Jack - Eminem "Stan" and Bellatrix live at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith

I have chosen to review two different kinds of performances for this section. I will review a performance I watched at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith with Rapper and beatboxer Bellatrix.

Jack - Eminem "Stan" and Bellatrix live at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith

Bellatrix

Bellatrix was performing at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith as part of a project called "Sounding Off" and the concert was designed to get young musicians engaged and inspired by UK music artists. Bellatrix first gave a talk about how she made it in the music industry. Her career path was really interesting because she was actually a classical musician and she studied double bass at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music. She was originally shy at university but got into beatboxing on the side. She entered competitions after leaving Guildhall and became Uk Female Beatboxer of the year in 2014. I thought that her career talk was really interesting and it made me realise how much hard work goes into becoming a professional musician.

She then performed her beatbox in different styles and was amazing to watch. I really liked her style of performance and the way that she used lots of different sounds with her voice. She's quite unassuming as a person and I had no idea that she would have such a powerful voice. She showed us some different styles that she performed and then gave a demonstration on how to beatbox. I found that part interesting because I'm a keen beatboxer myself and I took quite a few tips from her. I particularly like the following clip because she is using the popular Dubstep style and creating lots of different instrument lines with her voice. Here she's creating the bass drum, snare drum, hit hat and other percussion lines whilst adding two synthesiser lines and a vocal line. It was pretty impressive stuff.

Conclusion

I think her talk and performance worked well because she engaged really well with the audience, (and at one point went right up to the front row). She was really clear about her career path and how she got where she is today and she communicated really well. Her performance was fantastic and very engaging for the audience and I think she enjoyed being a part of the event.

Eminem 'Stan' Music Video Review

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Themes

The song has deep controversial themes, I have chosen to review it because of the striking lyrical content and production.

This song was released in late 2000 at a time in Eminem's career where he was becoming an iconic and influential artist in mainstream pop culture. This song is a reflection of his status as a well known artist. The song is presented in a story telling context and is about an obsessed fan named Stan with potential mental health issues. the story unfolds from the point of view of Stan writing letters to Eminem also known as fan mail.

Stan becomes angry with Eminem for not responding to his letters and ends by driving himself and his pregnant girlfriend off a bridge and committing suicide.

Why is this song unique?

The song explores themes of mental health and domestic abuse, highlighted and bought to life more through the visuals of the music video. Another important theme the song touches on is societies idolisation with celebrity culture.

In the early 2000's when this song was released these themes where groundbreaking and the song was a huge hit worldwide.

The Lyrics

The lyrics are groundbreaking because there had never been a story told like this in a rap song before. The tracks is really moving and heart-wrenching, especially when he's saying how much Stan idolises Eminem. My favourite lyrics are:

See, I'm just like you in a way: I never knew my father neither
He used to always cheat on my mom and beat her
I can relate to what you're sayin' in your songs
So when I have a shitty day, I drift away and put 'em on
'Cause I don't really got shit else
So that shit helps when I'm depressed

I even got a tattoo of your name across the chest
Sometimes I even cut myself to see how much it bleeds

The track also features Dido's song in the chorus which makes it really distinctive. Her floating vocals are a stark contrast to Eminem's rap and it heightens the feeling of sadness in the song.

Eminem samples the chorus of the song from Dido's track 'thank-you'

'My teas gone cold I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all,

Morning rain clouds touch my window and I can't see at all,

And even if I could it would all be grey, but your picture on my wall, it reminds me that it's not so bad, it's not so bad.'

These lyrics sum up the songs overall feeling and imply that the character Stan is depressed and obsessing over Eminem as a release. Pathetic fallacy is used here. The words cold, clouds and grey are images we would associate with depression.

Is this a good example of Eminem's work? Explain more about the artist as a song writer.

Eminem has a kind of darkness about him and states that he had never even met his father. This shows through in songs like Stan because you can see in the lyrics the psychological effect of not having a father can have on someone. This also shows in songs like Hayley and Mocking Bird where he is trying to be an amazing father, he literally says he would die for his daughter. I think he is trying to make up for the mess left by his parents when he was young. Here is a quote from Mockingbird:

"Hailie I know you miss your mom and I know you miss your dad
When I'm gone but I'm trying to give you the life that I never had"

This is a user generated post from our wider Voice community and was not edited by the Voice team. We would love to hear your views too! Sign up for an account and make your Voice heard!

1 Comments

  • Luke Taylor

    On 19 July 2017, 10:26 Luke Taylor Contributor commented:

    Stan is an amazing song! Although I think you mean "pathetic fallacy" rather than "pathetic julacy"...

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