"How to Love"

Lil’ Wayne’s song “How to Love” is a part of the hip hop trend. Like many other artists his music talks about life and the struggles it brings him. His music speaks to everyone. It relates to everyone who has had problems in their life or is currently having problems. This songs message is basically about women how are having trouble loving a man. They don’t know how to love because they have low self-esteem.
“How to Love” is a very inspirational song. It speaks to many people who have low self-esteem. For people who haven’t heard of this song they would definitely like it. It mostly speaks to women and girls who don’t feel good about themselves, who have very low self-esteem. Lil’ Wayne’s music speaks to everybody. It talks about the struggles everyone goes through in life. His music helps many people see what problems everyone actually has.
His song “How to Love” talks about girls who don’t know how to love a man because of their low self-esteem. It helps girls see what a lot of other girls go through with men and relationships. The lyrics are straight forward and get to the point. It doesn’t beat around the bush.
http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/lil_-wayne-lyrics/how-to-love-lyrics.html

My President: Young Jeezy & Nas (Warning, Link Contains Explicit Content)

This Song is talking about Obama becoming president and how he thinks it will change the world for black people. Song came out about 2008 so not new but can still be brought up in conversation very easily today. He is talking strongly about change that this new president will bring because he is black. The songs rap which is still around today but not as popular as before now as it is changing over to Hip Hop, but they kind of connect to each other in a way just rap is at a speeded pace of talking/singing. Young Jeezy is really determined that Obama will change the life of black thugs. Such as keeping them doing good normal activities rather than “bad” ways of acting and ending up in jail and coming right back around to not being able to vote for president. The normal thought or Ideology around is someone hanging around in the ghetto dressed all thuggish like is a thug that may be selling drugs and getting into trouble and such as you would see represented on T.V. or Video Games act. He almost portrays this image in the song but how Obama will seem to make it ok in the media today and not be as controversial about the black thug look and rap that’s around. He seems to be building up on his idea in a negative way about how the thug ghetto life sucks but he also refers to the normal life of everyone else and how some people still have money problems. "“Woke Up This Morning Headache THIS BIG! Pay All These Damn Bills Feed All These Damn Kids. Buy All These School Shoes Buy All These School Clothes”"

This Song is about young jeezy singing about how Obama becomes president. Also how Obama won fairly and he bags on Bush some and about how he got a cheated votes in some states. And also he talks about the hard life that the poor people seem to live. He talks about them going to prison, and bags on all the people who think they are able to speak as politicians. Who knew what came with jail, who knew what came with prison Just because you got opinions, does that make you a politician? Bush robbed all of us, would that make him a criminal? And then he cheated in Florida, would that make him a Seminole? I say and I quote, "We need a miracle"

Now Young Jeezy really believes from this song that Obama will make things change and he is hopeful for him to succeed. He shows the Dominant Ideology of the poor ghetto life seems to be black people but than he tries to show that since they can have a president being black that they truly can do more than they are portrayed as. ""My president is black, my Lambo's blue And I'll be ---- if my rims ain't too My momma ain't at home, and daddy's still in jail Tryna make a plate, anybody seen the scale?"" A black person now the leader of our country saying that they are truly part of this country, and have opportunity to go from nothing to much more. They will have more oppertunies so he feels, he rejoices to his leader being black. Even though they have right Jeezy feels that even more acceptance will come.

Welcome! Assignment #1: Cultural Analysis

Welcome Students! This here is our United States History and English 11 Blog.  We'll be doing a number of assignments that will count towards both your History and English grade and in which you'll engage in an online dialogue with your peers.  So without further ado, lets get into our first assignment...THE CULTURAL ANALYSIS!

Becoming a Cultural Critic/Writing a Cultural Analysis

Cultural Analysis Blog Posts

Understanding ideology is the key to becoming a valuable cultural critic and writing an insightful cultural analysis. Ideology is the shared values, ideas, beliefs, attitudes, assumptions, and/or opinions that members of a society have about themselves and the world around them. At any time, a particular ideology will be dominant because it is shared by most members of the society, but, of course, other values, ideas, etc still exist.

