Hit Me with the Truth
In 2016, George Watsky released a song titled “Stick to Your Guns.” In this song, he portrays powerful imagery pertaining to various perspectives involved in school shootings. Watsky expresses his argument with facts supported by empathy and creative language. His song portrays the views of the shooter, the media, and the politicians. Watsky appeals favorably to logos to convince Americans that school shootings are exploited via media and politicians
The song begins with a settle intro followed shortly by Watsky’s opening verse. In it, he opens telling the story from the eyes of the shooter. He said, “I’ll be gone when you read this, so I just wanted to say, I’m sorry to the couple decent people who got in the way.” He continues in his letter to state what events lead up to this and why he reacted that way. “I was mocked and ignored, you’re sorry now but talk is cheap [you] shoulda thought it before. You’re the sorry flock of sheep that made me rot to the core.” He’s insinuating that school shootings are developed from emotional suffering and mental struggles. He also incorporates negative denotation throughout this verse to support the mood of the shooter.
During the opening scene in the video, a kid is shown sleeping in his bed. The camera ascends and shows the boy’s dream cloud. In it, Watsky is dressed as a sheep herder while reading a children’s book to a flock of sheep. The book seems innocent, until a closer look is exposed. The book is entitled Dino Wars and it reveals blood and violence within the covers. It has an illustrated T-Rex and Pterodactyl. They seemed disgruntled on the first couple pages until he flips the page and show the T-Rex killing and eating a Pterodactyl.
Watsky’s second verse appeals to how the media takes advantage of the school shooting to gain viewers. The verse itself sounds like an advertisement for the news station. While the news tries to report on one of the students who has been shot, they are also self-promoting simultaneously. He says “We’re gonna bring you a segment live from her hospital bed! We’ll try to bring you the spin through your preexisting opinions but if we miss it switch it to our sister network instead.” He implies that news networks are just developing stories for views, not for the truth or integrity. They simply twist the story to appeal to the viewer of the station. He touches on how the news promote their graphics, sponsors, and social media to pull in more viewers as well.
In the video, the second verse contains all but one sheep dying. They died from a fall from a cliff, drowning, bombs, hanging, poison, disembowelment, and gun fire. After each sheep dies one-by-one, it shows the herder mourning the loss of each sheep. I believe this resembles the media covering various types of death as it is a great interest piece for viewers. They like the controlled chaos because it’s all real, but safe from their disposition.
In the final verse, Watsky is speaking from the senator’s point of view. The politician seems to be addressing the citizens in a PSA for the shooting. He starts off remorseful, but then goes on to say there’s nothing that could have been about it. “It’s just the strange inner visions of a deranged individual. Full of rage, full of hate, full of vitriol.” He talks about how most politicians don’t try to crack down on mental health or gun control. The people have come up with solutions, yet nothing has been implemented. He also uses the incident to reference how his opponent uses it for public appeal. “But I gotta mention that it’s sick and insane my opponent’s twisting your pain for political gain, that’s lame.” It’s common for politicians to point fingers and voice blame, especially on opposing politicians.
The clip ends on a stormy night with the sheep herder and his last sheep at the sheep cemetery. The herder acts as the sermon of the departed sheep. The sheep start to erect from the graves and turn on the living. They are then consumed by the dead sheep and then cuts to a quick animation. Finally, the herder is shown at the end with him and his sheep floating on a cloud. The cloud turns back into a dream cloud from the kid sleeping in his bed. The kid is awoken, calmly walks off, and the video ends.
“Stick to Your Guns” has appealed to a lot of controversial standpoints encompassed with school shootings. Watsky used a lot of logic reasoning to support and make his argument.
Works Cited
Watsky, George. “Watsky- Stick to Your Guns ft. Julia Nunes [x Infinity]” X Infinite, Carlos Lopez Estrada, Kush Mody, 14 January 2017, 3 April 2019.
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