I'm Clifford Stumme, and I use literary analysis and research to explain the deeper meanings of pop songs. Feel free to leave a comment or to email me at clifford@popsongprofessor.com with questions or ideas!
All in song lyrics meaning
Time to freak out, fanboys and fangirls. T-swizzle's not done with 1989 yet. She just released an actual music video for "Out of the Woods," and I like it. You might like it too. I used to think the song was kind of boring--too poppy and WAY to repetitive--but this music video might have converted me. At the very least, it's an easy song to sing along with, and the music video gives more context for what the song itself means.
On Christmas Eve, Panic! at the Disco released the titular track for its new album Death of a Bachelor. The album (as Urie puts it) is a beautiful mix of Queen and Frank Sinatra. And this song likewise mirrors that mix. It feels like a crazy, no-holds-barred Sinatra-esque club-mix.
Chris Brown's out with his new album Royalty, and one of the songs on that album--my favorite so far--is "Little More (Royalty)." The song's smooth and strong and an enjoyable listen. I'll be honest though: I have rarely ever listened to Chris Brown, and what I have heard of him has been largely negative. Not that being explicit is always bad, but the fact that so many of his songs on this album are explicit concerns me. I've listened to a few others besides "Little More (Royalty)," and there doesn't seem to be a lot of variety on Royalty. His song "Back to Sleep," in a paraphrase of his words, is about "sexing" his girlfriend back to sleep after he comes home from playing a concert.
You've all heard people talk with enthusiasm about being "right where they belong," and that's because feeling comfortable is important to people. Unfortunately for the narrator of the song "Pride" by folk, indie band American Authors, the saying may go more like "lost where you belong." That's what the song is about--feeling alone and rising above it. In "Pride," the American Authors' narrator uses pride to remind himself that he's not going to give into the temptation to give up; he's better than that. Now, this pride isn't necessarily the bad kind of pride that a lot of people complain about or accuse each other of. The narrator's pride could lead to that, but his isn't a bad thing when it first appears.
"Hymn for the Weekend" has got to be one of my favorite songs from A Head Full of Dreams by Coldplay. The song is slow, yet strong, and it features Beyonce's beautiful voice. The song's about as pop music-ish as Coldplay can get I think, and Chris Martin the lead singer, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, backs me up on that.
"Birds" is a soaring song about hope and overcoming circumstances; the melody and other aspects of the music mirror that same upbeat, positive perspective. It's a fun song and definitely worth the listen.
Adele's 25 continues to break records this week--she already sold over 3 million albums in her first week, and no one knows when it will end. The album is beautiful and heart-rending. People have enjoyed it immensely, and the songs continue to show new depths of emotion and thought on Adele's part. I think it's interesting that one of the most popular albums of our time is often so sad. Adele doesn't stay on the superficially "happy" partying level that a lot of pop music does, and people are reacting to it positively (even if it means they're crying).
The meaning of "A Head Full of Dreams" explained in detail by a scholar of literature
Coldplay's new album A Head Full of Dreams is awesome--not only the lyrics, but the music as well. Everything about this groovy disco-experimental album is uplifting as well as dance worthy. Billboard.com refers to Chris Martin explaining that he wants fans to "shuffle [their] feet" to the songs on this album, and as Wife-April and I were listening to it, we realized that even our prime dance style (west coast swing) would work really well with a lot of these songs. (We were pretty excited.)
Psy's "Gangnam Style" came out over three years ago, and since then the only thing we in American have really heard from Psy is the song "Gentleman," which was successful but didn't go off nearly as well as the first video. Now Psy's trying again. His new video for his song "DADDY" is certainly zany and weird. I wouldn't say it's as zany or weird as "Gangnam Style," but it tries. It does, however, contain a much more cohesive central idea and pushes that idea to its limits, all the while maintaining a musical style halfway between Korean and American pop.
"Million Years Ago" is a spare, lean song. The instrumentation is minimal, and Adele's voice is incredibly powerful. In an interview with Hattie Collins, she explains that it went on "at the last minute" and that it's "very stripped-back . . . just me on the guitar." The sparse musicality gives Adele's voice plenty of opportunity to do what it does best--wring ever tear and spare piece of emotion out of any listener who gets too close.
SONG MEANING: "Everglow" by Coldplay is about the feeling of warmth or happiness that comes with the sadness you feel when you think about a relationship, situation, or friendship that has now ended.
In an interview with NPR, Adele explains that the real River Lea is mostly disgusting: "My experience of it was, whenever I was in our version of the projects, the river ran through it — so it ran through all my aunties' houses, stuff like that . . . But the idea of the song is that, especially since I've become a parent, let alone writing this record, I'm dealing with myself for the first time. And I have a lot of bad habits. And rather than admitting that I have bad traits in my actual character, I blame it on where I'm from."
SONG MEANING: In “Send My Love (to Your New Lover),” Adele brushes her hands of a relationship with a man who said he would marry her but can't commit.
Adele’s 25 is out as of last Friday, and it’s awesome. Her voice is so powerful, and the world agrees. According to Billboard.com, iTunes sold almost a million records on the first day alone. I looked up the stats, and Taylor Swift only ever sold as many as 1,047,000 in the first week of a release.
SONG MEANING: “I Miss You” by Adele is about intimacy—sexual, emotional, and otherwise—in a relationship. Adele has doubts about the relationship, and the man may too, but the intimacy they feel when things are going well convinces Adele to keep trying even if she’s still afraid for the relationship when she’s not with him.
SONG MEANING: "Water under the Bridge" is about someone breaking up with Adele. She doesn't want the relationship to be "Water under the Bridge" and wants him to admit that it is and was real. Adele is slowly teasing and releasing songs from 25 until she releases the entire album tomorrow, and yesterday she teased a 30 second clip of her singing one song--"Water under the Bridge"--in New York's Radio City Music Hall. The lyrics also went up all around the Internet, so I'm ready to explain them. The music and her voice will, I'm sure, add new levels and depths of meaning when we have them, but for now, here's what the lyrics mean.
SONG MEANING: "When We Were Young" by Adele is about meeting up with friends from the past and discussing how things have been. Adele meets one friend in particular and makes amends with him. But the song is really about making amends with the past, represented by that friend.
SONG MEANING: "Life Is Worth Living" by Justin Bieber is a message of hope for those who need it. The soft pop ballad is sung to a contemporary dance in the music video, and it's certainly interesting if not unique. Justin Bieber just put out Purpose on Friday the 13th. His new album has been a couple of years in the making, and it's certainly fun to listen to. Not only do we know it makes good dance music, but Bieber knows it too. In his video for one track "Life Is Worth Living," Bieber has contemporary dancers demonstrating the relationship between someone who desperately needs help and someone willing to give it.
