Thrift Shop
Parody works serve an important purpose in our culture, they allow us to approach sometimes serious or controversial topics from a new, often comical viewpoint. Often times this forces the reader/ viewer to break their single-mindedness on the issue and re-evaluate, often without the reader/ viewer even realizing it. Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” is a parody of America’s obsession with wearing expensive name brands as a way to express their individuality and sense of style. The song is also presented as a rap song and video, which helps emphasize the stereotypes of the music genre.
The song’s main purpose is to show people how ridiculous it is to follow everyone else as a way to express yourself, and especially when it involves doing stupid things to do so. As a society we act like lemmings when it comes to our individuality, we follow what others do and some companies have responded by raising their prices because they know nobody wants to be different and not buy their clothing. Macklemore spends an entire verse explaining how dumb it is to pay that much for clothing, when in the end it’s just cloth that you can buy for 50 times cheaper at a thrift shop that accomplishes the same thing in the end. He also points out that it’s almost funny how people try to stand out with their expensive clothing, while at the same time “six other people in this club” might be wearing the same exact thing.
Macklemore uses many elements of rap videos in his music video, further promoting his point about how absurd it is to follow the mold for every situation. The video opens up with Macklemore coming in on an old scooter and drinking a slushie, but everyone is watching him as if he is rolling in in a new sports car and drinking some expensive drink, like many other rap video openings. Two girls walk next to him, similarly to how a rappers expensive car might be full of girls. This is making fun of the ego many rappers try to portray in their music and videos. Of course they drive sports cars that cost more than some peoples’ houses, and obviously women throw themselves at them, this opens the door for Macklemore to do his parody of it, pointing out how absurd it would be for people to stand in awe of him or for women to throw themselves at him throughout the video as he dresses in old clothes from the thrift shop. He also rhymes mothafucka three times in a row, showing how stupid rappers can sound when they throw in swearing simply for the sake of swearing that in no way emphasizes the message of their song.
This parody shows us how ridiculous we can be as a society by using the polar opposite of it in the same mold we are familiar with, which forces us to realize just how ridiculous the whole concept we are used to is. While we might not all start getting all our clothes at thrift shops, we might be more conscious of how much money we are willing to spend to stand out on a stamp everyone else is wearing.
Works Cited
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. Abercrombie & Fitch – Making the Homeless Douchebags. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.
Lewis, Ryan. "MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS - THRIFT SHOP FEAT. WANZ (OFFICIAL VIDEO)." YouTube. YouTube, 29 Aug. 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.
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