The document discusses song lyrics and whether they matter in achieving gender equality. It analyzes lyrics from several classic songs from Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, The Shirelles and Etta James. Some lyrics, like Elvis Presley's "It's Now or Never", are seen as demanding satisfaction with little regard for the woman's feelings. In contrast, Bob Dylan's "All I Really Want to Do" expresses a desire for friendship over domination. The Shirelles sing of anxiety over a relationship lasting. Etta James' "I'd Rather Go Blind" expresses devastation over a lost love.

1. Song lyrics
Do they matter in the move
towards equality between
Women and Men?

2. Do you listen to the words of a
song?
• The idea of listening to the lyrics of
popular music as a way of thinking
about gender equality had been
considered by John and Keith for
some time.
• Last October it became a news story
nationally, and in our local city of
Newcastle, where it was banned by
the university’s student union.

3. Blurred Lines: the most controversial song of the decade
Another student union has banned Robin Thicke's party track.
How did it become such a lightning rod for moral outrage and
censorship?
Dorian Lynskey
The Guardian, Wednesday 13 November 2013
This week, University College London student union (UCLU) took the unusual step of
banning a single song, Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines. It joins around 20 other UK
student unions to do so. This is the latest development in the story of how the biggest
song of the year became the most controversial of the decade: an unprecedented
achievement, though not one that fills Thicke with pride.
It seems impossible that anyone with the faintest interest in popular culture could
have missed either the song or the controversy, but here is a recap. At the end of
March, mid-table R&B singer Thicke, along with producer Pharrell Williams and rapper
TI, released Blurred Lines, a libidinous R&B party jam about a woman in a nightclub
who may or not be interested in him. In April, one blogger branded it a "rape song",
and two months later Tricia Romano of the Daily Beast described it as "rapey", a word
that caught fire in other media outlets. The song might have escaped censure if
the video, in which the three male performers goof around with scantily clad (and, in
one version, topless) models, had not generated its own separate yet overlapping
controversy.

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyDUC1LU
XSU

5. Everybody get up
Everybody get up
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
[Verse 1: Robin Thicke]
If you can't hear what I'm trying to say
If you can't read from the same page
Maybe I'm going deaf, maybe I'm going blind
Maybe I'm out of my mind
[Pre-chorus: Robin Thicke]
OK now he was close, tried to domesticate you
But you're an animal, baby it's in your nature
Just let me liberate you
Hey, hey, hey
You don't need no papers
Hey, hey, hey
That man is not your maker
[Chorus: Robin Thicke]

6. And that's why I'm gon' take a good
girl
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
You're a good girl
Can't let it get past me
You're far from plastic
Talk about gettin blasted
I hate these blurred lines
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
But you're a good girl
The way you grab me
Must wanna get nasty
Go ahead, get at me
[Verse 2: Robin Thicke]

7. What do they make dreams for
When you got them jeans on
What do we need steam for
You the hottest bitch in this place
I feel so lucky
Hey, hey, hey
You wanna hug me
Hey, hey, hey
What rhymes with hug me?
Hey, hey, hey
[Pre-chorus: Robin Thicke]
OK now he was close, tried to
domesticate you
But you're an animal, baby it's in your
nature
Just let me liberate you
Hey, hey, hey
You don't need no papers
Hey, hey, hey
Than man is not your maker
Hey, hey, hey
[Chorus: Robin Thicke]

8. Beyonce
The woman, mother, wife and
feminist.

9. Who is she??
• Beyoncé Giselle Knowles
(1981-09-04) September 4, 1981
• Wife to Jay-Z
• Mother to Blue Ivy
• Destiny's Child 1997-2001

10. Beyonce.
• raised in Houston, Texas, she performed in various singing and dancing
competitions as a child, and rose to fame in the late 1990s as lead singer
of R&B girl-group Destiny's Child.
• Managed by her father
• as a solo artist her first album sold 11 million copies, earned five Grammy
Awards and featured number-one singles "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy".
• Her marriage to rapper Jay-Z and portrayal of Etta James in Cadillac
Records (2008) influenced her third album, I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008),
which saw the birth of her alter-ego Sasha Fierce and earned a record-
setting six Grammy Awards in 2010
• In 2010 she took over her own career management
• A self-described "modern-day feminist",[6] Beyoncé's songs are often
characterized by themes of love, relationships, and monogamy, as well as
female sexuality and empowerment

12. If I were a boy,
Even just for a day.I
I'd roll out of bed in the morning and throw on want I wanted and go.I'd drink beer with the guys
And chase after girls
I'd kick it with who I wanted
And I never get confronted for it
Because they stick up for me
If I were a boy
I'd think I could understand
How it feels to love a girl
I swear I'd be a better man
I'd listen to her
Cuz I know how it hurts
When u lose the one you wanted
Cuz his taken you for granted
And everything you had got destroyed
If I were a boy
I would turn off my phone
Tell everyone it's broken
So they think
That I was sleeping alone
I'd put myself first
And make the rules as I go
Cause I know that
She be faithful
Waiting for me to come home (COME HOME)

