Materialistic Society In Usa 1980s Crystallized In "Materi Gril" and "Dress You Up"Song Lyrics Popularized By Madona

Abstract

A Literary work is a reflection of reality. It depicts some conditions and situations in social life. Song lyrics are also kind of literary genre used to depict feeling, perspective, and etc., about several conditions and situations that happen in some eras. In other words, it can be called the representation in literary works is used as a medium to communicate to each other or the society. The representation in the literary work is framed by the discourse. Discourse, here, is used as the framework of knowledge to get the meaning of the representation This research analyzes “Material Girl” and “Dress You Up” song lyrics popularized by Madonna in 1984 which have materialistic society as its discourse. Those song lyrics tell about several conditions and situations in USA 1980s that have been fixed by the spirit of the era. The discourse of Materialistic society ingrained within people’s perspective and manipulates the meaning of those lyrics. The 1980s is also known as a year of postindustrial society, because the characteristics and conditions of society in USA 1980s are the same with Bell’s notion about the coming of postindustrial society. Therefore, this research analyzes the representation of Materialistic society in USA 1980s crystallized in “Material Girl” and “Dress You Up”. This research uses Hall’s theory about Encoding/Decoding (representation) to analyze the representation of materialistic society in those song lyrics. This research uses the term of Encoding/Decoding as the discursive form of the representation. Here, the discussion of this research is divided into two discussions. They are encoding moment of the text/literary work. The first step, this research analyze the representation in those song lyrics related to the social condition in USA 1980s and framed by a materialistic society in USA 1980s as its discourse. On the second step, this research analyzes the meaning of the representation of materialistic society in those song lyrics. This step is the application of decoding moment or it can be called as the second moment of meaning construction, after those song lyrics have been consumed by the society. Then, on this decoding moment, this research divides the meaning of the representation of materialistic society in those song lyrics into three types. They are negotiated, dominant, and counter hegemonic meanings. At this part, this research explores the discursive form of the representation in song lyrics related to their discourse. On the dominant or hegemonic model of meaning, this research also discusses about Madonna as the distributor of these song lyrics and also to simulate the representation of the materialistic society to the consumer. Then, this research also explores several points of view in order to force the domination of the materialistic Society as the main discourse in those song lyrics. In the result, this research shows that the representation of materialistic society in those song lyrics can be classified as the subjective representation, because they all have been framed by the discourse of materialistic society. Then, to show the meaning of literary works is dynamic and never be static, this research changes the discourse in those song lyrics using the other discourse as the frameworks of knowledge. By this situation, this research shows several conditions in USA 1980s which have not been represented yet by those song lyrics.