Re: اغنية No Idea
Magali Swinderman
The Pop Song Professor project is all about helping music lovers like you to better understand the deeper meanings of popular song lyrics so that you know what your artist is saying and can enjoy your music more.
Just a few days ago, Imagine Dragons released "Thunder," and I have to say that I really like it. I remember hearing "Radioactive" for the first time. There was a girl I liked, and she, a few friends of ours, and I sat on her parents' living room floor sharing music. She brought out Imagine Dragons, and while relationally she didn't change my life (I was only in the area for a few months), musically she might have. I was interning for a US senator at the time, and I remember pulling up Grooveshark and listening to Imagine Dragons songs non-stop, and I feel like I've never stopped.
Of course, that was back when they only just had Night Visions out. They later released Smoke + Mirrors, and I never got very excited about it, but I've really been enjoying the singles from their upcoming albums. "Believer" was really good and deep as well--I've already explained it--and I'm now intrigued by "Thunder."
I honestly think the music of "Thunder" sounds, for lack of a better word, "doinky." It's bouncy, and the weird autotuned voice is a bit much for me, but it's unlike a lot of what I'm used to, so I'm trying to stay open to new things. Apart from that and the excessive amount of lyrical repetition that doesn't play in thematically, so it sounds lazy, I'm very interested in "Thunder" and can't wait to get into its deeper meanings.
So, the lyrics of "Thunder" aren't very complicated, and the song, in fact, only has three unique stanzas. The basic premise is that Dan Reynolds is taking us back to when he was a child and a dreamer. Back then, he dreamed of the amazing things he wanted to do and didn't let his peers (who didn't bother to dream) keep him back. The idea of the title of "Thunder" is that when he was a kid, he was "lightning before the thunder." He was dreaming--there was that flash of light--but the rumbling thunder of success was coming.
Imagine Dragons lead singer Dan Reynolds sings that he was a "young gun with a quick fuse" perhaps because he was quick-tempered or high energy. He did what he wanted to and acknowledges that he was "uptight" and wanted to "let loose" because he had so much pent up energy. He dreamed "of bigger things" than his peers and wanted to "leave [his] own life behind." He was unhappy with where he was and wanted to be in a better place.
He never saw himself as a "yes-sir"--someone who obeys tells authorities what they want to hear--and didn't want to be a "follower." He wanted to blaze his own trail. He determined not to "[f]it the box" or "the mold." And even though he was told to "[h]ave a seat in the foyer" and "take a number," he wasn't going to obey. The "seat" and "number" could refer to his attempts to break into the music industry as he was trying out or auditioning for different opportunities, but they could also be referring to how he approached his entire life.
Being so repetitive, there's not much to be said for the chorus. It mostly capitalizes on the ideas laid down in the last lyric of the first verse and gives the effect of Reynolds and Imagine Dragons mulling over the idea.
In the second verse, Reynolds and Imagine Dragons share more details about growing up as a dreamer. Reynolds tells us about kids in his (perhaps) high school classes who would laugh at him or goof off while he "was scheming for the masses"--planning to create something that millions would enjoy.
Others would ask him, "Who do you think you are / Dreaming 'bout being a big star?" but he ignored them and calls out people who make excuses for their lack of effort--those who excuse themselves by putting themselves into boxes like "basic" or "easy"--perhaps a reference to "easygoing." He tells them they're always "riding in the back seat," but because he didn't "take it easy," he's "smiling from the stage" while they can't even afford good seats to his shows and have to sit "clapping in the nose bleeds."
I honestly empathize with this song a lot. I feel like I'm one of those people who dreams of big things and wants to go to new and better places, but I'm frustrated because my surroundings and my personal limits keep me from being everything I think I can be.
Those things aren't necessarily bad, and they keep me humble, but that's not what Imagine Dragons focuses on in the lyrics of "Thunder." The meaning of this song is all about that success that comes after the "lightning of wanting to be somewhere else." That thunder rolls in, washes over everything. Everyone forgets the lightning and can experience nothing else but that thunder as long as it lasts.
