“If what they say is ‘nothing is forever’/ Then what makes.../ Love the exception” (“Hey Ya”)? Every relationship has its ups and downs. Most relationships end, some because of infidelity, but most relationships begin with love. “Hey Ya” is a song about a romance that has begun to fall apart, though it takes both people a while to notice. The musical The Last Five Years chronicles the romance of Jamie and Cathy in two separate timelines. Cathy’s timeline begins at the end of the relationship and goes backwards while Jamie’s starts at the beginning. Both OutKast’s 2003 hit “Hey Ya!” and Jason Robert Brown’s musical The Last Five Years explore the themes of love, infidelity, and loss of love in a relationship through song.
In order to fall out of love, a couple must first fall in love. Although the song “Hey Ya” gives the listener no insight to the relationship between the speaker and his partner before they realized they no longer
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loved each other, it is apparent that they at least care about each other. Even if he has never had romantic feelings toward his significant other, the speaker wants her to be as happy as she can, even though he knows that this happiness would likely be without him. The speaker longs for a loving relationship like the one his parents had so he can stay with one person for the rest of his life, however, he has come to realize that this future is not with the woman with whom he is currently involved. In The Last Five Years, the protagonists are repeatedly shown to be in love with one another. CATHY: I’ve found my guiding light. I tell the stars each night, ‘Look at me, Look at him… I finally got something right’ (“A Summer In Ohio”). Shortly after they wed, Cathy tells her husband Jamie how she is the happiest she has ever been because of their relationship. During the first half of their relationship, both Cathy and Jamie are satisfied with their lives together and are very much in love with each other. In The Last Five Years, Jamie and Cathy are both shown to be more than content with their relationship. Though it is apparent from the opening song that their relationship will ultimately not work, the viewer cannot help but believe that Cathy and Jamie, at least at one point, truly loved one another. While the observer does not have the background knowledge about the couple in “Hey Ya” and has never seen them when they first fell for each other, The Last Five Years shows the entirety of Jamie and Cathy’s relationship. The subject of infidelity is addressed in many forms in the media. In the song “Hey Ya,” the speaker grapples with the question of if his significant other would cheat on him. My baby don’t mess around Because she loves me so And this I know for sure. But does she really wanna But can’t stand to see me walk out the door? (“Hey Ya”) While the speaker would like to believe that his sweetheart is faithful to him because she loves him, he cannot help but feel that she does not really love him, but rather is only with him because she does not want to be alone. The speaker wants his partner to be with him because she loves him, and not because she fears the alternative of facing the world without someone else by her side. It is her fear of loneliness that keeps her from cheating on the speaker of “Hey Ya.” Though there is no evidence of either party being unfaithful in “Hey Ya,” Jamie has affairs with other women in The Last Five Years.
“JAMIE: I wrote a story/ And we changed the ending/ Cathy, just look at me now” (“Nobody Needs to Know”). Near the end of their relationship, Jamie cheats on his wife Cathy. After he cheats on her for the first time, Jamie begins to realize what he has done and that his relationship with Cathy will never be the same again. Jamie had begun to feel held back by Cathy as his career as a writer was taking off and her career as an actress had gone nowhere. He believes that he has tried everything in his power to fix their relationship and Cathy has not done the same, so he moves on to other women before Cathy knows their relationship is over in Jamie’s eyes. While the significant other in “Hey Ya” is faithful to the speaker because she fears the solitude that would come with the end of their relationship, Jamie ignores any worries about his marriage and cheats on Cathy because he no longer wants to be with
her. The loss of love is a common ending for many relationships. “So why oh why oh, why oh why oh/ Are we so in denial/ When we know we’re not happy here” (“Hey Ya”)? The speaker knows that he is no longer satisfied with his domestic situation and confronts his partner about the his belief that neither of them are happy. The speaker has come to terms with the fact that he and his significant other are not in love anymore and are together simply because that is the way things have been. The song never clarifies if the speaker has left his partner, but it is likely since he has realized the lack of affection between the two of them JAMIE: I’m not the only one who’s hurting here I don’t know what… is left to do You never saw how far the crack had opened You never knew I ran out of rope and I could never rescue you... No matter how I tried All I could do was love you God, I loved you so. (“Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You”) Jamie abruptly leaves Cathy and claims that is was mostly her fault for not realizing how far they had drifted apart, and not his fault for cheating on her. Jamie immediately tries to excuse his actions, the cheating and subsequent abandonment, under the guise of being madly in love with Cathy. He did once love Cathy, but she did not need to be rescued. While the speaker in “Hey Ya!” is willing to confront the issues facing him and his partner, Jamie quickly gives up on his relationship and claims he was protecting Cathy. The universal themes of love, unfaithfulness, and loss of love are all well showcased in the song “Hey Ya” and the musical The Last Five Years. Both couples were once in love, however these relationships ended differently. Jamie cheated on Cathy and ruined their marriage while the speaker in “Hey Ya” ended his relationship civilly. People in both couples had fallen out of love by the time their relationships ended, but that does not excuse the infidelity. Though no one can stop themselves from falling out of love with someone, they can stop themselves from cheating on their partner.
Although the lyrics have nothing to do with what I feel for this song (it is a romantic song), this was a song that I heard throughout my childhood and it became a big part of my life since then. 2.
The song “Most People are Good” by Luke Bryan, describes a theme of hope and seizing the day. This song is clearly directed to an adult audience for it could not be relatable to a younger crowd. The song offers words of wisdom and a recollection of youthful times gone by. The song is told in the first person and portrayed by an ageing man or woman who is expressing their beliefs and personal morals through their experience of youth and forgiveness. The hopeful lyrics are informal but provide bright ideas expressed with a buoyant attitude.
