| Taylor Swift – Mean Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This song is a little childish. The story behind this song is that Bob Lefsetz, who is a music industry critic with little to no filter at times, criticized Swift's performance at the 2010 Grammys in his blog. He actually does praise Swift and her album Fearless and he does offer his own opinion on the matter along with counter arguments to what he predicts will or won't come true. In fact, the review he gives isn't all that "mean" except for the fact that he does call Swift "too young and dumb." Though I will admit that that statement by him is uncalled for, he does make a lot of good points that apply to the music industry as a whole and not just Swift herself. He says that she is part, not the sole resident, of a "dustbin of teen phenoms. Who we expect to burn brightly and then fade away. From New Kids On The Block to Backstreet Boys to Miley Cyrus." Honestly, we don't see the longevity of artists that we used to and they seem to be in it more for the sprint than the marathon. He also does site that some of these artists do advance their careers in other ways but it typically isn't in the form of main stream music. As for the performance itself, it is difficult to find one with decent audio but once you see it you will for the most part understand Lefsetz's opinion. I personally don't really care for Swift one way or another and I do think that her music is a little over hyped. If her career does have the stamina that is needed today, she will definitely come into her own more and be more consistent in performances but she still has her off and awkward moments as of now. The general lyrics and the video of the song are actually quite inspiring to those who are actually down trodden and need that boost to get themselves up. However, this message loses its momentum when you take into account the inspiration of this song and the fact that the events that led up to it were when Taylor Swift was on the Grammys already, had made a name for herself, and had won album of the year. I'm sorry, but if someone's life was going that splendidly at the age of 20, I hardly think that the objective opinion of one critic should have that much impact. And just because I'm a stickler for demonstrating my point: -Link to the article on Leftsetz's blog: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2010/02/01/grammys/ -Link to the performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4s4-wEMWAY&feature=related -Songfacts: http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=21219 -Article about Leftsetz: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/02/mf_lefsetz/all/1 |
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| Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I really can't argue with your interpretation so I'll just add to it. The first verse is just his 20/20 hindsight on the relationship well before the breakup and how he deluded himself. The line "told myself you were right for me" is the prime example of his delusion along with his association of love as an aching feeling instead of that feeling just being a bad vibe for him. The second verse sounds like his feelings towards the end of the relationship just before the breakup occurred. The addiction to sadness shows how negative feelings have become so common place in this relationship that it is hard to separate it from the two people involved. The last three lines of this verse is just his break from delusion and him finally finding some relief in the end of the relationship til . . . The chorus of course is his post breakup feelings and how things were handled. This is where the song can go for a great twist by having the person singing this part doing it as a solemn sort of begging or as a quiet pain in that they are hurt by the fact that they are hardly even a foot note in the other person's life. The third verse is great in showing how the pain and sacrifice in the relationship didn't just belong to the first person (assuming that this is being done as a duet). It demonstrates the same signs of delusion, compromise, and sacrifice that the first two verses illustrate and the eventual realization how it isn't meant to work out. This third verse can also explain the current coupling as a result from a previous one. How he made her believe that she had done something wrong and how he was still clinging to the idea of another person from his past that he sees her as. The chorus of course is the same but it can be done in a slightly different way. Instead of singing it in a quiet and saddened way, the person can sing it as a mad, painful rant as if he's trying to defend himself in an intense argument. |
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| The Solids – Across the Overpass Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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OK, after going over what I had written over a year ago, I've decided to revise and expand my interpretation of this song. And this time it isn't 2 AM and I am relatively coherent right now. Note: I am assuming the singer is the guy in the relationship and the other person is a woman. (Figuring that the basic heterosexual relationship would make this simple with my use of pronouns.) And I am also substituting corrections from what I can tell from the audio of the song. First Verse and Chorus: The Beginning of the End. The singer is saying that only the present is what really matters and it shouldn't be complicated by adding things in from the past or questions about the future. This is emphasized by him saying, "It's as simple as this." The word "this" should be looked at closely in that it implies closeness or proximity in relation to the person, place, time etc. He goes on to even say that the only things that matter are their feelings at the moment. I am still going to hold onto the "animation of sunken souls" as telephone lines. First they can have some slack to them if they've been worn down over time, obviously they are strung on telephone