Your Song Lies.
Jul. 29th, 2010 06:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serynI heard an old song on the radio when I was out at lunch yesterday. One of the Karate Kid themesongs. "I am the man who will fight for your honor. I'll be the hero you've been dreamin' of."
What struck me about this is how much it reminds me of that poem
"Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Lord Tennyson and especially, "Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen.
What I mean by that is there were all these poems and songs glorifying honor and battle and being a real man who can fight for your country. Then there started to be poems and popular media of the times talking about how horrible wars are and how gruesome battles are. That it's about people never coming home again. War is about your friends and enemies alike choking to death on poison gas and not knowing if you're lucky because you're going to be killed later anyway. There was a lot of effort put into taking the illusiory shine off the spin that made boys want to take up low-level soldiering before they were old enough to understand what it really meant.
But the songs in the popular media seem to all imply that everyone will find their perfect love. Even 30 years ago the songs were about waiting around for the prince to come save the girl, but phrased so any girl listening wishes she's the girl.
It's not true. None of it's true. I mean, sure, finding someone suitable that you love and whose life is compatible with yours is wonderful. And it's such an accomplishment, but it's like signing your name on the enlistment forms. It's not even basic training, let alone being in the trenches while gas grenades hurtle overhead.
I'm not being bitter. I'm not saying I'm having problems at home or with my heart-felt relationships. I'm saying no one is the princess of this story and the songs all lie when they promise that real love feels like you're on top of the world.
What struck me about this is how much it reminds me of that poem
"Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Lord Tennyson and especially, "Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen.
What I mean by that is there were all these poems and songs glorifying honor and battle and being a real man who can fight for your country. Then there started to be poems and popular media of the times talking about how horrible wars are and how gruesome battles are. That it's about people never coming home again. War is about your friends and enemies alike choking to death on poison gas and not knowing if you're lucky because you're going to be killed later anyway. There was a lot of effort put into taking the illusiory shine off the spin that made boys want to take up low-level soldiering before they were old enough to understand what it really meant.
But the songs in the popular media seem to all imply that everyone will find their perfect love. Even 30 years ago the songs were about waiting around for the prince to come save the girl, but phrased so any girl listening wishes she's the girl.
It's not true. None of it's true. I mean, sure, finding someone suitable that you love and whose life is compatible with yours is wonderful. And it's such an accomplishment, but it's like signing your name on the enlistment forms. It's not even basic training, let alone being in the trenches while gas grenades hurtle overhead.
I'm not being bitter. I'm not saying I'm having problems at home or with my heart-felt relationships. I'm saying no one is the princess of this story and the songs all lie when they promise that real love feels like you're on top of the world.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-30 09:44 am (UTC)Sadly, I know all the damn lyrics to "Glory of Love," and don't believe a word of them. If you think about all of the words as a whole-- the singer is talking about "so many things I want to say." It's the stuff you say to people when you're overwhelmed with emotion, not the actual truth. Because he goes on to say that he can't deal with anything at all unless his woman is there "helping" him.
Seriously, real life relationships are (or should be) under some kind of 10/80/10 rule: 10% of the time you don't care if your partner is there or not (all the way down to they're making you nuts and you wish they'd go away a bit). 80% of the time they're nice to have around and make all the other already-good things better. And 10% of the time you're glad to have them (all the way up to "I'd write a cheesy love song explaining how I'm your knight").
But I guess "I'll put up with your snoring and cover-hogging for the rest of our lives because I love you that much" isn't very good as lyrics.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-30 06:08 pm (UTC)But aside from the lack of poetic technique, why aren't those good lyrics? Why are all the popular songs about finding your true love where everything is magical?
The happy-happy versions of fairy tales where the Prince and Princess get married, then the book ends with the words, "And they lived happily ever after." But we know the in-laws think the interloper is an ignorant mudblood who has no government skills and has to be trained not to cause a diplomatic incident just by walking into a room. We know even average couples row over child rearing. (Children being one of the leading no-fault reasons for divorce.) We know that people raised in poverty don't handle money well. (Most of them go hog-wild and buy absolutely everything they can, but some become so stingy because they worry it will all vanish.)
Decent people worry about their daughters reading too much of this pretty pretty princess crap and they give them other kinds of books. Books where there are adventures and choices that matter and where knowledge and learning help the characters win their happy endings.
But I never hear anyone complaining that all songs are love songs where no one has to mop the floor.