Charles Larson's Persuasion: An Analysis

Music is a powerful tool that creates mood and action depending on the person. The rhythms, melodies, and lyrics persuade the listeners to feel a certain emotion based on the tempo. In today's generation, more than half of the world listen's to music due to the fact they believe it can help them in any form of way. Music artists send a message through their lyrics which allows their listeners to identify with them because of similar experiences. This form of persuasion is best explained in Charles Larson's (2012) book, Persuasion: Reception and Responsibility which speaks about the origins and uses of persuasion as well as mentions Aristotle's artistic and inartistic definitions of persuasion. Aristotle's definition of artistic proof is "having
Through Gomez's verse "The bed's getting cold and you're not here, the future that we hold is so unclear. But I'm not alive until you call," I found myself connecting to the lyrics because my boyfriend and I were going through a rough patch in our relationship for some time and we were on the verge of breaking up, (Genius, 2014). Also, the biggest reason why I felt so awful about it was that we did not speak to each other during this time just like Selena stated in her song lyrics. In relation to this, since I was emotionally persuaded by these songs and professed their message quickly, I was undergoing the peripheral information processing route of persuasion which can be defined as "information processed almost instantly or just by the senses, without direct focus or research of the logic of the decision," Larson, 2012). As has been noted, these songs allowed me to get in tune with my emotions as well as feel connected to the artists because their lyrics persuaded me into believing there was hope for my
Those feelings are seen in her bridge "this is a modern fairy tale. No happy endings, no wind in our sails. But I can't imagine a life without breathless moments bringing me down, down, down," (Genius, 2014). This bridge's intensity persuaded me to assume that loving fairy tales are non-existent and that even though I am hurt I should try to fight for the relationship I have. Even so, these lyrics can be a little unsettling because it could potentially promote emotional death if someone returns to an abusive relationship just because the artist in the song decided to do so. With songs like this, a person must self-protect themselves from both literal and figurative meanings of certain songs. As for me, I can still enjoy the lyrics to "the heart wants what it wants" while feeling emotionally connected to them, but I am aware that just because Selena is accepting to be hurt doesn't mean I should too. Although Gomez did a good job in intensifying her difficulties, she downplays what a toxic relationship could look like. In her lyrics "I know him, though. I know his heart, and I know what he wouldn't do to hurt me. But I didn't realize that feeling so confident, feeling so great about myself and then it just be completely shattered. By one thing. By something so stupid. But