Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Animals by Maroon 5

In one of Maroon 5's newest songs, Animals, hidden behind a catchy beat and upbeat rhythm are sexist and speciesist lyrics. The lyrics compare the singer trying to win back a girl to him literally hunting her and making her his prey. "Baby I'm preying on you tonight, Hunt you down eat you alive." He's literally singing about hunting and eating her.. This ties back to The Sexual Politics of Meat and the discussion about how meat is a man's food and how eating meat is associated with masculinity. He is asserting his dominance by conveying her as meat, something HE eats as a man.

I thought this was particularly interesting because of how popular this song is. You can't drive for more than an hour without hearing it on the radio and it seems like no one noticed, or maybe no one cares, about what the lyrics are actually saying. Pictured Below are some screen shots from the music video of Adam Levine with raw meat. I'm interpreting the second photo as a collection of all the previous women he's "eaten alive" and has kept their carcasses as trophies.

Music video

2 comments:

  1. I think its definitely interesting that a gross visualization and video can be critically acclaimed so much, but still be in the top 40. There are many female fans of Maroon 5, and although the message of this video may anger them, they are still fans. People were saying in the comments of the music video that its a disgusting video, but people still accept this song as a perfectly normal song.

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  2. I completely agree with that. The first time I heard the song, it was catchy and fun, but after hearing it over and over again, you start to realize the disgusting analogy Maroon 5 has created. And the video is even worse, pretty much stalks her until he gets what he wants. I think you are absolutely right in conveying that he is showing his dominance over her by associating her with meat. This was a great article to read!

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