Song of America
Relation to the American experience
While the lyrics do contain many references to American culture and to the American experience
Vanilla Ice's hit single Ice Ice Baby contains many obvious connections to the American experience, as well as many subliminal connections. Thus, I will go over the clear connections first and then the subliminal ones, as a way to structure this essay. Opening with
"Stop, collaborate, and listen
Ice is back with a new invention"
Ice immediately opens with fundamental American values of teamwork and creativity, with the words "collaborate", "listen", and "invention", all very key aspects of the American Experience. In the second full stanza, Ice says
"anything less than the best is a felony
Love it or leave it, you better gain way
You better hit bull's eye, the kid don't play"
which hits home with the competitive nature of America, driven under its capitalistic economy. Businesses and people alike strive to be the best at whatever they do and these lyrics relate to the striving to be the best part of American society [9].
"Anything less than the best is a felony"
clearly connects to the striving for excellence that nearly all American schools adopt as their main goal for their students.
"Love it or leave it, you better gain way"
references the ingrained American ideal of perseverance and ardor on working towards your goals.
"You better hit bull's eye, the kid don't play"
similarly references the ideals from
"anything less than the best is a felony"
in the sense that both say to strive for the best and nothing less. Next comes up
"If there was a problem, yo, I'll solve it".
American's are known as problem solvers and this lyric just exemplifies this. The next verse
"Rockman lovers driving Lamborghinis
Jealous 'cause I'm out getting mine"
sets the scene of the super rich cities of the America's and the people all vying to become wealthy.
Lastly, there are some lyrics that are not obviously connected but relate to the American experience. For example the verse
"Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly"
can be translated to trying new experiences as a harpoon shoots into unknown waters all the time which symbolizes new experiences. In American society, trying new experiences is recommended greatly and as a result the lyric describes the American experience well.
"Gunshots ranged out like a bell
I grabbed my nine, all I heard was shells
Falling on the concrete real fast"
show the dark-side of American life that very few experience. These lyrics describe a gang shooting that most likely was something that Vanilla Ice, himself, had experienced since he was part of many gangs during his younger years. As bad as gangs and gang violence are they are still an aspect of the American experience that many experience and are affected by.
As can be seen, so many of the lyrics are overtly related to the American experience and American principles. This relation is so strong because this song is loosely based on his life experiences, which are obviously very American since he has lived his entire life in the United States, and the commercialization of the song that attempted to make it something that all American's could relate to.
However, as can be seen from the contextualization, this song was truly all about establishing Vanilla Ice's image. With the rise of this individualistic philosophy Ice used his songs to establish a sort of gangster patriot image. With every verse, Vanilla Ice tries to make him seem tough and even talented through his dancing and such. After all, there is truly nothing more American than creating a unique image for oneself.
Vanilla Ice's hit single Ice Ice Baby contains many obvious connections to the American experience, as well as many subliminal connections. Thus, I will go over the clear connections first and then the subliminal ones, as a way to structure this essay. Opening with
"Stop, collaborate, and listen
Ice is back with a new invention"
Ice immediately opens with fundamental American values of teamwork and creativity, with the words "collaborate", "listen", and "invention", all very key aspects of the American Experience. In the second full stanza, Ice says
"anything less than the best is a felony
Love it or leave it, you better gain way
You better hit bull's eye, the kid don't play"
which hits home with the competitive nature of America, driven under its capitalistic economy. Businesses and people alike strive to be the best at whatever they do and these lyrics relate to the striving to be the best part of American society [9].
"Anything less than the best is a felony"
clearly connects to the striving for excellence that nearly all American schools adopt as their main goal for their students.
"Love it or leave it, you better gain way"
references the ingrained American ideal of perseverance and ardor on working towards your goals.
"You better hit bull's eye, the kid don't play"
similarly references the ideals from
"anything less than the best is a felony"
in the sense that both say to strive for the best and nothing less. Next comes up
"If there was a problem, yo, I'll solve it".
American's are known as problem solvers and this lyric just exemplifies this. The next verse
"Rockman lovers driving Lamborghinis
Jealous 'cause I'm out getting mine"
sets the scene of the super rich cities of the America's and the people all vying to become wealthy.
Lastly, there are some lyrics that are not obviously connected but relate to the American experience. For example the verse
"Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly"
can be translated to trying new experiences as a harpoon shoots into unknown waters all the time which symbolizes new experiences. In American society, trying new experiences is recommended greatly and as a result the lyric describes the American experience well.
"Gunshots ranged out like a bell
I grabbed my nine, all I heard was shells
Falling on the concrete real fast"
show the dark-side of American life that very few experience. These lyrics describe a gang shooting that most likely was something that Vanilla Ice, himself, had experienced since he was part of many gangs during his younger years. As bad as gangs and gang violence are they are still an aspect of the American experience that many experience and are affected by.
As can be seen, so many of the lyrics are overtly related to the American experience and American principles. This relation is so strong because this song is loosely based on his life experiences, which are obviously very American since he has lived his entire life in the United States, and the commercialization of the song that attempted to make it something that all American's could relate to.
However, as can be seen from the contextualization, this song was truly all about establishing Vanilla Ice's image. With the rise of this individualistic philosophy Ice used his songs to establish a sort of gangster patriot image. With every verse, Vanilla Ice tries to make him seem tough and even talented through his dancing and such. After all, there is truly nothing more American than creating a unique image for oneself.
Image Source
http://bigbackground.com/patriotic/old-american-flag-background.html
http://bigbackground.com/patriotic/old-american-flag-background.html