Literality and Poetry
May. 29th, 2007 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tabular_rasaI heard this song the other day that really weirded me out. I just figured out it's called "Beautiful Girl," by Sean Kingston. I guess it's best described as that pop/hip-hop/R&B sort of thing so popular on the radio, but it's also this sort of soft, swaying, almost reggae-ness to it. (Apparently it is heavily influenced by "Stand By Me"-- so imagine that). Completely unsuitable to the lyrics. Note the chorus:
You're way too beautiful, girl;
thats why it'll never work.
You had me suicidal, suicidal,
When you say its over.
Damn all these beautiful girls;
they only want to do your dirt.
They'll have you suicidal, suicidal,
When they say it's over.
Kind of a serious topic to have as such a perky song. Then again, the pop-punk genre seems big on that, bopping around perkily (though, well, kind of aggressively, too) to lyrics about how life sucks and people are all fake.
Then, there's just the lyric itself. Suicide as a theme is no stranger to pop music. You get stuff like Linkin Park's "Breaking the Habit" or Papa Roach's "Last Resort" (and a substantial amount of music videos will utilize it, even if the song is vague-- or totally irrelevant-- like Brittany Spears's "Everytime" or Hinder's "Better Than Me"). And certainly it's not beyond the realm of popular music to commit suicide over unrequited love. Yet those that do reference it overtly tend to be poetic about it, you know? Crying, bleeding, cutting, falling, fading to black, "can't go on without you." Imagery. Not just: "Yeah, I'm suicidal."
I mean, imagine if Three Days' Grace "I Hate Everything About You" was "I Have A Borderline Style of Attraction to You." Or if "Lovefool" by The Cardigans was "I Am Suffering An Insecurely Dependent Attachment."
It's our psychology that inspires our poetry, but the diagnoses of psychology sure aren't poetic.
You're way too beautiful, girl;
thats why it'll never work.
You had me suicidal, suicidal,
When you say its over.
Damn all these beautiful girls;
they only want to do your dirt.
They'll have you suicidal, suicidal,
When they say it's over.
Kind of a serious topic to have as such a perky song. Then again, the pop-punk genre seems big on that, bopping around perkily (though, well, kind of aggressively, too) to lyrics about how life sucks and people are all fake.
Then, there's just the lyric itself. Suicide as a theme is no stranger to pop music. You get stuff like Linkin Park's "Breaking the Habit" or Papa Roach's "Last Resort" (and a substantial amount of music videos will utilize it, even if the song is vague-- or totally irrelevant-- like Brittany Spears's "Everytime" or Hinder's "Better Than Me"). And certainly it's not beyond the realm of popular music to commit suicide over unrequited love. Yet those that do reference it overtly tend to be poetic about it, you know? Crying, bleeding, cutting, falling, fading to black, "can't go on without you." Imagery. Not just: "Yeah, I'm suicidal."
I mean, imagine if Three Days' Grace "I Hate Everything About You" was "I Have A Borderline Style of Attraction to You." Or if "Lovefool" by The Cardigans was "I Am Suffering An Insecurely Dependent Attachment."
It's our psychology that inspires our poetry, but the diagnoses of psychology sure aren't poetic.
