#i hate the snobby musicians and its my lifes goal to bring them down

[solschem]

Roadtrip ft. PmBata from Dream Analysis /Interpretation

I’m a little bit of a music nerd and thought why not. Lyrics will be italicized and quoted lyrics will be bolded. While some things may be stated rather bluntly, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. I don’t care if something is added just to sound nice, because it’s still music. Good music isn’t limited to complex and intricate pieces, and I will fight you over that. I will also be mostly focused on my interpretation rather than the intended meaning. I will treat Dream the same way I treat Mozart, looking at the looking at the official notes and tossing them to the wind. While the original intent is important, it’s only one way of many to look at a piece, and I’ve always preferred me and my band’s understanding of a piece instead of sticking solely to source material. In short, I find musicality very important. 

First off most of this will be stating the obvious, because it’s a rather simplistic song. It is the definition of radio friendly, which makes sense with Dream’s brand. They didn’t have each note add onto and change the meaning, but neither did Mozart. His pieces were known to be simplistic, yet we still look back at him as one of the greats of classical music.

Also, I will mostly be looking at the lyrics as if it’s talking about a relationship. I know Dream has said that it’s not solely a love song, but the lyrics are phrased in that way (assumingly because love songs are what do the best), so a large amount of this analysis will be built upon that assumption

You’re immediately hit with nostalgia as once the first notes come in. It’s a somber summer road trip. It honestly reminds me of Sea Glass by Rick Kirby, because even though the styles are completely different, the imagery is very strong and makes it easy to picture what’s happening. That can be very important for keeping the attention of the listener and to have them coming back again. The first few notes immediately make that emotional connection and brings you to the headspace of the singer.  (actual lyric analysis after the read more)

“People change like the tides in the ocean At least I think or am I dead wrong?”

   I see this as wondering if someone changed, or if he never really knew them. Trying to accept what’s happened, while still looking back and trying to find answers

“Foot on the brake at the light, I don't notice I sit and wait until the next song”

   He’s stagnant with where he’s at with acceptance. The nostalgia has left him frozen where he’s at. The green light could mean that life is telling him to move forward and move on, but he’s still waiting for the next song, the next wave of emotions, the next push to keep going. He’s on autopilot with his memories, but in this case they’re holding him back

“Twenty hours in an old van Up the east coast through the cold wind Drove twenty hours by the ocean Up the east coast, what a road trip

Now that interstate is paved with memories Of a past life I lived when I was eighteen And evеry winter, I think back to what we used to bе In that past life we lived at eighteen”    He’s only 21, which could be showing at how fast life moves in your early adult years. 18 was only 3 years ago, but it was also a life time ago. You and your friends are not the same people you were back then. College, jobs, bills, taxes, and the sorts are major landmarks for your life. Those are the things that really push you into the next stage of your life. That glow of being an adult but still feeling like a child wears off at some point in between the responsibilities, but at the end of the day you’re still you. To me, it’s referring to a time that only exists in memories. There wasn’t a time when none of these things mattered, but there was a time where it wasn’t at the forefront of every thought. It’s that naive innocence and ignorance that you can’t get back

“Oh, oh, oh Woah, woah, woah Oh, oh, oh Woah, woah, woah

Uh, I reminisce about a past life Things change, I get it 'cause nothing lasts, right?”

   PmBata’s lines are more obviously about a relationship, which makes sense with making the song marketable. I”ll be treating his and Dream’s lines as if they’re seperate stories for the most part. Here it represents him understanding that “nothing lasts”, but still being hung up over her. Blaming the end on it bound on happening eventually, instead of the issues with the relationship. There’s the denial of anything happening, because he’s not ready to move on. 

“Yeah, and I was thinkin' 'bout her last night Scrollin' through our memories, debatin' 'bout our last times”

   This is when you’re looking back at your old texts, pictures, and posts together. Wondering where everything went wrong. It’s honestly self-destructive and can lead to a spiral of negative thoughts and emotions. It’s giving into what you know is wrong, but there’s the need to make sense of it all. It’s the search for closure when there’s none to find

“Ayy, for a minute we was cool Then we flew just a little too close to the sun Now we finished, now we through Guess we knew one day we would have to grow up”

   Really cements the idea of young love. It was short and intense, but when the relationship actually got serious it fell apart. They weren’t ready for the next step. 

“Twenty hours in an old Ford Across the Midwest, thinking, "What for?" Drove twenty hours, but it's hopeless Across the Midwest, what a road trip”

   This captures the idea of escaping old memories, but you can’t run far enough. Avoiding them only worked for so long, but it’s time to face them. “thinking, What for?” is him saying that it’s worthless to drive and forget. The present is haunted with the past, and it’s time to confront those ghosts.

