Can You Please Sing About Something Other Than Yourself?

Published On: August 13, 2024Categories: JournalTags: lyrical content, music industry, pop stars, songwriting

Popular music has always had a bit of everything; romance, lighthearted fun, faith, politics, partying, philosophy and more. It usually covers a deep and wide spread of human experience, thoughts and emotions. Today though, I feel that popular music is covering less and less of the whole spectrum of human experience and I think that spells danger for society.

Thought provoking or emotionally moving music is no longer a dominant force, not even on the adult contemporary charts. On top of that, popular songs aren’t as creatively unique or deeply artistic as they were in much of the documented past. While it’s undeniable that amazing talent is still being found and promoted, it’s not as undeniable that artistry of song and lyric has dwindled and in many cases now resembles that of text messages or internet speak instead of etheric and evocative prose streaming from the open, conscious mind of a savant.

This article started out in my head as asking why most songs these days are about romance, but once I began writing I realized my complaint is not that so many new songs are about 1:1 love (or lack thereof,) but that most songs are narrative-driven from a strict first person perspective and are conceitedly about the singer/songwriter themselves. Which is why I pose the question to the industry, can you please sing about something other than yourself?

A Disclaimer

I am posing a question to request something that I desire to see in the world, and at the same time I am taking action to fulfil that very desire. This may not be everyone’s desire, but it’s more than likely that at least several million people want to hear more than the modern take on a breakup story. In a world of nearly 8bn where top artists have 100m monthly listeners, several million isn’t even that many.

This is not to say that songs about “something else” don’t exist altogether. Take for instance this very recent example: despite the press and creative-direction nightmare that overshadowed it, Katy Perry’s 2024 song Woman’s World is one of these songs. It’s a song about something else; something greater. But one song in a revolving stream of hundreds doesn’t cut it.

From what I see in the darkest, dingiest amateur corners of Instagram all the way up to the current major label rosters and popular music charts, there is undoubtably less diversity in song topics and an ongoing shallowing of lyrical content. To clarify, I’m not even hoping for these songs about something else to be official hits, but merely asking that they enter the mainstream ether; to be well-known, even ubiquitous. That is what I want from the music industry and pop culture in general; to propel and popularize songs with deeper messaging.

1:1 Romance and Love Songs

Love songs and songs about 1:1/interpersonal relationships between human beings have always been the go-to (dare I say default) topic for modern songwriters. And though it wasn’t always that way, I get it! Romance is one of only a few topics that is safe to assume all human beings can relate to because many if not all humans have felt or want to feel it.

There’s nothing wrong with romance-related songs. That said, capital-L Love itself is much greater than the 1:1 romantic love we are conditioned to know it as. Love is the energy that powers all life in this world. It is the energy that runs through all plants, animals and even the atoms in the device you are reading this on right now. Love is the energy that powers the universe. Love is not just a red heart emoji. It’s not just the end goal of a first date. It’s more than a French-kiss or an act of fornication. Love is more than giving gifts or being there for your family. It is all of that, but it is all of that and more.

It seems that love (romance) and the loss of it (breakups) is the overwhelmingly most common topic of new songs these days. Not to venture too far off topic, but I believe this narrowing focus of music on 1:1 love (and a few other low-vibration topics) is part of the powermongers’ agenda to stifle mankind and accelerate the spiritual enslavement of the masses. That is the why to the what of this article. Using famous artists to lament, celebrate or brag about 1:1 love is conditioning us to spend and give all of our energy to one person and not much else in the world, which is a contributing factor to many of the societal problems that we see today. But, I digress. Love songs are well and good, but are they alone enough to carry society for the rest of time?

