ISSN:
0022-3840
Language:
English
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of popular culture : JPC : the official publication of the Popular Culture Association, Popular Literature Section (Comparative Literature II) of the Modern Language Association of America and the Popular Section of the Midwest Modern Language Association
Publ. der Quelle:
Malden, Mass. [u.a.] : Blackwell Publ
Angaben zur Quelle:
Vol. 48, No. 5 (2015), p. 815-816
DDC:
390
Abstract:
In the last few months, I have become increasingly aware of a mantra in US popular culture. It is, "Everything is going to be fine," or "OK," or "alright," or some variant. It is a standard bit of dialogue in television shows and movies, especially spoken by characters in trouble. It has a dual function of reassuring viewers while building suspense that everything is not going to be ok at all. It is distinct from a mantra of unshakeable Christian hope, as in Tammy Wynette and George Jones's "Everything's Going to Be Alright" and Al Green's song of the same name, or of beneficent romantic love, as in Kenny Loggin's "Danny's Song." It is more akin to Naughty by Naughty's "Everything's Going to Be Alright," in which the mantra, embedded in the weirdly cheerful chorus, stands in a sharp contrast to the rap on a hard-scrabble life in the ghetto. In other words, whether everything is really going to be alright is always dubious (if for no other reason than the suspense, uncertainty, and inevitability of death) and depends on one's social position. Wisdom about this mantra comes from social location.
Note:
Copyright: © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc
,
Copyright: © COPYRIGHT 2015 Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
URL:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpcu.12329/abstract
URL:
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1722992417
Permalink
