Jamming Giant Women Narration through Song in Steven Universe

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the different functions that the songs perform as constituent tools in the narrative develop-ment of the storyline in Steven Universe, a cartoon TV series created by Rebecca Sugar. The narrative is driven by the disclosure of Steven’s origin and by his development from childhood to adolescence. The soundtrack (and especially the songs) works as an integrated and fundamental element of the text. Attaching different musical styles (pop, rap, theatrical musical) consistently to the characters helps build their fictional personas. Purely musical procedures (integration of certain melodic themes, harmonies and specific instrumental colour) correlate to events in the narrative to provide information about the characters’ backstories and the rules that apply to the convoluted fictional universe developed in the series. Songs also help characters find an emotional response to conflicting emotional states. Complicated feelings, such as toxic relationships, identity, sexuali-ty, loyalty, sacrifice, parenting, gender stereotypes and many more are developed through songs. The integration of songs in the narrative always moves it forward, although they sometimes challenge the diegetic/non-diegetic dichotomy.