Taylor and Kanye - Encomium and Invective

Alright, first of all, this isn't a commonplace blog (are we supposed to have one of those too? Wasn't in the email) so this is going to be a little different. I will probably have to end up doing a commonplace anyway, so you get two this week! Wow, how exciting.

Second of all, sorry there isn't a more interesting title this time. You'll see why in the next sentence.

Third of all, I am really dreading this assignment. The concepts we're supposed to address are interesting, but I am not a huge fan of either West nor Swift. Ugh. Oh well. Let's get this over with.

When it comes to rhetoric, there are two very contrasting sides a rhetor can take when writing about something or someone. These two sides are known as encomium and invective, as indicated by my blog's title. Encomium basically means that the rhetor's presented argument speaks about the good points of whatever or whoever the rhetor is speaking about, praising their good points. It only follows that invective is the exact opposite. Honestly, I would expect either from both the artists, but the songs' lyrics are pretty clear-cut so I guess it can't be helped. It should be noted that the songs were performed in reaction to the VMA awards, where Kanye rudely interrupted Taylor's acceptance speech without so much as a warning.

This comes into play since the two artists have very differing styles, and the kairos here is that they were performed when they were. They do serve their purpose for when they were needed.

I'll be starting with Taylor's song, "Innocent". Now, I know what you're thinking. "Doesn't she usually sing about her cruddy love life and how she can never keep a guy even though she's kinda pretty?" While that's true, this song is actually not about that. Not as much as some of her other songs, anyway. No, this one talks about how someone who made mistakes - in this case, Kanye, is still a good, kind-hearted individual on the inside, who is really an innocent soul who can change themselves to not make those mistakes again. Still pretty cheesy by...anyone's standards, but thank goodness it wasn't her usual fare. I might not be doing this if it was.

Alright, on to the song. It's set in an empty house most of the time, except for Swift and her backup instrumentalists. It sets a pretty calm and somber mood which goes along with the song pretty well. There are a few effects like the glittery words I can't read and the lighting is used for transitions. 

The lyrics speak about someone who has lost their way and how they had an easier time in their elementary school days, standard cliched fare. She then speaks about how she still believes in them, with lines like "Your string of lights is still bright to me" and "You're still an innocent". She also sings about how everyone makes mistakes and that people can change. The rest of the song goes like that, as a song should, so it's not inconsistent.

But the main point here is that it serves its purpose as an encomium. She doesn't really say anything bad about the person, just that they've made mistakes, and that everyone is the same way. She assures them that it's okay, and that life can be tough, no matter who you might be. With these points in mind, she does an effective job at telling whoever this might be sung to that they're an innocent person in a hard life and that they still have possibilities ahead of them. There's a "32" in the lyrics, indicating Kanye's age, but then I have to question whether or not Taylor Swift knows too much about the 32-year old population. At 21...I'm gonna say not.

Our next artist in this comparison is Kanye West, of course. He decides to take a radically different approach to the situation, as seen in his lyrics to the song "Runaway".

Essentially, he just degrades Swift for being the way she is, and makes some pretty big assumptions in the process. He talks about her having to "put up with his ****" and that she is "so gifted at findin' what I don't like the most". Swift never really did that in her song, so maybe West's point of view is more than a little biased. He also says he "always finds something wrong" and suggests that she should just run away if she has so many problems with what he has done.

In this way, "Runaway" works best as an invective. It is also best viewed as a statement towards a woman, and in this case, Taylor Swift, since that is what it was intended to be. It's not particularly nice or tactful, and I feel that is what makes it work better as an invective piece. He also praises the polar opposite of who Swift is; that is to say the "scumbags who would never take work off". 

With these two songs, it is incredibly easy to see the kinds of people these two are. While Swift handled her end very calmly as is her usual style, West's approach is much more negative and worse off for it. Since it was his fault to begin with, I can't say I care much for the way his song is written.


Links:
Innocent - Taylor Swift 
Innocent Lyrics 
Runaway - Kanye West
Runaway Lyrics

Commonplace 3 coming up OOO! I mean, next.