I've been listening to Maroon 5's latest single, Payphone, all day and I am completely confounded by it.
Go ahead, listen to it a couple times. I'll wait.
Finished?
Didn't listening to the song make you want to get up and dance? Grab a pretend microphone and sing-along? Raise your hands and just toss them around without any rhyme or reason? It's zippy, poppy and catchy. The music is just so...happy. And yet, if you listen to the lyrics, the story told is nothing to smile about.
If happy ever afters did exist,
I would still be holding you like this
All those fairy tales are full of shit
One more fucking love song, I'll be sick.
One more stupid love song, I'll be sick
Not exactly words you'd expect to find yourself dancing to and the rest of the lyrics are just as bleak. And yet, every time I listen to this song, I can't help but stomp my feet to the beat, do the shimmy-shake in my seat and do my happy dance along to the music.As if under a spell, compelling me to ignore what is being told through the words and just give myself over to the energy and emotion of the melody.
I will not pretend to know what I am talking about, because really, I do not know how a song about so much pain and heartache, and anger and hate even, makes me want to dance, but point is, it's my choice. It's your choice. What you want to hear, that's on you. All it takes is the right song, the right line, the right moment and your whole perception will change. The magic is in the moment and what you hear in that moment. And me, when I listen to this song, this is what I hear above all of it:
If happy ever afters did exist,
I would still be holding you like this
And thinking about happy ever afters, and holding *you* like this? That makes me want to dance.
