Pretty Boy

 Plastic surgery. Living in the hills. Being beautiful. All things that everyone looks at and aspires for. Right? Maybe. My artifact explains the deeper meaning of these ideas, and that it’s not as beautiful and luxurious as it seems through social media, news, and tv. My artifact is a song by japanese singer-songwriter, who goes by his stage name of Joji. On September 25, 2020 Joji released his album Nectar, with my artifact in this album. My artifact is the song “Pretty Boy” by Joji featuring Lil Yachty. This song explains people living on the west side, being beautiful and living great lives. Or so it seems. His upbeat instrumental music defeats the lyrics, words consisting of “livin’ so loud you could never hear me cry, nah, see no tears run down my eyes”, and “poppin’ blue pills and sippin’ on finest, nah, no more fears and no more lies, I tell myself to sleep at night”. I feel that this song is relevant to the world we live in now with young children seeing hourglass body shapes and six pack abs in social media, and that these young children feel this is who they need to be to live in the world. On the website  Eating Disorder Statistics it explains that just in 2020 alone, 10 million men suffer from an eating disorder, that anorexia is the 3rd most common chronic illness in adolescents(after asthma and obesity), and that more than 30 million people in the U.S alone will suffer from an eating disorder, but won’t receive help due to stigmas. And this song, “Pretty Boy” by Joji and Lil Yachty shows a music video of 3 men, all with major plastic surgery and living the good life in the hills, with sand between their toes and nice cars and motorcycles to parade around in. Yet his lyrics say something else. Almost like a cry for help, but not entirely. After this being my favorite song for a long time, and diving deeper into the lyrics and trying to understand what they are saying, this is a song that sheds light on how yes, being pretty and living a rich life is good, but can also have its downfalls. As Joji sings, “livin’ so loud you could never hear me cry” and “no more fears and no more lies, I tell myself to sleep at night” it expresses that maybe the life we all strive for when we see it on social media, isn’t actually a good life. That everyone looks at only the good in the famous “pretty” life and that many people don’t see when someone is hurt. “Living so loud you could never hear me cry” Getting into drugs and doing things you could potentially regret. “Poppin’ blue pills and sippin’ on finest, nah” Nah? “Flexin’ on the ‘net it’s the same offline, aye, if I don’t lead, where will they go? They follow my every move” The feeling of having to be a leader because everyone looks up to you. The feeling of always having to look and be a certain way because that's what people expect of you, online and offline. This song expresses the idea of being “pretty”, and subtly is a cry for help. Because the world isn’t always the way it seems. Like in this case, being “pretty” isn’t always as it seems.

Link for the song/music video:) -Pretty Boy music video by Joji ft. Lil Yatchy