Academic Argument: Matchbox Twenty - More Than You Think You Are

As I have previously discussed in some of my posts, many of the popular alternative rock songs from the 90's and early 2000's all revolve around the common themes of love, relationships, regret, etc.  But times change, cultural views constantly shift.  Today there is a much more different view of these themes in society; divorce and adultery are much more common, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues have taken a prominent role in the media, and technology plays a big role in relationships.  With all that said, are these themes that are spoken of in a much more generic sense in the songs still relevant and applicable to today's society?  I would argue that they are and can be applied to all of the situations that I previously mentioned even if the lyrics don't mention those views verbatim.  This week I'll look at Matchbox Twenty's 2002 album, More Than You Think You Are, and see how these themes play out within it.

If you've ever heard someone say that times change, it is certainly true. According to the study done by Gábor Orosz and his team on the effects of declaring a relationship Facebook official, "22% of the Americans reported that they first met online, which is approximately the same proportion of couples who met in bars."  To be honest I was kind of surprised that this statistic wasn't higher.  It seems like almost everyone has a ton of "friends" who they know from online but never actually talk to or hangout with in person.  Facebook was created in 2004 and was one of the earliest social networking sites.  That was essentially the start of the modern social networking movement.  Before then, people didn't really meet online or casually stalk someone's profile after meeting them in person, but today all of that is commonplace.  More over, the youth of today's society aren't really used to a world without social networking.

Besides just how the ways in which we date have changed, our overall view of relationships and love has changed as well.  Throughout the 20th century, the divorce rate steadily grew.  In the early 1900s the divorce rate was in the teens; one out of every two marriages that happened in the 90s has ended in a divorce.  Gay marriage, which was previously unheard of, was officially legalized in every state by the Supreme Court's ruling of Obergefell v Hodge in 2015.  In 2006, Massachusetts became the first state in the US to legalize gay marriage and since then, the LGBT movement has gotten a lot more publicity from the media.  In her book, Love, In Theory, E. J. Levy shows that, in today's society, love stories can come in many different shapes unlike the classic cookie cutter Nicholas Sparks stories; she tells of a gay brother at his sister’s second wedding while dealing with his father’s mistress being in attendance, a lesbian student who turns out to be bisexual and falls for a male professor, as well as a straight female college professor who falls in love with a man who is her polar opposite. All of her stories shed light upon a different view of love in today’s society that might once have been seen as a little out there.

Alternative albums of the 90s and 2000s showed these themes, at least on the surface, only in a very straight forward way.  That's not to say that other views of these themes aren't normal, but rather that this is simply the common way that they are portrayed in most alternative songs.  The vast majority of songs in the alternative genre are a guy singing about a girl.  Matchbox twenty is no exception to this.  

"Cold" is a song off the album that deals with a relationship full of mistrust, jealousy, and a failing relationship.  The song opens with a harsh sounding electric guitar and then brings in an almost eerie sounding piano and guitar which creates a darker mood.  Through the lyrics, Rob Thomas, then tells a girl in a somewhat accusatory tone that he thinks she cheated on him but that he doesn't want her to leave.  In the study of the effects of declaring a relationship on Facebook, it is shown that once a couple "goes public" on Facebook, there is then an increased sense of jealousy and a stronger tie to the significant other (Orosz et al.).  While Facebook wasn't around when this album was written, it is easy to incorporate the much more modern issue of Facebook jealousy to the message of the song.  Once two people become Facebook official, it is obvious to the public that they are off the market but it also makes it easy to read into online interactions between one significant other and someone outside the relationship as a threat to that relationship.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard my friends talk about a fight that they were in because their girlfriend saw another girl post a picture with them or similar issues.  Modern cultural norms like technology and social networking don't discredit themes from older works, but rather add new perspectives to them.

"Bright Lights," one of the hit singles off this album, tells the tale of a girl leaving her boyfriend to pursue her dream of being an actress in New York City.  A quiet and comforting piano breaks the silence while Thomas recalls how the girl left but goes on to say that he still wants her to come back so they can be together.  The song almost seems like a broadway performance as it starts out quiet but then grows while the lyrics tell a very clear story.  The second line of the song is "took all except my name," which shows that this is the girl he wanted to marry.  While the lyrics don't suggest that the couple in the story were married, the message could be taken as she left his name behind which would hint at a divorce.  The lyrics from this song could easily make up one of the stories out of E.J. Levy's book, Love, In Theory.  The point is, whether or not the lyrics specifically say it, the listener can easily relate the straight forward themes presented in the alternative music to the much more modernized scenarios that play out in society today.

