jedzeb

cool guy

[jedzeb]

Artist Interview

Here we are today with a friend of mine, who has played piano since she was younger. Tell us about yourself:

"Hi, my name is _, my parents put me in piano lessens when I was 5, so I have been playing for a long time now. I love the instrument and the emotions it can express"

Learning a skill like piano can be difficult, is there anything that helped motivate you when you were learning?

"My parents wanted to me to learn piano, and seeing how good my older sister was was definitely a motivator for me. But really enjoying it made it more of a hobby and less of a chore"

Do you have any favorite pieces that you perhaps hold a good memory of?

"When I was 6, one of the members of my old church played a classical piece for an event. I don't remember the name of it, but it gave me a grasp of how beautiful the sounds a piano can make are"

Do you make music?

"No"

What do you think your role is then, as a pianist but not as someone who writes music?

"From my point of view, the composer is the one who makes the music, while the person playing the instrument is translating the composer's work to the audience. So my role is to capture the emotions of the piece through the way I play"

Picking up an instrument has been something I've personally wanted to do for a long time now. Is there any advice you have to someone who would want to pick up piano, or any other instruments?

"Definitely don't expect results right away. Playing an instrument is a practice that takes years before it really starts to sound any good. Sometimes you will feel like there is no point to all your efforts, but if you push through you will be rewarded in the end. Just make sure you enjoy yourself while playing"

[jedzeb]

The most controversial artist of our generation: Kanye West

I have never liked Kanye West, but I have never hated him either. Before the blowup of his controversies, I simply saw him as a rapper that made music I don't like and with some annoying fans. Though to be honest, this impression was mainly carved off one person plus the internet.

For those who are not aware, Kanye West has been a figure of controversy for some time now. In an interview in 2018, he stated that slavery "sounds like a choice". I know, I know; what was he thinking? I could go on forever about what stupid remarks Kanye has made over the years, but I will focus on the more recent controversy.

In late 2022, Kanye West stated "every human being has brought something of value, especially Hitler". He follows with saying he loves Hitler and Nazis, then posts a picture of a swastika merged with the Star of David on Twitter.

When in an influencer position like Kanye, you have to be extremely careful with your words. Especially nowadays, people will take things wrong and it could be career ending. Unfortunately for Kanye, he does the exact opposite of this; he makes it difficult to side with him.

Admittedly, I understand part of what he is saying. Spreading love and looking at the positives in everyone without exception is a beautiful way of looking at things. However, his way of expressing this is atrocious. First of all, claiming he loves everyone, especially Hitler. It is already a risky thing to claim love for one of the most evil people in history, but to double down and state your love for Hitler above others... needless to say, nobody reacted well to this.

I would like to add that Kanye says other questionable things on the same topic. He says there are positive things about Hitler, such as inventing highways and the microphone. The issue with these claims is that neither of them are true. Kanye also says he loves Nazis, which leaves his point of loving every individual; by definition, a Nazi is one who stands for antisemitism, supremacy of their own race, and ultimately, the Holocaust.

So while he may have a slight innocent foundation with his "love for all", Kanye West has said too many things to discredit himself. False claims about invention, claiming love for a group designed to do bad to others, and emphasizing on his love for Hitler are things he did not need to say. But since he said them, less people can view him as someone preaching good.

What's so interesting about him is how he still has people that look up to him. Why is this? I will be using Mariel Bustamante's "10 reasons we love Kanye West" article as a reference.

Like all people, there is good and there is bad. And within good and bad, there is the perspective that decides what is good and what is bad. Here are some qualities Mariel likes about Kanye, with my comments looking at it in two different ways:

~ "Lie to yourself all you want, Kanye haters, but Kanye West is a musical genius" The "good": Kanye is extremely innovative with his music, and is willing to make sounds that most people would probably not give a chance in the studio The "bad": Calling anyone that doesn't enjoy Kanye's music a hater and a liar is an immature point to bring up; everyone has preferences, especially in music. It is a fact that when making music, not everyone will like it.

