As many of you may know, this past week, legendary R&B singer Whitney Houston passed away. Having been a huge fan of Houston, I thought I would dedicate this post to her.
Naturally, when any celebrity dies, especially a singer, their music tends to be played again and again on networks such as MTV and Vh1. One of Houston's songs that I heard played this week was "When You Believe", which she collaborated on with Mariah Carey.
Aside from their amazing voices, what makes this song especially moving is the message. The chorus says, "There can be miracles / When you believe / Though hope is frail / It's hard to kill / Who knows what miracles / You can achieve / When you believe somehow you will / You will when you believe..." The song is so encouraging to its listeners; it enables them to believe in themselves because you never know what may happen. The song reminds listeners that miracles are attainable, if you just believe.
This song exemplifies how music acts as a form of rhetoric. Often times, we merely listen to music because the beat is catchy or it's a song performed by one of our favorite artists. However, if we take a second to analyze the music a little bit further, we realize just how rhetorical music really is. Songs almost always have a deeper message for the listener to grasp (well that is, if the music isn't made by Soulja Boy). Here, the song is meant to positively influence and encourage its listeners. Similar to the advertisements we are going to be analyzing, this song portrays a particular message and influences listeners to respond in a particular way. Guess this goes to show how rhetoric can be found in literally everything around us!
P.S. This is one of my favorite Whitney Houston songs and I wanted to share it with you all :)
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