Shift In Meaning Of Occult Symbols In Selected Contemporary Visual American Popular Music

Abstract

Symbols are normally used to discreetly communicate euphemized information especially those which deal with sex, phenomena like death, lightning, and certain types of animals among others. Music producers have utilized this literary style in their music video production to communicate messages to their target audience (in most cases the youth). With time, occult symbols appeared to have adopted new meanings other than their original conventional meanings. This study sought to identify and analyze the shift in meanings of occult symbols in contemporary American popular music. The study sampled music from the American music top chart artistes namely; Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Ke$ha, Beyonce and Lil Wayne. The occult symbols were studied within the location of American pop culture. This study also utilized the tenets of postmodernism to bring an insight on how symbols are understood and used in the society. However, given that this study is about symbols, the main theory used is semiotics. Semiotics is the study of signs and sign processes, indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication. (Caesar,1999).The primary data for this study was obtained through observation by watching American pop music videos done by American pop artistes between the years 2008 and 2014 and purposive sampling used to select music videos with occult symbols. The researcher subsequently explained the diverse meanings carried by occult symbols in contemporary American pop music, and finally analyzed the shift in meanings of occult symbols in contemporary American popular music.