“Now that interstate is paved with memories Of a past life I lived when I was eighteen And every winter, I think back to what we used to be In that past life we lived at eighteen”

   The song ends without those feelings of nostalgia being resolved. In the end, they’re still both reminiscing on the past and trying to make sense of it. Life has completely changed and they’re nowhere near to who they were 3 years ago, but they’re still both young and not yet ready to move on. They’re still on the cusp of adulthood, but they are putting the next foot forward as they’re looking behind their backs.

_________

I hope this all made sense. Once again it’s all based off of my interpretation. I know the first couple of lines are completely off on what dream said that it’s about, but I see it more as the desperate and futile attempts at escaping your memories. At some point you have to realize that you need to acknowledge them and accept what’s happened, and this song is right before that. 

I would like to talk on the instruments used, but there’s not much to say. It doesn’t really add onto the meaning. They more of enhance the experience like a movie score, instead of telling a story like a orchestra. Contrary to popular belief it’s not a bad thing, it just means it’s less important for this song. The feeling of nostalgia and summer are very clear and present, which means the the music did its job very well. I really like it, there’s just not a reason to talk about it more

I typically do analysis for songs with more focus in the instruments, so this was a welcome break from that. It’s nice to not have to look at every single time a new instrument comes up and try to derive meaning from that. I love doing it, but it’s exhausting and songs like this are a nice change of pace

#dreamwastaken #my post #mcgang #dedicated scroller #high effort #i hope this all makes sense #i tried to keep it as casual and understandable as possible #though i know many people dont know musicality in this sense #it was the right word and the right people will understand it #i hate the snobby musicians and its my lifes goal to bring them down #music doesnt always need a deeper meaning #it can just be music #madrigals have been around since before the baroque era and were essential in the development of the basso ostinato #I still have a whole paper on claudio monteverdi on my laptop and i will use it #elitists can suck it

[kaypeace21]

Analyzing the 5 plays in this drama club poster .From the bts pics of stranger things 4.

So... some of ya’ll know I'm going through the st s4 films given to us by the official st twitter + the films reffed in the show itself or mentioned by the Duffers in interviews .

So I decided to look at the plays mentioned here. Because even if we don't see the monologues in the show directly - the Duffers wouldn't name drop anything unless it inspired them in some way. Similar to films name dropped in the show. Tw : for some dark themes .

This is just a quick little analysis I decided to do since we probably won't get any new st content today (3/22). Nothing too deep. Just mentioning things that caught my interest especially cause these plays have a lot of narrative connections to the st s4 movies I've been watching.

Invitation to a march (Authur laurents)

Reminds me of the stancy/jancy love triangle. "A young woman is having second thoughts about doing the right thing and marrying a respectable , rich, kind, young man with good prospects.By way of a prewedding diversion, this woman becomes interested in the passionate but poor and entirely unsuitable son of a local landlord.Basically, the plot concerns the efforts of Norma Brown to choose between a conventional fiance who "puts her to sleep" but is wealthy (like what her own mother did) or go for this new-poor guy. The play is principally interested in how this youthful love triangle affects the three mothers involved (whether the kids like it or not)

12th night (Shakespeare)

 - viola (el) wrongly assumes a family member (hopper) is dead. She dresses up as a man named 'cesario'. A girl named Olivia falls for 'cesario' (violet dressed as a man). "Finally, when 'Cesario' and Sebastian (violet's twin brother: assumed to have drowned - Will) appear in the presence of Olivia there is more wonder and confusion at their physical similarity. Taking Sebastian for 'Cesario', Olivia asks him to marry her, and they are secretly married in a church. Cough if Olivia is 'straight' cause she fell for Viola (as a doppleganger dressed like her twin brother).Mike being into el who multiple characters in s1 said looked like a boy and specifically like Will is...suspish and a hint he's not straight lol. just like Olivia they're both into guys . plus, this play just has a butt load of love triangles (ugh i hated that aspect). There was also romantically coded letters (which was in the s4 films) . One character is also thrown into an insane asylum and framed as 'insane'.'Pretending that Malvolio is insane, they lock him up in a dark chamber. Feste visits him to mock his insanity'. We all know the psych hospital will be narratively important- talked about it more here.

