Happy Music - Dark Lyrics
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- Happy Songs That Are Actually Dark: How They REALLY Work
There are loads of popular songs that very happy sounding music, but have dark, or downright miserable, lyrics. According to the popular view, these songs SOUND happy but are ACTUALLY sad. According to me: this is a stupid way to think about them.
This video takes a look at a few good examples of such songs, and explores the general issue. After all, why would an artist write depressing lyrics for happy music?
#videoessay #music #musictheory
Hallelujah… great to have you back ! Looking forward to your videos
Great vid! There’s all these shades of in between than the clickbait doesn’t want us to believe in lol
Also I stumbled upon your channel some months ago via your video about the Beach Boys’ Til I Die and have watched some hours worth of your content since. Great stuff, keep it up.
Sorry for the slow reply! Thanks so much for watching and for the kind comment 😊
Thanks for this straightforward and sober video without all the clickbaity, and pointless, meaninglsss garbage. Really respect and appretiate that
Thanks so much - I do try to make content that goes a bit beyond the usual, obvious stuff, so comments like this mean a lot :)
Saw you channel a few months ago (video on prog rock), have loved all your videos since!
Keep up the great work :)
same
Awesome! Thank you! I appreciate it :)
A fine example of what this vid delves into would be "Lost Horizons" by the Gin Blossoms. It was the opener of their biggest-selling album, and should have been a hit. It's every bit as good as "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You." No surprise; these are all Doug Hopkins tunes. I raise my glass to the deceased artist who got a raw deal at his moment of triumph.
Interesting video.
Regards The Beatles "Run For Life", its often cited in these sort of videos, but the "offending" line was a lazy lift by Lennon from Elvis Presley's Baby Lets Play House.
Lennon hated the song as a "throwaway" filler, but i am surprised he kept the line.
But why isnt the Elvis song used to illustrate the point?
Baby Lets Play House
"Now listen to me, baby
Try to understand
I'd rather see you dead, little girl
Than to be with another man
Now baby come back, baby, come
Come back, baby, come..."
Sorry, my comment disappeared. Here it is again:
I find it funny to think of Run for Your LIfe as only having one 'offending line' given that the entire song is violent and aggressively jealous. Also, I used the Beatles' song to illustrate my point rather than Elvis' because it is a) better known, and b) just a better song.
Thanks for watching!
@@bigyellowpraxis Yeah, you're right, it's not just the line, although that's likely to have been the "influence" for the song. Not one of Lennon's finest decisions.
But I don't think a lot of people actually know the song, it's one which is very peripheral as it only appears on Rubber Soul, and not any of the compilations.
The only other Beatles song (and Lennon lines), which I can think of and relates to the same point (upbeat and dark), is Getting Better, which has the verse:
"I used to be cruel to my woman
I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved
Man, I was mean but I'm changing my scene
And I'm doing the best that I can (fool, you fool)'
A couple of clunkers in a few hundred songs...
There's a song by ZZ Top called Francine which I can't listen to without cringing due to the line
"My Francine just turned thirteen
She's my angelic teenage queen
And I love her, she's all that I want
And I need her, she's all that I need"
There's a lot of trap that sounds dark but is actually just about going to a party, getting high, and having a good time.
I suspect Paul McCartney composed the music for “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” and when he listened to it thought to himself “I can’t play this for the lads. They’ll make fun of it, say that its naff, and John will call it ‘granny music’. I know… I’ll put super, SUPER dark lyrics to it, and then maybe I’ll get away with it”
McCartney didn't write it with that intent, he just wrote it. And the rest of The Beatles hated it despite the dark lyrics.
Blackbird kind of fits into the 2nd category I reckon
the Dao of music and lyrics.