~ "Arrogant or self-confident? We say self-confident" : The "good": Self-confidence is big in a person, and even bigger in an influencer. Kanye's confidence is a large factor in what makes so many people believe in him. The "bad": Arrogance and ego; when a person puts themselves above others, it becomes difficult to have the same level of respect for them as you would otherwise. Writing off the notion that Kanye has a massive ego with "we say self-confident" shows that some fans just can't accept truths.

~ "Kanye makes mistakes, just like any other person on the planet" The "good": This is true, as every person makes mistakes. We as people must make mistakes to learn and become better versions of ourselves. The "bad": Some mistakes are worse than others. Yes, people make big mistakes, but this sounds like an easy way to write off mess-ups.

~ "There is no hiding the fact that Kanye is a professional at speaking his mind, and anybody can respect that. He is often seen as arrogant or excessive with his words, but why? He’s always in the public eye, but he’s not afraid to express himself and talk about what he loves—that’s respectable" The "good": Not hiding your opinion and being true to yourself is another trait of a likable and respectable influencer. The "bad": While this is true, it is only true to an extent. Having influence over others, especially millions of people, is a responsibility. You have the power to be positive, but also to put bad ideas in people's heads.

As you can see, every statement here can be looked at in multiple ways. The reason it may look as though Kanye West fans twist things to make him look good is simply that they see things from a different perspective. Because of course, like in most people, he has a good and bad things about him. And as I stated earlier, within that, there are different ways to look at these good and bad sides.

The importance in understanding this concept is that this is how Kanye West sees the controversies revolving around him. His unique perspective allows him to come up with these "hot takes". This combined with his morals of speaking your mind is what always puts Kanye at the center of controversy. Perspective is key in a person's views. To understand why someone may think a certain way, it is important to consider perspectives.

For example, here is Piers Morgan's take on Kanye's initial Twitter ban:

Some may see a social media ban as free speech suppression. This is a valid point, but it becomes a more difficult situation when the free speech is openly making hateful comments.

Basically, Kanye West is constantly at the center of controversy. He explores unique perspectives and has ideas in his head that sound awful to others. He makes a lot of sense to some people, and no sense to others. Kanye's remarks upset many, which is what caused him to lose so much respect.

[jedzeb]

YOASOBI, one of the coolest concepts in the music industry

One day, music producer Ayase and singer Lilas Ikuta decided to come together and make short stories using music, under the name "YOASOBI".

Their first song Yoru ni Kakeru (translated as Racing into the Night), which came out in November 2019, was an unexpectedly massive success to what was supposed to be like a side project for the duo. YOASOBI has been hugely popular since the release of Racing into the Night, not just in Japan but worldwide too. While short stories as songs is not a new concept at all, YOASOBI's approach is definitely unique. They release their songs as singles but put them all in albums later on, titled The Book, The Book 2, etc.

While their concept is unique though, I think the primary reason for their popularity is that the music just goes absolutely stupid.

Lilas Ikuta's voice along with Ayase's production makes for some of the best sounding music I have ever heard. To put it simply, YOASOBI is super catchy.

When talking about YOASOBI's success, it must also be known that only two of the twenty songs released after their first one actually surpassed their debut song. This may not sound completely abnormal, but their is significance in this statistic: both songs that surpassed Racing into the Night were installations in anime.

In Japan, anime is used as marketing for music. Generally, songs in popular anime are an artist's most popular song.

YOASOBI's most popular song, Idol, was their first hit in a while. Idol and the anime it is from Oshi no Ko focus on how horribly idols are treated in the music industry (focusing on Japan, but today this is also a huge issue in Korea).

A character in the show and the main character of the song/short story version, Ai, is seen as the "ultimate idol". However, we get to see it from the dark reality side of things. Firstly, idols always have to keep their image. They are shown as perfect, and lots of fans online will actually dislike an idol if they find out they are in a relationship. Not just by the fans, but companies themselves will promote artists less if they have these "less desirable" traits.

As they are put in the spotlight, idols are in the perfect spot to receive hate. This is the reality of idols.

As it delved into such an interesting and relevant topic, Oshi no Ko became extremely popular. So of course, the opening song Idol became extremely popular as well. This is not to discredit the quality and production of the song, though. In an interview with Billboard Japan, Ayase states that he was a fan of the Oshi no Ko manga and begin production on Idol over a year prior to its release.

