Released
Raise Your Glass is the only new release on an album full of P!nk's hit songs. It didn't take very long for the song to reach hit song status itself, and so it seems that it's inclusion worked out very well. Raise Your Glass made it into the Billboard Top Ten shortly after its release (within three weeks after Oct 6, 2010) which makes it the eleventh Top Ten hit for P!nk, and the sixteenth Top 20. The song moved P!nk into the third place slot for most Top Ten hits by a female artist since 2000. Only Rhianna and Beyonce have more during that time-frame.
Described as a "Thank You to the fans", the song is interesting not only for it's celebratory nature, but also for P!nk's choice of visuals for the song's music video. The video itself was only just released on November 2nd, but it contains a ton of references that reflect P!nk's beliefs in racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation and species equality. The gender equality is represented by P!nk dressing up in the famous Rosie the Riveter poster pose at the beginning. What follows is scenes of animal cruelty reversals: a matador being skewered by traditional banderillas (and later becomes the victim of the estocada, the final killing sword thrust during a bullfight) all while a bull becomes a spectator. These scenes are intermixed with a somewhat funny and also somewhat disconcerting "milk parlor" scene. All the above is shown in conjuction with actual footage from a wedding reception that P!nk hosted for a best friend, who is gay.
It is - at first glance - a somewhat odd pairing of imagery. But when looked at from the standpoint of the equality question, it ties the whole thing together. P!nk has proven herself to be controversial for sure, but she really does seem to be legitimate in her beliefs. She is active as a spokesperson for PETA, often speaks out as an advocate of gay marriage, and has never shied away from stating her opinions. Agree with her or not, she seems to be quite passionate about what she does.
The whole Rosie the Riveter portrayal was interesting in another way - the Rosie she portrays is a famous image to be sure, but it's not the WWII Rosie. The famous poster image she takes her look and pose from was used during WWII, but the image itself wasn't Rosie, it was from the equally famous "We Can Do It!" poster. The real Rosie was portrayed by other artists, probably most famously by Norman Rockwell. The "We Can Do It!" image - when rediscovered in the 70's - became associated with the actual Rosie images from the Second World War, and has since become synonymous with the real Rosie. In both cases, the imagery depicted the strength of women taking up the jobs vacated by the men who went off to fight in the war. More on all of that is here. It makes for some interesting reading!
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