Homosexual Persecution In Andrew Hozier's Take Me To Church
1006 Words5 Pages
Several masked, hooded men drag their victim, kicking and screaming, into the shadows of the forest. Their leader, eyes glaring with contempt at the abomination in their midst, cracks a flare to illuminate the heinous group representing the epitome of homosexual persecution and oppression. Andrew Hozier-Byrnes, Irish singer songwriter of his band “Hozier”, utilizes this drastic scene during the climax of his music video “Take me to Church”, written in 2013. While some might disagree with the drastic usage of the extreme imagery, Hozier’s “Take Me to Church” effectively depicts just one example of homosexual persecution in our modernized society. “Take Me to church” debuted alongside several other of Hozier’s singles in his very first, self-titled album, rapidly achieving worldwide fame and success upon release, reaching number two on the Irish Singles Chart “IRMA”. Soon afterward, it peaked at the number one spot on numerous countries’ charts including Austria, Greece, and Italy, along with…show more content… Throughout the song, Hozier makes several references to a “lover”, and how she’s “got humour / [is] the giggle at a funeral / knows everybody’s disapproval” (Lines 1-3 and how he “should’ve worshipped her sooner” (Line 4). Within the context, “worship” is used as a replacement to represent “love”. Notably, there is lyrical dissonance present, with the music video using homosexuality as its topic and the lyrics including a “her”. Using the video as context, however, the narrator could simply be the protagonist, a homosexual male, and his partner being a gender-switched “her”. Because they are gay, this homosexual coupling is viewed as blasphemy and sodomy by the church, represented by masked, hooded, evidently white males who enter the story as onlookers and evolving into full-fledged aggressive, stereotypical