Typical Lyrical Trash

There’s nothing I enjoy more than typical lyrical trash. It’s almost like an addiction. Well spun lyrics wrapped around melodies magically and majestically beautiful take me places far from the context of everyday life and mend my measly mishaps. “Hey. Don’t write yourself off yet, it’s only in your head you feel left out and looked down on” (1). Did anyone ever boost your confidence better than this empowering song by Jimmy Eat World? Psht. Not likely. I distinctly remember time after time the way these very lyrics told me that “everything will be just fine, everything will be alright,” and I believed, and ultimately everything was (1). 

Everyone has those songs, so powerful and true, that simply hearing the beginning chords or singing the words in your head transforms your mood instantly. And those beats and notes, rhythms and chords all become a memory of a place or time. I hear the opening drums to Incubus’ Wish You Were Here, and I’m in sixth grade again right after my sister got her license driving around in the pleasant heat of summer with the windows down and a soft peppermint in my mouth. It’s magic. Nothing can change my mood like music. Nothing can soothe me more than a song. Nothing can I relate to like well put refrain. And when it comes to music—I love it all.

Music can answer any question. What should you do on a hot summer afternoon? “Put the sprinkler on the lawn and run through with [your] gym shorts on” (2). What movie should I rent or book should I read? “ ‘The King and I’ and ‘Catcher in the Rye’ ” (3). What should you look for in a man? He should be “single and free—experience preferred but will accept a young trainee” (4). How much do I love you? “A bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck” (5). And the list goes on.

No matter what the situation or where you are music can unite you to someone else, somewhere else, no matter what the time period is. Be it oldies, indie, or rap—each genre speaks to an audience and holds vital importance to their identity. I would easily agree that more could be learned about me from my music collection than anything else about me. I chose those songs because I relate to them, they have messages I support, and they inspire me. There may be 87 gazillion songs out there, and some of them probably sound like typical lyrical trash to you, but to someone they’re a story, consolation at the end of a long day, a memory, or an anthem of a dying age. 

1: The Middle by Jimmy Eat World

2: Pinch Me by Barenaked Ladies

3: We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel

4: Want Ads by The Honey Cone

5: A Bushel and a Peck by Doris Day