and extremists into one big notion of terrorism. You can’t grab someone by the neck and choke them and then complain they’re kicking you. If you’re going around oppressing people, they will fight back…” (http://repliderium.com/good-stuff/mia-paper-planes/)
I never really listened to MIA very much, but everyone knows her at least for her song “Paper Planes.” “When interviewed, M.I.A. said the song was partly inspired by her long wait for a US visa application, sometimes fancifully called a "paper plane". She suggested that it ironically satires some people's attitudes towards immigrants. "It's about people driving taxicabs all day and living in a shitty apartment and 'appearing' really threatening to society. But not being so. Because, by the time you’ve finished working a 20-hour shift, you’re so tired you [just] want to get home to the family".[5] She added that she felt that listeners could choose how to interpret the gunshots and cash register ringing in the song's chorus. "You can either apply it on a street level and go, oh, you’re talking about somebody robbing you and saying I’m going to take your money. But, really, it could be a much bigger idea: someone’s selling you guns and making money. Selling weapons and the companies that manufacture guns — that’s probably the biggest moneymaker in the world." [5] M.I.A has also suggested, ‘People could say, Oh my God, this song is so violent, but at the same time, there was a war in Iraq. I felt like certain people made so much money from selling ammunition and military weapons and stuff, and killed a million people, and it wasn't an issue that was raised’’”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_Planes).
No comments:
Post a Comment