poles, and they tend to blend into the background. They also can represent communication in a relationship or between people in general that may convey feelings, ideas, and the like. Despite the fact that telephone lines may carry such burdens as our feelings through them at times, they are physically very fragile and can be damaged quite easily. A breakdown in communication can be the silent killer of a relationship without people noticing it till it is too late. Her going around the earth or running shows how she is willing to abandon their relationship despite the fact that what they had might have been a good and worthwhile union. This is possibly supported by "shadowed by the same light" in that they have both gone from the happiness they shared to the "pain that keeps" they connected now. Although she's given up on them, he refuses to move on and attempts to salvage the happiness they both had at one point. The first chorus depicts how he is straight forward with her in his intentions from the line "cards on the table." The second line can describe either person in the relationship. It can describe the singer as being worn out and tired from his attempts to win her back or it can describe how the woman he is pursuing has changed from what he used to remember of her or who she was at the beginning of it all. When he says "spell out your name across the overpass" can either describe his attempts to clarify things between him and her or it can be his "big plan" as a grand romantic gesture in order to get her back. Verse and Chorus 2: The End is here, now what are you gonna do about it? The second verse is the singer mourning the death of his relationship with his significant other (I'll be PC for just a minute there) and how it will haunt him. The "deliver my spark through the dark to the angels in the ashtray" lines can be seen from a couple of view points. The most literal way one can see this is the image of him smoking in the dark and knocking the ashes into an ashtray. A slightly more metaphorical way of viewing this is that his attempts at saving their relationship (a spark to rekindle the flame) were destined to failure and to be consumed by the "shadow" they were both under. "Angels in the ashtray" can be interpreted as his spark or the relationship itself is now a dead but still visible thing or feeling. The "saturation of hopeless need" can just be the singer drinking in order to cope with the "need" to fill an empty void. The asphalt bleeding is a term used to describe a state where too much asphalt rises to the surface of the road and increases the potential for cars to skid across the surface. This can be caused by a "bad mixture" or from "stresses" put on to it by traffic. Either reason can be used to describe reasons why a relationship might either take a bad turn or lose control all together. The "curtains rising" can be seen as two opposite things but with the same results. Curtains rising can be a reference to either the beginning or the end of a show. The beginning when the curtains rise to show a new story about to unfold or the end when the show is completely over and it is time to put it away into storage or to prepare it for another performance. A note that one can make from this is how the singer's cigarette can be related to their relationship. It was a doomed existence from the first "spark" no matter how you looked at it. A lit cigarette can be smoked slowly, quickly or not at all and light will eventually go out. Either way you smoke it, it will eventually reach its end with the only the ashes and the butt as a reminder of what you had. If it isn't smoked at all, it will eventually go out with little to nothing to show for it. Either way, you'll probably end up with a bad taste in your mouth for a little while afterward. The chorus now goes from the present to the singers prediction of the future of how the person that left him will realize that what actually doomed the relationship was her. She will see that he was there with her "standing in her path", even if he was just there to support her in the "background." And she will also realize how he had done everything he could ("you'll see your name scrawled across the overpass") and even some grandiose signs to demonstrate his commitment. All of this being "as simple as that" shows how it will all be clear in hindsight. The singer then goes to say how "simple" is more than what it seems. Either it being seen in the present or afterward, relationships can never be categorized as simple or easy thing. Additional notes Another image that comes from this how the singer is either in his car at the time or is near a road. The mentioning of freeways, telephone poles, drainpipes, overpasses, asphalt, and backgrounds are all potential elements of the immediate environment of being on or near a street. This is potentially the scene from which the singer/writer composed this song or could be the place/event where he had gotten his inspiration from. Once again, this is solely my own interpretation of the song and what I can draw from its context. I apologize for the length of this but this song is very complex from my understanding of it and to attempt to shorten a lot of the explanations wouldn't do it justice. If you've made it this far, I hope you enjoy this song as much as I do and that you might be able to take something away (or possibly add) from this lengthy post. |
