Recently, some artists have released music and music videos that are all about body positivity. This is something that is not really brought up that much in popular culture and especially not in the music industry. The most recent example is John Legend’s music video for the song “You & I.” Although the song alone does center on body positivity for women, I feel the music video really makes the statement. It features women of all different ethnicities, ages, gender expressions, sexualities, abilities and much more. The cool thing is that it’s nothing more than showing video footage of these women, and yet it creates a huge impact. It’s a great example of body positivity and the video is very touching and emotional.
While this is a great example of women’s body positivity in the music industry, it does have one main problem: it’s the men telling the women. The song is still overall very positive, but it’s the typical “You Don’t Know You’re Beautiful” type of song. Unfortunately, there are not that many examples of female singers singing about body positivity. One good example is “Try” by Colbie Caillat. It’s a powerful song, which funny enough has a music video that is very similar to the “You & I” video. It again features women of different backgrounds, but the difference is they sing along with her as well as remove their makeup. It also features Colbie without makeup and Photoshop enhancement. The point of the song is to show that the media has put such a stress on girls wearing make-up and how that’s the only way to be beautiful, when really you don’t have to try so hard, you’re already beautiful. It’s a really feel-good and uplifting song.
Speaking of feel-good music, India.Arie has a song entitled “Video” that even without listening to the message just makes you feel good. It makes you feel even better when you realize it’s all about loving yourself and feeling beautiful. India.Arie has been making music for a very long time, and this song, released in 2009, has the most listens on Spotify out of all her songs. I assume that’s because of the fun, inspiring attitude of the song. It is definitely a great listen and also brings body positivity to the music world.
One of the best examples of body positivity in the music industry is Meghan Trainor’s recent release “All About That Bass.” This is Meghan’s first song released ever, and she jumps into the industry on a very positive note. This song has a retro, throwback feel and is all about loving yourself. It mainly focuses on issues of weight and approaches it very appropriately. You just can’t help but smile when she sings “every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top.” It does seem like she may be against the typical skinny girl, but when you really listen to the lyrics, it’s more of a playful jab than anything else. Of course people are still going to say it’s bad and not equal, but in my opinion, they are just pessimists.
Body positivity in music is really important, mainly because, well, everyone listens to music. No matter who you are it’s great to hear that you are beautiful and that you should love yourself, especially from people in entertainment. These artists do have an influence on their listeners and can affect people in very positive ways. Though these songs appear to be mainly directed towards women, even as a male they are inspiring and uplifting. It would be really interesting to hear a song about male body positivity, and I think it would be really well received.
