| Pearl Jam – Do the Evolution Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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Um...Okay... The last several posts almost made me respond with my own OPINIONS on the matter, but I also remember that the purpose of this site is talk about songs and their possible meanings; hence, its name songmeanings.net. That being said, does anybody else have anything to add? Anything that RELATES TO THIS SONG? |
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| Franz Ferdinand – Take Me Out Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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For those of you who can't understand why there is so much animosity against Mtv, let tell you why, at least from my perspective. It's really about what the music network's continued "success" and what it really represents. This will involve a little history lesson. When Mtv first launched in 1981, it was regarded by most as a fledging network that wouldn't last 6 months (A network that shows just music videos? What nonsense!). Most acts didn't really rely upon music videos to sell records and tapes, so Mtv had to look across the pond. That's why in the early days, you would find a lot of foriegn acts. In order to create a buzz, Mtv had to get creative. What you had back then was a lot of music acts that only had music and it was GREAT music. That was what kept the network fresh: the music. Flash forward to the year 2000. This was the year I stopped watching Mtv on a regular basis. I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong. Just two years ago, I thought Mtv was the greatest channel on earth. It didn't matter to me that they were playing BSB and NYSC because I figured every generation had its Partridge Family. Then watching one of Mtv's specials regarding the history of Limp Bizkit, I realized what it was. It's the music choices. They sucked! The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Mtv was no longer a network for quirky and original acts that made it so special. Now, it only takes in music acts that can sell an image. In other words, Mtv had gone corporate. Mtv is now a souless vampire that only puts out music that means nothing, but helps maintain the status quo. The world-known and "popular" acts get all the adulation and air time they want, no matter how good or bad they are, and the real bands get mediocre attention. Now, it's no longer about the culture and the signifigance of musical influences, but about what's "cool", because "cool" equals ratings and money. There is no magic, at least not anymore. Now, everything is calculated to guarentee a "success". Don't believe me? Just check out Frontlines "The Merchant of Cool". You can find it on www.pbs.org. Exactly how did I get this opinion from a Limp Bizkit special. Simple. When it comes on Mtv again, which it most certainly will, watch it again, but this time with the "Mtv is so cool" lens off. You'll find, just like I did, that everything about their rise to superstardom seemed calculated, although I'm sure Mtv didn't mean to put it out that way. From the time they got that "chance of a lifetime" on Spring Break to the "incident" at Woodstock '99, there seem to be an effort to make the band look like a group of troublemakers or at least an "antithesis" to the pop acts that were reigning at the time. Of course, now everyone knows that they suck! They always have! We just refused to take of our "Mtv is so cool" lenses off! If Mtv is still so relevant, how do you explain how Mtv felt they need to make a band like Limp Bizkit look cool? How do you explain the so-called "punk" acts like Avril Lavigne and Ashley Simpson? How do you explain that, even though Britney Spears, their pop princess, continues to get even more special attention from the network, she couldn't even sell half the CDs she sold when she first came out? How do you explain the music industries' current woes (and don't say it was because of illegal downloads because all of us, including them, knows that's bull!) How do you explain, despite the many possibilities of the genre that is hip-hop, Mtv continues to expose rap acts that seem like a copy of the act they just played five minutes ago? Where is the innovation and quirkyness that Mtv use to have when it was hungry for any acts to come on its channel. It's like ,suddenly, they decided they no longer needed to be fresh anymore and just got fat and lazy on their success! Oh sure, every once and a while, Mtv plays something that reminds me of its former glory days (like this song, for instance), but that doesn't change the fact that they sold out. All that matters to Mtv now is that: a) female acts are hot and half-naked, b) if you wear skater clothes, black makeup, and crazy hair, you are in a punk band, and c) you have to be "cool", even if said "coolness" means nothing. If you don't have any of these three, don't be suprised if you don't get alot of play time. Everything else matters to Mtv... Except the music. Oh BTW, great song by Franz Ferdinand. Very catchy toon. |
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| Michael Jackson – Ghosts Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| I downloaded the music video quite some time ago and, I have to tell you, it was pretty creepy. It starts out with a group of parents and their children going to a dark castle in the standard mob gathering you would see in a black and white horror movie. They are led by a pourtly middle-age man (played by MJ) who wants to see MJ gone. The kids are protesting all the while that MJ is their friend and their parents seem to reluctantly take their side. When they meet MJ, he tries to convince them through song and dance that he really is a friend and succeeds with everybody except the leader, whom is being portrayed as just trying to scare everybody, most of all MJ It's obvious MJ is trying to repeat the success of the Thriller video but fails miserably. It was very apparent that the recent events in MJs life have been affecting thoroughly. He has always been known to express his feelings about what is going on in his life (see BIllie Jean), but this song and video just somehow seems ... wrong. The whole theme was just uber creepy. Notice that I used the words creepy twice in this post. That's how bad it was. If MJ is to return to his former glory as a pop star, he shouldn't be distracted by the events in his life. | |
