We Are Young

Yeah the appeal is that it's "the flavor of the day",or a "trend",better known as a "fad". ;)

fuck off. The appeal is what I said it is. Find another thread, prick.

emuInAmuumuu is right, for the most part (though "Pumped Up Kicks" is different). The appeal of "We Are Young" is similar to that of "Somebody That I Used To Know" in that it's the flavor of the day, trending, so that people love it because they don't really have taste (note that I'm not saying it's because they have BAD taste--though you must if you like this song--but in the case of "Somebody That I Used To Know" it's due to never having formed the habit of using your own taste, so that you have to go for someone else's. "Somebody" (etc) is a boring, bland song, with unexceptional instrumentation and vocals, a trite and overused refrain ("you're just somebody that I used to know" is a very common line, so it's an unoriginal sentiment on top of a not-particularly-original song). The only reason someone like you (by which I mean "someone who likes "We Are Young") would listen to it (considering before the song blew up that band wasn't really popular and you wouldn't have known of them) is that it's on the radio, a hit, and you're constantly being bombarded with it. If a friend who listens to different kinds of music than you (i.e., who has different taste in music) had showed you the song once, you would never have thought about it again, because you would have associated it in your memory with a person who you don't identify with music you like, as opposed to "hits," under which the songs you mentioned fall). <br /> <br /> To go a bit further into your original statement: the lyrics of "We Are Young" are abominable, the songwriting is too weak to be pretentious but certainly not "good" whether truly or mildly, the singing is absolutely terrible, and the production is at best mediocre (listen to that keyboard in the chorus, ugh, what was the sound tech thinking?). The musicianship (which you didn't seem to say anything about, though perhaps that's what you meant by "ensemble") is also quite poor. I do take offense at lumping in "Pumped Up Kicks" with this piece of crap, though. The only thing they have in common is that you may hear both of them on hit stations. "Pumped Up Kicks" has intelligent lyrics, genuinely clever production, a fantastically catchy melody that triumphs in spite of its unoriginality, and a terrible singer who knows he's terrible and uses his terrible voice to its best advantage by virtue of production that highlights its good side and hides its weak spots (as opposed to "We Are Young," which features a guy with a good voice who thinks that having a good voice makes you a good singer--which is absolutely false, look at American Idol--and because of this overconfidence flaunts his quavering whine and emphasizes the ugliest parts of his voice, which would otherwise be the only redeeming quality in a song that has fallen upon the world like a hate crime). "Pumped Up Kicks" is a great song. "We Are Young" is a terrible song. <br /> <br /> Now, you're probably going to be thinking one of two (maybe both) stupid things: <br /> <br /> a) "That's just your opinion, man, you don't get to decide what's good and what's not, I know what I like and I don't care what you think." This is stupid because the reasons you used to back up your opinion (good songwriting/producing/singing, etc), in addition to the statement "Not exactly sure what the lyrics mean" (when a more simplistic and banal set of lyrics would be hard to write, indicating that either you've devoted zero thought to interpreting them or you just lack the capacity to think critically about "poetry"--which I put in quotes because while I'm reluctant to sully the name of poetry by calling "We Are Young" a poem, any set of words arranged lyrically is thereby a poem, though it may be a bad one), demonstrate that you have no idea what you're talking about. How can you call it good songwriting when you don't know what the lyrics mean? The only statement you made with any validity to it is "when a song snags you with its "feel' [sic] than [sic] it truly doesn't matter: [sic]" But if you can't say anything more than a vague statement about the "feel" of a song, you have no business asserting that the writing or production is good, let alone "truly" good. <br /> <br /> b) "Lots of people like this song, so you must be wrong." This is stupid because it's a fucking retarded statement. Lots of people killed millions of Jews during the Holocaust, and lots of people raped, slaughtered and/or enslaved the indigenous people of "America," as the murdering rapist slavers decided to name it while destroying every cultural artifact they could find and killing everyone who knew how to read or write native languages or knew about native religions, and lots of people never stop to really think about this. I mention these things for two reasons: first, because being forced to listen to "We Are Young" (even if only for the moments it takes to change the station) is comparable to the holocaust and to the mass destruction of Native American culture (I'm half Jewish and half Native American, so I have the authority to say this). Second, because the way these things operated (mass mentality, one hideous, atrocious thing becomes popular and people find ways to warp their minds into liking the idea) is the same way this song became popular--and I wouldn't be surprised if the popularity of "We Are Young" (and other songs that approach the same category of abhorrent pseudo-music, like "Look At Me Now" and "Glad You Came") were a sign that the eradication of all that is good and noble in the world (particularly music) is at hand.<br /> <br /> Have a nice day.

"I'm half Jewish and half Native American, so I have the authority to say this." Do you realize how dumb you sound? I'm white so I suppose I have the authority to be correct about everything from the Boston Tea Party to the KKK. You wrote a bunch of nothing, but it if floats your lil' boat to believe you are correct than so be it. Songs that get people smiling and moving are GOOD songs. And you can't tell me that every single professional music credit will agree on every aspect of every song. On top of that, you're not a music critic. You're an amateur just like the rest of us. (You really did write a whole lot of nothin', you know) And yes what? You're still a prick.

I may be a prick, but the song still blows. I never said anything about professional music critics, I said the song blows in every way, and that anyone who knows anything about music will concur. "I have the authority to say this" was meant as a joke, but it's not surprising for someone who likes this abomination of a song to lack the ability to detect tonal variations.

As for writing a bunch of nothing, think about it this way: an untreated wound may start to expel pus and other such unpleasant substances. This song is a wound in the world and a wound in my mind, and the psychological response of my musical immune system (so to speak) is to desperately try to get it out of me by spewing venom in retaliation to the infliction of this "music" upon my memory. I don't want to spew venom at anyone I shouldn't, so I direct it where it's most deserved, towards the people who like the song. I know I'm not going to convince anyone of anything I'm saying, nor am I trying to; liking this song means you're beyond hope, but at least I can get my feelings off my chest. The truth is I've never felt like this about a song, so there is something genuinely special about it; while I've heard a lot of bad songs before, this is the first time one has actually been vile enough to damage my soul.