"Money money, mighty dollar dollar" (Bone Thugs) sums up how the American culture feels about money. We idolize anyone who has money and the American Dream has us striving to get it. In the Bone Thugs in Harmony song "Money Money" they are representing the lower classes view of money, while in the song "Money Money Money" by Abba they are speaking more about how the rich men view money and how we want that. In the Bone Thugs song, with their lyrics and the way that they are rapping, you realize that they will do anything for this "mighty dollar". It reminded me a lot of the article "Workaday World, Crack Economy" by Philippe Bourgois because of the line "gotta get my grind on" generally refers to drug dealing. They are making it known that they will take the money if they have to, they just cant live without the money anymore. It really gives you insight on the poverty lifestyle and their feelings about the importance of money.
In the Abba song we are also seeing the American feeling of money and the greed that goes with it. We hear about how "money must be funny in a rich man's world". The concept of money in this song seems to be more directed towards a female audience and how she is going to marry a rich man. Without the violence and drugs Abba is still saying that they will do anything for money. At the beginning of the song she says that she worked all day with nothing to show for it. I think that is how most Americans live with this dream that they will somehow come to find a lot of money. Both songs speak about money and have the same sort of importance of money, but they are speaking to two different social classes.
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Good comparison, and gesture toward the same message being spoken differently because of the distinct social classes the songs originate from. What can be interesting then is which song is more mainstream. Why is one more acceptable, more of a 'hit' than the other?
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