book

Rhetorical Analysis - Love According to Macklemore

21 Pages 1310 Words 1557 Views

On July 18th, 2012 a song titled "Same Love  was released by an up-and-coming new hip-hop artist named Macklemore. Macklemore has recently reached number one on The Billboard Hot 100 with his song "Thrift Shop  and his voice has become very influential to his mainstream fan base. "Same Love  was recorded during the campaign for Washington Referendum 74, which legalized same-sex marriage in Washington State in 2012. The song has peaked at number eleven on The Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and has reached number one in Australia and New Zealand. "Same Love  is the first song about same sex marriage and equality to ever reach the top forty on The Billboard Hot 100. Macklemore effectively uses Pathos, Logos, and Ethos to communicate to anti-gay individuals and groups, including the hip-hop genre, that homosexuals deserve the same rights as everyone else. He does so by informing social media and hip-hop music that words like "faggot" and "gay," even when used synonymously with "lame  or "not cool , promote hatred and discrimination. Essentially every line, verse, or word in the song expresses to his audience not only through emotion but also ethically and even logically about his desire for equal rights and the legalization of same-sex marriage. Macklemore's strongest approach to his audience, which includes anti-gay as well as pro-gay supporters, through his song "Same Love  is undeniably through emotion. The first line in this song puts the listener right in his shoes as a child. "When I was in the third grade I thought that I was gay/ 'Cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight/ I told my mom, tears rushing down my face/ She's like ˜Ben you've loved girls since before pre-k ˜ trippin" (Macklemore, 1-4). Here he points out the stereotypes associated with homosexuals. He goes on to say "Bunch of stereotypes all in my head/ I remember doing the math like, ˜Yeah, I'm good at little league'/ a preconceived idea of what it all meant  (6-8). In the music video it shows a scene of his gay uncle playing football as a kid, which is commonly thought of as a heterosexual behavior. Macklemore is conveying to his audience that these are false predispositions associated with homosexuality and that stereotypes are very commonly untrue and can be hurtful. T

Read Full Essay