RHETORIC
By: Shanquea Jamison
Ms. Bryson
AP Language/ 2 nd Period
February 21, 2011
How do musicians use rhetoric in their lyrics? What is the effect?
• Rhetoric is the art of using language to communicate
effectively using logos, pathos, and ethos.
• Artists always use this type of language in their music
in order to get a brief message to their audience.
• The songs that contain rhetoric are touching the hearts
of many people around the world, giving them
confidence and hope in life.
• Alliteration- a rhetorical device • Anaphora- the repetition of a
that consists of repeating the word or phrase at the
same consonant sound at the beginning of successive
beginning of two or more clauses.
words continuing after each • Antithesis- the contrasting of
other. words or ideas by placing one
• Allusion- a figure of speech part of a sentence against
that makes reference to, or another.
representation of, a place, • Apostrophe- a sign used to
event, literary work, art, or indicate the omission of one
myth. or more letters in a word or
• Analogy- a similarity between used to indicate the
two like things. possessiveness of a word.
• Chiasmus- a figure of speech • Imagery- a device used in
in which two or more clauses language to paint a picture or
are related in order to make a form a mental image.
point. • Irony- a device that is used to
• Euphemism- the substitution convey a different meaning
of a mild expression in place that is opposite of a the actual
of one that may offend or literal meaning.
suggest something unpleasant • Litotes- a figure of speech in
to the acceptor. which a statement is
• Hyperbole- a rhetorical device expressed by denying the
in which statements are opposite as an
obviously exaggerated. understatement.
• Metaphor- a figure of speech • Oxymoron- a figure of speech
in which an expression is in which two or more words
applied to something that is are used to are used together
not literary applicable to show for effect.
a similarity. • Paradox- a statement or
• Metonymy- a figure of speech proposition that seems
in which a concept or thing is contradictory or absurd but
not called its name, but the shows the possible truth.
name of something that is • Personification- the
associated with it. attribution of human
• Onomatopoeia- the use of characteristics to abstract
words that imitate the sound ideas or things.
they denounce.
• Simile- a figure of speech in • Synecdoche- a figure of
which two like things are speech in which a part is used
compared to show a to represent a whole.
resemblance. • Understatement- a form of
• Symbolism- the practice of speech that contains less
representing things by strength then the facts it
symbols or meanings of could bear.
objects..
Alicia Keys
• Alicia Keys is a great
commercial artist who has
received 5 Grammy Awards.
• Starred in The Secret Life of
Bees in which she was
nominated for a NAACP Image
Awards.
• She was names the R&B artist
of the 2009-2010 decade by
the Billboard magazine.
• She has sold 30 million albums
worldwide.
• In “Superwoman” Alicia Keys uses imagery to paint a picture to her
audience showing how she is a superwoman and how easy it is to
lay down your burdens and become one.
“Cause I am a Superwoman
Yes I am, yes she is
Still when I'm a mess, I still put on a vest
With an S on my chest
Oh yes, I'm a Superwoman”
• She also uses anaphora throughout the song to broaden the
image she has painted and strengthen her point by constantly
using the phrase, “ Cause I am a Superwoman, Yes I am, yes I
am.”
• Alicia Keys show the use of the rhetorical device paradox by saying
that people only live for power and personal gain in the world,
which most people, well everyone would disagree with.
“Some people live for the fortune
Some people live just for the fame
Some people live for the power, yeah
Some people live just to play the game
Some people think that the physical things”
• She also uses chiasmus in this song to put emphasis on the things
that some people, to show that all she wants is something
specific, which is her guy friend.
• In “Unthinkable” Alicia Keys uses the device irony to convey that
she really wants to be with the guy without actually saying.
“I was wondering maybe
Could I make you my baby
If we do the unthinkable would it make us so crazy
Or would it be so beautiful either way I'm saying
If you ask me I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready
If you ask me I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready”
• Also she uses allusion to tell him that he shouldn’t’ give up on the
relationship before it starts.
“Clip our wings before we fly away”
• Alicia Keys use these rhetoric methods to convey meanings to
the world in which people can relate to, as well as other artists.
• Most artists do not even know they are using rhetoric devices
when they are writing these songs.