Nowadays I think that a lot of singers write songs protesting about something. I think it's easier to identify yourself in a song against something than in a love song ( but so many songs are about love!).
I've chosen a song called Wings, by Macklemore. He's a famous rapper right now because one of his songs (Third Shop) was number one in many countries and it was always on the radio. One day I was searching a little more about him and I found this song.
The song is protesting about society. About how we all want to buy expensive things for then showing them to people. I think that it's more addressed to teenagers or young adults than adults in general. I would like to think that when you grow up you will find out how all those big companies of clothing, etc. are manipulating us. Making us think that you have to wear some specific things to be cool or to fit in, or even for being better about something just wearing what they're selling.
Macklemore is singing about Nike, specifically about a kind of shoes. He's playing with the meaning of the words, talking about Nike's shoes, but also protesting against what are they trying to do to us:
"They told me to just do it, I listened to what that swoosh said
Look at what that swoosh didSee it consumed my thoughts
Are you stupid, don't crease 'em, just leave 'em in that box
Strangled by these laces, laces I can barely talk
That's my air bubble and I'm lost if it pops"
The underlined words are the ones that have that double meaning.
He's explaining it like a story. An experience that he had when he was little. I can feel identified in this song and I don't even have Nike's shoes. But I think that this is happening right now. We just want things because we think that if we don't purchase them we're not going to fit in. Sometimes it's true, we prejudge people without knowing them. Why? How can someone be better than you by just wearing an expensive T-shirt? I'm not saying that it's a bad thing to buy expensive clothes but before buying them you have to ask yourself why you are buying them. Is this T-shirt beautiful enough to spend a lot of money on it? Am I going to wear it that much? Is the quality good enough? ...
In this stage of our lives we care a lot about how we look like. We think it's more important what others think of you, but we don't see that first, we have to ask ourselves how we really want to be. This is the key for not letting anybody down.
The lyrics of the song:
