“Fleshmap is an inquiry into human desire, its collective shape and
individual expressions. In a series of studies, we explore the
relationship between the body and its visual and verbal representation.
Using images of the body as pictograms, Listen offers a fresh look at
vocabulary use, ranging from the popular to the erudite. ”
Yeah, yeah, yeah, basically, this is a very beautiful, interface that
visually depicts how many times a body part is mentioned in song in a
variety of genres.
Pick a body part. I’m going to go with ‘ass.’ Then pick a genre, let’s
say Hip-Hop. It’s highly scientific. ‘Ass’ shows up in 23.64% of Hip-Hop
songs(!). ‘Ass’ does not show up at all in ANY country songs (country
likes ‘eyes’ and ‘hands’). No ass in any Jazz songs either for that
matter. Ass also does not show up in any folk songs, but ‘Butt’ shows up
in 1.09% of folk songs…is that because butt rhymes with chestnut? or
Somewhat? Who knows, what we do know is that Hip-Hop comes through on both
Butt and Ass: see Busta Rhymes feat. Pharrell “Lite Ya Ass On Fire” and
Busta Rhymes “Butt Naked”
p.s. I know you were wondering this as well: “Some body words have
multiple meanings. For example, the word “back” tends to be used more as
an adverb and adjective than as a body part. In cases like this, we do not
treat the term as a body part; it shows up on the rebus as a gray dot.
I’m guessing they used “Baby Got Butt” in their calculations instead.
~Eileen Greene
One Comment
I was just chatting with my friend about this today at the resturant. Don’t remember how in the world we got on the subject actually , they brought it up. I do remember having a amazing steak salad with sunflower seeds on it. I digress…