One of my favorite songs off this album is "Downfall."  It has a classic Matchbox Twenty sound that relies on a steady drum beat throughout with a little bit of piano and guitar layered on top.  Rob Thomas pleads to the girl to give their love a chance.  He thinks about how this girl should be with him instead of this other guy.  He doesn't say that she should cheat on her boyfriend but that's definitely one way they audience could take it.  At the end of the second chorus, Thomas is joined by the sound of a choir in the background.  In my opinion, I see the choir as serving two main purposes: firstly, it shows that Thomas is pleading to this girl, begging her almost, to give their love a shot, and secondly, the choir is a large group of people which brings in this sense that many people can relate to this feeling because they all sing it with such emotion that it creates a sense of empathy.  Once the choir fades out, we’re left with a lone, quiet piano behind Thomas’ vocals. If you listen to the song all the way through, that one part that lasts all of maybe 10 seconds serves to capture the emotion of the entire song. It makes for my favorite moment of the entire album. This song was one of the 5 singles released from the album. It wasn’t shown much love on the charts but I definitely recommend you listen give it a listen.

Many more songs off the album continue to hit different themes of relationships and love. “Disease” has a harsher sound to it relying on a heavy electric guitar sound that matches the tone of the lyrics. Thomas talks about a girl who he loves even though he knows she is bad for him. He struggles through the relationship and wrestles with the idea of ending it or pushing through. Another song with similar meaning is “Feel.” It also has a strong electric guitar presence. The guitar coupled with the lyrics show a feeling of anger as he tells of a girl who treated him poorly in a relationship. The song opens with a lone guitar sound played only on the left side before coming in on the right as well. That brief opening creates a sense of physical feeling to connect to the song which I thought was very clever on Matchbox Twenty’s part. On a different note, “Hand Me Down” is one of the slower ballads from the album but actually has a positive meaning that preaches being faithful in a relationship. It has a steady, but soft, drum beat throughout the song with a soothing steel guitar and soft piano on top.

Matchbox Twenty, like a lot of alternative music, touches the surface of these themes with their lyrics and lets the audience take the rest of the meaning by adding their own personal experience to the music.  They sing about themes that are timeless even though the scenarios that they play out in may change.  In an interview about the band, Thomas said, "We were making these albums and speaking from our heart, and so you could never take us down if we were starting from that point."  They made music that meant something to them and allowed others to relate to it.  Their songs tell stories that the audience can interpret in a way that lets them relate it to their own personal triumphs and tribulations.  Whether a song is from 1990 or 2000, most alternative songs have a message that can transcend time and changing cultures.

Works Cited

Jacobs, Jay S. "This Is How a Solo Album Breaks." PopEntertainment. PopEntertainment, 3 May 2005. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

Levy, E. J. Love, in Theory: Ten Stories. Athens, GA: U of Georgia, 2012. Print.

Orosz, Gábor, Ádám Szekeres, Zoltán G. Kiss, Péter Farkas, and Christine Roland-Lévy. "Elevated Romantic Love and Jealousy If Relationship Status Is Declared on Facebook." Frontiers in Psychology Front. Psychol. 6 (2015): n. pag. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

Academic Conversation: A Rush of Blood to the Head - Coldplay (REVISED)

This week I decided to take a look at an alternative rock band that has a somewhat different sound than those that I have reviewed in my previous posts. Coldplay, while still in the alt rock category, can also be considered a part of the Brit Pop genre. The difference in their roots gives them a noticeably different sound than the previous bands who have had their roots more in rock music as opposed to pop. Their second studio album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, was released in 2002 after the success of their debut album, Parachutes.

No one who writes music just writes a compilation of random words and hopes that when they're sung over music it will make sense. Every album, every song, every line says something. There is always a theme for music. As is the case for many alternative rock songs and albums, the theme from A Rush of Blood to the Head is all about love, regret, and relationships with a few exceptions in some songs. As the RollingStone review says of the emotion in this album, "[Chris Martin] still [has] plenty of angst to vent, though, wailing about death ("Amsterdam"), war ("A Rush of Blood to the Head"), and lost love (damn near everything)." While I do agree that the theme of love can be found in most songs on the album, I would argue that "A Rush of Blood to the Head" isn't actually about a literal war but rather is about the love of a girl.

