Music: An Outlet for Revenge

As all other teenagers do these days, I spend countless hours of my time listening to music. In fact, I am doing just that as I write this. Music can convey so many emotions and meanings that sometimes it's hard to know just what's being talked about. Everyone knows of the revenge- driven Blondie hit " One Way or Another". Blondie may have written one of the more popular revenge songs, but she is most definitely not the only music artist with revenge on the brain. After scrolling through my iTunes library, I was surprised to find that it contains quite a bit of songs about revenge, in all different music genres.

When I think of revenge in music, I almost automatically think of the song "Before He Cheats" by American Idolist Carrie Underwood. This song speaks of a woman's revenge after she finds out she is being cheated on. She vandalizes his car by slashing his tires and keying the door. Carrie Underwood sure proved that she is not someone to be messed with, because she will get you back. Another more violent revenge song is "Kim" by Eminem. Like many of Eminem's tracks, this one is very descriptive and emotion-driven. The lyrics explain how a man gets back at the mother of his child when she leaves him for another guy. Unlike Carrie Underwood's song, Eminem is much more ruthless towards his target of revenge. In these songs, the artist felt that someone did them wrong, and they took it upon themselves to settle the score.

Another form of revenge would be to just ignore the person who did you wrong and to not give them the satisfaction of getting to you. P!nk's "So What?" is one of the best examples of this idea, aside from Cee Lo Green's "Forget You." Both of these songs are perfect examples of not letting revenge get to you, but rather walking away from the problem and not even bothering with it. They both just basically say "Forget you, I'm not even gonna waste my time."

Another music artist, Ed Sheeran, has been quoted saying "Success is the best revenge for anything."  The best way to get even with someone who did you wrong is to do exactly what they made you feel that you couldn't. Not only will you succeed in not letting them pull out the revenge-crazed person inside of you, but you also look like the better person for not giving in to their remorseless ways.

Growing up, my mom always told me that "what goes around comes around." Because this philosophy is permanently cemented into my mind, I feel that revenge is usually unnecessary and that it's better to just keep doing what you're doing to be successful. It's better to just let things play out they way they will naturally and hopefully, whoever did you wrong will get what they deserve. I guess it's safe to say that I believe in karma. But who's to say that you can't speed up karma's processes with a little revenge action?

My question for you is this. Which artists do you most relate to; Blondie,Eminem and Carrie Underwood, P!ink and Cee Lo, or Ed Sheeran? I challenge you to find the best way to deal with your feelings of revenge by using your own unique combination of all three ideas.

Satire

Satire in the Movies

With today's technology, it's hard to avoid anything these days. No matter where you turn to; be it the Internet, television, cell phones, anything, some things will always be present in our lives, one of these things being satire. Everyone knows of the oh-so-popular Weird Al parodies and clever Saturday Night Live skits, but some of the lesser knows satire-filled pieces are movies.

If you're like me and spend the snowy afternoons bundled up under a blanket watching ABC Family with your dog, you may have seen a movie that I happen to find extremely satire-filled. Without boring you with the predictable lovey-dovey details, My Fake Fiancé, which features comedians Melissa Joan Heart and Joey Lawrence, is about two people who meet at a wedding, ironically enough. They are both intrigued by the amount of gifts and money the couple receive and come up with the idea to stage a fake marriage, just for the gifts. In the end, though, like all popular love movies, the two end up falling in love and living happily ever after. The satire in the beginning is much more easily recognizable, as you can almost hear the screen writer judging couples who marry for the money rather than the love. I can't help but think that the ending is just a continuation of satire. Isn't it ironic how two people, completely uninterested in love, just so happen to find love when faking their own wedding?

Author Mark Twain uses satire to enhance his famous work The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, using the same techniques found in the movie. Twain shows a bit of his views on slavery in the novel, but rather than taking the chance of offending many people, as the book was written during a very racial time, he uses satire. He subtly throws his two cents into the novel, but still keeps it comical coming from a young teenage boy. Because of his use of satire, some of Twain's comments may be missed by those who aren't educated enough on the topic. If you feel the need to become an informed reader so you can pick up on these nifty tricks, feel free to click here.