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Lyrics
Music… The universal language that connects us all through emotion. Whether it be disgust, inspiration or enlightenment, music is a form of art that has the ability to invoke our innermost feelings. Throughout history, a plethora of songs have been created that were able to easily move it’s listeners. One song that was able to capture my emotion is Eminem’s “Soldier”. “Soldier” wouldn’t have been as successful as it was in appealing to me if it weren’t for the five tools used to make a song successful: A captivating hook, a respect to an idiom, a unique concept, a universal theme and the expression of the artist’s emotions.
In Eminem’s “Soldier”, a very catchy and appealing hook is used to express the overall theme of the song as well as emotionally connect to the listener. The hook of the song (“These shoulders hold up so much, I wont budge, I’ll never fall or fold up”) expresses the significant overtone of perseverance. Eminem sings the song in in a way where he clearly expresses his emotions rather than in a monotone fashion that would usually dive away the listener.
Although maintaining his originality, Eminem follows the specified idioms given to hip-hop to appeal to the proper demographic and to maintain his credibility as a hip-hop artist. Thing such as singing, and non-urban subjects are often frowned upon by the Hip-Hop world, because they usually signify an artist’s shift to a less respectable genre. Throughout his verses Eminem maintains an intense and aggressive tone which is common and respected in rap. In the song, Eminem says ”I caught the rep of a villain, for weapon concealin’, took the image of a thug, kept sh*t appealin’” which proves that he can effectively use proper urban and street related terms to relate to the listeners who set the idioms for the genre.
Unique imagery is very rare in the world of Hip-Hop. Many artists often rhyme about monotonous urban themes like sex, drugs, money and murder. Although eminem touches on most of these subjects in “Soldier” he only uses them to emphasize the truth in his original theme of perseverance. Eminem is not the first artist to use this theme, but by doing so with anger and animosity he effectively exhibits his creativity.
A captivating song needs a premise that all of it’s listeners can relate to… a universal theme. In “soldier” the universal theme clearly perseverance. In our day to day lives we often find conflict. When problems arise we have the options to either solve or ignore them. Those who choose to solve their problems should find it easy to relate to “Soldier’s” universal theme of perseverance.
Whether it is in a song or in life, honesty is a key factor in capturing emotion in any situation. In the song, Eminem discusses some hardships he has faced in his life and how he has dealt or will deal with them. Eminem’s life has been followed by the media so mans of the things that he discusses in the song have been publicized. In addition to the media proving him to be credible, his emotions are poured out into the song and are easily noticed.
As a result of having a catchy hook, following the rules of a genre, being unique, using a universal theme and successfully expressing emotion, Eminem’s soldier follows the perfect formula that can easily captivate and move any listener. In many cases this formula leads to a successful song, but that isn’t always the situation. Every song has a fifty-fifty chance of failure but it is obvious that soldier doesn’t fall into that category.