13. If I were a boy
I'd think I could understand
How it feels to love a girl
I swear I'd be a better man
I'd listen to her
Cuz I know how it hurts
When u lose the one you wanted
Cuz his taken you for granted
And everything you had got destroyed
It's a little too late for you to come back
Say it's just a mistake think I would forgive you like that
If you thought I would wait for you, you thought wrong
But you're just a boy
You don't understand
How it feels to love a girl
Someday you wish you're were a better man
You don't listen to her
You don't care how it hurts
Until you lose the one you wanted
Cuz you taken you for granted
And everything you had got destroyed!
But you just a boy.

14. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWpsOqh
8q0M&feature=kp

15. Travelling back in time.......
• Elvis Presley, singing ‘It’s Now or
Never’, seems to demand that his
desire be satisfied, with little
thought for her feelings.
• Bob Dylan’s song, ‘All I really
want to do’, states that he doesn’t
want to dominate, just wants
friendship.

16. "It's Now Or Never"
It's now or never,
come hold me tight
Kiss me my darling,
be mine tonight
Tomorrow will be too late,
it's now or never
My love won't wait.
When I first saw you
with your smile so tender
My heart was captured,
my soul surrendered
I'd spend a lifetime
waiting for the right time
Now that youre near
the time is here at last.
It's now or never,
come hold me tight
Kiss me my darling,
be mine tonight
Tomorrow will be too late,
it's now or never
My love won't wait.
Just like a willow,
we would cry an ocean
If we lost true love
and sweet devotion
Your lips excite me,
let your arms invite me
For who knows when
we'll meet again this way
It's now or never,
come hold me tight
Kiss me my darling,
be mine tonight
Tomorrow will be too late,
it's now or never
My love won't wait.

17. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkMVscR5
YOo&list=RDQkMVscR5YOo

18. "All I Really Want To Do"
I ain't lookin' to compete with you
Beat or cheat or mistreat you
Simplify you, classify you
Deny, defy or crucify you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
No, and I ain't lookin' to fight with you
Frighten you or tighten you
Drag you down or drain you down
Chain you down or bring you down
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
I ain't lookin' to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up
Analyze you, categorize you
Finalize you or advertise you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
I don't want to straight-face you
Race or chase you, track or trace you
Or disgrace you or displace you
Or define you or confine you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
I don't want to meet your kin
Make you spin or do you in
Or select you or dissect you
Or inspect you or reject you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
I don't want to fake you out
Take or shake or forsake you out
I ain't lookin' for you to feel like me
See like me or be like me
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

19. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIEV1OanDGY
This is a shortened version by The Byrds.

20. Some ‘Classics’
• The Shirelles sing of a ‘sweet’ love, but
there is anxiety about whether it will last.
• Etta James, singing ‘I would rather go
blind’, has experienced that
disappointment; she is devastated by her
loss, having been ‘dropped’ by her man,
who now has someone else.
• (Etta James was portrayed by Beyonce in
the film ‘Cadillac Records’)

21. "
Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
•Tonight you're mine completely
You give your love so sweetly
Tonight the light of love is in your eyes
But will you love me tomorrow?
Is this a lasting treasure
Or just a moment's pleasure?
Can I believe the magic of your sighs?
Will you still love me tomorrow?
Tonight with words unspoken
You say that I'm the only one
But will my heart be broken
When the night meets the morning sun?
I'd like to know that your love
Is love I can be sure of
So tell me now, and I won't ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow?
So tell me now, and I won't ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow?
Will you still love me tomorrow?
Will you still love me tomorrow?
Songwriters
Goffin, Gerry / King, Carole

22. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnPlJxet_a
c

23. Etta James

24. I'd Rather Go Blind
Something told me it was over
When I saw you and her talking
Something deep down in my soul said, "Cry girl"
When I saw you and that girl, walking 'round, oooh
I would rather, I would rather go blind boy
Than to see you, walk away from me, child, oh, oooh
So you see I love you so much
That I don't want to watch you leave me baby
Most of all, I just don't, I just don't want to be free, no, oooh oooh
I was just, I was just, I was just sitting here thinking
Of your kisses and your warm embrace, yeah
When the reflection in the glass that I held to my lips, now baby
Revealed the tears that was on my face, yeah, oooh
And baby, baby, I would rather, I would rather be blind boy
Than to see you walk away, see you walk away from me, yeah, oooh
Baby, baby, baby, I'd rather be blind now
Songwriters
BUTTERFIELD, PAUL V.

25. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WH3zr_X
17A&list=RD6WH3zr_X17A

26. Are the words
important?
Should some songs be
banned?