For this weeks post, Glee explores different social issues found in their high school. This show uses the art of music to highlight the significance of each issue. There are several issues being played out simultaneously in this episode, all about the hardships of being different. The main concern is Artie’s disability that became a focal point after the school refused to pay for a handicap school bus. Other concerns are the cheer coach placing a down syndrome girl on the cheerios cheer squad and Kurt’s continual struggle expressing himself. This episode gives us three songs that each describes a different outlook on the characters unique situations as a whole.
The first song introduced in the episode is a solo by Artie called “Dancing With Myself”. I really enjoyed this song and the dancing along with it because it showed off Artie’s musical talent and the creative things one can do in a wheel chair. During the song Artie is “dancing” through the school halls unnoticed by the other students, which is a reflection of his everyday struggle in school. His peers seem to notice the wheelchair first before paying any attention to the person in it. The glee teacher, Will, assigns the other members of glee to use a wheelchair during the school day because they all turned against Artie when they found out that his disability was preventing them from going to sectionals on a school bus unless they could raise money for a handicap bus. This lesson is trying to show how much harder Artie has to work to get things done.
My all time favorite song performed on glee so far is “Defying Gravity” from the Broadway musical Wicked. Glee gave this song a twist by having a male sing it. The song is an audition battle between Kurt and Rachel. But when you take a deeper look into the song, it is also an internal battle for Kurt. Kurt is torn between performing a female song and the torment his father would most likely receive from this performance. The song “Defying Gravity” is about overcoming obstacles that stand in the way. Kurt’s performance of the song is ironic because he intentionally messed up the high note to protect his father. This is because his father received an anonymous phone call about his son’s homosexuality. I was surprised when Kurt chose his father over glee, because he has always been very passionate about his music. Kurt’s dad found out about his sacrifice and this created a stronger bond between father and son. It seems that Kurt made a good decision by exchanging one song for an everlasting relationship with his dad.
The last song performed is “Poor Mary” by all the members of the glee club. This song indicates the progress made by the glee club in recognizing the struggles of disabled people. During the song everyone was in a wheelchair singing and dancing as one. I find it interesting that this song was released by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969, right after the civil rights movement. This song sets the tone for awareness and progress for people with disabilities. In the high school, handicap ramps were installed because of the inspiration provided by the glee club in wheelchairs. Often time’s good deeds are contagious. For example, the cheer coach allowed a down syndrome girl to be on the squad and treated her like a normal member of the squad. Normally the coach would not even have seen the girl audition, but the awareness raised by the glee club pressured the coach into having an open tryout and give her a chance.
Overall the songs put more emphasis on the social issues found throughout the episode. This episode is a timeline of change. The first song represents the social exclusion of people who are different. The second song demonstrates the consequences of breaking the mold. The last song shows the progress made to incorporate the people who were different into society.
This episode of Glee focused on the group performing ballads to one another. The glee teacher, Will, wants each member of glee to understand that ballads are not just love songs, but are stories set to music that can express and release ones feelings inside. But somehow the members take this lesson of ballads too seriously, and use them in their everyday lives. The issues explored in this show are hidden secrets and emotions kept within that are too hard to admit. Instead of simply saying it, singing is used to tell these secrets. There are seven unique songs that describe the different characters secrets.
Beginning with the song ÒEndless LoveÓ to demonstrate a ballad, between Will and Rachel, turned out to be a terrible idea. This ballad was created so singers could declare their Òeverlasting loveÓ to each other. The irony of this song is that Rachel takes it seriously and develops a crush on Will. Then Rachel becomes a little bit obsessed and releases her feeling towards him through the song ÒCrush.Ó I found the song funny because it comes out and sayÕs ÒitÕs just a little crushÓ while I believe that it is more to Rachel. Wills reaction to this is to sing his own song, which is a mash-up of ÒDonÕt Stand So Close to MeÓ and ÒYoung GirlÓ. Both of these songs are about a schoolgirlÕs crush on her teacher and forbidden underage love. In the show, however, they changed a few lyrics so that the meaning was for Rachel to stop her nonsense. But instead the opposite effect occurred because all she could think about was his wonderful voice n eyes. This proves that telling someone something important through song is not an affective way, but instead one should speak to the person.
