Contrasting Messages: 'Man in the Mirror' vs. 'Young, Wild and Free'

Andrea Borg English 1202 Professor Greg 5/1/2020 The two diverse songs of “Man In the mirror” and “Young, Wild and free These two songs I decided compare to each other are songs that are known worldwide but both portray different messages towards society, one being a good message to change the world and the other completely contrasting to that talking about living young and wild and doing what you want. The positive song is called “Man in the mirror” by Michael Jackson and the negative song being “Young, Wild and Free” by Whiz Khalifa. Personally, I have listened to both these songs a lot of times and I must admit I enjoyed listening to both. However, one of them portrays a message that is not ideal for the public to really hear since it is sending out a wrong message and bear in mind its not only adults that would be listening to it but young kids as I first heard this song on the radio when I was young. People might think it is okay because the kids aren’t going to literally listen to the lyrics and do it, but you would be surprised how many kids actually listen to the lyrics and think if he is saying that and doing that, then it should be fine for me to do it. On the other hand, “Man in the mirror” is a very good song with good lyrics that sends a message to do better for the world and Michael Jackson emphasizing that he is going to make a change himself. “Man in the mirror” is one of my favorite songs of all time, not only because of the lyrics but because of who sang it that suits the song perfectly, a soulful voice that could really get the lyrics out and make the audience feel it as well. At the start of the song he starts off by saying that he is going to make a change to this world and how good of a feeling it is going to feel to do so. “I’m gonna make a change for once in my life, it’s gonna feel really good, gonna make a difference, gonna make it right”. This is how the song starts and already sends out a strong message indicating people to make a difference in the world and if you do you will be rewarded in having a good feeling about yourself. Society would actually listen to him because he is such a big figure in this world and so if they do, we could make this world a better place. In contrast with that song, this other song has a completely different message with completely different types of people singing this song. For example, in the music video they are all smoking, drinking and partying as if it is all okay to do so. In the fist verse of the song he is explaining how he gets drunk and smokes weed and indicates how he is just having fun and does not care who sees him. “So up we get drunk, so up we smoke weed, we’re just having fun, we don’t care who sees, so what we go out, that’s how its supposed to be, living young, wild and free”. This Is not the message that should be educating our society, especially to new generation because smoking weed, and drinking is not a joke when people actually die from it. Saying “That’s how its supposed to be” doesn’t help either because its sending out the completely wrong message and the problem is that people would actually take the lyrics literate and copy what he is doing. My favorite verse form Jacksons song and probably everyone’s gives a strong message emphasizing that to make a change In this world you first have to look at yourself and see what you could do to benefit thus world and send out a message to other people to follow your steps. “I’m starting with the man in the mirror, I’m asking him to change his ways, and no message could have been any clearer, If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself then make a change”. This is the main message of the song to indicate that if you want to make the world a better place, you have to first be doing something to benefit the world yourself. It is strong message to the new generation and also the current generation as out world is no where near perfect and has a lot of imperfections. On the other hand, another verse in the song send out the wrong message to society saying to roll one and smoke and when you live like this you got to party and all of this is just for fun as if it is all a joke. “Ye, roll one, smoke one. When you live like this, you’re supposed to party. Roll one, smoke one, and we all just having fun…”. For young people when they listen to this song, they might believe that, that is what they have to do to have fun in life when that is not the case. So, this song sends out the wrong message and doesn’t do anything to educate the young generation. These two songs are very diverse in what they are portraying in life and the right things to do. One of them speaking about partying, drugs and alcohol whereas, the other talking about making a difference in life to benefit other people. They are two songs I very much like, but people might take the lyrics for literate and actually do the negative things but on the other hand do the positive things as well. Unfortunately, there are always going to be songs coming out that illustrate the wrong message but it is just a case of needing to educate the younger people so they do the right things and not do the wrong things because they think it is “cool”.