"All About That Bass," "Lips Are Movin,’" and "Dear Future Husband" are just some of the catchy radio hits by Grammy winner Meghan Trainor. Though her songs are played copiously at schools, malls, and on television, not everyone agrees with her music. There is often much controversy with the lyrical content and subject matter of her songs. Some strongly dislike her as a person, and her music. Regardless of whether one agrees with her music or not, her job as an artist is fulfilled.
Art can be seen as an ambiguous term. It may include many mediums such as, but not limited to, singing, cooking, painting, directing or writing. While the quality of such is subjective, along with the personal meaning, the main focus with art has often been to spark conversation and evoke a strong feeling about the subject matter at hand. Whether one agrees with the content or not isn’t necessarily relevant, as long as it makes them question the topic or subject the artist is channeling. For Trainor, one doesn’t have to look far to pull examples of this. In her song All About That Bass, some people believe she is praising various body types and promoting body positivity. On the other hand, some believe she is shaming a certain body type to build up another. This song sparked tremendous controversy with numerous interviews, debates, tweets, and posts about the song. The issue of shaming and praising certain body types in society was brought to question. Though not everyone agrees with Trainor or her views, she is satisfying her role as an artist, to make her listeners question the music they are engaging with. This helps them further or formulate certain opinions, and gives them the basis to discuss them with others. Whichever viewpoint one takes in regards to the song, she is making her listeners question the body types seen in Hollywood media, and she furthers this by making her audience question the impact of such, and the view towards certain body types. Some may regard her song poorly as a negative reiteration of body diversity. Some, however, would regard this more highly, as a good demonstration of this issue. Trainor utilizes her position as an artist to allow the discussion of such topics.
Another example of Trainor's use of her artistic platform, was with her song Dear Future Husband. Some take this to be a sexist view of women's position in a marriage and in the domestic realm, while others believe it is to analyze the respect women deserve when entering such sphere. Yet through the use of this song, the discussion of such is brought to question. While questioning Trainor's belief in one of these views over another is important, the main objective, however, with art is for the audience to formulate and discuss such issue regardless of the artists view.
A good artist may not necessarily be someone that is admired. They may not be famous and may not carry or share the same views as certain individuals that are processing their art form. Yet, for an artist to utilize their platform to help bring a discussion to certain topics, one can see art as a creative tool to share and discuss such. Meghan Trainor is one example of a good artist.