Hi! I'm a university writing center director who teaches literature classes and loves helping others to understand the deeper meanings of their favorite songs. I'm married to my beautiful wife April and love Twenty One Pilots, Mumford & Sons, Kishi Bashi, and so many others!
A chart-topper in several territories, "Kill Bill" was SZA's first number-one on the Billboard Global 200 and US Hot 100 charts. The song spent eight weeks at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 before an April 2023 remix featuring American rapper Doja Cat propelled the solo version to the top, tying for the second-longest time at number two before reaching number one. On US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, it broke the record set by Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" (2019) for the chart's longest-running number one, with 21 weeks. "Kill Bill" was one of the top 10 best-performing songs of 2023 in several countries, and according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, it was the third best-selling single of 2023.
"Kill Bill" was praised primarily for its songwriting; critics liked its poetic quality, diaristic honesty, and relatability despite the violent content. The original version and the remix were placed in many year-end listicles for 2023, and in February 2024, Rolling Stone placed "Kill Bill" at number 267 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. The song received many industry award nominations, including three nods for the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. "Kill Bill" won Song of the Year at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards, as well as Top R&B Song at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards and Video of the Year at BET Awards 2023.
A music video for the song premiered the same day as its single release. Directed by Christian Breslauer, it reimagines several scenes from the Kill Bill films, with SZA as her version of the films' protagonist and Vivica A. Fox, one of the actresses who starred in the duology, in a supporting role. SZA confronts her ex-boyfriend at the end and tears his heart out, and the outro features her suspended by a rope using the shibari technique. On the SOS Tour, where she first performed "Kill Bill" live, she recreated various visual elements from the film duology and the music video, such as the costume. Other live performances also involved choreography inspired by the Kill Bill films, featuring background dancers who brandished swords and participated in fight scenes onstage.
SZA released her debut studio album, Ctrl, in 2017. Primarily an R&B album that deals with themes like heartbreak, Ctrl received widespread acclaim for SZA's vocals and the eclectic musical style, as well as the relatability, emotional impact, and confessional nature of the songwriting. The album brought SZA to mainstream fame, and critics credit it with establishing her status as a major figure in contemporary pop and R&B music and pushing the boundaries of the R&B genre.[note 1]
SZA alluded to possibly releasing her second album as early as August 2019,[8][9] during an interview with DJ Kerwin Frost.[10] It, she said, retained the candid and personal qualities of Ctrl. In her words, the album was "even more of me being less afraid of who am I when I have no choice[,] when I'm not out trying to curate myself and contain."[11] When SZA collaborated with Cosmopolitan for their February 2021 issue, she spoke about her creative process as such: "this album is going to be the shit that made me feel something in my...[heart] and in [my gut]".[12]
"Kill Bill" was produced by Rob Bisel and Carter Lang, who wrote the song with SZA.[30] Its creation, by SZA's account, was "super easy", and she deemed it a "one take, one night" type of song.[note 2] While work on SOS had begun by 2019, "Kill Bill" was recorded in 2022 alongside a significant number of other tracks due to bursts of productivity from time pressure. Lang commented, "that's when [we] started feeling like, hey, 'We gotta do this shit like, it's been some years.' We bottled up that energy and everything was just sort of a preparation for that moment."[30]
Production began around May 2022 when Bisel, in his Los Angeles home's Ponzu Studios, played some chords on his Prophet-6 synthesizer. With it, he used Ableton to sample the synthesizer's flute-like sound. After adding a bassline from an electric guitar tuned down an octave, Bisel was unsure where he wanted the song to go, so he sent the Ableton clip to Lang for assistance.[23][30] Lang's first approach to the beat consisted of a singular rhythm, which was an electronic fusion of bouncy bass drums, Roland TR-808 snares, and 16th-note hi-hat beats.[32] Settling on a polyrhythmic production with a swing style, he took more beats from a separate, vintage drum machine and made them twice as slow as the first approach, and he added more guitars and bass on top.[23][33] The two also incorporated a choir and backing vocals into the song. Most of the final version's instruments were recorded at Lang's home studio in Chicago.[23]
03c5feb9e7