Judas Priest’s “Brain Dead” (1997)
When Judas Priest wrote “Brain Dead,” they must have thought, “Well, our new lead singer is already ripping off our old lead singer, so we might as well halfheartedly rip another band off while we’…
Cut My Song Into Pieces: Papa Roach vs. Badflower
If Papa Roach’s “Last Resort” (2000) were honest, it would sound like Badflower’s “My Funeral” (2021). Both Jacoby Shaddix and Josh Katz wonder what might happen “if I took my life tonight,” but wh…
Demi says she’s a fire starter. But what burns? A song stuck between empowerment anthem and Hot Topic diary entry, Fire Starter fumbles metaphor, mangles dream logic, and melts into its own clichés.
#MusicCriticism #PopLyrics #DemiLovato #FireStarter #BadMetaphors #FeminismAndPop #SongAnalysis #LyricalFailure #SweetDisasterhttps://songreading.wordpress.com/2025/01/19/fire-starter/
FIRE STARTER (2013) by Demi Lovato
“There’s an ‘S’ under my clothes/On my chest where nobody else can see,” so say the first two lines of Demi Lovato’s “Fire Starter.” I was hoping for an allusion to The Scarlet Letter and tha…
“I’m a private person,” she says — then hands you her diary with the good pages blacked out. Sabrina Carpenter’s “Vicious” flirts with confessional pop but pulls every punch. It’s heartbreak-as-brand, catharsis-by-algorithm. She asks, “Why you gotta be so vicious?” but the real question is, why isn’t she?
#SabrinaCarpenter #Vicious #PopMusic #MusicCriticism #PopCulture #AlanisMorissette #YouOughtaKnow #SadGirlPop #MusicEssay #SongAnalysis #ConfessionalPop #MusicReviewhttps://songreading.wordpress.com/2025/07/26/vicious-2022-by-sabrina-carpenter/
VICIOUS (2022) by Sabrina Carpenter
There’s a genre of pop heartbreak that trades less in storytelling than in stylized grievance — more vibe than confession. Sabrina Carpenter’s “Vicious” (2022) fits that mold. “You’re l…
Miley Cyrus’s BB Talk; or, Hey, I’m Just a Regular Armpit-Sniffing, Teeth-Licking Gal
“BB Talk” is the pot calling the kettle black while trying too hard to sound black. If I were the kettle, I would tell the pot, ‘Well, at least I’m not a wigger.’ In the song, Miley Cyrus is so f…
Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence is a love song about how words are useless — delivered in words, by a band famous for theirs. I dug into the irony, the craftsmanship, and why a song that claims “words can only do harm” is still impossible to forget.
#MusicCriticism #DepecheMode #SongAnalysis #PopIrony #Synthpophttps://songreading.wordpress.com/2024/12/02/enjoy-the-silence/
ENJOY THE SILENCE: Do As I Say, Not As I Sing
“Enjoy the Silence” (1990) might be the sincerest case of do as I say, not as I do in pop music — a song about the futility of words that means every word it says. I believe Dave Gahan means everyt…
Two Waitresses and No Tip: Live’s Grunge Sermon Vs. Hop Along’s Indie Confessional
Hop Along’s “Waitress” (2015) gives Live’s 1994 song of the same name a run for its tip money. Both songs take place in that charged, transactional space between customer and server, and both flirt…
🎶 When does a love song stop being romantic and start sounding manipulative? Girl in Red’s “You Stupid Bitch” walks that thin line — and trips over it. A critique of toxic affection, casual misogyny, and how identity politics can’t excuse bad behavior. 💔
#MusicCriticism #GirlInRed #ToxicLoveSongs #SongAnalysis #PopCultureCritique #IndiePop #MusicEssay #GenderDynamics #CriticalThinking #QueerRepresentation https://songreading.wordpress.com/2024/11/01/you-stupid-bitch/
YOU STUPID BITCH: Girl in Red’s Gaslighter’s Love Song
“But you never listen/Take my advice as criticism,” Girl in Red tells her romantic interest in “You Stupid Bitch” (2021). Could it be because her so-called advice is criticism? And not very constru…
Not every “feel-good anthem” is actually feeling good. Sheryl Crow’s “All I Wanna Do” plays like a summer party hit, but listen closer — it’s really a deadpan portrait of barfly burnout and booze-soaked ennui. A hangover in pop song form.
#SherylCrow #AllIWannaDo #90sMusic #PopIrony #SongAnalysis #HiddenMeanings #MusicCriticism #BukowskiVibes #IcemanCometh #SummerAnthemOrNot #LyricsMatter #DeadpanPophttps://songreading.wordpress.com/2024/10/30/all-i-wanna-do/
“All I Wanna Do” Isn’t a Summer Anthem — It’s a Hangover Dirge
“All I Wanna Do” may be the “Every Breath You Take” of the 1990s — a massively misinterpreted massive hit. Just because it’s set “to a sweet instrumental setting of jangly guitars and toe-tapping b…
“I Am the Highway” isn’t a song about the road. It is the road — but on Chris Cornell’s terms.
Less about touring, more about shedding roles others assign to you.
“I am not your carpet ride — I am the sky.”
#audioslave #chriscornell #songanalysis #musicwriting #lyricsmatter #iamthehighway #whitman
https://songreading.wordpress.com/2025/07/03/i-am-the-highway/
I AM THE HIGHWAY (2003) by Audioslave
At first glance, Audioslave’s “I Am the Highway” seems like the culmination of a long tradition of touring songs. The narrator has been on the road so long, he has become it. However, it soon …
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