Too true.

lickystickypickyme:

The Problem: The American Economy And The Environment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914

Yet another 80s song…

When I think about it, I never really paid much attention to the lyrics in this song.

However, I do have very strong opinions about the video. Here it goes:

To the girl in the video, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?  Some COMIC BOOK character winks at you, and you don’t question it? Seriously? Didn’t it cross your mind that it’s strange a comic book character is moving in the first place? Are you on drugs? And then you choose to hop into the comic book panel? I’m all for adventure, but really, you’re going to just go inside of comic book? You’re going to become 2D for a comic book character? It’s not even a real person. Someone DREW him. Someone story-boarded him to have a comic book character personality. Also, he’s being chased by soapbox derby people! Maybe you should’ve read the whole thing first. Then you’d know that he has his pit crew chasing him with tools and a need for killing him with speed.

Why does she still not wonder what the hell is going on even at the end when he escapes the comic?

Yeah, let’s all mindlessly jump into comic books whose endings we don’t even know. I mean, the comic book might end with the apocalypse, but who cares. Yeah, that’d be really romantic.

Growing up with young parents meant hearing a lot of 80s new wave.  This song has always been a stereo staple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOWBX_xP5y8&feature=artist

Going just from the title, I always thought assumed that the singer/writer was in the unrequited love end of the bizarre love triangle because he feels so much love (that I thought was unrequited) for the girl (again, I’m assuming it’s a girl).

How could you NOT feel bad for this guy with unrequited love?

“Every time I think of you

I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue
It’s no problem of mine
But it’s a problem I find
Living a life that I can’t leave behind
But there’s no sense in telling me
The wisdom of the fool won’t set you free
But that’s the way that it goes
And it’s what nobody knows
Well every day my confusion grows

Every time I see you falling
I get down on my knees and pray
I’m waiting for that final moment

 You say the words that I can’t say”

From the beginning of the song, you already feel so much sympathy for the guy.  He’s so in love with the girl he’s chasing that he feels this electricity when he thinks of her!  Isn’t that such a great feeling?  Being in love with someone who makes you literally and figuratively feel that love?

And the lines “It’s no problem of mine/ but it’s a problem of mine/ living a life that I can’t leave behind” just makes me think that the singer can’t stop loving this girl that he can’t have.

“Every time I see you falling,/ I get down on my knees and pray.”

Growing up in a Catholic household, I always thought it was really cute that the singer cared so much about the girl that he prays for her.

It was only last week when I had a sudden realization and partial change of heart about this song.

“I do admit to myself

That if I hurt someone else

Then I’ll never see just what we’re meant to be”

I realized that maybe… just maybe…  The guy was not dealing with unrequited love but with being an adulterer!!!

Think about it.  He’s worrying about “hurt[ing] someone else” and then “never see[ing] what [he and the girl] are meant to be.”  The person he might hurt is probably the girl he’s currently dating.  He’s also probably thinking that either way he won’t win because if he stays with his current girlfriend, he won’t get to be with the other woman.  However, if he leaves his current girlfriend (or cheats on her) to get the girl he’s singing to, the other girl might be disgusted with his actions and not love him back for being an adulterer!

Seeing the song from that perspective really changed other parts for me.

Through that lens, the “Living a life that I can’t leave behind” part definitely has a new meaning.  Apparently, he can’t leave his current girlfriend, but he still wants to get the other girl.  Selfish bastard!  He’s just playing BOTH women!

Case in point: sometimes re-interpreting a single section of a song leads to a completely different view of the song as a whole.

Because this song had such a big part in the creation of this Tumblr/blog, I might as well make it the first song I dissect, right?

Here’s the link to a video of their song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF15CDkZeJY

Don’t get me wrong.  I really love this song (and pretty much any and all songs that I will eventually write about).  It’s just that I had a huge, heart breaking realization with this song.

What I thought (and still think) was very sweet were these lines:

Just keep it cool, baby, oh, I don’t want to know

as long as I’m the one that you keep on coming to.

I felt that the writer loves the person so much that he won’t mind if she’s (I’ll write as if the person that the writer/singer is singing to is female for simplicity’s sake— even if this means I’m assuming and also being super un-P.C.) hanging around with/dating/sleeping with/etc.-ing other people as long as she’s happy and still comes back to him (the singer).  The singer/writer just wants the girl to still like/love him enough to grace him with her presence/like/love/whatever it is she gives him every once in a while.

Anyway, after a while, cynicism began to find its way back into my brain, making me think “you know what?  That’s sweet and romantic, but at the same time, it’s a little sad.”  Why?  Essentially, the guy is stuck on a girl who keeps making him wait.  He’s not even the main guy (or person in general if the girl’s bi) that the girl is after.  He’s willing to be her back up.  He’s AWARE that he’s her back up.  I went from feeling that it was a completely sweet song to thinking that it was a little pathetic.  I’m all for believing that this girl is so amazing that she’s worth knowingly being a back up for, but at the same time I think that maybe he should know and respect himself enough to know that he deserves someone who will love him as much as he loves her and maybe also recognize his efforts better rather than “wasting” his time one someone who apparently treats him as a back up.

Then again, maybe I’M being pathetic and immature for thinking about someone seeing how much someone else loves them and how much effort that person puts into being there for said person.

I mean, it really makes me want to take the singer, hug him, and tell him “it’s ok.  You don’t need to be someone’s back up.  You’ll find someone who deserves how amazing you are.”

Then again, maybe he DOESN’T deserve someone like that.  For all we know, he could be a complete jerk!  This connects to my personal feelings toward that Jason Mraz song “I’m Yours,” specifically the lines about someone’s “god-forsaken right to be love love loved,” but that is for another post.

This was inspired by three things:

1. Ms. Diana Maruna’s rants about what love is NOT in my senior year AP English Lit class in high school

2. The beginning of (500) Days of Summer when the narrator talks about how Tom’s beliefs about love were partially influenced by his misinterpretations of 80s songs

3. A late night talk in February that I had with a friend in which I cornily said that the line “Just keep it cool baby.  Oh, I don’t want to know as long as I’m the one that you keep on coming to” in “Keep It Cool” by US Royalty perfectly described how I felt about a someone who had just ended things the month before.

A while ago, I was listening to some songs.  You know, REALLY listening to them.  I then started thinking about the way love is portrayed in those songs.  Then I thought about how some of these songs seem a little co-dependent.  It then all linked back to one of Ms. Maruna’s many lectures about how some people’s ideals of love are actually very co-dependent, immature, needy, etc. etc.

Possibly it’s because I’m a Media Studies major.  Maybe it’s because I just like overanalyzing the fun out of things.

Either way, this is my attempt to take apart my favorite songs and eventually other songs that might just pique my interest and analyze their portrayals of love and romance.  

I will essentially take the love out of love songs.