With final exams approaching, I’ve been trying to shove as much information as possible into my poor pandemic brain. Like every other year, I continue my repeated pattern of lying to myself that I’ll play music in the background to “help me focus”. Within 15 minutes I find myself rapping every syllable of a Nicki Minaj verse without having memorized one word from the syllabus. As someone with a memory so weak that even goldfish feel bad for me, I never understand the science behind my perfect retention of song lyrics from 10 years ago.
Music can create some of our most memorable, tear-jerking, or joyful moments. We all have songs we scream out with our friends in the car no matter how terrible we sound or the ones we listen to in our saddest moments to make ourselves even sadder for no reason. In my opinion, most of what connects us to our favourite song are its lyrics, which is why I’ve decided to sum up just a few reasons why I have so much admiration for good lyricism!
My favourite aspect of song lyrics is their relatability. Not the ones that magically describe your entire current situation. Rather, the ones that have absolutely nothing to do with you but manage to convince you that they are your autobiography, your anthem, a tribute to your existence. The timeless lyrics on Nicki Minaj’s “Monster” verse will never fail to make you feel like you’re on top of the world. Personally, I find myself screaming the words “Just killed another career, it’s a mild day” as if I even have a career, to begin with. Or “Hairdresser from Milan that’s the monster ‘do/ Monster Giuseppe heel that’s the monster shoe” with my curly hair up in a monstrously messy bun and my feet in nothing but mismatched socks. In fact, the return to reality at the end of the verse is honestly a little saddening. Finding yourself in bed surrounded by notes and a dying laptop reminds you of the hypnosis, possession, black magic, or whatever it is that Nicki sprinkled in there.
Up next are the lyrics that make you burst out laughing, and who does humour better than Kanye West. On “Send It Up ”, he raps “She say “Can you get my friends in the club?”/ I say “Can you get my Benz in the club?”/ If not, treat your friends like my Benz/ Park they a** outside ’til the evenin’ end.” To this day I still wonder if these “friends” were ever okay again after getting hit with – in my opinion – one of the funniest roasts ever included in a song. These lyrics had me preaching to everyone that as a society we should move on from boring phrases like “take a hike” and replace them with telling people to park themselves outside. In case you’re wondering, yes, I’ve tried it, and yes it’s incredibly satisfying. Alternatively, we can also take the Drake route and start threatening to “Call your a** a Uber I got somewhere to be”. It’s always the simple, effective insults we all need on the go sometimes.
Speaking of insults, another one of my favourites is the hilariously threatening track “Take Yo Man”. As the title suggests, J.T from the City Girls tells us the tale of a girl who “ain’t like me and I don’t know why/ But I’ma give her a reason when I take her guy”. If that wasn’t enough, she continues to clarify that she intends to steal a man and keep her own too! I still remember the first time I heard this song with my friends and all of our jaws dropped while simultaneously gasping for air at each line. I’m a strong advocate for not taking song lyrics too seriously and appreciating the ones that are simply there to make us laugh and dance. This song definitely doesn’t contain – and I cannot stress this enough – morals. But it did manage to leave us in tears and brighten our day, and isn’t that the best thing that art can do for us?
On the other hand, we have the sad ones; the lyrics can put unexplainable emotions and events into words. The kinds that make you pause the song and just sit in silence for a moment thinking “Yes. Exactly”. And honestly, this whole category is dominated by sad Taylor Swift lyrics. In her recent song “Tolerate It” she sings about a one-sided relationship by saying “I made you my temple, my mural, my sky/ Now I’m begging for footnotes in the story of your life/ Drawing hearts in the byline/ Always taking up too much space or time”. Nothing sums up the feeling of being ignored like the abundance of metaphors that she packs into just a couple of lines. The contrasting images between how one person treats the other and vice versa can create the most vivid movie in anyone’s head. Sometimes they remind the listener of how they themselves have been characters of this movie in the past.
Another fan favourite lyric comes from “New Years Day”. Taylor hopes for a relationship to last and sings “Please don’t ever become a stranger/ Whose laugh I can recognize anywhere”. To me, this lyric is the definition of loving something so much that I wish I would have written it. It amazes me through its use of such simple words, to sum up, the complex, melancholic feeling of being reminded of someone you really wanted to forget. It’s almost creepy how accurately some songs can convey emotions that you can spend hours trying to put into words!
Over time, iconic lyrics turn into throwback hits set in stone as the definitive memories of entire generations. When someone yells out “When I was 13”, it is a cultural obligation for everyone in the room to yell back “I had my first love!”, even if you’ve lost all hope in love. Or for “ Who run the world?” to be followed by “Girls!” even if you’re a complete misogynist. We all have the number 678-999-8212 memorized because sometimes, a speed dial to the past is just what you need to escape from the exhaustion of reality. Iconic song lyrics have caused words like “Bootylicious” and “Jiggy” to end up in the dictionary because we just loved them that much. And so, to all the songwriters who write out reflections of exactly how we’re feeling, motivation for how we need to be feeling, and even the pointless lyrics that make no sense but are just there to scream at the top of our lungs at parties, thanks for the memories.