I have decided to frame my album review around an audience that has grown up listening to Eminem and is accustomed to his Slim Shady persona. Because I want to focus my writing on the artist's transition from his fanatic, crazed alter-ego image to a sober and self-reflective rapper, it would make sense that my audience understands the roots of Eminem's dominance in the music industry. Recovery can be viewed as the "conclusion" to Eminem's story- his climax being The Slim Shady LP, where Slim Shady was alive and well. Recovery personifies Eminem as a figure that has killed off his alter ego- Eminem is now attempting to express his true self and is finally ready to get out from under his Slim Shady disguise, whether his fans will like it or not.
Obviously, the audience reading my review will enjoy rap music. More specifically, I visualize them having an affinity towards lyrical wordplay and the clever rhymes that Eminem is known for. By reading my review, I want my audience to understand why Recovery is so different from what was expected. I can see my review being published in a scholar musical journal or magazine (maybe even The Rolling Stone). After reading my review, I hope my audience understands the difference between Slim Shady and Eminem. I hope they gain a newfound respect for the 40 year old King of Hip-Hop, despite his failures within Recovery.
"Encore I was on drugs, Relapse I was flushing them out"- "Talkin' To Myself" Eminem 2010 Recovery
Recovery unearths a new Eminem, post-Rehab. Therapeutic.
I think you have a strong idea of who you are writing to and that will translate well in your paper as it will cater to your target audience. I also like the angle you are taking with your paper, I think it will make for a really interesting read.
ReplyDeleteI know you and I talked about this in class yesterday, but I still think you getting super specific with your audience would be really cool. I think some of the things we threw around were people in rehab or just out of prison because it goes along with the theme of recovery that's present in the album. When I read this and saw that you said you wanted to write to people who appreciate the word play and rapping, I thought that maybe you could write to an audience of aspiring rappers. Or maybe people who only listen to underground rap. I imagine that these people would respect good rap music, but may consider Eminem "too mainstream" for their tastes.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think you're going in the right direction for who your audience would be when reading your album review. You can definitely take your arguments further with an audience who wants to explore his lyrical rhymes. It might be interesting if you catered not just towards an audience containing of his "fans" but also to people who are particularly interested in rap music in general. Maybe you could reach out to those who don't necessarily like Eminem's style, and argue about that.
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