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This post is going to explain my distaste for love songs via two reasons: a) from a musical standpoint it’s boring and repetitive to have so many songs about the same thing, and b) love songs only ever focus on romantic love, perpetuating it as the ‘best kind’ of love in our society and diminishing other types of love. (Note: obviously I don’t think ALL love songs are lame; plenty of individual songs I love are about love. This is more about the general repetitive topic in music).
So I listen to a lot of R&B, Funk, Disco, Pop, and Soft Rock. If I only ever listened to Heavy Metal, I probably wouldn’t be complaining. Naturally the genres I enjoy, particularly Soul, R&B and Blues, focus on romance and ‘sad’ songs about lost love. But across all genres, particularly the contemporary and ‘hit’ songs, love is a central theme:
Unbreak my heart, When Doves Cry, Billie Jean, No woman no cry, Never gonna give you up, The Look of Love, All that she wants, Jolene, All around the world, Your Song, Single Ladies, Knowing me knowing you, Somebody to love, All you need is love, Rolling in the deep, I say a little prayer, My funny valentine, Toxic, My baby just cares for me, Baby love, Because of you, Something, Mamma Mia, She’s out of my life, I will survive, Saving all my love for you, No One, Crazy in love, Drunk in love, Girlfriend, Boyfriend, As, For once in my life, Cry me a river, Sexual Healing, What’s love got to do with it, Fever, Everytime we touch, Love will tear us apart, Love don’t cost a thing, I will always love you, Bleeding love, Fallin, Sign your name…
Ok you get the point. Sorry about that, I know all I did was name famous songs with the central theme of romance. But I can assure you it would be super hard to pick a single literary genre that doesn’t half as many songs on the subject. I mean how many fucking times can you sing about the same thing? If you still don’t believe me check out this Family Guy clip where Brian tells Stewie about twenty one songs off the top of his head that are titled with a woman’s name:
Yes, the music industry is clearly saturated with songs about romance. I guess the reason for that – besides lazy writing – is that it’s easy to write about romance because everyone relates to it in some way.
Or is it contributing to a society and culture that pushes us to believe in this ‘fairytale’ of romance that we will one day all have? Is it like Disney films and rom-coms and lovey-dovey films that have Sandy and Danny ride off into the clouds in some nice expensive car? Are we being sold some idealistic vision of romance? Because what with half of UK marriages ending in divorce (I’m not sure about other countries), clearly it’s not all dandy.
I know there are plenty of great songs NOT about romance. Stairway to Heaven, Hotel California, Under the bridge, Smells like teen spirit, Bohemian Rhapsody, What a wonderful world, Run the world (girls), Empire state of Mind, London’s Calling, Redemption Song, I wish, Let it be, Blowing in the wind, Sound of silence, Cult of personality, Sunless Saturday, Sign o the times, Jenny from the block (my god you probably want to kill me now)…
But it would be nice to have songs about other loved ones. Before you fall in love with a partner, what about friendship and family members? Sade has a song about her daughter called ‘Baby daddy.’ ‘Isn’t she lovely’ by Stevie Wonder is also about his daughter.
Now; a happy, upbeat, and cheerful song with lovely lyrics to end on:
Credits to Gwar and the person who made this video.
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i like some love songs but plenty do suck hard
"Be the change that you wish to see in the world"
-Mahatma Gandhi