His song "Papaoutai" is sung from the perspective of a child who did not have a father growing up. The child yearns for his own father in life as he looks upon the other father-child relationships surrounding him. The child has a mannequin-like father figure in the music video. The mannequin represents an empty figure of someone who is not there. This relates to Stromae's childhood as his dad also died while Stromae was young. The targeted audience of this song is youths worldwide who have a lost a parent. This song is to tell them to live their life not searching for something that's not there. Another song that is well known of his is “Quand C’est” which means “when is it", which is a homophone for cancer. This song talks about a man who is calling to cancer and asking it when his time will come. He shows cancer as a strong force and relates it to the fear people have of cancer.
His music comes from intrinsic motivation as shown by a chapter in the book the "Handbook of Creativity". The chapter state that someone who is intrinsically motivated does the act he does just because that is what he enjoys which is true for Stromae. He said in an interview that, "Actually, I prefer the word musician, I'm a musician and a composer. I have a problem with the word artist. I don't know if it's the same in English, but words like artist and star put people on a pedestal, which is not really good for my brain. I prefer just to consider it as work, which is useless compared to a baker or a farmer or something like that, a real job. But of course, I try to just be creative here, but I'm a perfectionist and I just want to do my best" (2). He is humble in the fact that he does not want to be placed on a pedestal for something he loves to do. As an individual, he is a very interesting creative with his style music. I highly recommend listening to his music and trying to understand the meaning and purpose behind it.
Some more of his music for those who wish to listen:
1. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/stromae-in-new-york
2. http://www.elle.com/culture/music/news/a15416/stromae-interview
3. https://luc.app.box.com/s/n7kukzdq2un1v91v6gjq3pjphzyrvl94/file/228485470395
4. https://luc.app.box.com/s/n7kukzdq2un1v91v6gjq3pjphzyrvl94/file/47467058965
I've heard a few of his works before, but I never knew much about his personal life or how he conceives of his music. I love how relatable many of his songs and videos are, even if you do not speak French; I remember being haunted and inspired by Papaoutai the first time I saw it, even though I didn't know what the lyrics were. Like many modern musicians, Stromae takes advantage of the music video industry to make his songs even more powerful. Excellent blog post!
ReplyDeleteI like how you not only explain his intrinsic motivation, but his inspiration as well. It is clear that his background and upbringing have a large influence on the works he creates. For example, in Papaoutai, the child represents himself growing up without a father figure. I like how he uses his own experiences to create his works, in an attempt to help others like him, much like some other creatives we have seen this semester.
ReplyDeleteStromae is one of my favorite music artists. I can definitely see that fear of disappearing and his negative view of the world in almost all of his songs. The song that first comes to mind is "alors on danse" because he literally takes something good like money and says you can't have the good without the bad, in this case debt.
ReplyDeleteI actually did not know about the meaning behind "alors on danse" but that definitely makes sense with the lyrics and the music video. His song "Carmen" also pops into mind with these same themes cause he depicts how social media splits you from the world. Also "Formidable" is one of my favorites from him.
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