In the song “Tennessee Whiskey” by Chris Stapleton, he describes life before he met his lover and then he figuratively describes the effect this person has on him. He was an alcoholic and this person’s love changed his outlook on the importance of love and alcohol. The intense feeling of how irresistible romantic love can be is illustrated in Chris Stapleton’s song “Tennessee Whiskey” using figurative language such as juxtaposition and hyperbole.
But not in this case. The singer says, “Cause the truth is, girl the truth is, I still go riding around town With the windows down and your feet upon my dash…”(Florida Georgia Line). He does not accept the fact that she is no longer with him. The singer is disproving the typical stereotype because he is not going out and enjoying the single life, but is letting all of his feelings and emotions out in a last effort to show her how he feels. Throughout the song, he claims that he still imagines himself with her and that everything still feels the same because he refuses to accept the fact that she is gone. “Iit still feels so right, Like you ain't even gone”(Florida Georgia Line). In every breakup the two people usually end up missing one another because they are no longer in each others lives but end up eventually moving on. In this instance, the singers portray that the man as missing her cannot move on.and not moving on. He cares about this girl and is expressing his feelings but it’s too late. She is
There is a belief that since America is unsegregated everyone is now equal and it is possible to achieve the American Dream. However, the passing of civil rights laws does not make up for the lost time during discrimination and segregation. Claudia Rankine clearly demonstrates that the black community continues to face discrimination, stereotypes, and prejudice. Additionally, she states that minor incidents are actually a part of the societal and political problem that needs to change. There are two messages Rankine sends. The first “It wasn’t a match, I say. It was a lesson.” Meaning that the purpose of the lyric is for the reader to gain insight into what it means to be black. The second message feels almost hopeless: “I don't know how to end what doesn't have an ending,” demonstrating that it has been decades of these events occurring, because there is no solution and questioning if there ever will
Then, finally, the break Simon and Garfunkel had been waiting for had finally come. One song the boys had written together and tried out at school events had been well received, so they decided to lay it down on track for a demo of it. One day at a local studio the pair recorded the song, "Hey, Schoolgirl." In the studio waiting for the next recording spot was a song-plugger named Sid Prosen who had overheard the song and saw great potential in it. He told the boys that he would make "great stars out of them!"
Several even try to connect their music to the feelings of their audience. Some of the songs including, Jailhouse Rock, Good Vibrations, Purple Haze and Stayin’ Alive try to use women as the meaning of their songs. In addition, they are used to clarify the point in films of their time and influence an environmental change. Slowly, building into innovative ways to portray music that fits the era they were in. Each song was able to readjust the perception of war and help those forget the scary outcomes war was bringing. Therefore, music adapted by connecting the people as one to their era and providing them a tune that minimized their
Music is regarded as a method of passing a message. Though some songs do not intend to do that, the message in them is still perceived. The song, “Get up, ...
“My love, she keeps me warm.” Without context, these song lyrics have no impact or power behind them. However, if told that these words were sung by a female vocalist, and preceded by the lyrics “I can’t change, even if it tried, even if I wanted to,” suddenly the words have meaning as a woman sings of her love for another woman (Haggerty, Lewis, Lambert, 2102). These lyrics come from the 2012 song “Same Love” by Macklemore with Ryan Lewis and featuring Mary Lambert. In the song “Same Love,” Macklemore raises his voice against the issues of discrimination, gay rights, and marriage equality that we see in today's era. He uses two fallacies in the song, but Macklemore’s use of the three rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos in his song “Same Love,” have a great level of success in proving the importance of gay rights and marriage equality.
“Young and Menace” by Fall Out Boy is the everyman who is reminiscing about their past.
One could not simply “break up”, it was more like a
The re-invasion of pop music has brought out the theme of love and relationships even more so then ever. If a songwriter has “writer’s block”, then the simple solution is to write a love song. “All I want is you (Come over here baby). All I want is you (You make me go crazy)... I‘m gonna love you right...” (Aguilera), is part of the chorus to Christina Aguilera’s song “Come on Over”. The attraction to this song to girls is in thinking that they could be in the situation of the female character in the song, finding the perfect guy and spending time with him. For guys, the attraction comes because a beautiful girl is singing this and they can pretend that she is singing to them. Something similar is also found in the song “Doesn’t Really Matter” by Janet Jackson. In this song she is stating all the things she loves about a certain individual. She can live with his imperfections and doesn’t care what anyone else cares. “Doesn’t really matter what the eye is seeing. Cause I’m in love with the inner being. And it doesn’t really matter what they believe. What matters to me is you’re nutty, nutty, nutty for me.” (Janet Jackson) This song is good in that it is a love song unlike many out there today. In this song we see that the main character loves her man because of who he is.
At the time of the song’s release, millions of Disney viewers dealt with bullying and exclusion. This song not only brought hope to these children, but also brought about unification. The lyrics were enjoyed by many children and helped the
Wayne is a rapper but for this love ballad which is named “How to Love” he chose to record a singing acoustic guitar ballad. Not only is a honest love song rare in the genre of hip-hop but singing the song especially as an acoustic guitar ballad is something the genre hasn’t really before this song was released in 2011. This song would also go on to influence other hip-hop artist to try their hands at singing more as well. The lyrics speak about a women who has been through a bunch of bad romantic relationships and no longer knows how to love another. When he sings “you never credit yourself so when you got older, it seems you came back ten times over” is a lyric that shows this women as an older women who has been through a lot.
“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” is a prime example of acting on one’s sexual desires in contrast to conforming to a traditional societal role. This song focuses specifically on this issue of the “morning after” and what the singer’s partner will think of them. Through lines like “Is this a lasting treasure / Or just a moment’s pleasure?” and “But will my heart be broken / When the night meets the morning sun?”, Goffin and King express the trepidation,anxiety, and insecurities over acting on one’s lust.