Colbie Marie Caillat (born May 28, 1985) is an American pop singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist from California. The song Try by Colbie Caillat is very inspiring and it is a song that can relate to many people. This song has such a deep meaning to it. The lyrics in Try are saying that you are beautiful the way you are and you don't have to try so hard to be good enough for people. You don't have to be the thinnest or the prettiest to be beautiful. You also don't have to wear tons of make up or fake eyelashes to impress others. One part of the song says "You don't have to try so hard/You don't have to give it all away/You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up/You don't have to change a single thing." Try is about how us women feel like we need to change ourselves in so many different ways for people to accept us and like us," she said. "As much as we all hate that we allow that to happen, we still do it. Every day we wake up and change the way we look just so that we feel better about ourselves. Colbie and her producer were talking about that and it made her want to create a song that could touch people and that was honest and vulnerable. She was getting a lot of pressure to be someone she wasn't both musically and image wise. She wrote about exactly what people were asking her to do; whether it be to lose weight, or wear more makeup. To be a girl in todays society it is really hard to please people. We are always feeling like we are not good enough.
This song is definitely directed towards women. In the music video there is all different race of women, different body types and just all around a variety of women. They start of wearing make up and having their hair done then by the end they take it all off and are natural. It is directed towards women more because they are so much more harsh on themselves to be good enough, men just kind of go with it and don't think too much into their appearance ( for the most part). Its saying that for women its okay to wear make up and feel beautiful but its also okay to be natural and free which is hard for a lot of females to do.
To promote Try Caillat had female fans and other well known female artist make a lyric video without any make up on to give emphasis to the songs message. In just about two months the song had 27 million views on youtube. It is to date one of her most popular song she has had. I believe this song really speaks to women of all ages and races; it gives us a little hope and confidence. It's nice to finally hear a song with these type of lyrics.
Interesting choice - I've not heard of either this artist or this song.
ReplyDeleteYou discuss the pressure felt by this artist to create a hit - though that seems to be something common to any musician. What do you mean when you suggest she was "getting a lot of pressure to be someone she wasn't both musically and image wise"?
Why would her career managers try to manufacture her into a different type of artist than what came naturally?
I appreciate how she seems to understand the sorts of social pressures felt by her target audience - remember that the rhetorical critic is most interested in how discourse resonates with its audience. Has this artist - or this song - touched on a particular segment of her audience? The idea of being OK with yourself is also pretty common in pop music - what does Caillat do in her songs that makes her distinctive?
Good choice. Keep working!