Lyrics or quotes that make you cringe.

[Heronblade]

No, I knew that was part of it - but it was kind of a 'tee hee, he's a sociopath' or 'tee hee, he's crazy but in an admirable way' vibe the audience is apparently supposed to get rather than take it too seriously, which is what I meant. If it was a deadly serious trailer that made it obvious that we should be regarding someone who uses this quote as significantly off, then I probably wouldn't have taken issue with it lol. That's not how it came off to me though.

Lets just say that the vibe you get in the game is far from amusing, in either sense, particularly not the admirable bit.

Of course, the context of what this guy has done and is even as he speaks is doing kind of helps with that.

 

[Queen Michael]

"You can't love other people if you don't love yourself."

I'm sorry, but what? How does this make any sense? Why would people with poor self-confidence be unable to love? Why would a mother with poor self-esteem be unable to love her children?

That stupid, stupid saying...

You tell 'em, Rainbow Dash.

 

[ABLb0y]

Have to say Jessie J singing about how 'It's not about the money, money, money' whilst she's driving around in a swarm of golden Rolls Royces or whatever really pissed me off for some reason. Oh, and most Nickleback songs can be summed up like 'Things would be nicer if things were nicer'.
I know neither of those are particularly original, but I'm just throwing my two cents in.

 

[Jordi]

I'll have to disagree with you about Romeo and Juliet. It's considered a great love story by people who have never read it.

The thing is: that is the vast, vast majority of people. I think the way to look at things like this is that there are really multiple Romeo and Juliet stories: one is the exact story written by Shakespeare, and another is the story that exists in the minds of 99% of people. Not in the least part because that's often how the story is (re)told (see e.g. that Leo DiCaprio film). You may argue that this latter story isn't "official", and it is stupid to reference. That's a fine point of view, but I think looking at this way makes it easier to understand. Also, I think the criticism that she's just saying words that don't mean anything. She is referencing a story that a lot of people know in the correct way (even if the way those people know it is incorrect).

I don't think the scarlet letter reference works either. Would she be ostracized? I thought her parents were mad at Romeo, not her?

Why not both? What I'm imagining here is that the parents fear that "Romeo" is a stereotypically horny teenage boy who only thinks with his dick and is looking to take advantage of their daughter. So they send him away and tell him to stay away from her/"Juliet". But that doesn't mean they aren't also mad at her for "giving it up" too easily or whatever and telling her to stay away from him.

I think it's entirely possible that she would feel "ostracized". Note that she doesn't actually have to be ostracized, she just has to feel or fear it. In the above interpretation, she may feel like her family sees her as a slut/embarrassment. Also, she continues seeing him against her parents' wishes, so she's probably getting into arguments or getting punished.

Another interpretation is that she may have felt "ostracized" in school. In other songs she's singing about how people were mean to her, so it's possible. In that case, I think the juxtaposition of "Romeo" (often perceived as the ultimate romantic hero in this "folk" version of the story) with her status as an outcast is meant to emphasize how excited she is about it or something.

Would Romeo be ostracized by her parents for dating the princess? But neither Romeo nor Juliette were royalty.

She sings "you'll be the prince and I'll be the princess". That sounds to me like role assignment in a fairy tale: she's saying they'd be a fairy tale couple and it's not to be taken literally. And even if it was, I don't think she's saying that Romeo and Juliet are royalty. She's just referencing "love" stories where her role is Juliet/the princess/scarlet letter and her boy is Romeo/prince charming/whatever.

And why was her dad against it? Clearly it wasn't a big deal, because he just lets the whole thing go.

She's not saying why her dad was against it. All we know is that he changed his mind at some point. But as I said, I can think of some reasons why he might be against it. For instance, he might have been concerned originally that the boy is trying to take advantage of his daughter (or he just thinks they're too young), but changed his mind when the boy proved himself (or they proved that despite their age they could handle the responsibility). That seems like a very plausible scenario to me.

Besides, a scarlet letter was worn by a woman so that everyone would know she was an adulterer.In the Scarlet Letter book she decorates her letter so that everyone knows that she's not sorry for what she did, and she refuses to hide her shame. But Taylor Swift isn't proudly wearing her scarlet letter because she's hiding in the song, which defeats the point of the metaphor. None of the metaphors fit together. She just threw a bunch of vaguely romantic sounding references together without any real thought.

To be honest, I had never heard of the Scarlet Letter (I'm not English, so I feel like I have an excuse). Is it a commonly known tale (not just among "intellectuals" who have read Romeo and Juliet, but in general)? If so, what is the common interpretation? We have seen with Romeo and Juliet that the common interpretation doesn't follow the letter of the source material, so is the same true here? Is "being a scarlet letter" often referenced, and if so what does Joe Average mean by it?

Obviously if everybody agrees on the fact that "a scarlet letter" is "a proud adultress", then the reference would be really weird. If however, it is more commonly associated with being shunned/ostracized, I think it works fine.

