I have to be honest with you. I made a valiant effort to complete this challenge to the best of my ability, as I do every week. I listened to the song more times than I care to remember. I looked up the lyrics, because I couldn't understand them. I then re-listened to the video multiple times while reading the lyrics I emailed the link to my best friend and had my mother listen to it, because for the life of me I could not figure out the meaning of this song, or the story that it was attempting to tell me. After a few hours of working at this, and talking with my consultants, this is what this link has inspired me to say.
First, I was immediately turned off by the fact that the "video" is not a video at all. It is merely a picture with a song playing behind it. If I am watching a video, I expect to see just that- a video. I do not expect to see a still picture, in which I can't decipher what the picture is, with a song playing in the background.
Second, I must have listened to this song at least 20 times trying to somehow conclude what the meaning of it was. I was really trying to live up to my expectations in this challenge. After listening to it that many times, I feel completely confident in saying I would love to have that hour and ten minutes of my life back. I found this song really painful to listen to, and almnost hard to classify as a song. I feel like everyone is entitled to their artistic opinion and expression, so I can't bring myself to invalidate it any more than this. I also know that my mind has an open door policy when it comes to any kind of artistic expression, espescially music. I feel this strongly that this song was hard to qualify as a song. My panel off consulatants found it even more unbearable than I did. This makes me doubt it's validity as qualifying it as music.
Last, in my attempt to really try to understand this song, I went on wickepedia to check out the group mewithoutyou. Apparently I was so caught up in trying to find the meaning in this song that other people expressed love and affection to, I missed this important fact. This group has a strong religious basis, as does their music. This is probably the reason that the meaning behind this song was entirely lost on me. My best friend had to point it out to me because I was meerly scanning for insight into this particular song. It's also possible that I am just impervious to anything with religious overtones of this nature. I feel justified in this opnion having attended a religious based school system for grades K-12. At this point in my life, I am agnostic by nature, and quite frankly most organized religion scares the crap out of me. I could ellaborate on this point for days, but I feel like you get the point. Over exgareting it would be unnecessary.
I am somewhat dissapointed and sad this week that this is what was inspired by this week challenge prompt.
You know what? I'm kind of disappointed with the prompt too. However, I don't think there is any way to have avoided it happening; we generally don't censor prompts unless two or three are too similar...and besides, this one isn't exactly offensive (unless you account for taste).
ReplyDeleteI can tell you from a purely technical perspective that the very metallic sound in the instrumentation, slow beat, repetition of three minor chords, and lack of melody are all designed (whether intentionally or subconsciously) to make the listener feel uncomfortable. Where the listener wants to go from there depends entirely on that individual. Perhaps fans of the band equate that uncomfortableness with life on earth? You clearly equate it with your negative experiences with organized religion.
I personally get annoyed because I think it's a poorly-conceived, overly self-indulgent imitation of grunge. But that's just my opinion, and I happen to have a lower tolerance for bad music because I'm a professional musician myself. (If it makes you feel better, you can call me a snob)
The song sounds like Hare Krishna on meth!
ReplyDeleteAmy L.
hah. sara, as you know i listened (or, honestly, i listened briefly) and had no ideas for you at all. yikes! ah, keep the faith though, not every prompt is for everyone!
ReplyDeleteHi everyone,
ReplyDeleteI feel like I might have given the wrong idea in my blog. I don't blame the challenge or the prompt. Even though the answer that come out this week was negative, I still enjoyed being a part of the writing challenge this week, as I do every week. I hope I didn't make you think different than that.
Oh, wow, weren't expecting this kind of response at all. Not that I expected you to necessarily enjoy the song either, but I assumed someone would get at least something out of it, I personally see songs as sceneries inside my little head even when I think they're a bit rubbish. I do agree with your ultimate sentiment, though, having grown up with a crazy religious mum and ending up thinking there probably isn't a single religion on earth I'd agree with enough to follow it. Thanks for putting up with the challenge anyway!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am being a bit put off by supermaren's comment. Partially because I would have been glad to have been challenged to write about a song I might not like instead of being challenged to write about "boobies", and partially because, well, ow.
Sorry, @thecatwithglasses. My negativity was actually directed at the music, not at you, and I think it came off wrong. But it is true, we don't censor the prompts, as evidenced by the "boobies" prompt, so you never know what you are going to get.
ReplyDelete