Lyrical Sense: Love

Love as defined by Webster’s dictionary is ‘a strong positive emotion of regard and affection (noun)’. Love is indeed a universal phenomenon as popular mythology from all over the world have some icon or the other for love – be it Cupid to the Romans, Aphrodite/Eros to the Greeks or Kama to the Hindus. Love, in my opinion is a very basic human emotion that we are all born with which, we unlearn or give less and less importance to in order to advance our knowledge and wisdom on things that occupy importance in our various pursuits.

Love is in the air
Everywhere I look around
Love is in the air
Every sight and every sound

And I don’t know if I’m being foolish
Don’t know if I’m being wise
But it’s something that I must believe in
And it’s there when I look in your eyes…

This is John Paul Young’s timeless classic that most people hear playing on late night radio or in the month of Feb – during Valentine’s Week. Though this event is both cyclical and seasonal, it is interesting to note how pessimistic the world is becoming slowly but surely – with manifestations vividly visible in pop art and music. Most songs today are about the love that was or the love thats lost or the love that never was.

Let’s examine The Roc Project’s (feat. Tina Arena) ‘Never (love was so past tense) to see how the popular mood surrounding love and relationships has so drastically changed.

I can’t be with you again
don’t remind me of the good times that we had
learned a lot from us instead
And I never want these feelings to ever come again
No no

you’ll never hear me crying
you’ll never see me trying
to love you once again
your love is so past tense

Please don’t tell me that you’ve changed
don’t wanna hear on how you’ve lost your evil ways
the one who’s changed this time is me
and i wont go back to feeling helpless and deceived
Oh no

The most blatant being Eamon’s ‘Fuck it (I don’t want you back) that talks about how his girl friend cheated on him shattering all his trust and that the relationship is history!

Why is it that these songs are popular? Do they represent a change in people’s morals, ideals or an acknowledgment of the degradation/delighting in degradation of our times and the acceptance of that in song and verse. People must really enjoy this stance since they dance to it and are presumably having an enjoyable experience whilst doing it! Have we become a society with no light, no hope, no love?

Now, this didn’t happen overnight. The world was never this bitter, selfish or cold. The trend started quite early and can be seen through several songs right from the mid seventies with The Righteous Bros’ ‘Unchained Melody’ (1976) – used in the soundtrack of the movie Ghost; to their 1986 hit, ‘You’ve lost that loving feeling’ popularized in the Top Gun movie soundtrack. Other recent songs suggest remorse and the absence of love like David Guetta’s Smash Club Hit – The love is gone or Hoobastank’s – The reason.

Why is it that we don’t see songs like Starship’s ‘Nothing’s gonna stop us now’ or Bryan Adam’s ‘Everything I do, I do it for you’? So is the world really full of pessimism and is it all going to hell? Do we need a big flood to sanitize the earth and repopulate it post Armageddon with more loving, giving creatures?