Music is one of the few things in my life that can control my mood without much effort. I can listen to a happy song and be singing along and smiling, and then a sad love song can show up on shuffle and I’m suddenly sappy and sad. I have to have make playlists by mood for that reason specifically. Why does music have such a definite and profound impact on how I’m feeling? Why do I hate reading poetry but love to listen to song lyrics? What’s the difference?
As a case study, I’ve chosen the song “Romeo and Juliet,” which The Killers have covered here, but was originally recorded by Dire Straits. This song is simply fantastic. It is five minutes of indulgent love song. I love every second of it. (View the lyrics here.)
This song uses a ton of conventions to achieve the final product. They literally use the chords C, G, F and A minor in a predictable pattern for the entire song. This is an extremely basic song; they use the same verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus/verse/chorus pattern that everyone else in songwriting has ever made. He’s literally singing a song to “Juliet” which is one of the most clichéd and overdone characters in literature anywhere, ever. This is a cover of someone else’s song! There is literally nothing original here! Why do I want to cry and go hug someone when I listen to this song?!
The structure of feeling in this song is ever present. The conventions that they use are tried and true. The flowing piano with the strings in the background. The way the music picks up intensity at the chorus when he’s singing Juliet’s name. The shadowy setup in this youtube video. These are all examples of the sappy love song in action. The intertextuality of songwriting is interesting to examine. When a song pulls in references to other cultural texts, they become more meaningful to us. Since everyone has read Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” we all understand how we should feel when we hear a song about Romeo and Juliet. We know that these star-crossed lovers were meant to be, but tragedy hit.
The reason this song influences me is that, while I find the star-crossed lovers thing to be romantic, I also find it to be terrifying! I thought that finding love was the hard part, but apparently falling love is just the start. This song is essentially saying that even if you find your perfect match, sometimes it’s just that the time is wrong, and it doesn’t work out. We live in a society where marriage is expected, and oftentimes, so is divorce. In the song, it’s clear that the narrator loves Juliet. Why don’t they get to be together forever? It’s not fair!
“All I do is miss you, and the way we used to be. All I do is keep the beat, the bad company. All I do is kiss you, through the bars of Orion. Juliet, I’d do the stars with you anytime.” He loves her as big as the stars. He loves her until the day he dies. “Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start, and I bet that you exploded in my heart.” This kind of imagery, it hits my soft spot. I can’t come up with a hard-and-fast list for all of the reasons that this song, and this genre, make me want to weep. Honestly, listen to this song, tell me what you feel.
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