I agree with the last part of your post. I get that she was just trying to write a tweeny bop pop song for young girls, but if your going to use a word or reference, you should atleast understand what it means. It's the same reason I listed ironic by Alanis Morissette earlier. If your going to make something the foundation of your whole song, make sure you use it right. Otherwise the whole structure comes tumbling down. Don't write a song about love stories, then list a bunch of things that are actually the opposite of a love story. In any case I've put way too much thought into this

I think if you look at it a certain way, she did get it right. She's just referencing "Romeo and Juliet" as it exists in the minds of (most of) her audience, rather than in the mind of Shakespeare. If you knew that she was actually referencing, say [a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117509/"]Romeo + Juliet[/a], would you still feel the same way?

Edit: I am now seriously asking myself why I just got into a long debate on Taylor Swift lyrics... I guess this is the state of my life... I'm not even a fan.

 

[Edl01]

Any line that sacrifices grammar for a rhyme. So pretty much 99% of pop music that comes out nowadays.
Can't we just have a popular singer with good grammar, who writes meaningful songs that aren't just the same love song that we've heard a million times over? One that is still alive that is...

And I swear any pop song that comes out now that isn't a genric love song is a party song that everyone I know will repeat ad nauseum until I am so sick of it I'll want to drill out my eardrums.
Case and point -
"Everyday I'm shuffling"
"Gangam Style"
"Riverside ************"

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

"You want to hug me, what rhymes with hug me"
That whole song is honestly, legitimately, without exaggeration, the absolute worst song I have ever heard in my entire life. It makes me hope for a violent apocalypse that leaves nothing of the race that gave it recognition and validation, but that line in particular exemplifies just how little of a fuck anyone gives about music anymore.

Runners up are
"Me not working hard? Yeah, right, picture that with a Kodak
Or better yet, go to Times Square Take a picture of me with a Kodak"
and any time a celebrity or movie or something is randomly namedropped, first one to come to mind though is
"There's no tom hanks to bring you home."
There's not any sort of context in the song which makes that make sense, by the way.

"You can't love other people if you don't love yourself."

I'm sorry, but what? How does this make any sense? Why would people with poor self-confidence be unable to love? Why would a mother with poor self-esteem be unable to love her children?

ugh yeah my girlfriend throws that at me from time to time. I feel like not being satisfied with myself drives self improvement and motivates me to do things I would like to do rather than things I'm inclined to do. If I was unconditionally happy with myself I'd just jack off and sleep all day.

 

[spartan231490]

None make me want to kick babies, but this one makes me want to kick whoever says it: "In 900 years of time and space, I've never met anyone who wasn't important" Bull. Fracking. Poop. So many people are unimportant, for that matter, in the context of the show, I can find several unimportant people in each episode.

 

[Soundwave]

"You can't love other people if you don't love yourself."

I'm sorry, but what? How does this make any sense? Why would people with poor self-confidence be unable to love? Why would a mother with poor self-esteem be unable to love her children?

That's a quote about Onanism. If you aren't any good at it, it means you're probably are a terrible lay. I'm surprised someone who has read so much manga wouldn't get it.

 

[Nouw]

"You can't love other people if you don't love yourself."

Huh, I always thought it was something along the lines of "How can you expect others to love you if you don't love yourself." The more you know I guess.

 

[shootthebandit]

Thrift shop. I like macklemore but the lyrics are stupid

It's actually "Damn, that's a cold ass honky", where honky is a prejorative term for a white person. The (presumably black and super cool) person in the club is saying that Macklemore's so cool that he (metaphorically) has ice on him.

So yeah, I'll have to say that I do like Macklemore. I think he has some really good/entertaining rhymes, and some unique subject matter (note that his two "big" songs are about bargain shopping and marriage equality, rather unorthodox things for culture in general, let alone hip hop music). At any rate, I'd say he's far, far ahead of most hip hop artists in this day and age.

Im aware that the lyric is cold ass honkey and the meaning of said lyric. However for comedic rhyming effect the word honkey was replaced with donkey and taking the literal meaning of "cold ass" the donkey appears to have ice on it. I really like thrift shop its got a good beat and the main message of the story is that you dont have to break the bank to be stylish ("but thats 50 dollars for a t-shirt"). It also says not to follow the herd and be an individual ("the same t-shirt as 6 different people"). Which is a big difference from the usual hip hop trope of ("i pull up to the club in my limo, all the ladies be like "hey its him, ooooh". Im top off the guest list so i pull out my check list. Limo....check, armani...check, ray bans...check. Im looking hot in my suit and my jacket. All the ladies be impressed by the size of my.....pay packet") i wrote that in like 2 seconds with literally no thought what so ever. Shows you how easy it is to write a hip hop song (well a terribly cliched one anyway)

Same love has really impressed me lyrically. Really far ahead of the curve. in a culture centred around mysogony its a refreshing change to hear a song empathising with the homosexual community (max respect to you guys)

P.s macklemore is allowed to refer to himself as a honkey. Robin thicke however does not deserve to use this title as he is a massive douchebag who has to reassure people that his genitals are rather large. Im not refuting this fact but i think its safe to say that by reassuring people of this fact chances are its probably not true. I would suggest we get adam savage and jamie heinemann to uncover the truth (using as much explosives on robin thicke as possible) just to be sure he isnt lying

Seriously mr. Thicke dont refer to your self as "im so honkey" and then say "robin thicke has a big dick". We are all aware that us white folks have been blessed with mediocre sized appendages dont try to deny it.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

I probably shouldn't say this one cause it's tied in with religion but Cassie by Flyleaf. Most song can have horrible lyrics and I won't really care but with that one the subject matter and the lyrics are enough to put me off because I see it as a pointless waste of life rather than a good thing.