| Pearl Jam – Do the Evolution Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| Lootineer, it could be interpreted that the missionary's religion infecting the Native American as symbolism for the man's destructive actions done in the name of God, but, more likely, it has to do with the spread of diseases. This subject regarding Europeans first many journeys into the Americas can be found in almost any standard History book. When Europeans first interact with the Native Americans and started sharing with them many things of culture, such as religion and goods, they also brought along with them diseases that the Native American never have been exposed to. This results in many cases of massive wipeouts of the Natives' population. If the Natives' had encountered the diseases naturally thorough nature, the effect would not be as half as devastating as it have been thorough sudden exposure. | |
| New Kids on the Block – Please Don't Go Girl Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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"No matter what anyone says about the New Kids On The Block. They were pioneers and groundbreakers. The songs they sang came from the heart. " If you are serious JerseyGirlJenn, then I suggest you aquaint with another boy band that came before NKOTB: New Edition. |
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| Living Colour – Cult of Personality Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| This song is about the dangers of willingly submitting yourself (or your money, unrelenting support,etc.) to any person or organization. The Cult of Personality refers to this phenomena of people using said entities (wether it be movie stars, politicans, etc.) to project their own desires. These entities don't even have to pretend to be honorable to enjoy the people's support. They can lie about anything (I tell you one and one makes three) or simply use you without consquence (exploit you still you love me). Of course, this song does suggest that it is your choice to "worship these gods", that you could simply ignore them and they would go away. But why would you if they represent everything you want to be, want to fight for, want to accomplish and all you have to do is to sell your soul in the process. Never has this been more relevant than in these times. | |
| Jefferson Starship – We Built This City Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| I remember catching a 3 second clip on MTV, where they were showing past shows and JEFFERSON STARSHIP WAS BEING BOOED MERCILESSLY BY THE CROWD! | |
| Bloodhound Gang – The Ballad Of Chasey Lain Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| Their music video is pretty NC-17 rated. Anybody at least seen a version of it on t.v? | |
| Rage Against the Machine – Darkness (Of Greed) Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| You know what's really ironic? Last year, in what could be viewed as a photo-op, Bush pledged Africa millions of dollars to help fight the spread of AIDS. By this summer, that pledge decreased dramatically, less than one third of the proposed (and who could blame the Bush administration, with the Iraq war, the huge deficit, etc.) At the same time, the administration enacted on the wishes of the uber-conservative and all but stopped government financail support for groups encourage safe sex and family planning. Unfortunately, this caused many of their operations in Africa to shut down, worsening the plight of people threatened by this epidemic. Ten years later after this song was released, white men still play the judge of life and death for whatever reasons they adhere to and the Africans afflicted suffer for it. | |
| Rage Against the Machine – Sleep Now In The Fire Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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I hate to be the downer in this post-group, but let me ask every reader a question. How many people doing more than just listening to this great song? How many of you write to your congressman or woman, write you local newspaper, organize rallies, etc, etc. At the very least, how many of you are going to vote in the upcoming election? Personally, I can count all the people I know doing such on hand and that is more than just a little frightening. If we really are going to put to effect any positive change into this government of ours, we have to become involved. I personally am writing a series of fictional books that will highlight some of the themes touched here, but I am still just one person. Michael Moore is just one person. Zach is just one person. But if enough one persons get together and grow in numbers, then put to effect our desired goals. Otherwise, just sitting there, listening to RATM album does nothing except heightens the outrage and nothing else. By doing nothing, you do accept the fate handed down to you by your "leaders". "So raise your fists and march around! Just don't take what you need!" Just don't take what you need, indeed! |
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| *NSYNC – Pop Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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Zacster's Right! NSYNC is the band to remember for all time! In the 60's, we had the Rolling Stones. The 70s, KISS. The 80s Poisen. NYSC and the other boy bands belong on a pedestal with all the other great in history, the Osmonds, the Monkees, Menudo, etc. Waitamminutte... What do you mean you never heard of the Osmonds! They the greastest rock band in... You don't listen to the Monkees! What planet were you on....Only Ricky from Menudo matters! What Injustice!!! Don't you realize what you are saying! By not knowledging these boy bands of the past, you're saying that their music is not worthwhile and unispiring, that they have not really substantual to the realm of music, that the only reason at all they last more than one album is and boy-crazy prepubscent girls who couldn't tell real music from an airhorn sounding! Oops... |
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| Pearl Jam – Do the Evolution Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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If it is true that this song is based upon the book 'Ismael', then I can definitely see how both the lyrics and the video is shaped. Let me clarify what the book is about, philosphically speaking, and how it relats to the song. This letter is a bit long, so bear with me. A long time ago, humans did live on Earth amongst nature. Life was simple and humans lived just as simple (eating what they found, not taking more than what they needed). Then, one day, a tribe suddenly thought up the idea of "locking up the food" (storing food away for future). It worked in cases of food shortages, but it also inspired massive population growth. To support this population, more food had to be gathered and grown, which started both concepts: the divisions of labor (large groups of people working for a few appointed leaders) and manifest destiny (conquering other tribes, the land and animals). This very cycle not only broke the natural order of the world, but it also created in humans the very thoughts and feelings that, itstead of the humans being created