In high school choir, after a big concert, we would often take a class period to unwind and hang out with our fellow choir members. As one might expect we often chose to play party games that involved singing. We would play variations of a game where one person chooses a word, and others have to come up with a real song in which the lyrics contain that word.
I am reminded of this game when I listen to “Something just like this” by the Chain smokers and Coldplay. In addition to allusions to Hercules and Achilles, the buildup of this song mentions Spider man’s contr
ol’ and “Batman with his fists.” The artist uses all these references to make a beautiful point, which has more meaning if you know what he is talking about. I also enjoy this song because of the playful and carefree elements in the chorus which also bring the idea of being yourself into light. The song is mostly just quietly chugging on with its own energy, and I really appreciate that.
How does this relate to pop culture references? One day listening to this sing, I was reminded of the game and wondered how many songs mentioned names of specific superheroes. Not surprisingly, superman seems to be referenced the most, and in a nice variety of ways too. My favorites are Charlie Puth’s touching sentiment “Superman’s got nothing on me”, and a quick line in Train’s ridiculous but very enjoyable 50 Ways to Say Goodbye – Superman, not super minivan. I love 50 ways to say goodbye because it is so fun to sing along or jump around to and sounding stupid is honestly the point of doing so. I could only come up with three songs mentioning superheroes off the top of my head, but there are so many more.
What other somewhat unusual words do you not see in song lyrics very often? Can you think of more than one song that uses that word? Is the word more common in song lyrics than you initially thought? I would love to hear input on this.
Some unusual song lyrics from “Bad and Boujee” – By the Migos are “Rain drop, drop top” referring to a convertible car. This is particularly interesting because of the car reference is a relatively new one.
After reading your blog, the first song that came to my mind was the song Miracle by Cascada. The lyrics in the song are actually “Give me a chance to see that you were made for me”, but for the longest time I always thought it said “Give me chastity to show that you were made for me. Originally I thought it made sense because the song is about wanting to be with a person, and perhaps a demonstration of chastity would show the devotion of the singer to the other person. However, looking back on it now, the original/real lyrics make a lot more sense.
Song lyrics is such an interesting topic because it’s something that everyone can relate to. Currently after our conversation at the beginning of class, the only song I can really think of that has unique lyrics that aren’t in other songs is Deepthroat by Cupcakke which includes lyrics like “chopsticks” and “dentist”. I can’t think of any other songs that include those songs, and while this one is very explicit it’s interesting how Cupcakke constructed the lyrics.