Phase 3 Planning - Lyric Analysis of Kendrick Lamar's Swimming Pools

In this post, I will be looking at the lyrics of Swimming pools. I'll be doing this to analyse any subtext that they may have and also to see if we can emphasise the words and the message in our video, and can cater the music video to specific words.

This is the Hook or bridge of the song, basically a section between chorus and verse. These can be interpreted as commands, suggesting that the culture of drinking is regimental and is just repeatedly done and done again. This could mean that drinking loses meaning as it becomes second nature and the idea of drinking means nothing as it's second nature. Perhaps it could mean when you have the mindset of wanting to drink, you'll drink for any reason. This could signify how dangerous it is and how drinking needs to be moderated, as if you start to drink for any reason, it will become a vice.

This is the first part of the verse. This where the Golden flask iconography comes in. This lyric outlines the reasons of why people would want to drink. This suggests every person starts out differently when it comes to drinking, but they end up as the lyrics say living their life by it.

This is the first part of the chorus. Fulfilling rap conventions by including racist slang, there to relate to people of African or African American descent. It also talks about peer pressure as it's someone saying to Kendrick you need to drink more. By incorporating the swimming pool imagery, it could suggest how enormous and how encapsulating the drinking culture is. It could suggest how you can see how massive drinking can be, but once you 'dive in' the negatives can just go away.

This is part of the second verse where it's Kendrick's conscience talking to him. This could suggest how powerful your conscience is when someone is drunk. It could also suggest that drinking causes an internal battle in oneself as you have your conscience battling your brain, or how drinking brings out a different side to someone and a struggle to act normally is created internally.

Incorporating these ideas to our music video can be pivotal in determining how successful it will be. By understanding and putting our own ideas as to what the lyrics mean, can give us direction as to how we want to present the song. By analysing the lyrics I have gained more of an understanding as to what the lyrics can be, and how they can be worked int our video.