When you perform a cultural analysis, you look closely at a work of culture (or several related works) and explain how it reflects or resists the dominant ideology of a particular society and how it might be helping shape or reshape that ideology.

A work of "popular" culture can be significant simply because it is popular – because it is reflecting and participating in a broad trend in society. Part of the job of a cultural critic can be to explain why it is popular, how it taps into the dominant ideology and appeals to the “masses.”

But if you enjoy popular culture, you probably think it is meaningful for other reasons as well. A cultural critic can also help us understand why some works of popular culture are “good” – why they challenge preconceived notions and help us imagine a better world. If you want to show that a work of popular culture is more than simply entertainment candy – giving momentary pleasure but not much more – you need to make a forceful, coherent and well-supported argument that the work is saying something about the world or at least giving us a new, unique perspective on that world.

Some quick tips:

Be careful not simply to provide a review of the work. A cultural analysis must be more than simply a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” assessment. You are making a broader and more profound argument about the work's significance to the world.

What a work of culture says might not be positive – it might not be promoting a more just or tolerant world, for example. Even a negative message, however, is important to analyze: a work of popular culture has mass appeal and that negative message for you might be a positive message to others – and it is crucial to understand why.

A work of culture might be reflecting or resisting a variety of ideologies. The work might be very complex and have a lot to say about many different topics. Or it might be confused or conflicted. For example, maybe the first two-thirds of action movie present the lead female character as strong and independent, but in the last third that same female character becomes weak and ineffectual and needs to be rescued by a man.

Sometimes the creator of a work of culture is conscious of what the work is saying. Sometimes she or he is not. The creator of the example given above might have just thought she was creating an entertaining shoot-'em-up movie, and they were unconscious of what the work was saying about gender roles in society.

Most of the time we just don't know if the creator is aware of the ideology in the work -- so we avoid, for the most part, discussing the intentions of the author, artist or director. Talk, instead, about what the work does: "The music video makes the statement that …"

The Assignment: Cultural Critique Blog Post

Paragraph 1 – Introduction and thesis

a.    Introduce the work of culture (very briefly) by stating why it is relevant or important to discuss it now. Did the movie just come out? Is the book discussing an issue that is in the news recently? Is the piece of music causing a current controversy? Or is the work simply part of a broader trend that has been building for a period of time (in this case, you might briefly mention the other works of popular culture that are part of this trend).

b.    After drawing the audience into your analysis, provide a forceful, specific and detailed thesis statement that outlines your argument: how does this work reflect the ideology of a particular society and how is it helping shape that ideology. In other words, discuss the message of the work and its impact. Consider, among other things, if the work supports or break prevalent stereotypes in society. What does this work show about America? What does it say about an American ideology or American society as a whole?

Paragraph 2 - Summary

a.    Summarize the work (very briefly!) for those who have not watched, read or heard it. Assume your audience is not completely familiar with the work. If it is a lengthy work – a film or a book – you might not want to give away any surprises …

Paragraph 3 – Analysis

a.    Break down your argument. As in a literary analysis, organize your analysis around your most compelling supporting points. Don’t tell us everything you like about the show. Choose one or two ways the show is doing what you say it is doing (you might focus on certain characters, the show’s unique format or style, etc).

b.    Most importantly, support your argument by providing specific evidence – quotes or at least references to specific moments or parts of the work – to back up those points. If you are analyzing a song, you should quote specific lyrics. If you are analyzing a TV show, you should make reference to a specific scene. If you are analyzing a print advertisement, you should pick out particular visual elements that make it effective.

A Link – be sure to include a link to your source:

a.                    TV Show/Movie - include a link either to a YouTube video (if done at home), the show description on Wikipedia, or a link to www.imdb.com

b.                    Song - include a link either to a YouTube video (if done at home) or a link to the song’s lyrics

c.                    Advertisement or Other Sources – find descriptions, transcripts, etc., on the Internet, or pictures and include links.