"Rococo" as written by Win Butler, Regine Chassagne, William Butler, Tim Kingsbury, Richard R Parry and Jeremy Gara....
Let's go downtown and watch the modern kids
Let's go downtown and talk to the modern kids
They will eat right out of your hand
Using great big words that they don't understand
They sing
Rococo
Rococo
They build it up just to burn it back down
They build it up just to burn it back down
The wind is blowing all the ashes around
Oh my dear God what is that horrible song?
They'll sing
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
They seem wild but they are so tame
They seem wild but they are so tame
They're moving towards you with their colors all the same
They want to own you but they don't know what game
They're playing
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Let's go downtown and talk to the modern kids
They will eat right out of your hand
Using great big words that they don't understand
They sing
Rococo
Rococo
They build it up just to burn it back down
They build it up just to burn it back down
The wind is blowing all the ashes around
Oh my dear God what is that horrible song?
They'll sing
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
They seem wild but they are so tame
They seem wild but they are so tame
They're moving towards you with their colors all the same
They want to own you but they don't know what game
They're playing
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo
Lyrics submitted by Fatzers, edited by kiwilyrics
"Rococo" as written by Regine Chassagne Jeremy Gara
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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The line that carries perhaps the most weight is "They build it up just to burn it back down" which succinctly sums up the perverted, self-consuming identity matrix that defines so many hip young adults. That which is loved by one group first must be immolated later on to preserve that ever so important sanctity of "first to the party." We are in the age of disposable bands, identities, and integrity.
Overall I would rate this song a 7.953 out of a possible 10.
This post was the result of seeing so much mindless hipster-bashing, not just here but in my life in general.
If you're referring to the "angel headed hipsters" of the 1950s, well then, OK, but the modern day "hipsters" are nothing like those that Ginsberg was referring to. I'm pretty sure that they are as much a part of mainstream culture as anyone else. If anything, hipsters today are all about looking the part, and don't necessarily have the same ideals as the original hipsters(whose ideas of course have been absorbed by the dominant ideology). They're not authentic,they're certainly not original and they're not "non conformists," in fact I don't think anyone is...we're all a part of something, we're all conforming to something, we're all subjects... read Louis Althusser. Arcade Fire isn't pinpointing the hipsters, but any group of "non conforming," rebels that talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. I think the comment by tim4x below, is the most valid interpretation and makes the most sense, but then again that's just my opinion.
obviously this connects right into the idea of the "modern kids" who use "great big words that they don't understand." if you look a lot of the popular styles with the young kids (especially hipsters), you see this same thing. they obsessive over perfecting their appearance with, expensive clothes and vintage accessories, spout words like "immolation" and "poseur," but don't really have any idea what their saying.
essentially, they're modern rococo. what's incredibly clever is that the example of these "great big words" we're given is the word rococo itself.
This song is brilliant- right down to the vague target of ridicule. I tend to think there's a little bit of all of us being projected in this tune. We can all be ignorant and we can all be pretentious. Exhibit A: Palindromic. (Thanks for spitting out all those generalizations with such outright disregard for the vernacular. You've really helped in making a point, I think.)
Honestly, who here knew what "Rococo" meant before using that divine Google search? Not me, but I sang along anyway. Even without a definition, I'd still be singing. And in doing so, I'd be unwittingly proclaiming my own idiocy. Now I get to do it knowingly :)
Ba-rilliant.
So, in my opinion, it's about the ignorant. It's about teenagers. It's about adults. It's about humanity and our constant desire to look like something special. Rococo.
"They will eat right out of your hand
Using great big words that they don’t understand"
and
"They want to own you but they don’t know what game
They’re playing"
They're moving towards you with their colors all the same"
metalheads, emos. (<- "Oh my dear God what is that horrible song?")
this is what i think. Additionally it reminds of hypocrits....
As other people say, it's more about the ignorant youth than anything else.