The seagull (Anton Chekhov-russian)

similar to how I believed s4 will show m*#even already broken up since the months between s3-4 : act 3 (s3) ends with Nina begging for one last chance to be with Trigorin before he leaves/moves away. They kiss and make plans to meet again in Moscow.And in act 4 there's a timeskip where it shows they've been broken up for a long time between acts- and its established they never actually loved eachother. Do i even have to spell out why this parallels the m*#even ending in s3? There is also a play within the play (this is common in a lot of the st films- they have plays- or a story within a story- which illustrate certain themes or emotions of the characters within said film : blackswan, children of paradise, highschool musical, Rushmore, book of Henry, welcome to marwen, never ending story, romancing the stone, wet hot American summer, etc).The play is Konstantin's latest attempt at creating a dense symbolist work. There is also alot of love triangles in the seagull. TW!: for se#ual ab*se/su*cidal thoughts/ inc*st (here and in other play segments). The seagull motif reminds me a lot of Jonathan's rabbit story.Konstantin romantically into Nina shows up to give her a gull that he has shot. Nina is confused and horrified . Trigorin sees the gull that Konstantin has shot and muses to Nina on how he could use it as a subject for a short story: "The plot for the short story: a young girl lives all her life on the shore of a lake. She loves the lake, like a gull, and she's happy and free, like a gull. But a man arrives by chance, and when he sees her, he destroys her, out of sheer boredom. Like this gull."  This immediately reminded me of jon's rabbit story and some of the movies on the s4 list . Like in forrest gump- Jenny (who is poor) was se*ually ab*sed as a very young girl by her father. As a child she runs away into a field-away from her alcoholic father yelling at her -there she prays that she can "be a bird so I can fly far far away" .

Jenny as an adult struggles with this unresolved trauma- being with ab*sive partners, doing dr*gs, and having su*cidal thoughts . She as an adult when contemplating su*icide, jokes 'you think i can fly like a bird ?' while looking down at a bridge.God-i'm worried about jonathan (Jenny was also a musician sort of like jon). In another s4 movie example ' mystic river ' :(in the 80s) a preteen baseball playing boy is r*ped by men in the woods. He later says he wishes he could become an undead monster to not feel the pain of that experience - cause quote " if I'm not human anymore maybe the pain will stop" (Will) . slightly off topic but he also has another personality, imagines a alternate word that dissappears when he turns his head. And as a less direct animal parallel to the play - the boy from the film also imagined his perpetrators as monsters and wolves to cope.In 'getout' the photographer character sees a dead deer in the woods and it represents a parent/his own childhood tra*ma relating to his past. similarly in 'prince of tides' the 2 siblings as kids were ra*ed by men. The older brother remembered it and the younger sibling developed DID (so didn't remember but she would draw wolves- as the perpetrators/villains in her picture stories she created . In the film they also had an ab*sive dad and were very poor. She also tried k*ling herself multiple times-but started to get better after remembering the source of her pain and trauma.  There is also the theme of multiple attempted su*cides in the play- and the play ends with yet another attempt- and the audience is left unaware of the artist's fate at the end of the play.

The tempest (Shakespeare)

Prospereo - (the perceived antagonist) is a wizard with monstrous looks, storm powers , and ability to create monster-dogs

He wants revenge on a man who tried ra*ing his family member & revenge on his other family member who wronged him years ago. I mean... pretty much my did theory.But in the end.Prospero decides to show his enemies the mercy that they did not show him twelve years earlier. He tells Ariel to bring the men to him, he will restore their sanity and then renounce magic forever.Prospero breaks the spell that the men are under .

Diary of a scoundrel (Alexander Ostrovsky-Russian)

-  I suppose this could loosely relate to Jonathan? Glumov, is a young man from an impoverished family lacking status seeking entrance into society's pampered class. A 19th-century Russian scoundrel must scheme his way out of his meager life in a small apartment -whatever it takes.He has a quick mind and some talent for seeing through the hypocrisies of people around him ( Jonathan does make a lot of social critiques about society). That gives him some advantages. A tale of one man's mission to finagle his way into upper-class society and find a cushy job. Set in 1874, this social comedy follows Glumov, a Russian youth who begins his ambitious ascent to social esteem. He progresses by wit, guile and rhetoric. Pitting one stupid person against another, he soon gains his ends. To reach these goals, Glumov will lie, flatter, and cater to the vanities of the wealthy. Unable to contain his disgust with his victims, Glumov decides to relieve his unvoiced satirical comments by recording his schemes in a diary. But he is tripped up by his uncle's wife, to whom he has made passionate love on his way to success. At the end of the play, his diary is stolen and his duplicity exposed, but he can nevertheless suceeds. The author is much more critical about the high society itself than about the main character, so the play keeps attracting generations of directors by opening possibilities for political criticism while also avoiding naming names of the current rulers.The play's aim was to overthrow bourgeois tradition and establish a class-conscious art called eccentricism giving a deliberately comic portrayal of reality.

