This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Rochester chapter.
It’s already February, so you know the inevitable love bug of Valentine’s Day is upon us. While some find this holiday to be the biggest joke of the year, those who do care may look to the top songs of the moment to express their feelings, so I’ve taken the liberty of going through iTunes top 50 songs and dissecting a handful, so you know which ones to (and not to) play to your respective hubbies.
- “S&M” – Rihanna: Whoever wrote this, I tip my hat to you. It must have taken some incredible, deep thought to come up with “sex in the air, I don’t care, I love the smell of it, sticks and stones may break my bones, but chains and whips excite me”. Has pop music actually come to simply discussing bedroom preferences? And really, Rihanna, after your violence issue with Chris Brown, isn’t it slightly inappropriate to be discussing how chains and whips excite you? Regardless, this is a great song…just maybe not an appropriate one for V-Day.
- “Marry Me” – Train: This one’s been out for a while, but it’s still in the top 50 on iTunes, so I’ll count it. This is one of the sweetest songs I’ve ever heard. “I promise to sing to you when all the music dies”. The guitar and the vocals are beautiful and it’s just a great song.
- “Grenade” – Bruno Mars: This is probably the most overdramatic song in the history of music. Yes, it’s catchy, fine, but he says he’d kill himself for a girl, and then goes on to say she wouldn’t do the same, as if that’s a bad thing. Goes just a tad too far, although the message is cute for an unrequited-love type.
- “The Time (Dirty Bit)” – The Black Eyed Peas: After the whole Superbowl fiasco, I had to address this number one song on iTunes. I have a couple cardinal rules of music, and one of the most basic ones is that all remakes are bad. Every single one. This song is no exception – “The Time” is a great song that should’ve been left alone! Leave it alone (Leave Britney alone!)! On the other hand, even though their performance was…bad, it also put “Where Is the Love” back in the top 50, which is an incredible song and needed a comeback.
- “Firework” – Katy Perry: Can she do wrong? This is a great song, good lyrics, she sounds great on it. Enough said. Except that then Glee did it in the worst possible way. I normally love Lea Michele, but that one was rough.
- Glee – There are around nine songs from Glee in iTunes top 50, most of which are in the top 25 as well, so I had to mention it. Are they good remakes? No—as I mentioned before, all remakes are worse than the original, so no, they aren’t very good. I do watch Glee, but it’s not worth the $1.29 to buy most of these songs. Bottom line: if the song is good, buy the song—not the Glee version!
So there you have it. The end of the story is, if you’re looking to be cute and make someone a mixed tape, don’t use current songs, because the overwhelming majority of them are either bad or will send someone a really weird message.