Analysis of Lyrics

‘Youth’ - Daughter

‘Shadow settle on the place, that you left,Our minds are troubled by the emptiness.’

These are the very first lyrics of the song and I think they are quite impactful as it is explaining how someone has left, so far why or how is unknown. The sub textual meaning could be highlighting how the place that has been left is effectively her heart and that despite the hard fact that they are gone, the shadows remain allowing her to feel the lost presence of the person she has lost. Moreover, the lack of this person in her life is distressing and playing in her mind a lot.

‘Destroy the middle it’s a waste of time.’

I would decode these lyrics to suggest that the artist is trying to emphasise how our youth is so important and destroying the middle of your lives by being reckless is not worth it, it is pointless and will not get your anywhere and potentially only bring about sadness. My video will play off of this concept that youth is a very important thing and being careless is not worth it and can lead to some very awful situations, which is what will happen in my video.

‘And if you’re still breathing, you’re the lucky ones.’

These powerful lyrics could have an underlying meaning that no matter how hard things get, being alive and breaking is the most lucky thing and is better than being heart broken or not alive. Being alive seems like a very simply thing, but the powerful message behind that is so much more. These key lyrics will relate to my music video as one of the characters will die and this will affect the main character in the video, moreover, the hidden message will be apparent in my video as the protagonist will learn to realise that being and ‘breathing’ is a ‘lucky’ and undervalued thing.

‘’Cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs’

I personally believe this is a metaphor for sadness and depression as breathing is one of the simplest things yet it is what makes us human and what keeps us living. Corrupted lungs has a potential meaning of struggling to breathe because a person is so torn up and how breathing allows us to experience things through the sensation of breathing and living, and having this vital action hindered, makes life harder, it makes experiencing life more difficult. Another, more obvious meaning is smoking and being reckless as a young person and ruining our lungs by smoking and drinking.

‘Setting fire to our insides for fun.’

Once again this could have connotations about how the youth use drugs and alcohol as a fun thing to do, but it is very damaging to our insides. Furthermore, a deeper message would explain that we emotionally hurt ourselves by thinking about sad things, people who have left and consequently drinking and burning our throats with strong liquor to drown away the pain. I plan on visually representing these lyrics in my video as I think they sum up the idea of being reckless but with alcohol and drugs as a way of numbing the pain, which I something I will use in the ‘flashbacks’ in my video.

‘We are the reckless,We are the wild

youth.’Personally, I feel that these are some of the most pivotal lyrics in the whole song as they really set the premise for the meaning behind a lot of the lyrics sung. My interpretation is that she sings of being reckless in life and love, and the lyrics ‘wild youth’ captures the irresponsible actions of young people which is going to be a main focus for me in my video which will shape the whole narrative of the story/journey.

‘That one will die before he gets there.’

Within the song, I believe these lyrics have a more abstract meaning, that we don’t truly reach our purpose of goals in life, we will either die or give up hope before we reach what we desire. This concept of finish lines and stopping before you reach the end is a key theme that I plan to elaborate in my video, although, I will probably take a more literal approach to the lyrics as the male in my video will ‘die before he gets there’.

‘It was a flood that wrecked this…’

I decided that these lyrics were important because of the deeper meaning within the word ‘flood’. I think the word has connotations of a flood or an overwhelming amount of emotions. As the video and song are very emotive, I think playing on the idea of a flood can be quite useful for my video. The last moments of the video will be the protagonist on a beach and I plan to ironically use the word ‘flood’ to sub textually signify the drowning of her emotions, in a good way. The character will go to the beach and be free from all restraints in her head and mind and the sea will metaphorically and literally act as a way of her flooding and drowning her negative emotions.

‘And you caused it’The repetition of these few words are significant to the song as she is using the pronoun ‘you’ to be very direct and point towards the person who has caused her all of the despondent feeling she is dealing with. However, whilst these lyrics are repeated throughout the song, when sung the emotion behind the lyrics shift as sometimes she is angry at the person who cause it but then other times she is exasperated and is bitter and grieving at the fact she has someone to blame for her pain.

‘Well I’ve lost it all, I’m just a silhouette.’

In my opinion the cloaked message here is that the singer is not herself anymore, she is only an outline or shadow of the person she used to be. This is due to loosing the person and having to deal with so much pain. The noun ‘silhouette’ suggests connotations of dark, covered and as though she is a by-product of her previous self. For me, this is a good idea to help base my idea off of as to why my main character will be wearing a mask the whole time.

‘And if you’re in love, you are the lucky one.’This is similar to ‘if you’re still breathing…’ this could be her way of making the comparison between love and breathing, to exaggerate how love is like ‘breathing’ it can be just as important, and without it you can feel empty. Furthermore, ‘you are’ signifies that she is telling other people that if you are in love, than you should feel lucky to have someone, as opposed to those who are unlucky enough to have lost someone.

‘To distract our hearts from ever missing them,

But I’m forever missing him.’I would decode these lyrics to mean that people use alcohol and other things to try to disguise and ‘distract’ ourselves from the pain that we are feeling inside about loosing someone. However, the second line implies that no matter what she does, it is impossible for her to forget and hide the memories of him, so consequently she is always going to miss him and no amount of distraction will mask that. I plan on using these lyrics in my video as the main girl will be so torn up over the loss of her boyfriend that she is ‘forever missing him’ and she struggles to do anything without thinking of him.