In fact, Ayase states that in early production he intended the song to be a Vocaloid song (synthesized voice, Ayase works on Vocaloids as well as the YOASOBI "project"). I think he definitely made the right decision in making this into a YOASOBI song though. It is personally my second favorite song by the duo, and I hope they continue to do long-term projects like this in the future.

Completely switching gears here, but it is difficult to describe what makes YOASOBI so good and unique. I have never heard an artist with no songs that have good covers. Truly, every YOASOBI song is best composed by Ayase and sang by Ikuta. The songs are composed in such harmony with her voice and singing style.

Overall, YOASOBI is an artist duo that has found a great amount of success in the past few years. Their style of telling stories with their songs makes every song have meaning. As someone who has been listening to them since 2020, I am looking forward to more long-term project/high quality songs such as Idol.

[jedzeb]

Japanese cover artists

Since middle school, finding Japanese cover artists on YouTube has been my comfort way of finding music. Japanese cover artists on YouTube range from channels focused on music to VTubers and streamers. That being said, the audience that listens to these tends to be the same.

In general, covers are quite controversial. It is a dicey topic indeed. Should money the cover artist makes go to the original creator? If so, how much? The way I see it, as long as the original artist is credited, people doing covers on their songs gives greater exposure to the original artist than they would have if nobody made covers. As for the logistics of how earnings should be split, that is not what I'm here for.

Let's dive into various songs from different cover artists.

Self inflicted achromatic cover by Hanatan ~ Original by Hatsune Miku

One of the first covers I stumbled upon, and now nearly a decade later is still one of my favorite songs. The original of this song is sang by Hatsune Miku, a Vocaloid. For those not familiar, Vocaloids are synthesized voices. Not to be confused with AI, as this has been a thing since long before AI was.

Vocaloids are an entire other topic of their own, but one thing I can say for certain is that I definitely prefer an organic human voice to a computer's.

And from what I've found, cover artists tend to be different from pop artists and such. When I say this, I mean the difference is in their voice; their voices tend to have more emotion or energy. This particular song is a depressing one (a common theme in Vocaloid songs) and while she still captures the essence of the song in her voice, the artist (Hanatan) sings it in such a beautiful voice.

Marigold cover by Amatsuki ~ Original by Aimyon

Like many other cover artists, Amatsuki has gained much of his popularity through posting covers on sites like YouTube and Bilibili (Bilibili is a Japanese video streaming website, similar to YouTube). Making covers is often a good entryway into the music scene for Japanese artists online.

phony cover by Hoshimachi Suisei ~ Original by KAFU

Another popular thing in the Japanese cover scene is VTubers making covers or singing other songs on their streams. For context, a VTuber is just a streamer who uses an avatar instead of their own face. It is often a trend for a song to have a cover done on it by a bunch of different VTubers around the same time. Suisei in particular has a lot of her content focused around music. While she does have songs of her own (as does every artist I have chosen to put in this blog), doing these trendy songs as covers or just singing other popular songs on stream helps her grow as an artist and a content creator alike.

1,000,000 TIMES cover by VESPERBELL Yomi and Suzuna Nagihara ~ Original by My First Story

A great thing that I see way more on covers than on actual songs: duets. Adding another voice just gives more layering to the song, and makes the song hit so different when done like it was in this cover. It is also just a cool thing to see artists I like to listen to collaborating and actually doing a great job with it.

Overall, the scene of Japanese cover artists on YouTube is massive, and has given me exposure to so many of my favorite different songs and artists. Without this being a thing, the music I normally listen to would be much different today. I can see why some people may be against the concept of covers, but I think it helps many artists grow and gives them lots of exposure (not to mention the original artists having more exposure for their song).

[jedzeb]

Focusing on the sound of music

The way I see it music sounds differently for every person. We attach memories and feelings to certain sounds or tones of voice, creating unique meaning in songs for every person. For this reason, I have always preferred focusing on how a song sounds and how it makes me feel when I listen to it. Don't get me wrong, lyrics can tell a story. But feeling what an artist is portraying solely based on sound is a beautiful thing.