Sex ≠ Love

Love between two human beings is a wonderful thing, and it can be some of the deepest emotions humans experience. As always, I have to assert that I’m not saying people should stop writing or listening to love songs. It’s an outrageous reach for anyone to assume that’s what I’m saying here. I do, however, want artists and listeners to cover other topics, because the incessant love/breakup narrative is become hypnotic in the worst way. It’s forcing young people to believe that after money, the most important thing in life is finding romance. (Which is only party of a truly loving, committed life partnership/spouse.) The problem is, finding romance typically starts with and is built entirely on sex. This is not healthy! It has been going on for decades, but the hyper-sexualization in music, entertainment and media is making it worse.

Soft but Hard

Many pop stars are using what is essentially soft-core porn in their artist imagery these days. This is no accident. I went into detail about the affects of hyper-sexual media in an early Chad Rising reel. Knowing this, the problem that the modern view of love is so heavily influenced by sex, and that the bland, narrative-driven 1:1 romance is being discussed in a vast majority of new music spells danger for society.

[Sidebar] Close, but No Guitar

While writing this article I was inspired to write a song of my own, and while browsing YouTube for a beat, I was served up a song called “Everything Under The Sun” by a young country artist. Based on the title, I thought it may have a fighting chance at being about something else, but the first lyric is “well this bed still has room for two.” Evidence that we consider 1:1 love to be everything under the sun. Next.

Self-Centered, Self Righteous, Self Deprecating

As I mentioned in my introduction, it’s not just 1:1 love songs that are dominating the mainstream. It’s self-centered pop-bops masquerading as self-empowerment and “I’m better than you” ego-centric anthems labelled as positive “bad bitch energy.” (Because cursing has no social or moral boundaries now?!)

I checked, and every song on Chappel Roan’s album is about either 1:1 romance or lamenting about her life or life choices, sprinkled with easy-going wit/sarcasm and condescending tones meant to glamorize bad decisions and spite or inflict hurt on perpetrators that inspired the song. See the celebrated clip of her shaming her ex during her Coachella set. Oh and just before I posted this article this clip came through my feed. Shaming the audience, nice. Her ego is blinding.

An eye for an eye is at an all time high.

Why is this attitude celebrated and considered “iconic?” Because these days, intelligence is defined by how creatively mean and sarcastic you can be. I thought we were trying to move past bullying? If anything, social media has increased it and what I’m coining as reactive “high-road bullying” is now an acceptable defense. This self-centered, covert narcissism and passive aggression is rampant in popular music. Why? Because it’s rampant in life. It’s an entire vernacular with roots online that has finally seeped into actual reality. Check out my article about yap and cringe for my perspective on why this is happening.

My Way Or The Highway, Even If My Way Sucks

I hear it everywhere, songs about “poor me” and “life sucks” and “this person did this to me so I wrote a song not just make myself feel better but also destroy and cancel them in one fell swoop.” Why? Because we can’t just walk by anymore. We have to tear things down that don’t please us. (Also mentioned in my yap and cringe article.) Me, me, me. It’s all about me. And what you did to me, and how I feel, and how I need you to be to make me feel better. No compassion, no understanding, no discussion, no forgiveness. Just a quick snipe in the comments or a cold shoulder because “I gotta get mine.”

That’s the sentiment and attitude in life these days, and it’s reflected in music. Whether it’s bragging about what you have, or even bragging about what you don’t have, the truth is, a majority of songs these days are first person narratives of something that happened to the writer/artist. Yes, we want people to express their feelings and put their well being first, but there’s a not-so-fine-line between self-empowerment or self-forgiveness from the heart and self-aggrandizement or self-deprecation from the ego.

It’s interesting how many of my observations in music and society come back to the collective ego being out of control and running the show. This is how the collective mind works right now, which is why part of my mission is help tame that ego and put it back in it’s place as a passenger, not the driver.

Please Write Songs About Other Things

What happened to the songs about the Earth? About animals? Heck, songs about birth and death, heaven and hell. What happened to existentialism and philosophy in popular music? How about anything other than narrative-driven, self-centered love/hate songs? All I hear on the charts is love you, hate you, get together, break up. I hear nothing of a greater love; of a higher love. Nothing about spirit/philosophy/consciousness/society. Most songs that attempt to be self-love are actual ego trips in camouflage. No protest songs, no (artistically done) political messages – nothing. It’s maddening.