for the world, it is the world that is created for the humans. And here we are, thousands of years later, with a world that is now the very reflection of man's desire to conquer it. All things of nature (trees, animals, etc.) are more and more rapidly being devoured and/or destroyed, the population of humans is spiraling out of control and man's continued willful ignorance of our present culture continues to wreck havoc, especially amongst ourselves (the most current is now the war on terror). Unless we change the course of man's culture of conquering and destroying, the planet would simply cease to become a habitable place to live and we would die along with everything else we consider to inferior to us. What is interesting to note about this book is: 1) There does seem to be a religious aspect to it. Note Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden because they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Man now knows how and decides to take his destiny in his hands and we get to determine which person (or plant, animal, etc.) gets to live or die. Unfortuanately, life is no longer simple and most of us have to struggle to simply exist. You will recall that of all the supposably noble missions and crusades we embarked on, there has never been 'A War on Homelessness' or a public knowledgement by our elected officials that our current culture has a devastating effect on people's ability to live, because to do so would interrupt the status quo. 2) Another religious aspect would the story of Cain and Abel. Remember when I use the words conquer and destroy to describe man's current relationship with the world? Imagine the tribe who discovered this new culture going around and telling people to give them their lands, adopt their culture, or simply move out or die. Those they did not listened them really did die out and, along with them, their knowledge about how to live in this world that worked. With this knowledge the conquerors had to discover new rules to live by that has not been tested by the test of time. Now look out your window and see the mess created from destroying our old ways of life. We are still bickering and fighting over far-overblown issues such as which religion is the right one, how exactly should people live, etc. (Please note I am not downing religion, but the fact that people don't recognize the conquer mentality that is manifested within the religion.) 3) Our current mentality reinforces that notion that we are the masters of this world and will not be held accountable for our actions. Note Azzathoth's debate with his neo-fundamentalist friend. She interpreted the argument of evolution as saying that our worth is the same as bacteria. Now imagine almost every single person on this planet saying the same thing and you'll indeed agree that we are in big trouble. 4) Last, but not least, note that the current conquerist culture depends upon us feeding it time and energy to keep it alive and people would continue to work for it as long as they need or want something. Suppose the food (or house, car, etc.) was no longer under lock and key, that it was free for the taking. Would we still work our lives away maintaining the current societal structure we are currently living in? Should we stop, would this conquerist mentality survive? It should be noted that both lyrics of the songs and the images of the video can grouped into three catorgories: 1) Our desire to rule the world and everything in it and to hell with the consquences. (This land is mine, This land is free, I'll do what I'll what, yet, irresponsibly.) 2) Our culture in action. (Nazi concentration camps and book burnings, Raping of our environment. 3) Our justification of our actions (I can kill 'cause in god I trust. I'm ahead, I'm advanced, I'm the first mammal to make plans.) 4) The consquences of our actions (Girl stepping on land mine, Nuclear destruction) Now, as far as the Woman in Black is concerned, I don't exactly know what she represents. I can only guess at being Death (because she is wearing all black) or Mother Culture (as described in the Ishmael book). While it should be noted that Eddie Veddor is known for his views (I read an article in which a good portion of audience left the concert during a performance because he criticzed Bush), this song wasn't about Bush until later (I remember watching the video on TRL in '99 or 2000 before I stopped watching MTV on a regular basis for the station's decisions on its music choices, but that's another issue for another day.) I'm no big fan of Bush, but I don't believe the blame should go entirely to him regarding today's troubles (The U.S. President, after all, is just the spokesperson of his party, cabinet, close friends and business ties, and campiagn contributors.) On a final note, regarding what will happen in 2010, I have two possible explanations: 1) It could be referring to the the projected year of in which all the rules are changed. About this time millions of baby boomers will began retiring, withdrawing billions of dollars from Social Security and Medicare. In just a few years, the social programs could become bankrupt and the government will have to start breaking its promises. They will either raise taxes on the current workforce to enormous proportions, thus receiving the wrath of its constiueints or by cutting off benefits of the elderly, which means skyrocketing prescription costs and only enough monetary funds to cover living expenses, if they're lucky. It wouldn't be unusual to see elderly people working past retirement age because they can't afford to quit. Either way, serious questions would be raised and, true to the form in which today's politics are conducted, the Democrats will blame the Republicans, the Republicans will blame the Democrats, and nobody involved will ever take the blame. Of course, people will start taking sides, but that won't really matter since neither party have really offered any real solutions and both have special interests groups who either caused or accelerated the problems. This, of course, will raise budget concerns since politcians are especially weak when it comes to telling the public the truth and ,still at this time, America is still heavily involved in Iraq. If America continues its out-of-control spending at this point, the very infrastructure of its economy will crumble. However, if it starts cutting down at this point, the consquences of making promises it knew it couldn't keep would catch to it. 2) It was never meant to mean anything, just sometime in the near future. It was meant to be abstract in the way the year 1984 was meant to be abstract. The year 2010 was chosed because it sounded good or because of the significance of the years that go by units of 10. I told you this would be long. |
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