It was my recent binge on Katherine Heigl films that inspired this article. 27 dresses is a movie I have watched more times than I care to admit.
My concern is always about this one dialogue from one of the most famous meet-cute moments in cinema history. Kate's character Jane Nichols confronts the horrifying truth that her favourite newspaper columnist isn't convinced of the love stories he writes after he confesses to her that he doesn't believe in them.
In response, Jane says, ‘I feel like I just found out my favourite love song was written about a sandwich.’
Somewhere inside me, I began to wonder what the stories behind my favourite songs were and if they were, in fact, all about a sandwich, or worse, while I am in the shower singing with a completely different interpretation in mind.
The sandwich theory seems to be completely plausible to me after I did a little research. Unfortunately, it's not all that rare. Here are some of my favourite songs that are actually about something completely different.
Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People - In truth, the song paints a very vivid picture of firearm violence in America. It tells the story of a young kid who is losing his mind and resorts to violence as a form of revenge. Intense isolation characterizes the buildup of sinister ideas, which manifest into a killer. As a matter of fact, this song is not about kicks at all. Rather, it is about what is going on inside the killer's head while he expresses it in the most gruesome fashion.
Who let the dogs out? by Bahamen - It is safe to say that no one could exit a party in the early 2000s without singing and dancing to this tune, although, let's face it, we only knew this part of the lyrics. Nevertheless, these dogs are metaphors for disrespectful men who catcall women. It seems that this feminist song was referring to all those times when women were harassed while out in public.
Macarena by Los Del Rio - Yes! Getting into that fancy footwork is easy with this song. My general impression was that this was just another feel-good song with an easy routine. However, we may not have realized that the song is actually about a girl named Macarena who cheats on her boyfriend with two friends while he's in the military.
Every breath you take by The Police - I can make my head bob side to side pretty easily when I hear this masterpiece written by Sting. However, this song makes it to the top of the list of most misinterpreted songs in history. Though we listen to it like an ode to someone we love, in reality, the song has been written to disguise someone such as Penn Badgley's character in You. As it turns out, the song is about a stalker who obsesses in the most subtle way, resulting in constant surveillance and invasion of privacy. He compared the lines to various new technologies of surveillance, such as linking breath analyzers to each breath, ankle monitors to each step, and voice stress monitors to every vow.
Closing time - Semisonic - This is one of my favourite songs and I've performed it on karaoke. It was always about closing time at a bar, according to me. Actually, it was written by Dan Wilson, who wrote it during his wife's pregnancy with their first child, whom they named Coco. In the middle of writing the song, he realized there was a double meaning. To him, it was all about being born, seeing the bright lights, cutting the cord, and finding something deeper and more universal.
So even though Highway to Hell by AC/DC is a song about a unique road in Australia, and Gangnam Style by Psy mainly focuses on how people who are not wealthy try to blend in, Imagine by John Lennon is the communist manifesto in its entirety, Happy Together by Turtles is about unrequited love, rather than a romance, Take me home, Country Roads by John Denver is about a patient in a mental institution who wants to get home and Harder to Breath by Maroon 5 is about the record label pressuring the band to keep making albums, we love them all the same.
I have written about what inspires some of the music we love, however, songs are still varied in their true sense and can be interpreted differently depending on the person. That's what makes music magical. Therefore, keep listening and interpreting away.
Until then, Hum hai rahi pyaar ke Phir milenge Chalte chalte! *wink*
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