Eminem “Stan”, Essay Example

Introduction:

Eminem is arguably one of the most skilled and respected rappers in the Hip Hop genre and one of the most talented iconic musicians to date. Born Marshall Bruce Mathers III, when he acquired popular notoriety with his 1999 2^ndalbum release “The Slim Shady LP,” in 2000, he was awarded the Best Rap album Grammy. He would follow this album up with his third album, “The Marshall Mathers LP, which garnered him world-wide fame and the album went certified platinum. Eminem’s song “Stan” was produced during a time when the artist was at the height of his fame; the single in itself embodied many aspects of the cultural phenomenon that was becoming Eminem’s fame and success, but most importantly the song represents the personal anguish and burden the artist was feeling dealing with overzealous fans. Through “Stan,” Eminem attempts to tell fans to pull back some of their enthusiastic admiration for the sake of his sanity, but more importantly for the sake of their own, but he also does it to counter much of the negative publicity that was plaguing him at the time.

The Audience:

In Cornel Sandvoss’s text on fan culture, the author notes that, the relationship between the fans and the artists they admire is much deeper than the fandom. The author notes that, “beyond fan texts as fan objects are many texts, conversation and forms of communication which form part of the fandom, yet lack the neutrosemic quality of the fan text” (Sandvoss, 147). A Large portion of Eminem’s fan base were predominantly white males that had never before listened to Hip Hop music and felt a newfound appreciation of the music largely attributed to their ability to identify with the artist on ethnic grounds, one aspect of hip hop music that long made them feel like outsiders (Baron, 69). Eminem also became representative of the working class through is low income upbringing and being forced to drop out of high school tork.

The Context:

The saying that art imitates life primarily comes from the artist themselves as they project the influences that made them who they are onto the rest of the world. Eminem is a primary example of this as his life became fodder for many radio broadcasts, magazines, and news shows. His violent lyrics were said to reflect his tumultuous upbringing and in doing so, they depicted a much darker reality festering within working class American life. In addition, to being a skilled lyricist within the rap world, Eminem was also white which made him a rare commodity in a predominantly black art form. Initially, his race was viewed as an insurmountable obstacle to his success in Hip Hop music due to the past failure of white debut artist, and one-hit wonder, Vanilla Ice. His song “Ice Ice Baby” gained popularity in 1989 but was followed up by no string a of failures, attributed to the revelation that Vanilla Ice was a white rapper in his music videos (Baron, 69). His race was something that was not easily identifiable on the radio waves, but the video for his hit single made this very apparent and from that point on white rappers were viewed as more of a gimmick than as a credible artist. Not only was Eminem able to overcome this obstacle by gaining credibility within the Hip Hop community through support and production of Dr. Dre, otherwise known as Andre Romelle Young, but through telling about his difficult upbringing, he was able gather a following that identified him as the underdog.

The Text:

The choice of textual imagery and structure used in “Stan” is highly effective at getting Eminem’s point across. In previous songs, specifically those on Eminem’s Sim Shady LP, were designed to introduce Eminem as an artist to a mainstream audience. The songs on this third album, specifically songs like “Stan,” reflect his mindset now that he is famous and it reveals many of the daily stresses he has to endure dealing with the public at the height of his career. Eminem engages reader by telling a fictional story through letters being written between two characters. One character is Stan, an overzealous fan, and a fictional version of Eminem, the object of Stan’s fandom. The way this storyline overcomes resistance or doubt is through sympathizing with Stan’s perspective, while revealing Eminem’s point of view. For example, the song opens up with the hook, where Dido says,“[Hook: Dido]: My tea’s gone cold, I’m wondering why I got out of bed at all. The morning rain clouds up my window and I can’t see at all. And even if I could it’ll all be gray, but your picture on my wall. It reminds me, that it’s not so bad, it’s not so bad” (Eminem Stan, 1). Here these words could represent the feelings of any devout fan to a particular music artist, or celebrity. The concept of a picture on the wall of someone being something that gives them hope to make it through the trials of their day could even take on religious or political connotations, such as a picture of Jesus, Buddha, or Martin Luther King Jr. These opening lines pull the listener in through the use of Dido’s soft signature voice and the lyrics which can be broadly applied and with which most people can identify.

The song goes on and Stan introduces himself to the listener and to Eminem through the same fan letter. Stan reveals a lot of things about himself, that he feels justify why he is Eminem’s biggest fan, as he subtly reveals questionable behavior like the fact he likes to cut himself, and the fact that he wants to “be” with Eminem, it becomes more clear that he might have psychological problems. The song was written in the context of political and social issues that surrounding Eminem regarding much of his behavior in the public arena which caused many people to question his credibility as a role model. Some of these conflicts regard his continuous mention of drug use in his music, being charged with two felony counts of weapon charges and coming under fire within the gay community for his use of derogatory language towards homosexuals (Warren, 1). The song “Stan” served as a way for Eminem to cool down some of the bad press he was receiving in regards to these issues, and the song worked as a public service announcement to his fans to not take his lyrics so seriously. In fact, at one point in the song Eminem says to Stan, “but what’s this shit you said about you like to cut your wrists too? I say that shit just clowning, dawg, come on, how fucked up is “you?” (Eminem Stan, 1). The song is very political. Eminem caters to both his core fans as well as the opposition who up until the release of “Stan” had viewed him as a nuisance. The text states, “before you hurt yourself, I think that you’ll be doing just fine. If you relax a little, I’m glad I inspire you, but Stan, Why are you so mad? Try to understand, that I do want you as a fan. I just don’t want you to do some crazy shit” (Eminem Stan, 1). Here Eminem states the exact reason why he is writing the letter, which symbolically represents the reason he is writing the song, to save his hardcore fans from getting out of control. He does empathize with them and lets them all know he does care and want them to continue listening to his music, but he is making a plea that they stop performing crazy acts in this name. It must be remembered that this song was written around the time of the Columbine shooting, where two teenagers killed High School students in a mass shooting, the media blamed the event on Marilyn Manson, a music a Rock artist at the time.

Conclusion

In sum, Eminem’s song “Stan” addresses the complex reality of fandom and the consequences that can arise when overzealous fans take their obsessions with celebrities too far. Eminem is attempting to settle down some of the backlash and adverse effects that arose as a result of his phenomenal fame. He created what is arguably one of the best songs of his career, as a warning to all of his fans not to take his music too seriously, but it also served as a way to reduce some of the blame being imposed on him by the media for the fate or actions of all of his fans. Eminem’s main claim in “Stan” is that his lyrics and his antics are just for entertainment, not to be taken seriously.

Work Cited

Baron, Laura. “MTV and a New Style of Editing.” Close Up: Film and Media Studies: 69.

Cornel. Fans: The mirror of consumption. Polity, 2005.

Eminem. “Stant”. Rape Genius.com

Sandvoss, Cornel. Fans: The mirror of consumption. Polity, 2005.

Warren, Mich. “Rap Singer Arraigned.” The New York Times.2000, June 8, 1-2.