Dear Stan, Chill Out Bro.
Whether it's casting spells with Harry Potter, cooking with Walter White, or fighting aliens with the Avengers, it's easy to get sucked into the media we consume. While it's easier to do this with visual media like books or movies, music is another medium that can be so enthralling that you lose sight of reality. If a song has otherworldly psychedelic production, or if the singer hits that high note really good, you can get trapped in that moment with the artist. While these are all ways you can get lost in the music, there is a more effective way that a song can put you in its world, and that is through the lyrics.
One way an artist's lyrics can pull you into the world of the song is by the use of different points of view. A masterful use of POV is the song "Stan", by Eminem, where throughout the song, he raps to himself from the point of view of an Eminem fanatic named Stan. Even before the lyrics, Eminem puts you in a world with his use of Dido's "Thank You", which sets the tone to be somber, possibly eerie, and overall not happy at all, with some key mood setters being "My tea's gone cold", "rain clouds up my window", and "it'd all be gray". These particular words and phrases really help set the mood for the rest of the song
After that, you already realize this isn't Eminem's POV, from the first line, where he reads "Dear Slim," with "Slim" referring to Slim Shady, Eminem's alter ego, who is a crazy character he plays, who Eminem shows that you shouldn't idolize through this song. Eminem really excels at portraying this type of person, and sometimes when I listen to the song, I forget it's really Eminem rapping those first few verses due to the immense amount of emotion he puts into them. He also doesn't have the same swagger he has on tracks usually, which just flicks a switch in my brain saying this is Stan, not Slim.
Through this POV, Eminem explores the issues that he himself, and people around him faced, such as domestic abuse and absent parents, which while he became rich and successful, others still faced the repercussions of. Through Stan, he shows how these problems can manifest themselves in the lives of the people they affected, showing how Stan treats his pregnant girlfriend, only obsessing over Eminem and failing to recognize how his girlfriend is feeling.
In the final verse, Eminem responds to this fictional representation of many toxic qualities, denouncing them while also showing compassion, and showing that he is willing to provide help for these people through this one verse.
Comments
Post a Comment