Lady Gaga released her new song, “Till It Happens To You,” on Friday, Sept. 18.
The song was written for “The Hunting Ground,” a 2015 documentary about campus rape and deals with sexual assault, specifically on college campuses.
Through Gaga’s lyrics, listeners are asked to try to understand the pain the victims are forced to go through.
Gaga sings, “Till your world burns and crashes/ Till you’re at the end, the end of your rope/ Till you’re standing in my shoes/ I don’t wanna hear a thing from you, from you, from you/ Cause you don’t know/ Till it happens to you, you won’t know how I feel.”
Tyler Jennings, in college for his second degree in agronomy and soils in the production option, said he thinks sexual assault can never be justified.
“I’m sure it’s pretty high on all campuses,” Jennings said. “It’s a traumatic experience, and people need to have help so it doesn’t push them further down a path that they don’t want to be. It’s very degrading.”
Alex Dobbins, freshman in undeclared sciences and mathematics, said he believes the music video is impactful in bringing attention to sexual assault.
“I think sexual assault is an issue because it happens, and a lot of times it isn’t reported,” Dobbins said. “It’s really important that people are aware that it actually does happen.”
A portion of the sales of the music video will be donated to organizations that help sexual assault victims.
Ashton Wells, freshman in social work, said she thinks this donation could help victims.
“I think that’s really good, so they can help the victims and do research and just pretty much fight against it,” Wells said.
The Association of American Universities published a new study Monday, Sept. 21, stating 23 percent of female undergraduate students and five percent of male undergraduate students have reported experiencing sexual assault since enrolling in college.
This statistic came from a survey of more than 150,000 students from 27 universities and supports the 2007 National Institute of Justice’s study.
The 2007 study states one in five women is sexually assaulted during her time in college.
“Till It Happens To You” brings to light many of the problems of sexual assault across college campuses.
Lady Gaga gives attention to sexual assault through her music video.
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