There are songs that do you only know the chorus? Or just the advertising spot for which the song is used? And you are absolutely certain: it’s about … uh … love – or at least something with L? Don’t be afraid, you are not alone.
Music history and, above all, song interpretation was and is always a long string of misunderstandings, misinterpretations or even political mood. Why does that work? Because the listeners concentrate on the individual verses, a refrain line or some strophic part and then jump on it in such a way that they no longer hear the rest or no longer want to hear. Other reasons are:
- Overzealous fans who use songs as a projection surface for partly abstruse theories about their favorite artists and their songs
- A lack of foreign language skills on the listener or ares mumbling on the part of the singing
- Selective perception, because Goethe already knew: “Nobody understands the others entirely because nobody thinks the same thing in the same word”.
- Really nasty catchy tunes ensure that the rest of the song is no longer perceived
- Instrumentalization: A song is instrumentalized for your own purposes, for example for political or ideological messages
- Parts of a song are often torn out of context and used, for example, for commercials
Here are seven songs, the statements of which have been and are particularly popular:
Bruce Springsteen – “Born in the USA” (1984)
What people think about what it is about:
The Ronald Reagan campaign team, the Republican President of the United States from 1981 to 1989, thought that also thought in 1984 during the hot phase of the election campaign whether they could use the song. Springsteen, even a convinced democrat, forbade the strategic use of his song. Nevertheless, Regan praised the “message of hope” in the song when the election campaign appears later. Classic case of: song either not heard or not understood.
What it really is about:
- “Born in the USA” is an America-critical anti-anyany with depressing under tones and sarcastic chorus.
The song is about a young man who in an economically weak region of the United States (“Dead Man’s Town”) Sales his life and is forced to take part in the Vietnam War after a criminal offense in his hometown to avoid prison. Back again, he only reaps a lack of understanding (“Son, don’t you understand“), Is unemployed and will also be after ten years (“I’m ten years down the road”) with his memories and the perspective without the perspective (“Nowhere to run, ain’t got Nowhere to go”) left alone.
Springsteen uses the song to differentiate themselves from the Vietnam body and the behavior of the government at the time and to practice social criticism in dealing with the returned veterans.
To convert such an anti-hymn to a patriotic anthem-you have to do that first.
The Police – “Every Breath You Take” (1983)
What people think about what it is about:
- Oh, that’s a nice little love song with not so subtle narrow -tin elements. So you like to play at weddings.
What it really is about:
- not so subtle stalking
In one BBC interview 2009 said Sting: “I think the song is very, very sinister and Ugly and People have actually misinterpreted it as Being a Gentle Little Love Song, When it’s Quite the Opposite.. “
The song was created in the final phase of Sting’s marriage to Frances Tomelty, which explains the central elements of the song such as jealousy, surveillance and property. The song that appeared on the band’s fifth and last studio album became one of her most commercially successful songs. That “”Every Breath You Take ”is also a timeless classic, Puff Daddy, who was involved in the song in 1997 “”I’ll be Missing you ”as a mourning song for Notorious Big Coverte.
Semisonic – “Closing time“(1998)
What people think about what it is about:
- at this moment when the last round is proclaimed in bars
What it really is about:
Admittedly, the line “One Last Call for Alcohol So Finish Your Whiskey Or Beer” Makes an air that is already very easy to get into the smoked air of any pub. In fact, Dan Wilson, the band’s singer and songwriter, explained the song as follows during a performance at his former University of Harvard: “Millions and Millions of People Bough the Song and Heard the Song and Didn’t Get It. They Think It’s About Being Bounced From A Bar But It’s About Being Bounced From The Womb.”
Johnny Cash – “”Ring of Fire ”(1963)
What some people want, other people think:
- Hemorrhoids: “It Burns, Burns Burns … The Ring of Fire” (Jap, the fire ring is very plastic in this interpretation)
What it really is about:
- according to the cash heirs for the transformative power of love
At the latest since Don Draper has kidnapped us in seven seasons into the world of fast words and the even faster swirling witch dance from advertising and consumers, we know: Good advertising lives from wit and irony. The laughs or interest often arise from the fact that serious pictures with known songs are broken ironically. The American advertising texter Sula Miller probably also thought when she wanted to use Johnny Cashs for advertising. The product to be advertised: hemorrhoid ointment, the right song storse: “And it Burns, Burns, Burns, The Ring of Fire, The Ring of Fire“. However, nothing became of the idea, since the cash heirs were anything but impressed.
The Goo Goo Dolls – “”Slide“(1998)
What people think about what it is about:
- To a slide (slide) as a metaphor for love
What it really is about:
- unwanted pregnancies
Some people let themselves be misleading when hearing that the subject of the song is described as beautifully described (“What you feel is what you are, and what you are is beautiful”) and suspect a love song. The lines “Don’t you love the life you killed?” Which could be alluded to an abortion and could be sung wonderfully 20 years later by supporters of the paragraph 219a, but somehow not really fit a love song. Just as little as the lines “Your Father Hit The Wall, Your Ma Disowned You”.
“I was Thinking a lot the Neighborhood i grew up in”says John Rzeznik in one Interview with “Billboard” 2018, “Slide is about a teenage boy and girl. They’re trying to figure out if they’re going to keep the baby or if she’s going to get an Aborion or if they’re just going to run away.”
The Boomtown Rats –“”I don’t like Mondays” (1979)
What people think about what it is about:
- To the seventh day of many people, or the horrible thing that inevitably comes to one after Sundays
What it really is about:
- To a massacre at a school
The song comes as a happy catchy tune and who did not have the need to smash your radio at least once in your life on Mondays, because it runs into endless loop, you probably have no radio at all. The inspiration for the classic and greatest hit by Boomtown Rats pulled singer Bob Geldof from the succinct words of a 16-year-old. Brenda Ann Spencer replied to the police in 1979: “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day. ” Before that, she had shooted the headmaster of her school and the caretaker with a semi -automatic rifle from the window of her parents’ house and injured nine other people.
The Beatles – “”Got to get you into my life” (1966)
What people think about what it is about:
- To a love song (related to another person)
What it really is about:
- To the love for grass (the smokable)
The song is actually over a man who falls in love with immortal – in marijuana. To do it in Paul McCartney’s words in the book “Paul McCartney: Many Years from now ” To say: “It’s actual an ode to pot, like some might write an ode to chocolate or a good claret. [it’s] Really a song about that, it’s not to a person.“”
Praise mentions in the category: just interrogated
Me and me – “pavement”
Wrong: “The hamster rages in front of my window”
Right: “Hate rages, there in front of my window”