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2020 - Volume 3 - Number 2

Live Fast, Die Young: Bad Girls Do It Well – A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of M.I.A’s Music Video “Bad Girls”

Fabiola Martínez Guerrero * guerrerofab@hotmail.com * ORCID: 0000-0001-5556-3220
University of Guanajuato, Division of Social Sciences and Humanities, MEXICO

Open Journal for Studies in Arts, 2020, 3(2), 65-76 * https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojsa.0302.03065m
Received: 1 June 2020 ▪ Accepted: 26 October 2020 ▪ Published Online: 6 December 2020

LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ARTICLE (Full Text - PDF)

ABSTRACT:
Feminism has become part of the pop music discourse in recent years. Through M.I.A’s “Bad Girls” video, not only the image of empowered, independent, rebel women are portrayed, but also the celebration of culture and the relationship between women and men in an environment of equity is suggested. In order to propose an analysis and interpretation of “Bad Girls” video and song lyrics, a multimodal discourse analysis (Machin, 2010) is followed, as well as Halliday’s systematic functional linguistics framework. The findings from this analysis suggest a discourse of feminism and empowerment, but also inclusion and acceptance regardless of race, religion or gender.   

KEY WORDS: multimodal discourse analysis, discourse schema, lyrics, feminism, M.I.A.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Fabiola Martínez Guerrero (MA student), University of Guanajuato, Lascurain de Retana #5, Guanajuato, MEXICO, 36000. E-mail: guerrerofab@hotmail.com.

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