Assignment 4

1. What is the song basically saying about how to live a good life? Paraphrase the main idea.

The song "Good Life" by Kanye West and T-Pain says basically that living a good life is based on being rich and successful, having nice cars and things that catch women's eyes. Specifically good looking or "sexy" women. Generally they mean to say the living a good life is making money and living life with luxury, though to get there you have to be different than others, you need to stand out in some way.

2. What lyrics particularly speak to that perspective? Use quotes as evidence.

Specifically, lyrics that depict the image of the good life being a life where you live luxuriously are in the lines "And if they hate let em' hate and watch the money pile up, the good life." He says "watch the money pile up, the good life" - this tells us that having money leads to having Kanye's version of the "good life", wherein a man lives comfortably with his riches. Preceding the first quote he says "50 told me go 'head switch the style up" meaning that in the industry, for someone to make their riches, they have to stand out in a crowd, a reflection on the modern music industry where music all generally follow similar themes.
Something else worth mentioning is that Kanye West references several American cities in the song. These cities include Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Atlanta, and Chicago. The major similarity between all of these areas is that they are urban environments where "street" culture is the dominant subculture. He says "The good life, it feel like Atlanta, It feel like L.A., it feel Like Miami, It feel like N.Y., feel like summertime Chi, ahh" so he's saying that the people who live the good life live in these areas, and the one thing they have in common is their "street cred" and their urbanity.

3. How do the video images support, re-orient, or challenge the dominant theme of the lyrics? Analyze.

The video both correlates with the lyrics and disagrees with the underlying message of the song. In the video we see T-Pain and Kanye West singing the song alongside images that match with the lyrics, i.e. a ferrari, good looking women, and the various cities that he mentions represent the "good life." Ergo, we associate the urban lifestyles prominent in the cities as a good life. However, contradictory to the message of originality he intends to send when he says "50 told me go 'head switch the style up...watch the money pile up", the song focuses on a good life derived from getting women, money and power.

4. What else do you notice that's interesting? Look for internal contradictions, aspects of the message that resonate with other messages from the pop culture, points that connect to your own perspective, etc. Analyze squared.

As I have said before, the message is contradictory in that Kanye tries to say that he is original among the music industry today, thus leading to his general success, even though this song is just another song that depicts men living a good life because of they women they sleep with, the money they acquire, and the things they own. The concept of a good life being a hedonistic existence is prevalent in most of modern culture, get the girl, live life hassle-free, live a pleasurable life. Connecting this to my own perspective, I understand how true meaning is derived from whatever brings happiness to someone's life, that if you find it most meaningful to own a ferrari and be rich and live life luxuriously, then you are entitled to it and though some may not find it so, that is a meaningful life, at least to you.