A Comparison Of Hey Ya ! And The Last Five Years

1172 Words3 Pages

“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 …show more content…

“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

Open Document