I've been asked to write about symbolism in music following my previous posts that introduce and explain how sigils and symbols work, and I've wrestled with how I could approach it and present it. Ultimately I've come to the conclusion that it wouldn't add anything to the overall purpose of this blog because it's just giving more examples of things I've already covered in some detail. Also, although this is a subject I'm fascinated with, I don't feel that it's one I can add much to in terms of my own point of view.
So what I'll do is provide some links to videos and other websites that go into brilliant detail about the music industry and its use of sigils and other magical/occult symbolism.
Before I do that, I'll summarise some key points that will hopefully interest you enough to click on the links below.
- Jay-Z is heavily into his sigil-use and magical symbolism. He uses symbols such as the all-seeing eye and other masonic symbols throughout his music, videos and live performances. Sean Carter aka Jay-Z has also started referring to himself as J-Hova, a pretty unequivocal reference to the "true name of God" in Jewish and Christian mythology.
- Kanye West and Puff Daddy seem closely involved in this business with Jay-Z, and many of their songs and videos include esoteric and occult references.
- Rihanna appears to be a puppet of Jay-Z, and the symbolism in her songs and music is mindblowing.
- Lady Gaga (who has appeared in two videos with Beyoncé Knowles, Jay-Z's wife) continually and increasingly references masonic symbolism, devil worship and all sorts of other things unexpected of a mainstream artist.
The important thing to note here is that whilst satanic imagery has been used in rock music for years, and artists such as Marilyn Manson are demonstrably heavily into the occult, these are all mainstream pop artists. Unlike bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Tool or Radiohead, there is no extra cachet to be gained by hiding secret messages for the fans to find. Jay-Z's typical fans would not be more likely to buy his records if he hinted at being in league with the devil, and neither would the fans of any of the associated musicians listed above.
So the only conclusion that makes any sense is that either Jay-Z & co. are actual members of occult societies with plans for great power, or they really want to be members and are putting up a flag in order to be asked to join. It simply doesn't make sense as a publicity stunt to appeal to such a fringe demographic when their target audience is MTV and disposable culture.
The main website linked below is Vigilant Citizen, which is a fantastic website for symbolic analysis. My only criticisms of it are that sometimes it seems to find links where there are none, and also that it is pro-Christian but tries not to mention it. This bothers me because it means that all articles on there have an inbuilt necessary bias to view all occultism as negative, and due to the semi-hidden nature of the pro-Christian agenda this can colour the articles in a way that's not immediately obvious.
That said, here's some links:
- Rihanna's Umbrella - this is a biggy, both lyrically and in terms of the video (here's a version of the music video that still works)
- Lady Gaga's Born This Way, lyrically nothing dodgy but the video is really quite something.
- Lady Gaga's Judas, the most blatant song/video combo she's yet released.
- Kanye West's Power, the symbolism in this video is just incredible.
This is the video for ET by Katy Perry, featuring Kanye West.
Listen to the lyrics, watch the video, see what you make of it.
Finally, here's a long but very good documentary about the music industry as a whole. My criticisms of this are that it's also got a pro-religion angle (in this case Islam), and also that it fails to recognise that hip-hop is very self-referential. The documentary gives many examples of hip-hop artists using the same lyrics, but it doesn't for one second suggest that "Gz up, hoes down" has any deeper meaning, or that "six million ways to dies, choose one" means anything special, but these can of course both be found in myriad hip-hop tracks. It also uses a Ministry track as evidence of a New World Order, when that particular song is intended as an attack on George H W Bush, and in fact it is Bush Snr. himself who says the words "New World Order" in the song.
Nonetheless, it's a very informative and interesting video, so please enjoy:
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As always a good read. I've always felt that the occult symbolism within music was more a reflection of those pulling the puppet strings (the video directors, producers, record labels etc) than the artists themselves. In a lot of cases I often wonder whether the artist is actually bright enough to even notice it's there (though in the case of Gaga/Perry et al I doubt very much they'd care even when it was spelled out to them, and to folk like Jay-Z and Kanye it's just more publicity for them, which they'll never object to).
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