The song 'Fortnight' by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word 'fortnight' shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
Mike:
This is a story of them against us, win or lose
Forcing your feet into someone else's shoes
Everybody's got something to say, that we ought to
Live their way, what we're doing's not okay
In this world everybody's got a chip on
Both sides of the neck, got no respect
Wait up a sec
You ever feel like the pressure is
Too much to take, too much weight?
Ladies and gentlemen
If anybody can hear me right now please shout back
We're not the only ones feeling so trapped
In the dream of somebody else, in fact
They got their heads full of some overblown scheme
Opportunity they missed back when they were sixteen
And all they want to do is push you to be that
And all you want to do is scream back
Holly / Tak / Mike:
Gonna be sombody
(For anybody telling me I can't)
Gonna be someone
(For anyone who told me I had no chance)
Gonna be somebody
(I'm telling you the time has come)
Gonna be someone
(And maybe you'll get it when I'm finally done)
We don't sleep to dream, we sleep to build stamina
Energy to do our thing, get your camera
Cause this ride is about to begin
Sit down and buckle it in, lemme say it again
In this world everybody's got a chip on
Both sides of the neck, got no respect
Wait up a sec
When I was young they said the
Odds of making it were slim to none
Ladies and, fuck it
I'm tired of them saying the dream you have
Doesn't exist, telling you you're worthless saying you should quit
Basically telling you that you'll never be shit
Really they're pissed cause they'll never achieve some
Opportunity they missed back when they were sixteen
And all they want to do is push you to be that
And all you want to do is scream back
Lupe Fiasco:
They're gonna think you're crazy
Mumbling to yourself in the basement all day
Uh-uh-uh-ing and to yourself
My pops didn't dig it with shoveling it to myself
My boys used to get it they dug it because they felt
My undertaking took me I was making in my stealth
A wealth of rhymes of crazy I would chuckle to myself
Then they went into the mental rolodex
See I knew 'em by heart like a brain in my chest
Then I took 'em to school where subjects were getting felt
Books under my seat notebook laying on my desk
My teacher's like, "Mr. Jaco?"
"Yes?"
"With all that knowledge, you ain't trying to college
Be a lawyer or a doctor, get a whole lot of dollars
Rather degrade woman and glorify violence?"
Well the work that works for me might not work for you
No homework, I got work to do
This is a story of them against us, win or lose
Forcing your feet into someone else's shoes
Everybody's got something to say, that we ought to
Live their way, what we're doing's not okay
In this world everybody's got a chip on
Both sides of the neck, got no respect
Wait up a sec
You ever feel like the pressure is
Too much to take, too much weight?
Ladies and gentlemen
If anybody can hear me right now please shout back
We're not the only ones feeling so trapped
In the dream of somebody else, in fact
They got their heads full of some overblown scheme
Opportunity they missed back when they were sixteen
And all they want to do is push you to be that
And all you want to do is scream back
Holly / Tak / Mike:
Gonna be sombody
(For anybody telling me I can't)
Gonna be someone
(For anyone who told me I had no chance)
Gonna be somebody
(I'm telling you the time has come)
Gonna be someone
(And maybe you'll get it when I'm finally done)
We don't sleep to dream, we sleep to build stamina
Energy to do our thing, get your camera
Cause this ride is about to begin
Sit down and buckle it in, lemme say it again
In this world everybody's got a chip on
Both sides of the neck, got no respect
Wait up a sec
When I was young they said the
Odds of making it were slim to none
Ladies and, fuck it
I'm tired of them saying the dream you have
Doesn't exist, telling you you're worthless saying you should quit
Basically telling you that you'll never be shit
Really they're pissed cause they'll never achieve some
Opportunity they missed back when they were sixteen
And all they want to do is push you to be that
And all you want to do is scream back
Lupe Fiasco:
They're gonna think you're crazy
Mumbling to yourself in the basement all day
Uh-uh-uh-ing and to yourself
My pops didn't dig it with shoveling it to myself
My boys used to get it they dug it because they felt
My undertaking took me I was making in my stealth
A wealth of rhymes of crazy I would chuckle to myself
Then they went into the mental rolodex
See I knew 'em by heart like a brain in my chest
Then I took 'em to school where subjects were getting felt
Books under my seat notebook laying on my desk
My teacher's like, "Mr. Jaco?"
"Yes?"
"With all that knowledge, you ain't trying to college
Be a lawyer or a doctor, get a whole lot of dollars
Rather degrade woman and glorify violence?"
Well the work that works for me might not work for you
No homework, I got work to do
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More Featured Meanings
Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
This song is about following your dreams regardless of what naysayers say.