Nicarao Estrada

In the modernist evolution of music there has been a shift in the cultural adaptions to many genres of music. The genre of R&B branches off to disco, doo wop, funk, Motown, neo-soul, and soul. The Cultural Icon which expresses this modernist twist of R&B is The Weeknd. The Weeknd is an alternative R&B artist born in Toronto who expresses his pain and his emotions through his music with his vivid and graphic lyrics. However, The Weeknd’s music is not so black and white, The Weeknd manages to paint a portrait through his angelic voice that harmonizes over a psychedelic and enchanting beat. The Weeknd has become a phenomenon for the way his music entraps those who have the pleasure to hear him. The Weeknd places a story behind music that is hidden behind many rhetorical artifacts to which he expresses his true intent. These artifacts are identified through his lyrics, his voice, and his music videos. The Weeknd’s music expresses the pain, life, love, addiction, self-hate, low self-esteem, and not being able to mentally cope with the world. His music reaches this generation because the intent to find a self-purpose and the feeling of being accepted or loved is what drives this generation to continue to live.

Within The Weeknd’s lyrics he is able to guide his listeners through a story that is expressed from his thoughts and experiences. In his early career his songs expressed a lot more pain and as he became more successful his lyrics started to paint a picture of his life in a more triumphant and joyful manner as compared to his lyrics in his early career that express defeat and self-hate. The Weeknd’s album House of Balloons which included electronic and urban genres, such as soul, indie rock, dream pop tones, and R&B is an enchanting yet satisfyingly dark twist to modern music. His first song on the album is called “High for this”, this song is about The weeknd trying to convince his girl to take ecstasy for the first time. Since she has not done it before she doesn’t know what to expect. This reaches the broader message to his fans who also don’t know what to expect from his music. In his lyrics he writes “You don't know,What's in store  But you know, what you're here for, Close your eyes Lay yourself beside me, Ohh, Hold tight, For this ride, We don't need no protection, Come on love, We don't need attention”. She doesn’t know what to expect but he tells her to lay bedside him and join him on his journey. He is also telling his fans to join him even though they don’t know where his music will take them. When he says that they don’t need protection he is saying that the girl and the fans shouldn’t try to prepare but instead they should accept the journey naturally as it happens as it will give them the best experience. He then says Open your hand “Take a glass, Don't be scared, I'm right here, Even though, You don't roll, Trust me girl, You wanna be high for this”. He is handing her a glass of water so she can take her pill, even though she has never done it before he tells her to trust him and that it will be worth it, she will want to be high for this experience. Throughout the song, he expresses his love as he affectionately guides her through her experience. He tells her that she isn’t going through it alone and he feels it too. He comforts her telling her to breath it will all be ok. The Weeknd is on this journey with his fans, he is the one guiding them through it and they must trust him, they’ll want to be high on his music.

Within The Weeknd’s vocal’s he is able to create a great sense of emotion as he enchants his listeners with an twisted yet angelic sounding style of singing. One can’t help but feel his pain as you hear the sadness and defeat song through his high vocal range that enables him to sound angelic. It sounds as if the music is drawing you in to realize some hidden dark truth about the world around you. The Weeknd is able to change the mood and meaning of his songs by simply adapting his voice to his mood adding extras personality to different parts of songs. In his live performances he sometimes sings his songs differently adding extra layers of emotion. The Weeknd is able to create a new song every time his sings the same one. Being as his singing voice is extremely high he still manages to avoid over using his breath and he is able effortlessly control how he exhales. There are emotions that cannot be expressed through words. Organic interactions are formed by the emotions formed by body language, speech, and personality. When The Weeknd sings we listen because he enamors us with his masterful play of his vocal range, using his voice as an instrument whose chords play there very own emotions. It is his emphasis on word choice and his emphasis on his harmonies in the way he sings where it can be shown. In song such as Wicked Games. When he says “Bring your love baby I could bring my shame, Bring the drugs baby I could bring my pain, I got my heart right here, I got my scars right here, Bring the cups baby I could bring the drink, Bring your body baby I could bring you fame”. In these lyrics he puts emphasis on the words Shame, Pain, here, drink, and fame. Those specific words except for shame are halt his speech and develop a dreary powerful stop to a thought. When he sings the word “here” he stretches it out as he expresses what is most important to him and the root of his pain. The stretching of “here” signifies how important “here” really is.

Within in his music videos The Weeknd is able to use powerful imagery to create metaphors that encompass his twisted lyrics. In the music video to his song “Tell your friends” it opens with him carrying a shovel through the dessert until he wonders upon a body in a ditch when close up one can see that The Weeknd is burying himself. The Weeknd is shown to be happy. This is a metaphor for him barring the old version of himself, the version that was ruled by depression and self-hate, the version of his music that only showed his self-destructive nature, and the version of his career that was small in comparison to his new one. The next thing you see is an old red haired man in suit, slowly walking towards him. The Weeknd shoots him and stands over his body and finishes the man off. The old red haired man is a symbol for the devil, who has had his grip on The Weeknd and who he sold his soul to. The Weeknd shooting the red-haired man is a metaphor for him no longer needing the devil to make himself feel better. The Weeknd doesn’t need him to be famous anymore, and he doesn’t need the self-destructive life he is living anymore; however, he expresses in his lyrics that he wants everyone to know that he is still doing all of these things, and he is still the iconic singer with the hair and pill popping. The overall message is that he will continue to live his life the same except now he doesn’t do it out of a sense of pain but out of happiness its fun now and he doesn’t need the devils influence to do what he wants. He doesn’t seek fulfillment in his life from drugs and love and fame because he likes who he is now. The video is a brilliant tool used by The Weeknd to rhetorically tell his story. As someone who is going through a change in his life, both mentally and in his career, he can share his journey in the symbolism to which he places in his music videos. In the music video to his song “Can’t feel my face” The Weeknd opens the scene as a singer in a night club, as he starts to sing you can see the passion in his performance but as the scene changes to the crowd, they seem displeased with his performance, except for one person. The one person who does like his performance is a young woman who seems to be seductively entranced by him as the crowd throws drinks and objects at him and seems to have a real distain for him. Through the performance, he continues to show that same passion. The scene then focuses on the old man with the red hair who is lighting a cigarette. As The Weeknd hits his high note the red haired man throws the lighter at him and he catches fire as he spins. The crowd then goes wild with excitement and everyone loves his performance. The symbolizes The Weeknd selling his soul to the devil to become famous. Throughout the performance, he was being abused until he catches flame. This is a metaphor for his career, when he was first starting out people didn’t respect his music as much until eventually he caught flame and became the next big thing. The old red haired man was his tool to success, a metaphor for all the messed up stuff he had to do to become famous.