Song Analysis: Strange Fruit By Billie Holiday

Songs usually have a meaning towards them whether it is beneficial or not. Music has a way of speaking itself to people. Many singers sing about many things, because they know that somehow somewhere people are going to hear it due to the fact that it is everywhere as told by Jane, “Music is everywhere. We can’t escape it.” Music comes a long way, it is not known when it was first started, but somehow it spread all around the world. Music is known to best express someone’s feelings as told by Rachiotis, “Whether you are music enthusiast or not, the best way you can express your feelings, anger, love, passion, joy and other kinds of feelings is simply through music.” Many songs usually talk about different types of problems like discrimination,
In the song it describes the view of what the south looked like due to racism, “Southern trees bear a strange fruit/Blood on the leaves and blood at the root” (Lines 1-2). With this song, Holiday tries to paint an image on the audience of the horrible world that colored people had to live in back in the day. She mentions how people of color would be killed and just left there for others to see, “Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze/Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees… The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth” (Lines 3-4;6). These lyrics give a descriptive idea that the bodies would be hanged on the trees like if they were a fruit. The song tells how the bodies would just be left hanging on the trees like nothing, “For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck/For the sun to rot…” (Lines 10-11). Billie tells how the body that would hang from trees were not minded, they were there to rot. In the end, this song “Strange Fruit” is attempting to tell and describe to others how cruel people could be, for the reason that they may be a different skin
The song explains how some people are considered gay, because they do certain things that others may think is weird or are not used to seeing, “When I was in the third grade I thought that I was gay/ 'Cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight” (Lines 1-2). He explains how even when someone is not interested in someone with the same gender, they start to believe they might be gay, because of the stereotypes. Macklemore discusses how those who are attracted to the same gender feel like they have to be cured or need treatment, because of people telling them that it is not okay to be gay, “For those that liked the same sex/Had the characteristics/The right wing conservatives think it's a decision/And you can be cured with some treatment and religion” (Lines 9-12). In the song it explains how people believed that others were not born that way, that it was their choice to be different from others. He voices about how even if people wanted to change due to others they cannot do so, “And I can't change/Even if I tried/Even if I wanted to” (Lines19-21). After all, Macklemore’s song tries to explain that no one should be afraid of what they cannot explain and that yes there is people who may be different, but we are all