While I was listening to the album and thinking about how I could talk more about its themes, I found an journal article that helped me get a better background on the theme of love and relationships. The journal that I found, Interpersonal Variability of the Experience of Falling in Love, suggests that some people use love to make sense of their lives so when a relationship goes wrong and is broken off, would rather struggle to keep the relationship alive instead of letting love fail. That's something that I think is very applicable. All around, in movies, songs, and even in other friends' relationships, you can see people fighting for to keep relationships alive. That idea plays out well in "A Rush of Blood to the Head." It starts out slow with just Chris Martin and a soft acoustic guitar in the background and it stays that way throughout the whole first verse. I see this as kind of the calm before the storm. It then picks up a little bit in the pre-chorus with a steady drum beat added in and then reaches its peak at the chorus where it pretty much stays for the rest of the song. In the beginning, he is quietly contemplating his relationship with this girl before he goes all out to fight to keep the relationship alive. He goes on to say in the chorus, "Said I'm gonna buy a gun and start a war / if you can tell me something worth fighting for," (now you can see where the confusion about war mentioned in the RollingStone article comes in). However, he isn't talking about a literal war, but rather saying that if the girl is willing to give it a shot, then he will go to the ends of the earth and start a (metaphorical) war for their love. A similar theme can also be found in the emotionally gut-wrenching "Warning Sign." It also revolves around a broken relationship like in "A Rush of Blood to the Head," except for this one isn't as much about him fighting for the relationship as it is him nostalgically looking back on the relationship realizing how special this girl was. The same basic melody stays relatively the same throughout the whole song and it basically just jumps right into that melody which is kind of how the meaning of the song is. He doesn't waste any time beating around the bush; he just goes straight ahead and pours out how he feels. Before the lyrics come in, you can here a cello behind the guitar that sets the tone for a very somber song. The message behind the lyrics is essentially summed up in the cliché, "you don't know what you have til it's gone." Martin regrets letting his relationship with this girl end because he can see in hindsight that she was special and could have been the one for him. Another song that goes along with the theme of regret in relationships is "The Scientist" which is arguably the most popular song off this album. In it, Martin deals with the pain of hurting someone who he loved and ruining the relationship and wanting to start over. He constantly repeats the phrase "take me back to the start," which emphasizes his want to have a fresh start with the girl. Throughout the entire song he pleads to this girl that he is sorry but at the same time he is trying to work his way through what went wrong. The title of the song is kind of cryptic at first because it's not like he's singing about a scientist or anything so there isn't any concrete reason for the title directly stated in the song. However, if you listen to the meaning, he is trying to reason his way through what went wrong in the relationship much like a scientist sees a problem and has to work his way through it. I think the lines in the song that best contributes to the meaning of the title come when Martin says, "I was just guessing at numbers and figures, pulling the puzzles apart."

The theme of love and regret is very common among many alternative songs and I think a big reason for that is because it is something that everyone can relate to; everyone can say that they've looked at a girl (or a guy for the lady readers out there) and thought, "wow I really like that girl," or thinking, "I wish it would've worked out between us." One of the more iconic songs off of this album, "Clocks," revolves around these themes. Although the lyrics can be somewhat ambiguous, as they are in many alt rock songs, it's still simple to pick out the overall message in the song. It starts out with quite possibly the most recognizable piano riff of all time and then building on that piano with a steady rock beat. Martin then brings it back down with his emotional and comforting voice. He reflects on the fleetingness of time and how you have to make the most of time or else you will live with regret when he says "confusion that never stops / closing walls and ticking clocks." He then goes on to talk about the regret of not saying all he should have to save his relationship.

The seventh song off the album, "Green Eyes," is probably the song that is most clearly about being in love. However, unlike some of the other songs off this album, this song presents a more idealistic view of what love should be like in a relationship. The constant strum of the acoustic guitar in the background gives this song a sound that is somewhat of a mix of country and soft alternative, Through the lyrics of the song, Martin tries to show the positive side of being in a relationship. He opens the song with the lyrics, "honey you are the rock upon which I stand." This immediately sets the tone of the song to be about a relationship that helps him to be a better person. While he starts out by saying that the girl helps build him up, the end of the first verse is him suggesting that this girl is perfect and he is lucky to have her in his life. Throughout the entire song, the steady strum of the acoustic guitar is constant, it's always there. Just like the acoustic guitar in the song, this girl is his rock, she is steadfast and always there for him. She helps him forget about all of his burdens and problems. "In My Place" is sort of a combination of this idealistic view of love presented in "Green Eyes" and the more regretful view that was presented in the previous songs. The entire idea behind this song is that he is struggling with certain aspects of himself that he wants to change but he just can't. Over the sound of an electric piano that almost sounds like an organ, he first says, "I was lost, I was lost / crossed lines I shouldn't have crossed / I was lost, oh yeah." As he is trying to change himself he realizes that he hurt the girl he loves as he was trying so hard to change. He later recognizes that she loved him and didn't want him to change because she accepted him. In the chorus he realizes that he shouldn't have tried to change and that he wants to wait for the girl to come back to him.

As I said earlier, music always has a meaning. Whether its cryptic and ambiguous or blatantly obvious through the lyrics, the writer always intends for something to be taken away from it. The theme of love, relationships, and regret is used a lot in alternative music and Coldplay did a great job of showing a well rounded view of that theme in A Rush Of Blood To The Head. If you haven't listened all the way through this album, I would definitely try it next time you're on a road trip or just sitting down to crank out some homework for an hour I promise you won't regret it.