In this blog, I've chosen to talk about one of my favorite songs ever: Eternal Blue by Minami Nishimura, a Japanese singer and songwriter. Here is a link to the song with subtitles.

To set the tone, the song starts off with a 30 second instrumental of her playing acoustic guitar, along with some other sounds/instruments I'm unable to name. I can say, however, that this sets a blissful, mellow tone.

The instruments, the vocals; throughout the entire song, it is a beautiful listen. There is not a single second of this song that bores me with how it sounds. That being said, there is more to music than "sounds good" or "sounds bad".

Most of my favorite songs have a common theme, being that they make my chest heavy. Even before reading the lyrics and understanding what the hell Minami is saying, I could feel pain listening to this song. If it purely sounds "good" to me, how can it make me feel a negative emotion like pain?

I'm not a music nerd, but the word I would use to describe this phenomenon is "tone". The instruments sing a light and soft, yet sad and mellow song. And over the instrumentals, the most powerful instrument of all: her voice. It almost acts as an amplifier of the pain and roller coaster of thoughts that this song is.

If you took away your understanding of language, does the song still say the same thing? Emotions can be portrayed with voice just as with instruments; sadness, excitement, anger, grief, regret, etc. Maybe because we are human ourselves, but hearing these range of emotions from another voice (even without understanding them) must be powerful.

I love the literal meaning of the song too, but I figured that would go too off track. The pain in my chest (and maybe yours too) when listening to this song comes from sound alone. Even without knowing what she is talking about, you can feel the singers' pain when you hear it.

The combination of Minami's voice with her playing her acoustic guitar is like an orchestra in itself. She doesn't just sing over music, she sings with the music.

[jedzeb]

"A trip down memory lane" or something

For me, there are some songs that I listen to that remind me of whatever part of my life I would often listen to that song during. This is the power of music; the same song brings different emotions and different memories to each person, and can give you the feeling of being brought back in time.

Video games can be described as an escape from reality for many. This makes the unique combination of being brought to a time where you are experiencing another world. It feels childish, but despite that, this is a big part of some people's childhood and lives. So let's go back in time real quick.

Disclaimer, I'm going to use some remixes/remasters for these songs that I think fit the song better. Also, they're almost all Pokémon ;)

Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver ~ New Bark Town

The peaceful, first town music of each Pokémon game is always a nostalgic one, as it is the sound of a new adventure. Still being a huge Pokémon fan at the age of 20, hearing the starting town music from a game I played when I was 7 years old is a feeling like no other. It makes me remember the days where I had fun even without having to try understanding everything. This is a great studying or waiting song for me.

Minecraft ~ Volume Alpha

Nowadays, it is pretty widely accepted that video games can get very addicting and consuming. My first time experiencing this was with Minecraft. A simple game with endless possibilities, where you build up your own world, at your own pace, however you want. The song might be even more nostalgic than New Bark Town's theme for me. Being one of the most popular games in the world to this day, this song probably brings nostalgic feelings for many. As it is a slow paced song like New Bark Town's theme, this could be good study music. However, I don't personally listen to this.

Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire ~ vs. Wally

Perhaps one of the most interesting things in video games is the concept of characters. While they bring lots to the table, there is one thing that isn't expressed much: the fact that you are always the main character. In Pokémon, this means all of those around you will be weaker than you in the end, because canonically, you win every battle.

In the original Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald games, Wally was a character with little impact or meaning to the games. He was just a boy who was overprotected by his uncle, and who you would help start up his adventure. In the remakes (Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire), he starts off similar, but grows into a different character in the end. He is no longer another random kid for the player to crush on their path to become champion. Now he has the resolve to win, and doesn't care for being protected by his uncle. He gives one of the best speeches in the series, then goes straight into the hardest guitar theme in the series to kick off the player's battle with him.

A discussion on GameFAQS goes over how he feels like a different character altogether. In the end he still loses of course, but his battle theme is honestly one of my favorite songs in general, and I would listen to it at any time. It would be a crime to describe it with any word other than awesome.

Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum ~ The piano before Cynthia

The piano that every Pokémon player fears. It would have been criminal of me to not include this song, so here it is.

For context, this is the song that plays right before the player's battle against the champion of Sinnoh (a region), Cynthia. The battle against the champion is (usually) the climax of a Pokémon game. Whoever defeats the reigning champion is granted the title of champion for themselves, and is the end goal for the protagonist.

As you make it to the final battle, the intense piano begins to play. And before you is Cynthia, the girl who goes around studying the history of Sinnoh; little did you know that the whole time, she was destined to be your final opponent.

Looking and acting badass isn't all there is to Cynthia, though. Remember when I said every Pokémon player fears this song? She is notorious for being the most difficult "boss" in the entire series.

Overall, an epic moment to be remembered. Just chills every listen.

Kirby's Dream Land ~ Green Greens

Ah yes, Kirby. The adorable little circle that goes around eating things. Green Greens truly captures the fun of these games and the world of Kirby. That is all this song means to me, but that is okay. It's still a banger and the energy it gives is refreshing.

These songs and many others from games give a kind of feeling that I can't find in any other kind of music. I could listen to most of them in any way, but studying, walking around, and driving would be the best 3 things overall.

Below are some other songs I really like and will include in this playlist, but won't go into depth about (If you're into this kind of music, I highly recommend giving "vs. Trainer Red" and "vs. Zinnia" a try):

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time ~ Lost Woods

Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire ~ Zinnia's Sorrow/vs. Zinnia

Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal ~ vs. Trainer Red

Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon ~ Partner's Theme

[jedzeb]

"It's not about the destination, it's about the journey" or something

March 2023. I was 19 years old, and this was my first time going to a concert. I'm not big on extremely loud environments nor environments with a lot of people, but since I was invited, I figured it was probably the only chance I had to convince myself to go.

It was a particularly interesting experience because the artists that performed that day were ones I don't listen to on a daily basis; Keshi, Weston Estate, and James Ivy. So not only was this my first concert, but I had the chance to fall for some artists while I was at it.

Despite tickets being prepaid, the line to get took a long time. Even when we finally got inside, various delays and just standing for long periods of time was wearing me down. Not a good start.

Finally, after what felt like days (in reality, the delay was about an hour), the show kicked off with the least known of the performing artists: James Ivy.

This was a name I had never even heard of before this concert. That being said, he put on quite the show. His songs are slow, but sound good. Despite him being the smallest artist there (meaning the majority of the crowd wasn't there for him), he managed to interact with the crowd, seemingly having them learn his songs as he performed to sing along with him.

Before I knew it, James Ivy's show was over. I guess since he wasn't the main performance, he had less time allocated to him. That's when I realized the impact of a concert's energy; I couldn't even tell my legs were sore, and this was just the beginning.

Weston Estate's appearance really pumped up the crowd. This wasn't anything I didn't expect though. What was crazy to me was the energy of their performance. James Ivy was one guy, and his performance had a lot less... movement.

All five members of Weston Estate were running around during the entire performance as if they had just watched a David Goggins video. I kept thinking to myself "surely they run out of energy soon". They seamlessly performed every single song at high energy. I had taken a liking to James Ivy, but Weston Estate put on the best performance I've ever seen (best of two okay, but number one is number one).

I really can't describe in words how insane their energy was. From dancing to running around to looking at each other for parts of the songs, I really had taken a liking to this group. Unfortunately for me, as quickly as they came, they left. It was time for the main show.

With the adrenaline leaving my body from Weston Estate's exit and the never ending delay of Keshi's entrance, my body was feeling sorer than ever. When doing things out of the house, my energy crashes really easily. My energy was in fact, crashing.

Keshi's entrance was one of the most deafening experiences of my life. Instantly, the crowd burst into a roar. All I had thought of the previous two performances being anything of a concert experience had vanished. This was on another level.

Weirdly enough, this was my least favorite performance. At first it was bearable, but I think my tank was just too empty to enjoy anything. That being said, the energy of the crowd and the level of production was ridiculous. The lights, the transitions, how much this one man was moving around for hours. It was all insane. But again, nothing was as insane as the crowd.

