Nia's Song Analysis

The first time we were told to do song analysis we thought that it would be the easiest thing to do. Turns out that it was a lot of work. We not only had to analyze the song but we had to analyze the speakers and their reason for writing the song. Here is an example of a song analysis:

India Arie: I Am Not My Hair
 What the song means to me: 

I am not my Hair by India.Arie is a protest song to me because I feel as if she’s telling the world you’re not going to get anywhere in life with just looks. And I feel that it’s also telling people not to judge me or anyone else on the way that person may look because the inside is what really matters. She’s telling us that you aren’t your hair; you aren’t your physical appearance. It is what’s on the inside that is important and that is what makes you beautiful. In her song she asks, “Does the way I wear my hair make me a better person?” No! It doesn’t. It shouldn’t matter about what you look like on the outside. You shine from the inside out and that’s how you should feel good about yourself. Relying on looks all your life won’t get you anything.



 SOAPSToneS, Historical Significance and Amendments the Song Address or Violate: 

The speaker in this song was India.Arie, Drew Ramsey, and Sharon Simpson. The occasion could have been during a time of many judgments. The audience is the whole world or for anyone that is judgmental on themselves or on others. The purpose of this song is to tell people that the outside doesn’t matter; it’s the inside that people really pay attention to. The subject of this song is about being who you are not what you want to be, and not worrying about what you look like or what people have to say. The tone of this song was very confident. Her tone relates to the amendments and how she addressed them. She uses freedom of speech because she is protesting what she feels. Nobody can or is stopping her from saying what she thinks. The structure of this song is that there are 14 lines in each verse; there are 7 lines in the chorus and every other like rhymes in the chorus. The historical significance behind the song is that it was written in November 2005 and it was the most successful release from her album Testimony: Vol. 1, Life and Relationships.





 Literary tools used: 

In this song I think India. Arie used the literary tool types of appeal. The type of appeal she used what Pathos. It affected people’s emotions. The ones who judge themselves and the ones that judge others.

Another literary tool that India.Arie uses in her song is satire. Satire states the use of ridicule and in her song there are people talking and they are talking about how funny and weird looking her hair looks. But towards the end the laughter ends and they start to like it instead on judge her.

