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.
Mistaken identity
You really got this one wrong
Racially singled out
He must have a gun
And yet you get off with no time
How can this be the answer
No crime yet they shot away
He now lies dead, the blood is on your hands
Hands which were supposed to protect
People like the man you blew away
This isn't justice, this is corruption
The four protectors fired forty one shots
Hitting him nineteen times
Searching the body there were no weapons found
He lies with all who died in vain
Murder must be still be a crime
When our inherent freedom
Is hatefully gunned down
By who we entrust
And yet you get off with no time
How can this be the answer
No crime yet they shot away
He now lies dead, the blood is on your hands
Hands which were supposed to protect
People like the man you blew away
This isn't justice, this is corruption
The four protectors fired forty one shots
Hitting him nineteen times
Searching the body there were no weapons found
He lies with all who died in vain
Contempt breeds contamination
How can this be the answer
No crime yet they shot away
He now lies dead, the blood is on your hands
Hands which were supposed to protect
People like the man you blew away
This isn't justice, this is corruption
The four protectors fired forty one shots
Hitting him nineteen times
Searching the body there were no weapons found
He lies with all who died in vain
Contempt breeds contamination
You really got this one wrong
Racially singled out
He must have a gun
And yet you get off with no time
How can this be the answer
No crime yet they shot away
He now lies dead, the blood is on your hands
Hands which were supposed to protect
People like the man you blew away
This isn't justice, this is corruption
The four protectors fired forty one shots
Hitting him nineteen times
Searching the body there were no weapons found
He lies with all who died in vain
Murder must be still be a crime
When our inherent freedom
Is hatefully gunned down
By who we entrust
And yet you get off with no time
How can this be the answer
No crime yet they shot away
He now lies dead, the blood is on your hands
Hands which were supposed to protect
People like the man you blew away
This isn't justice, this is corruption
The four protectors fired forty one shots
Hitting him nineteen times
Searching the body there were no weapons found
He lies with all who died in vain
Contempt breeds contamination
How can this be the answer
No crime yet they shot away
He now lies dead, the blood is on your hands
Hands which were supposed to protect
People like the man you blew away
This isn't justice, this is corruption
The four protectors fired forty one shots
Hitting him nineteen times
Searching the body there were no weapons found
He lies with all who died in vain
Contempt breeds contamination
Lyrics submitted by EvilWraith
Contempt Breeds Contamination Lyrics as written by Jason Suecof Corey Beaulieu
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
This song is about Amadou Diallo who was shot 41 times, and 19 of those shots impacted. He was killed by four police officers and the event is deemed by many a racial attack. He was an innocent man wrongly and brutally (41 shots!?) killed.
You can find more information here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AmadouDiallo(shooting_victim)