It was a strange feeling of satisfaction, as if this was some legendary event. Concerts were kind of how I expected them to be, but the feeling of being there made it an experience worth having.

All that being said, unless it was an artist I really like, I can't see myself going to another concert any time soon. It was loud, tiring, and the girl behind me who kept screaming was eating away at my sanity and my eardrums alike (even the guy with her kept telling her to stop being so loud).

After hours of Keshi's endless performance, it was finally over. And man, was I relieved. I may have had enjoyable moments there, but towards the end I wanted nothing more than to get out of there.

[jedzeb]

An album review on LMYK's "DESSERTS"

I still remember the feeling when I listened to "0 (zero)" first time. Like all my emotions are mixing together, LMYK's songs give me a strange feeling of bliss combined with immense pain.

Being a bilingual Japanese and English speaker, LMYK mixes the languages in her songs (and unlike most artists who mix languages, her pronunciation for both languages sounds native and natural). This uniqueness is a nice touch, but is far from the only reason I love her music.

"0 (zero)" ~

In both the original and the English version of this song, there is Japanese and English. "DESSERTS" contains the original version, but below I've linked the English version of the song for those who would prefer to listen to that.

The premise of 0 (zero) is that in a life of feeling alone, she meets the person that makes her feel like her true self. "Discover The Story Of The Song > 0 (zero) - Lmyk"'s take of this is rather interesting. The writer of this short article sees it as the singer loses a part of themselves in their relationship, but ultimately feels more whole and fulfilled as well.

This may very well be true, partly or whole. However, my take on it was a little different. In many lines of the song, it is implied that the singers partner emotionally saves them. So my interpretation isn't that she loses a part of herself because of the relationship, but that the parts of herself that feel lost are filled by her partner.

Here are some of my takes on specific lines:

"When I lose myself, I become you" ~ In losing parts of herself, her partner fills these parts in

"So tenderly and endlessly You made me whole, you made me whole" ~ Further showing that her partner is filling in holes

"I hear my doubts drop when I see you in the mirror" ~ This line goes a little further, showing that her partner has become a part of her. While yes, this can be seen as her "losing herself", she also makes it clear that seeing her partner in herself is relieving (which further emphasizes that they are filling in holes in her heart).

"Tracing and tracing the sunset Appearing a zero and finallyNow I remember Oh, I have never lived a day without you Untie the layer of memories Louder we spin with the melody You are the only (You made me whole) Only one for me (You made me whole)"

~ The bridge, the most interesting part of the entire song. You can look at these lines in a few different ways, but the way I see it is her thoughts at a potential end of the relationship that is being described throughout the song (it is implied something is ending, since she uses the words "sunset" and "zero"). Her next part about remembering she has never lived a day without this partner sounds like she is saying that any day without her partner was not a day she lived, since she needs them to be complete. Finally, the bit about untying memories and that they are the only one for her is furthering this realization of hers that she needs this person in order to be her whole self.

I'm not going to go in-depth for any other songs, but each song she writes has deep meaning and they tie into the overall theme of the album very well. A general theme throughout the album is this concept of "you" and their relation to "I".

Other common themes throughout the album are things being on the extreme side of positive or negative emotion, with some songs portraying both of these extremes as perspectives.

Side note, her soft voice oddly captures the delicacy in human emotions that she describes throughout her songs.

In an interview, LMYK answers some questions about her music. One thing that stuck out to me was how explains she feels extremes of beauty and pain. That hit hard, as I struggle the same way in my sense of awareness in deep thoughts.

Overall, the premise of "DESSERTS" is that human emotions are on a wide spectrum, yet are all finite. The name of the album fits this perfectly; desserts are an example of finite joy. Touching on that even further, desserts backwards is stressed, which is an example of finite negative emotion. LMYK explains this as a representation of the relationship between pleasure and pain.

Her elegant sense of transience and unique perspectives are like no artist I've come across so far. LMYK is extremely in touch with her emotions and the world as she sees it, which is what brings high levels of beauty and darkness to her music alike.

