ext_121929 ([identity profile] ms-bracken.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] poptimists 2007-05-29 04:32 pm (UTC)

Re: NB vs. Alanis

I think there's a difference in the way the listener is addressed, though - Alanis' songs are very directed at what we can imagine to be an actual person, whereas Bedingfield, really, it could be anyone at all. I've actually been thinking quite a bit about pronouns in pop music recently (and could write about this for longer, but work presses...) so the Tashbed example means I can add another one to the current list-

- listener is passive, directly addressed (cf Alanis' You Outta Know)
- listener is active, directly addressed (cf pretty much anything off of Beck's Sexx Laws album -weak example but not noticed this one many other places)
- third party known to listener and narrator address through listener (cf FOB's Sugar, We're Goin' Down)
- narrator sings about narrator to generic or unspecified audience (cf Bedingfield's Babies)

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