I suppose I notice some possible commonalities-  besides s3 critiquing the wealthy/capitalism in comedic ways . jonathan since s1 has worried about his family's finances / had some resentment toward the rich . In some of the s4 movies ‘orphan’ & ‘ girl interrupted’ someone reads their diary out loud to get at them (in girl interrupted the winona character’s diary even had critiques of her new friends).  Alot of movies also have someone (usually a teen/young adult) making a documentary about their life -which could narratively replace said diary? A few movies have a poor guy adjusting to snobby rich social circles (or being poor and then getting money)- titanic, kingsmen, karate kid, the craft , godfather,  wardogs,into the spiderverse,flashdance, and many others . And movies like wardogs has a poor-young-character do shady things to finacially support his family . There’s also that whole uncle’s wife thing- which makes me uncomfortable for obvious reasons (but I’m just thinking of Lonnie’s creepy gf who was into him). A few movies had the guy’s step mom innappropriately hit on him- orange county & you got mail. And him trying to avoid her advances. Or...not to mention ... it may be a problematic coincidence /trope. But in enter the void -the guy who needs to finacially support his sibling/ does dr*gs -hooks up with his dr*g dealing friend’s married mom (who would give him money).  Or in gilbert grape- the poor teen-who has to finacially support his siblings/single mom-has his endgame relationship be a girl his own age. But before that he h*oked up with a married woman -who would give him money. Don’s plum -young film guy-propositioned by older female film director (for dream job). Not even mentioning the other films that have the guy hooking up with toxic older women (like ‘the graduate’). Or analyze this-where the therapist accuses him of having an Oedipus complex (not touching that one... but the guy in ‘enter the void’ a 100% had one). It’s possible those movies were just- inspo for s3?  A coincidence? Or s3 was foreshadowing for this in s4- but unlike s3 it will accurately be played as wrong  and a sign of Jonathan recreating past tra*ma caused by Lonnie (cough like the photos) /being desperate for money. And not played ‘comedically’ like how it mostly was in s3. But shown as self destructive  (for Jon) and immoral on the Woman’s end. Like... Billy and Jon are character foils. Both are older siblings into rock music, with ab*sive dads who shoved them into walls. Both lose it (and beat steve to a pulp when Steve accidentally triggers their daddy issues). In s3 it’s established womanizer Billy has mommy issues, than he tries ho*king up with someone his mom’s age, and the characters ref ‘back to the future ‘ and Steve incorrectly says it’s about “alex p keaton trying to bang his mom.” This could illustrate his subconscious issues with parental figures/adults cause of Lonnie’s  possible past se*ual ab*se . One film the friend even says to the guy “you don’t have friends!” guy b: i have friends! him:  no you have acquaintances! ADMIT IT! YOU’RE AFRAID OF MEN!I mean-Jonathan liked Nancy- but he initially hooked up with her cause he wanted to prove he didn’t have ‘trust issues’ from his dad. Also it’s prob a bit of a reach (and maybe a coincidence)- but the fact Murray in the same breath compares Steve (Nancy’s then bf) and Lonnie  ... uh... if you think too long about it ... it’s very sinister .  Especially because in s3: muray tells Joyce  that despite her wanting to be with a nice guy, she’s curious about “the brute” Hopper despite him reminding her of a past “bad relationship”(aka Lonnie). Like- yeah connect some dots.  Quite a few films (other than forrest gump) also have the character who (as a kid) was  r*ped by their dad/parent-  begin to do dr*gs/be pr*miscuous as adults since they never learned to properly cope with their trauma (’girl with the dragon tattoo’,  ‘black swan’, and ‘magnolia’). Unfortunately the whole relative doing such things to kid-relatives is in at least 30+ movies. 

Personally, i would be MUCH happier if Jon had a age appropriate romance- and had not a single creepy adult near him. A few movies actually imply Lonnie gets yet another ‘new model’  replacing his gf in her 20s with a new gf- who is ‘barely l*gal” and just turned 18. so there’s that possibility as well- that she’s jonathan’s age.I just want Jonathan-happy &safe. GOD. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?

#byler #byeler #will byers #mike wheeler #Jonathan byers #nancy wheeler #joyce byers #jim hopper #murray bauman #stranger things #el hopper #s4 theory #stranger things theory