[jedzeb]

Why "Dance the Night" by Dua Lipa is the perfect song for The Barbie Movie

Dua Lipa's "Dance the Night" is the ideal piece for 2023's highest grossing movie: Barbie. Being a mezzo-soprano with upbeat and high energy songs, Dua Lipa is a pleasure to listen to. Moreover, she has a voice that is on the side of being sultry or dark. This attractive voice and the "hot girl pop" style of her songs is what has made her so popular.

In terms of The Barbie Movie (for the sake of clarification, I will refer to the movie this way, and the character as just Barbie), Dua Lipa as a musical artist portrays the character "Barbie" to near perfection. But first, a little about The Barbie Movie must be known to understand this. The run-down of The Barbie Movie can be simplified into two parts. The first part is that our society is run by men, creating what many agree to be an unfair environment for women. In today's culture, women are empowered in various ways. One of these ways is with independence from a man. This is precisely what Barbie Land is about; a society where women are the ones on top, with men existing only for the sake of women. Finally, this is where Dua Lipa's "Dance the Night" comes in.

Throughout the duration of the song, we can see the conflict of this perception of being perfect vs. how life really is. While Stephanie Long makes good points with this example, I believe there is more to be said about its reflection on the movie as a whole than something as cliche as "nothing is perfect". Of course, there is still much to say on this idea. This idea being that women have to be perfect in order to enable themselves to be above men in this male-ruled society. Possibly the thing I hate the most about our generation is how SPLIT we are. Everyone has different political views, but I can't go a day on the internet without seeing men saying they are better than women and vice versa. Mainly, this seems to stem from women being provoked by these toxic men, but still it feels like modern politics is a fight to the top between genders. To me, most who partakes in this are silly and usually spouting nonsense(especially from the side of toxic men, but there is silliness everywhere).

How does this all relate to Barbie? Well, the idea of Barbie is to be the perfect woman. Not needing a man in your life and living your best is what it means to be "Barbie". While empowering women is a phenomenal thing, this creates a new sort of pressure point on women today: they have to be independent, have a good body, mentally strong, etc. I am male, but from any woman I have talked to about this, they would all agree this is the point of pressure they feel in society today.

There are more than a few lines in Dua Lipa's "Dance the Night" that portray this very pressure.

"My heart could be burnin', but you won't see it on my face

...

I'll still keep the party runnin', not one hair out of place

Lately, I've been moving close to the edge

Still be lookin' my best

I stay on the beat, you can count on me

I ain't missin' no steps"

Striving to be the best you can be is something highly encouraged in society today, on the side of both men and women alike. In this case, there is one very noticeable aspect of these lyrics: she comes off as POWERFUL. There are no obvious hints of weakness or a cry for help either in her voice or the lyrics themselves.

You may not remember, but earlier on I stated there were two parts of The Barbie Movie. Well it is finally time for the second part: the perfect world of Barbie Land is not perfect. This world where all the women are independent, powerful, and doing what they like is not the ideal land it is supposed to be. On one hand, the Kens(the men/Barbie's boyfriend) are all solely living for the sake of Barbie. This is an extreme flip on how gender roles are in the real world. Obviously this is problematic because once again, an entire gender is being treated unfairly. Furthermore, this act of perfection can't go on forever. "Dance the Night" abruptly ends in The Barbie Movie when Barbie says "do you guys ever think about dying?". At a single display of outwards weakness, Barbie's entire life started going to shit. This is precisely why the concept of "Barbie" is so unrealistic; life is all about making mistakes and learning from them. No person has ever lived their entire life without making a mistake or feeling something negative. Not only that but The Barbie Movie itself clearly shows how self-destructive the divide of men and women is to society. Nobody should be silenced, nobody should be treated unfairly or have to live a life below someone simply due to the gender they were born as, and nobody should be forced to live by the unrealistic standards of society.

The Barbie Movie should really touch anyone who watches it, men and women alike. That fact plays well into the entire purpose of the movie, which is that everyone can relate to one thing, be it from different perspectives or for differing reasons. "Dance the Night" did the movie's purpose justice, and between the instrumental and Dua Lipa's voice, it will be a song to remember for a long time.