Musical Monday: The First of Me Lyrics
For today’s Musical Monday, we will discuss The First
of Me, a song by the rock band Hoobastank, and boy, is it a doozy! This one
song will be the subject for multiple Musical Mondays, but for now, we will
focus on the single most obvious aspect of it: The lyrics.
But first, you should listen to the song itself!
Some songs say more about people than their mouths
ever will, and this song’s lyrics can be truly poignant, because it’s about a
dilemma we all face, the pressure to be what is more widely acceptable, and the
desire to express what you really are.
In the specific context provided in the lyrics, it’s about how musicians
are often expected to focus on the marketable subjects, so often things about
inspiration, breakups, victimhood, and sex, among other things…but some people
just want to talk about things that are completely…off the wall, I suppose,
with their music, one thinks of Emilie Autumn and her work.
However, one can apply something similar to our
everyday lives. How many of us held
back, hiding what we really were in order to fit in with others, or rather,
what we just assumed others expected from us? The ironic thing is that if we
look back, we can often see that we were wrong anyway, that we probably would
have been accepted if we just presented ourselves as that from the very start,
but by being fake, not only do we cheat ourselves of opportunities to be who we
really are around others, but we also cheat ourselves with
self-dishonesty. Yes, I do think the
whole “keepin’ it real” culture takes it too far at times, which will be
articulated in a later post, but in general, I see nothing wrong with being
your most real self around others, and it’s usually the right thing to do.
And that’s partly what this blog is all about, to
express who I really am for all to see, and to support others who are accepting
this path as well.
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