There is a whole spectrum of human emotion and music is a way to process and release that emotion. This lack of diverse topics is creating a pressure cooker of stagnant energy in the collective soul of society. Since only a small fraction of our human experience is represented in today’s popular music, where is that pent up energy going? (Oh, idk, maybe… violence? anger? crime? bullying? But that’s another story!)

All of these popular songs can exist and we could simultaneously be singing songs about other, deeper topics. The depth of the love song has deteriorated from the poignancy of “I Will Always Love You” to whatever Taylor Swift’s latest stream of consciousness has to offer, which ain’t deep no matter how creatively you slice it. Why is nearly every song about her and her romance? That brings me back to my ultimate question to mainstream artists, similar to that I asked of Doja Cat.

Can you please sing about something other than yourself?

It is not my intention to pick on Taylor as a person because we are free to express as we please. I consistently uphold that as a human right, but, I am being critical of her brand putting out the same monotonous love/sex/romance driven music for the last 4 years. I know I’m not the only one who sees it this way. Rick Beato asked Taylor why she’s not doing anything revolutionary with her stature and resources. If anyone on Earth could make a statement with music, lyrically or sonically, it’s Taylor Swift. But she chooses to double down on first-person narrative and 1:1 love. Why? Easy money, which also ties into the bigger picture of dumbing down society and keeping us locked into low-level cycles, one of those cycles being chasing sex and romance.

Songs Like These

Where are the songs like Heal the World and We Are The World? How about The Boxer, Landslide or We Are The Champions? I’ll bring it even closer in time; where are the songs like Ironic, What’s Up and Shine? How about even more recent self-empowerment anthems like Born This Way or (ugh) Firework? Even songs like Hero, Hero and Hero. (No one wants to be the hero anymore.)

There’s little creative diversity of topic anymore, even within the subgroup of songs about 1:1 love. It’s mostly “you texted me, I texted you, we drank or f***cked, and now we don’t, well f*** you then.” That’s how it goes for the majority of currently popular pop love songs. (FYI: this article isn’t meant to touch on the other popular topics of ego, materialism and substances/partying, but they fill up the other half of the mainstream.) How is all of this healthy for society, especially youth who are just building their interpersonal foundations? It’s not, and I don’t believe there is a valid argument against that on a psychological level.

Some Examples

As an off-the-cuff reference, Incubus is a solid example that embodies what I’m on about in this article. While never fully mainstream, they had a few mainstream hits. Brandon Boyd (Incubus’ singer and main songwriter) does a great job talking about a wide range of topics, including love and breakups! Some of his standout songs are their first crossover hits Pardon Me and Drive, TV Show on Mute, Aqueous Transmission, Oil & Water, Diamonds & Coal, and Dig. I believe we need another Incubus to challenge the psyche of America (and the world.)

Here are some other well-known songs off the top of my head (truly) that are about deeper topics or about 1:1 romance in an artistic way.

After I made the initial list, I took some time and went through the top songs from 1970 – 2024. I turned that into a post, The Rot & Decay of Popular Music. Even at quick glance, it’s clear that each decade sees less and less depth and breadth in lyrical content.

Why I Am Adamant About This

I have always written songs from a different perspective. For every 20 songs I write, maybe one is romance related. This is natural for me, and I am not asking others to be like me, but I do urge artists to write about other things! Anything other than sex, romance, ego and partying.

Even artists and writers in the highest places of the industry are still operating through clouded consciousness at a low vibration. That is why I am relentlessly, unforgivingly pushing towards bringing higher-consciousness and higher-vibration music and song topics to the mainstream.

Society needs some fresh thought. Everything is stale. We don’t eat stale food, so why do we consume stale music made from stale thoughts? Artists and songwriters, can you please sing about something other than yourself?

If you want to hear my version of what these songs could be, listen to my music here.

– Chad