A Critical Analysis Of Ed Sheeran's Song The A Team

I have chosen to critically analyze a song called The A team sung by Ed Sheeran. This song is about a women who is a homeless person who has an addiction to crack cocaine. She is severely dependent on crack cocaine and to satisfy her addiction she uses prostitution as a way to pay for her drug use. The title of the song The A Team represents the Class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine which are classified to have the highest potential of drug abuse (Lehman, 2009). The lyrics of the song speaks of her pain and suffering how she wants to quite her drug abuse, but the rush and the euphoria of the high from taking drugs give her a chance to escape reality and enter a different world. (Lehman, 2009) The song is based on a true story, the singer …show more content…
A line from the lyrics clarifies this point “Or sells love to another man (Lehman, 2009).” She is so dependent on cocaine that just to fulfill her desire she sells her body to another man, so she can make enough money to pay for her drug use. We know from animal studies that social- emotional stimulation is necessary for the growth of the nerve endings that release dopamine, and for the growth of receptors to which dopamine needs to bind in order to do its job (Mate, 2008). Rats which have been separated from their mothers at an early-stage exhibit permanent disturbance of the dopamine incentives-motivation system in their midbrain. Abnormalities in this system plays role in the onset of addiction and cravings. Hence, in adulthood these maternally deprived animals show a greater tendency to self- administer cocaine (Mate, 2008). As a result, the presence of consistent parental contact in infancy is a factor in the normal development of the brains neurotransmitter system. An absence makes the child more vulnerable to needing drugs of abuse to supplement what their brain is lacking. This defines how emotional nurturance is an absolute requirement for healthy neurobiological brain development. However when these aspects are limited or not even present development seems to be scared which could lead to trauma or stress. Early trauma also has consequences for how humans respond to stress in their lives, and how stress has everything to do with addiction. A common aspects all stressors have is that they represent absence of something that the individual perceives as necessary for survival, or its threatened loss. A threatened loss of food supply is a major stressor, so is the threatened loss of love for human begins. Relating this to the song, Angels situation could have been a cause to trauma from maternal depression, neglect, abandonment