1980's music.

This is one of Cyndi Lauper's most famous and successful songs; 'Girls just want to have fun', a song that has been described as one of the feminist anthems of the 1980's. It was significant for many reason, firstly for the message it portrays through the song as well as the music video; that 'girls just want to have fun' and not become a housewife, like her 'mother' at the beginning of the video, or the good, sensible girl that her father wants her to be. The video makes a point that it is girls of all races that can have fun, Cyndi Lauper's group of friends in the video include girls of all races. It also shows the men following the girls, dancing in the street, leaving their jobs, rather than the girls following the men to work, and men from different backgrounds, builders to business men, and of different races.
Cyndi Lauper and this song are also significant because of the influence it had on popular culture at the time and feminism & feminine attitude. It also set fashion trends and paved the way for other artists such as Madonna who went on to later sport similar fashion choices to Cyndi Lauper in her music videos such as 'Like a Virgin' which went to number 1 in 1984, a year after this song went to number 1 all over the world. Madonna became an icon for her music, but also became an icon for her fashion in the 80's.
What is also interesting is that Cyndi Lauper the lyrics for this song from the original song written by the musician Robert Hazard as she felt the original dealt with the girl pleasing the man.
This song represents the 1980's because it touches on the emergence of third wave feminism that defined women as powerful and in control of their own sexuality, but also the fact that women are of many different colours, ethnicities, religions, nationalities and cultures.


I have chosen Pink's 2011 song 'Fuckin' Perfect' as she deals with issues of beauty and the idea of beauty in American society today. The video was used to raise awareness of teen issues such as bullying, depression, eating disorders, self harm and suicide. The video follows a young girl who is left out by her peers and begins to steal and becomes anorexic in an attempt to fit in with the girls who are seen as beautiful. It also sees the young girl beginning to accept herself by going against society's idea of beauty and cutting off all of her hair and eventually you see her as as an adult and happy. The song, along with a few others that year went on to influence MTV to introduce a new category at their Video Music Awards titled; Video with a message. Although it lost out to Lady Gaga's 'Born this way' it has still paved the way for more songs that deal with issues other than love. I think this song represents today because it deals with the issues of today, just like Cyndi Lauper's 'Girls just want to have fun' dealt with the issue of the 1980's of feminism and gender roles, this song and video deals with the issues that are present today, which are the image of beauty portrayed by the media, and the issues that teens have to deal with such as depression and self harm.