Disguised in Melody
Some nights my roommates and I will cozy up on the couch, pull up Spotify on the TV, and enjoy many heart-wrenching songs from one artist or another. Lamps are lit. Blankets are on. The quiet laughter from bantering friends dies down to make way for new entertainment. A non-negotiable during our music therapy is having the lyrics on display so we can best digest the meaning. Music is an endless and unique form of literature: one that can be both background noise or the star of the moment. I have often found that reading the lyrics, as opposed to just listening along, gives me a heightened appreciation for the artist's labor and emotion. Their thoughts have been eloquently placed with rhythm to take the listener on a journey through their emotions in a few short minutes.
Music is poetry disguised in melody and one that has the ability to sneak up on you with the accompanying interrogation of interpretation. The endless possibilities of meaning are a maze of sounds and words that work together to convey the artists’ emotions. Musical liberties such as a screeching violin, or a melancholy riff from an electric guitar, taken in conjunction with building lyrics, are rhetorical strategies that musicians/writers use to strengthen their story. We allow the moment to take away reality, ours becoming one with the moment, and that is what makes music so powerful. For me, songs act as an interactive story that allows you to place significance in their words where you can relate. Music is recognizing yourself in others’ art, a therapeutic conversation between creator, and listener. The lyrics within the songs serve as an eloquent reminder of the intensity that emotions can evoke. To give some examples, I will include some quotes from a list of our popular “Apartment Therapy” songs.
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1) Doomsday- Lizzy McApline
“And the funny thing is I would have married you, If you’d have stuck around. I feel more free than I have in years, six feet in the ground.”
Lizzy, you killed this. These words depict a failed relationship and brought back a reminder of my own past relationship.
2) Ceilings- Lizzy McAlpine
“ But it’s not real, and you don’t exist. And I can’t recall the last time I was kissed.”
AHHHHHH. The roller coaster of emotions. Please. She writes about a love that never was, but played out in her head.
3) Hard Times- Ethel Cain
“I was too young to notice that some types of love could be bad.”
Don’t even get me started on Ethel Cain. I am genuinely obsessed with her. This song is a heart-wrenching story of a young girl growing up as a Preacher's daughter in Nebraska.
4) White Flag- Clairo
“Grown apart, and we’re so far gone. I’m waving the white flag sending my love, move on.”
I don’t even know specifically what is so sad about this song, but it is a commemoration of a past love: faults and healing. It is definitely worth a listen.
5) Vienna- Billy Joel
“Slow down, you're doing fine. You can’t be everything you want to be before your time.”
Literally internal screaming. As a young adult and a college student, I often feel pressure to figure out my life when all I really know is that I am learning. We are going to be okay.
6) i was all over her- salvia palth
“Every stranger makes me feel safer. And every person seems more beautiful.”
This song is a short navigation of loneliness in a crowded world.
7) Golden Age- Ethel Cain
“I guess that I’ll just go outside and watch the fire and fields of gold fly farther away from me. Got what I wanted but it’s never enough for me.”
It was so hard to pick a line from this song because they are all so beautiful. Ethel expresses her internal struggle with love and acceptance during her young adulthood.
8) Nutshell- Alice in Chains
“My gift of self is raped. My privacy is raked… If I can’t have my own I’d be better off dead.
The singer Layne Staley struggled throughout his musical career with addiction and mental illness triggered by pressure from fame. The words reveal his battle and are not meant to be overlooked.
9) Jigsaw Falling Into Place- Radiohead
“I never really got there, I just pretended that I had. Words are blunt instruments. Words are sawed-off shotguns.”
The characterization of words as dulled weapons allows the pain to be drawn out for longer before it all comes to an end. Love is ripped away slowly.
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Next time you are listening to your favorite artist, pay attention and read their words to see how that may change your experience.
Strike out,
Written by: Rebecca Morgan
Edited by: Jane Dodge
Graphic by: CJ Barney