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| Katy Perry – Firework Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I will have to respectfully disagree with your assessment of the song and the video. As for your religious view point on it, I don't really get any serious undertones of religious metaphor in it. Granted I've heard that Perry's early singing background was in a church choir, I don't see any sort of hint towards religion or us being God's children. Though if that helps a person out, then more power to them. In viewing the video, I will admit that I enjoyed some of it (what can I say, I'm a bit of a pyromaniac at heart). But you focused on only two of the scenes, one being the two guys in the club kissing and the heavy set girl jumping into the pool. There was a scene of an abusive father, a cancer patient witnessing the birth of a child, and a guy who almost gets mugged. First of all there is the son who stands up against an abusive father and then the "fireworks" start bursting from him. Reckless, perhaps. Careless or carefree, probably not so much. The kid is standing up for his mother and is trying to prevent his younger sibling from witnessing the crap beaten out of the woman who gave life to them. In some eyes this could be seen as a courageous and responsible act. The cancer patient, whom I am assuming is a girl, is seen alone in her room with the characteristic bald head from treatments. She wanders around the hospital and witnesses the birth of a child (not exactly the most secure or sanitary of hospitals but this is after all a Katy Perry song/video)along with fireworks emitting from either the newborn or the mother's uterus. I'm still not terribly certain of the source. The girl then wanders out to the front of the hospital to see droves of people running to participate in bad choreography and CGI fireworks around Perry. My best guess is this is supposed to arouse a feeling of hope for the patient when fireworks start shooting out of her body. I'd be a little bit more interested in the smoke alarms in the hospital going off personally. And the final scene I will mention is of course the boy that almost gets mugged. The muggers reach into his pockets to find the endless handkerchiefs and doves out of his armpits. The boy also performs some card tricks in front of the muggers as they look at him perplexed as the boy's inner firework goes off. Is there an obvious message in this scene, not really from the first time seeing it but my best interpretation is that he avoided a physical altercation through a personal talent, one that some might find dorky and possibly worth hiding. As for the two other scenes that you mentioned, I respectfully disagree with you again on them. Though I personally don't agree with homosexuality and one person even said that it was biologically a dead end in terms of evolution, I'd rather see a loving same sex couple than a destructive straight couple. As for the girl in the pool, have you ever walked or driving home in soaking wet clothes? It isn't fun. Plus I thought it was more of a "be comfortable" with who you are message than a "whoring" oneself out message. Obviously we both have our biases on how we interpret the song and its video. I'm guessing that you have more of a religiously driven base for your take on this video whereas I'd probably burst into flames if I were to step foot onto a church's parking lot. Not an attack, just merely an observation. And it is fine to dislike Katy Perry as long as you can explain your reasoning (whether it be personal or professional) without trying explicitly take anyone down in the process. |
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| Katy Perry – Teenage Dream Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I find it very amusing and a little disturbing that there is this much debate and discussion about a Katy Perry song. And a pretty simple but somewhat decently themed song at that. | |
| Katy Perry – Firework Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| For the most part, I agree with your opinion on the lyrics. Flannery O'Connor she is not. Heck, in keeping with the literary parallels she's not even J.K Rowling. However, she has made a sound and message that does appeal to the masses and in some cases, as it appears with the comments on this page, has moved them in a beneficial way. Personally I don't like Katy Perry or much of her style on basic principle that she's nothing more than a gimmick with autotune and a wonderbra. However, the blatantly obvious themes that she does put into some of her songs aren't half bad. . .at least from a few of the singles that I have heard on the radio. And look at it this way, as fast as the world goes and as short as our attention spans are, she'll fade away into obscurity only to be dusted off when some nostalgic tv program like "I Love the ____'s" comes on in the next decade or so. And by that time, something a little more worthy of full out hatred will bound to be in your cross hairs. | |
| The Solids – Across the Overpass Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This is just me guessing and I could be totally wrong. The singer is at first explaining the situation of the relationship. How their relationship is faltering and how the hurt is their main connection right now. The "sunken souls strung along the telephone pole" could possibly be imagery of telephone lines and how many relationships begin to fall apart or end through a phone call and how many of the reasons for the fallout are not even noticeable. He then says how they are always close to each other despite her trying to leave and forget it while he wants to hold on to what they have. The first chorus tells of his attempts to save their relationship. The second set of lyrics is about his hurt how it couldn't work out and the relationship and what he's missing out on still haunts him (is there enough alliteration in this interpretation yet?). The next few lines are a pretty way of saying how he's smoking his woes away while it rains and steam rises. This is possibly just a metaphor for his tears and how they drop onto the ground or how his cigarette emits smoke. The second chorus is his prediction how someday she'll find a memory of him and she'll remember how he did everything he could to keep them together. The singer then says how there is really nothing simple about relationships no matter how clearly or "simple" things ought to be. Once again, no idea if I am right or so wrong that I'm almost back to right. Constructive criticism and other interpretations are welcome as I am curious to see how others view this song. |
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