Critical Karaoke - Good Old Days

Raia X

GWSS 241 

“Good Old Days” (feat. Kesha) by Macklemore

https://youtu.be/1yYV9-KoSUM

Sam loved cats. Sam was calm, cool, and collected. Sam was a star soccer player for our high school team, but beat himself up over not going to college level. Sam had his ups and downs. Sam’s dad ___ owns several taco trucks. Sam’s mom ___ works for the University of Washington. I didn’t know him too well personally, but it felt like I knew a lot of his secrets. His best friends were my best friends. 

Sam had just started college, like all of us. Freshman year, so much excitement. Who will we make ourselves out to be these next few years? We’re told that these are the best years of our life. 

On November 11th, just a few months ago, my friend Sam ___ passed away. Sam was in the process of being initiated at Alpha __ ____, a fraternity at ___. He drank too much. So preventable. And it's made aspects of staying in my sorority quite a bit harder. To say the least, I hate the ___.

I found out when walking to my 12:30 English class. Everything afterwards felt like a blur. Flight ticket confirmations. Trips to the airport picking up friends. My friend group flocking from one house to another, our parents not sure whether to tiptoe around the topic of not. So many tears.

Macklemore changed hip hop culture and has become an identity of seattle. When you hear “Seattle Rap,” you think, “Macklemore.” You imagine his Grammies and you think, “wow, that’s my city and I am proud.” I know I'm not the only one, after reading The Stranger’s “The Rise of Seattle Hip Hop.”

In Week 6’s Hip Hop Feminism we learned about artists' role in social movements with the help of their fan bases. Kesha is very much white, but there is something to be said about her demeanor and ballsy attitude, having grown up in the public eye and seeing her experiment with her identity as a woman. You know, objectifying men with lyrics in effort to create a leveled playing field. 

With week 4 and Gayle Wald’s Rosetta Tharpe and Feminist ‘Unforgetting’, an important discussion was made regarding how biography can be used to disrupt “the ways most of us had been taught to conceive musical agency and authority.” 

In February of 2014, Kesha sued her producer Lukasz Gottwal for years of relentless abuse and rape. Fans had signs and hashtags reading Free Kesha.

The judge’s ruling allowed her to change record labels, and this biography very much interrupted musical agency at the time. Other key women influencers in the scene like Taylor Swift and Adele were donating money and openly bringing light to Kesha's situation. 

Having to then go to rehab for an eating disorder takes me right back to Tracy Moore’s “Oh, the Unbelievable Shit You Get Writing About Music as a Woman.” She says, it's “typically assumed you are a groupie type looking to hook up or some dude's girlfriend.” And Kesha had her rock heroes and a similar identity for sure. 

Despite having the weight of public eye, the women who rock projects and Lopez's summary emphasize the mission and importance of healing conversations. Art like this helps us navigate tensions in a self reflective process. Kesha had that process interviews, in the courtroom, and on social media. and I am having that right now with sam.

We played this song everytime we got into the car. When us eight girls packed ourselves into the car to his funeral and memorial service. When we went to Dicks Drive-in afterwards. When we drove to his house to leave flowers for his family to find when they got back from collecting his stuff from ___. I don't know who decided that this would be the song, but i just know that this was the song.

It takes me right back. We didn't know our “good old days” already happened. My best friends and I appreciate things a bit more. We know that the good old days will keep coming if we let them, and embody the right mindset. But it's not fair that Sam doesn't get anymore good old days.