Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Keisha's Song

'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' Robert Hazard vs Cindy Lauper and Keisha's Song


Cindy Lauper is a vibrant and colourful woman who portrays the 80's through her style and lifestyle, best known for her song 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun'.



This song was and still is a popular song, it was produced in 1983 and was a chart-topping megahit. The following article describes what Cindy's agenda was with the song, as being apart of a feminist movement; 'Lauper recounts that she wanted “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” to become “an anthem for women all around the world… and a sustaining message that [women] are all powerful beings.”' This song was seen as a pop anthem of the 1980's, however the song was not written nor was she the first artist to perform the track, instead it was first sung from a man's point of view, Robert Hazard, which inevitably held a completely if not opposite meaning.

Cindy Lauper's version of the song does come across as quite empowering, the first scene of the video shows a woman bored of the 'usual'; cooking, cleaning, basically domestication. Cindy is singing for her gender, reiterating how much 'girls just wanna have fun', 'when the work and day is done oh girls they wanna have fun', also how women are dominated by men; 'some boys take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world'. In the Washington Post an article speaks of Cindy's 2012 memoir, stating about her choices to leave home; “I left home at seventeen,” she wrote. “I took a paper bag with a toothbrush, a change of underwear, an apple, and a copy of Yoko Ono’s book Grapefruit.” This song would have set a standard for women showing that success can be succeeded with or without a man, as during the 80's was a time of 'affirmative action', which 'refers to policies designed to increase the presence of 'underrepresented' demographic groups', such as women.

Contemporary song by Kendrick Lemar called 'Keisha's Song' is a song that is completely different to Cindy Lauper, however they have similar meanings. 'Keisha's Song' is about 'girls on beach boulevard', who are prostitutes trying to get money, I feel like this song will not represent todays society but it represents its corruptness and flaws, how women need to sell their bodies for money just to live. This was a good comparison to 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun', as it too insinuates sex, but in a normal way, compared to Kendrick Lamar's song. It too represents the minorities and not having enough help or not being taken seriously, the video below shows a black woman, treated as a minority.

http://musicsp14group2.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/2014/02/25/cover-song-analysis-girls-just-want-to-have-fun-cyndi-lauper-vs-robert-hazard/


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/30/cyndi-lauper-on-capitol-hill-and-the-secret-feminist-history-of-girls-just-wanna-have-fun/?utm_term=.3e267461a928


http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/guideDesc.asp?catid=126&type=issue (affirmative action)