The next big issue with secrets is between Finn, Quinn (who is pregnant), and their families that do not know about it. Finn lets out his feeling toward his baby by performing the song ÒIÕll Stand By YouÓ. I thought this song was well done and very touching because it is a ballad about always loving and faithfully helping one in personally dark times. Then Finn breaks the news to QuinnÕs strict religious parents that she is pregnant by a ballad. This scene was the super cheesy because Finn chose the song Ò(YouÕre) Having My BabyÓ, which abruptly goes on to say ÒyouÕre having my babyÓ about five times before the parents understand what was going on. Both of these ballads freed the hidden emotions inside Finn through his love of music. This finally allowed him to tell the parents the truth and the words spoken, not in song form, had the greatest effect.
ÒLean on MeÓ is the last song preformed in the episode by all the members of Glee club. They all sang this song to Finn and Quinn to cheer them up and let them know that they can always rely on their friends for help. Again we see here the use of a ballad to express ones feelings with music and in this case it works. I believe this is a great classic song with simple meaning: IÕll be here for you when your down, just call on me and IÕll be there, because one day I might be the one who needs someone to be there for me. This song works perfectly with the way glee club presented it. I felt like this was the right choice of song to end the show because it created a cheerful vibe to everyone watching it.
This episode in Glee allowed one to express their hidden secrets and emotions in a ballad. I found that each of the ballads performed were very obvious to what the singer was trying to confess, each song had simple lyrics. But I felt that when someone confronts his or her feelings through words, not through song, had a greater effect.
The main focal point and central theme of this weekÕs episode of Glee was ÒdistractionsÓ. Majority of the characters were either being distracted or causing the distractions. It seems that everyone was using various distractions on others to hind their secrets and lies. But these distractions cannot last forever, soon they will disappear and the truth and reality will have to be exposed. This episode presents six different songs that represent having distractions and not having distractions.
This first song introduced the terminology ÒhairographyÓ. GleeÕs hairography means to whip and shake your hair around while dancing, it is a distraction from how bad one is singing and dancing. The song was a remix of DestinyÕs Child ÒBootyliciousÓ by one of gleeÕs rivals; which is a group of groups who have committed crimes. The lyrics to this song literally say how a womenÕs body is too ÒbootyliciousÓ for their man. Which is ironic because the show only highlighted the flashiness of the girls shaking their booties and whipping their hair around in slow motion for the audience. I did not enjoy this song because of its distractions; I found it inappropriate for the show and unnecessary. But unfortunately the glee teacher was too distracted by this and that all he could think about was how flashy and entertaining the song was. So he decided to make the glee group practice a number with wigs on because he thought that the only way to win was to have better hair.
The new number that the glee teacher, Will, creates is a mash-up between ÒHairÓ and ÒCrazy In LoveÓ. Will makes the group put on wings if they donÕt have hair and wants them all the use hairography when performing the song. At first one-member appeals to this because she thinks it is wrong to have to hide their talent using hair as a distraction, but Will convinces that this is the right thing to do. This episode used a literal approach to the title of these songs to describe the meaning and performance of them by glee. They are shaking their hair and dancing around like maniacs. When presenting this mash-up to their other rivals, who are all deaf, one student comments on how Òcrazy they lookÓ. This song demonstrates a distraction between glee and the instructor. After making a complete fool of the members of glee, Will soon gets hit by reality and figures out that this was a terrible idea.
Another song that followed the theme of distractions was ÒPapa DonÕt PreachÓ, which was sung by Quinn, the pregnant one. The title is ironic because QuinnÕs father is actually a preacher. The meaning of this song and the situation with Quinn go hand in hand with each other because it is about teen pregnancy and debating on keeping the baby. There are two distractions going on in this scene, an external and internal. The external one is that Quinn is trying to clam down the children she is babysitting for and the internal one is seeing if she should raise the baby with the true baby-daddy or not.
