I was a bit stuck for a blog-topic today.  This whole blogging every day in October thing is tough.  Gods know how I'm going to handle NaNo next month.  By just pointing myself at the Scrivener document and madly typing nonsense, I suspect.

I've come up with a title, but as of yet I have no idea what it will be about.

One thing I do know is, I am hoping to stay clear of the kinds of lines we get in so many songs, particularly, but not limited to, romantic ones.

We just had a slightly odd conversation about the lyrics 'why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?' with the point being made that it rather depends, romance levels wise, on the types of birds involved.  We figured if it's vultures, then they are probably turning up in the expectation that the person being sung to will soon die and provide a meal.  That is, of course, unless the vultures are used to following this person because anyone he/she likes ends up dead, and it is the singer who should be worried.

Many supposedly romantic songs seem, to me, to be disturbingly more to do with breaking-up or with stalkers than they do anything I would consider romance.  How many songs are about someone watching their loved on?  Phoning them up at all hours?  Knowing every single thing the subject of the song gets up to?  That isn't love.  That's obsession, and it's both unhealthy and illegal.

Then we have the songs where someone insults the rival love interest.  Also wrong.  It smacks of a very disturbed person, frankly.

Left to myself, I am more likely to listen to the ones about loss, mostly through the loved one having died, but that is me and my obsession with death for you.  I also like some where the singer has let love slip away and is mournful but, and this cannot be stressed enough, not stalking their ex.  Nothing wrong with regretting losing someone, but don't stand outside their window watching them shower whilst you sing about it.  Creepy.

The next thing you know, you'll be making clay busts and phoning your victim only to drop the phone when they answer, and there where will you be?

There are also the songs which feel to have used a phrase bank to come up with the lyrics.  'Forever' and 'together' rhyme, you can almost hear them thinking, 'awesome.'  Except for the part where it really is not, because it is too cliched to care about.  Don't get me wrong - some songs use lyrics and rhyming pairs which have been done so many times before, but it is right for that song.  It works.  Other times...  Well.  It had better at least have a catchy tune, that's all I can say.

Personally, I would rather have something a bit different or, sometimes, just something massively catchy.  I love the song which basically just sings 'blue' on repeat (Iron Man 3 had me in the first few seconds, because it plays this song.) and I find 'The Fox' wonderfully entertaining.  (Mind you, 'The Fox' is just generally funny and witty in its own special way.  Ylvis's song about Stonehenge may be even better.  Watch out for their use of rhyme.  Beautiful.)

This is not to say that I am devoid of feeling.  I mean, sometimes, yes, I am.  For days at a time.  Don't judge me.  I do love some very moving songs.  It's just that they tend not to be about stalkers, or at least it is cloaked better than a song which states it is watching someone over and over and over and over again.

I am pretty sure that, recently, the singer of Fun tweeted his confusion over one of his own lyrics, asking how high he must have been to write that.  It could be a fake tweet (I am not pretending to be a journalist, so I am not going to go and check) or a joke, but it is a fair comment.  The line in question talks about lips building castles, I believe.  One of the things I love about Fun is the weird lyrics, though.  Every now and then, some esoteric and deeply felt meaning swims up out of the plethora of odd word combinations, and I honestly don't care that it is probably more an ink-blot moment, with me projecting my own ideas and feelings into the song, than it is the divination of truth.

Truth is what you make of it, and I have made it through an hour and a half journey by playing 'One Foot' on repeat.  Funnily enough, that song contains a lyric about just needing a better place to die, and it really cheers me up.  But enough about my fixation on songs which are about pain and death.  Maybe I can blog about that another time.  This one was supposed to be sparked by romance songs.

To conclude, I would love it if we had fewer songs about stalkers and obsessive 'love', unless we can develop a trend where dragons sweep down and take out the unhealthily fixated singer mid-song.  'I am watching every move....arhghgh!  Get off me.  It burns!  It burns!' may not scan, but I would find it entertaining.