Stan by Eminem

"Stan" music video

What does the jazz music of Duke Ellington, the rock ‘n roll of Elvis Presley, the folk music of Bob Dylan, the theatrical rock of Kiss, the punk music of the Sex Pistols and pop music of Madonna have in common? Parent groups criticized all of this music as having a dangerous influence on youth, disseminating non-Christian values and as being examples of insidious, worthless and bad art. People even put into questions whether this art was even music. All of these styles music threatened people so much that some even concluded that it was the work of the Devil himself.

This type of music criticism seems silly to us now. It’s hard to believe that anyone thought the way Elvis danced was too sexual for the eyes of youth and that people honestly took Kiss records away from their children because the believed them to be “Knights In Satan’s Service.” Did these people even listen to this music? There biggest hit, “Beth” is about as threatening as a Care Bear. It seems every generation has a style of music that their parents just don’t understand. This lack of understanding brings up the same criticisms and one of the most polarization genres of music between my generation and my parents’ generation is rap music.

The common complaints about rap music are that it uses explicit language, it glorifies an undesirable culture, and that it takes little skills and musical creativity to produce. These broad generalizations do describe some rap music. However criticizing a whole genre of music based on its worst examples is like calling all classical music trite, repetitive, unoriginal and lacking music skill because I just heard an 6 year old play “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” on a violin.

Yes, a lot of rap music includes swears word and explicit descriptions of sexual activity. Some rap music does describe gang and drug culture in a favorable and sentimental way. And I have heard some rap music that seems to have been put together with as much a skill and creativity as a 3 year old making a house out of Duplo blocks. Including explicit language does not mean that something is automatically “bad” art (i.e. Pulp Fiction) and just because the subject and the perspective of a piece of art is not one that you agree with does not mean that it is worthless. If we judged everything in this world as bad because we don’t get it, we’d live is a very dark and narrow-minded world.

“Stan” by Eminem, one of his most effective works, is a unique song that tells the story of a crazed fan named Stan, whose obsession with Eminem leads him to commits suicide and kill his pregnant wife in the process. Like many rap songs, “Stan” includes a sample from another song that is used for the chorus and the bass line during the verses. Most rap music sample music from 1970s funk music and Eminem takes an unusual approach taking him sample from the British pop singer, Dido (who is featured in the music video for “Stan.”). Eminem utilizes the beginning of the first verse from Dido’s hit “Thanks You”.

My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all
the morning rain clouds up my window and I can't see at all
And even if I could it'd all be grey, but your picture on my wall
it reminds me that it's not so bad, it's not so bad.

The original song is a simple and intimate statement of gratitude that starts with a level of darkness and opens up to a soaring and beautiful chorus. The part that Eminem uses only hints at this maintaining the feeling of rain clouds throughout. Instead of these words being about a loved one, the lyrics become a perverted statement of Stan’s obsession with Eminem. This is an amazing example of how context can change the meaning of lyrics.

The first time we hear Dido’s sample it is in background covered by rain and slightly distorted as if it is being listened to on the radio. Then it is repeated in the foreground accompanied by an aggressive drum beat and baseline which immediately transforms the sample and brings us into the mind of Stan.

In the first verse, Stan is explaining how much he likes Eminem. The rapping is closer to talking. The lines don’t rhyme and only at the end of the verse “This is Stan, your biggest fan” do the words have a clear rhythm to them that line them up with the beat. The song lays out the Stan’s obsession with Eminem and that there are some hints of something a little off when he explains that he will name his kid after Eminem’s daughter. Stan then explains how he has a room full of Eminem’s pictures and it becomes clear that the picture on the wall that Dido is singing about is in Stan’s world the pictures of Eminem he has up on the wall.

The anger starts to build in the second verse. The swear words that were used casually in the first verse begin to be said in anger as Stan explains how he feels he was dissed by Eminem. Stan reveals personal issues including abuse by his parents and the act of cutting which Eminem has joked about in earlier songs. Eminem is openly responding to his critics by dealing with the possibility that people may misunderstand what he is joking about and taking it for truth. He is also defending himself by filling out his character of Stan with other problems in his psychology unrelated to Eminem which in some ways are more responsible for Stan’s behavior. The speed of the rapping becomes faster in this verse, and even though it doesn’t included rhythm schemes, the faster tempo reveals rhythmic patterns in the speech that work within the framework of the drumbeat and the base line.

What Stan does in the third verse is an amalgam of jokes that Eminem made in previous songs. Stan misinterprets these lines as being taken seriously and we are witness to a disturbing and atrocious act. Eminem performs his lines as Stan with a uncomfortable level of anger so much so that it's almost unbearable to listen to.

You ruined it now, I hope you can't sleep and you dream about it.
And when you dream, I hope you can't sleep and you scream about it.

The screams of the pregnant girlfriend in the background are haunting, the tears of frustration can be felt in the Eminem's performance and like a nightmare, we finally awake from horror at the end of the verse.

The last verse is Eminem’s letter back to Stan. He tries to help Stan and give him some advice revealing a caring and giving artist beneath the bravado that Eminem carries as a rap star. Eminem raps in his normal rapping voice which is slightly higher and more nasal then the voice he did for Stan. In the last verse, Eminem raps in the more traditional way with a clear rhythm scheme and accentuated rhythm in the words to line up with the beat. There is a smoothness about the way that Eminem works through his lyrics, and takes pauses in order to keep the lyrics set in certain places in the beat. The beauty is that you don’t think about his rapping because there is nothing awkward in his delivery. The rhythms don’t point themselves out but instead help provided punctuation points at the ends of the line help to reinforce a sense of phrase and continuity.

If art truly is a reflection of the human experience, then art needs to comment not only on the beauty in human emotion but also in the darkness. There is no doubt that this song is not pleasant to listen to for some people. I still remember listening to this song for the first time and feeling like Eminem does at the end of this song, frozen in utter shock and disbelief.

Eminem answered his critics with a song explaining the worst thing his influence could lead to and instead of arguing back and saying that the possibility of something like this wasn’t possible, Eminem comments that in some ways even he is powerless to stop this kind of madness. This doesn’t excuse Eminem from any responsibility in a situation like this but it does make it clear that in any crime there are feelings more complicated than we can imagine.

Does this song use explicit language? Yes, but it is used to reflect the way some people communicate. Does it talk about a subject that some people would rather ignore? Yes, but obsessions is a true human emotion that is undeniable in our human nature. Will this song influence young people to do exactly what Stan does? I don’t know, maybe for some people but I know the majority of American’s who have heard this song didn’t as the amount of people who murdered their pregnant girlfriends did not spike when this song came out.

Is this song an example of great music? Yes, as it clearly communicate emotions that we all share and tells a complex story that comments our worst fears. It is essential that art helps us deal with the many facets of the human experiences in order to create a more connected and understanding world.

You may not like “Stan” and that’s ok, but hopefully you understand it a little better. It is important to work to understand songs that we are not accustom to. As getting to know people that are different then us helps us know ourselves better, exploring art that is beyond our everyday experience helps us understand what is meaningful about the art we love and the emotions deep within our hearts.