ÒImagineÓ by John Lennon, one of the greatest song ever written, is performed by the deaf group and it represented the truth in performances. It showed the glee club that by not having distractions, one could show great meaning in a song. This song definitely touched me deeply because it started off with everyone signing and just one deaf boy ÒsingingÓ to it, then the glee members started to join the them one by one. This inspired Will to make glee sing a song with out anything flashy or any dancing. Wanting just to show off all their talented voices. He chose the song ÒTrue ColorsÓ which symbolizes people being themselves instead of what others want. I thought this song was well done; I liked how they made the song simple by having them sit on stools and wear t-shirts and jeans. It was a great song to end the show with because it left the viewer smiling and it demonstrated that the greatest thing is being true to yourself and others.
All these songs represented the theme of distraction by first showing how it can be a bad thing and by the end the distractions disappear, showing the great things that can be done. I felt that by the end of the show there was a powerful meaning to be you and only you. It left me having a good feeling inside.
This episode of Glee was the mid-season finale. It was very surprising because there was a lot of secrets revealed and well acted dramatic scenes. This episode is all about gleeÕs big event, sectionals, which they have to win to keep the club. My main focus for this blog are the songs and how they express the different issues presented during the show. There were four major songs preformed in this episode that expressed the feeling of each member of the glee club.
ÒAnd I Am Telling You IÕm Not GoingÓ by Jennifer Holiday, from the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, is the first song preformed by the glee club member Mercedes. This song was sung outstandingly, it was a great choice for her to sing because it revealed how talented she is by performing this challenging song. The glee club needed a solo performance for sectionals, so Rachel said that she would do it without allowing anyone else to tryout. But Mercedes stepped up to the plate and began to sing this song, hitting a homerun. This song left the members of glee and all the viewers speechless. In glee this song represents strength and power. By Mercedes singing it allowed her to show the club that she too has a powerful voice. Even the lyrics say that youÕre going to love her.
Soon it is sectionals and the glee members find out their song have been stolen from them by the other two competing groups. You hear a few quick verses of ÒAnd IÕm Telling You IÕm Not GoingÓ, ÒProud MaryÓ performed in wheelchairs, and ÒDonÕt Stop BelievingÓ by the other groups. This means that the glee group has to come up with new songs. The first one performed is a solo by Rachel called ÒDonÕt Rain on My ParadeÓ. This was my favorite song presented since ÒDefying GravityÓ; Rachel nails this song perfectly, it leaves you feeling like youÕre in the middle of a Broadway production instead of just a television show. This song fits well with Rachel and the rest of the glee club because they are not going to allow anyone to damper their moment of glory on stage.
The next song performed at sectionals was ÒYou CanÕt Always Get What You WantÓ by all of the glee members. This song is a classic and everyone watching the show should know these lyrics. These lyrics speak the truth and just the title sums up a life lesson. The glee club chose this song because they were letting themselves know and the rest of audience and competitors that Òyou canÕt always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find, you get want you needÓ. Because the other competitors at sectionals stole their songs, the glee club sung this song to tell them that they cannot bring them down and they are still going to win no matter what. Also these lyrics help to express the emotional battle in Finn and assisted him to become the better man because Finn just found out that his pregnant girlfriends baby isnÕt his.
The last song presented is ÒMy Life Would Suck Without YouÓ by Kelly Clarkson. It is performed by all the members of glee to Will, the glee teacher, after showing him that they won sectionals. The meaning of this song from the glee club to Will, is that they are all thanking him because it was him that had faith in them that helped them come together as a group and win. But this song also has a different effect on Will. It reminds him of his growing love toward the schools advisor, Emma, and he canÕt express it because she is leaving the school. But this song gives him the courage to go find her before she leaves.
In conclusion, all of these songs were about different things to different people. Glee uses songs to help express a variety of things, such as emotion, moral issues, love, courage, and many more things.