Songs that inspire!(or do they??)

To be fair on the Music Industry they do have some songs try to make people comfortable with who they are and how they look like. For example Christina Aguileras Music video "beautiful"



and India Aries "I am not my hair". I am going to compare how these songs and music videos try to convey their message.
Christina Agiulera is a Pop & RnB artist who targets the mass market with her music. In this particular Music video she tries to reach a range of audience (mainly people who feel insecure about themselves) this is amplified in the video by cross cutting between an anorexic girl, a girl that is being bullied, a crossdresser, a homosexual couple, a black girl, basically a group of people that are usually not accepted or judged by other members of society. The video starts of with all of the characters being sad and her singing "to them" "you are beautiful, in every single way, words can't bring you down". A very symbolic part is when the black girl tears up a magazine and burns it, it is a bit similar to the idea in our music video. What I like about the video is that there are characters in it that are not conventionally beautiful, so considering that it does challenge the conventions of usual, mainstream music videos. Nonetheless Christina Aguilera (who is conventionally beautiful) still gets most of the screen time, so it looks a little bit like she is using these other characters in the video to sell herself and make a better image for herself.
India Arie is a Soul & RnB artist, her music is not as mainstream as Christina Aguileras. Just as Aguileras Song was supposedly inspirational her Song "I am not my hair" was too. But unlike Aguilera Arie is mainly targeting black women with that song. Most black women in the mainstream Media do not wear their natural hair because it is not "desirable" and often labelled as "nappy hair" or "slave hair". This idea goes all the way back to the time of slavery and how white slave owners instilled the idea that "Negro hair is not feminine or beautiful" and "the straighter(and lighter) the better". Unfortunately this idea still exists in todays society. To deliver that idea Akon states "was it the hair that got me this far?...I hate to see it but it seems so flaw the success didn't come 'till I cut it all off" and Arie sings "Good hair means curls and waves, bad hair makes you look like slave". The song has a great meaning and I believe more people should listen to the lyrics and feel more comfortable in their own skin. The lyrics of the song are different and inspirational but unfortunately the video is again mainly of the artist performing into the camera with some good editing. This is something that appears in most Music Videos, even if they have a deeper meaning they often concentrate on the artist and try to establish the artists image but I suppose they have to earn their money somehow.