Your mother wouldn't approve of how
my mother raised me
But I do, I finally do
And you're an all-American boy
I guess I couldn't help trying to
be the best American girl (Your Best American Girl)
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| The All American Cowboy by Randy Follis |
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(A Mexican Vaquero by Frederic Remington)
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In American culture, the symbol of
the cowboy is the ultimate representation of what America strives to be – a symbol
of masculinity, dominance, freedom, arrogance. Although cowboys were originally
a Spanish tradition and historically were Mexican, Native American, or
African-American, this mythology of the American cowboy is attractive for those
of minority groups, especially for those seeking to achieve the American dream
and identify with the core tenets of what makes up the “ideal” American.
Mitski Miyawaki, born in 1990 to a
Japanese mother and American father, spent most of her childhood constantly on
the move due to her father’s job. While she was born in Japan, she rarely
stayed in any one country for longer than a year growing up, before finally
settling down in New York. Because of this constant movement, she attributes
her childhood to how she identifies as a multitude of different cultures. While
she is half-Japanese and half-American, she can’t connect totally with either
identity and instead sees herself as a truly multicultural product. However,
while this exposure to different cultures allowed her to experience and live in
different countries, this has also played into her perception of her own
identity – while she connects most closely with Malaysia because she spent
three consecutive years there, she can’t personally identify as Malaysian nor will
anyone see her as Malaysian. Recently, this has influenced her conceptual
character of Be the Cowboy, in which
she writes to describe a woman, much like her, whose life goal is to embody the
traits of the American cowboy. Instead of feeling this constant need to
apologize for existing and taking up space, she wants to have that confident
energy of a man “riding into town,
wrecking shit, and then walking out like he’s the hero.”
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| Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly |
Mitski herself has compared her
creative process to Andy Warhol’s process of creating upbeat and pop art
despite the lack of emotion that goes into the work. In “Nobody,” the music video
utilizes a happy-go-lucky Mitski dancing around singing into a hairbrush to a disco-pop
inspired song, yet she's surrounded by paper cutouts of people and the lyrics are incredibly melancholic (I don’t want your
pity/I just want somebody near me) and inspire feelings of the complexities of
loneliness. Even beyond feeling “alone in a crowded room,” the lyrics are
meant to evoke loneliness in a society based on connections and artificiality.
Nevertheless, although her love for
lyrical dissonance influences her most recent album, Be the Cowboy, it is not what defines her music style. In fact,
Mitski’s creativity and musical process is constantly changing and adapting.
Much like her own identity, she embraces that how she writes now will be
completely different from her writing years from now. Similarly, the music she
writes has a meaning that is not meant to be universalized or a vessel for her
audience to see themselves within – her lyrics are relevant to the “Mitski” in
that moment that she writes. Thus, while the loneliness of feeling separate
from society as seen in “Nobody” or the obsession with ecstasy in “Happy” are
relevant to the “Mitski” in that moment, that could change after a month.
Reflective of Gardner’s idea of the
creative process, Mitski also constantly “finds further change necessary” (33).
She personally understands the need for “reorientation” and how similarly to
how music as an industry is constantly growing and adapting, her style and
musical process must be revamped to fit the Mitski of the moment. And in this
moment, she is both nobody and the cowboy.
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I had no idea about the reasons behind why Mitski wrote Be The Cowboy, and this has really made me want to go back and listen to it again. Her own struggles with identity are really relevant, and her idea of "being the cowboy" is really what I try to be every day, too.
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear more about her other music (if there is any) and how it differs from this album. I appreciate that you gave us her background and connected it to how she makes music now, it helped me understand her point of view and intentions much better.
ReplyDeleteBe the Cowboy is so good. The songwriting is so advanced and tight, every line is essential. And I love the transition she's made, marrying that lyrical style to more melodic, flexible instrumentals. I've been trying to deafen myself listening to The Pearl as loud as my headphones will go.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post! The first time I heard Mitski was at the Lorde concert this past spring and I really loved her vibe. Your post really helped me in understanding who she is as a person and what inspires her music. I really like "nobody" and I definitely am going to have to look back into Mitski. I really like your argument about the interpretation of a cowboy and how she is cowboy but nobody at the same time. It's kind of like the cowboy is a representation of her mix of cultures she identifies with like the cowboy is associated with all different cultures. Perhaps the cowboy identity also represents the identity of nobody because they have no one specific place they come from, which is what Mitski relates to.
ReplyDelete