"Do you believe in God?"
Written on the bullet
Say "Yes" to pull the trigger
"Do you believe in God?"
Written on the bullet
And Cassie pulled the trigger"

If I recall correctly, this is a reference to the Columbine High School massacre. A girl was hiding under a desk, one of the shooters found her and knowing she was religious this exchange happened.

Though there's some debate as to whether the exchange actually took place, or if it was even Cassie Bernal that this happened too.

I haven't read up on this subject in a while though, so I might have a few details wrong.

Yeah I heard, it's one of the reason I don't like the song. It paints her saying yes knowing he would shoot her as a good thing and that the singer would do the same.

That's not how I interpreted the song at all. The way I heard it, it sounded as though the singer was saying she would also answer yes in the same circumstances.

That's what I meant sorry. I can see how that sentence was confusing. The song makes it sound like saying yes is why she got shot. There is time for standing up for what you believe in and making a statement but this was not ongoing oppression of a group or trying to keep beliefs silent, it is a couple of students going off. You're not doing anything by declaring yes rather than lying and saying no other than throwing your life away.

Well, seeing as we live in the universe where she said yes and got shot, we can't really say with any certainty that her saying no would have saved her life. Saying yes could be the reason she got shot, maybe Klebold would have shot her anyway. If it even was her that was asked the question.

I'm not religious myself, but I bet many would rather die than denounce their faith. After all, they believe their god is constantly watching and judging them, right? If they believed they were about to die regardless, why denounce their faith right before they meet their maker?

 

[Dfskelleton]

Caribou Coffee's old motto:

"We love coffee too. That's why we proudly brew."

I am a very gentle man, and yet the last time I heard those words... 31 innocent souls lost their lives that day.

Thank God that they finally changed it.

 

[Queen Michael]

Caribou Coffee's old motto:

"We love coffee too. That's why we proudly brew."

Is that taken out of context? Like, say, them mentioning somebody who loves coffee and then adding those words? Because otherwise, that has to be one of the dumbest mottos ever. Even if you're the kind of guy who don't mind split infinitives.

 

[Battenberg]

"Some things in this world never change. And some things do." from Matrix Reloaded + Revolutions.

I can't think of a single line in cinema history that is so completely pointless and literally only functions as filler. Think about it, all it is is an incredibly obvious statement about change. You could very easily pick some other arbitrary situation that sometimes occurs (for example: "Some cars are red. And some cars aren't" or "Some sequels are as good as the original. And some sequels aren't") It's meaningless and yet is somewhat pretentiously presented as being some kind of deep philosophical concept (hence its use in both films several times). For me it is a symbol of every flaw and failure of these 2 films (compared to the The Matrix) i.e. both films feature a lot more talking than is neccessary, despite this both films have fairly unimpressive scripts, both films have an air of pretense (largely due to trying to imitate the relatively original and somewhat philosophical) ideas from the first film, and both films could have been half as long and had the same, if not more, impact.

Mini rant over. This is definitely the quote that most boils my blood, it genuinely irritates me when I hear it.

 

[ERaptor]

Any lyrics by Black Eyed Peas. Their music is fucking awful, and should be banned.

Spoiler: Look at this shit

This. So much. I want to drag whoever wrote this back to my home, tie him up in my basement and let him listen to this goddamn thing for a week straight. Afterwards im gonna hand him a spoon so he can dig out his higher brainfunctions.

The sad thing is, this, blurred lines and a whole lot of other repetetive and hillariously stupid songs are pretty much the only thing rolling in most radios here in switzerland. Im a bit biased because i hate Pop with a passion, but you cant argue that sh*t like this gets _grating_ if you play it 50 times a day.

Also, one quote you gonna hear a LOT very soon. Be prepared. Its approaching. You can see the black clouds, rising at the horizon. Run. Run now before it is too late. Hide your friends and family.

Last Christmas I gave you my heart
But the very next day you gave it away
This year to save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special

IT BURNS! IT BUUUUUUUUURNS!

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Here in the Dark

The Epoxies

"I've been watching you for some time
I see you when you're standing alone
On your own and it seems such a crime
I wonder if I might bring you home
And speak to you softly under lights so low
Somewhere where there isn't a sound
And tell you of places where I've wanted to go
Places that might never be found

In the dark, I am waiting for you here in the dark."



Okay, maybe not too cringe worthy because Roxy Epoxy has a wonderful voice and she sells the romantic intent of the song really well.

It's just that out of context....

[http://s529.photobucket.com/user/Diddy_Mao/media/Lotion.png.html]

 

[Spider RedNight]

Can I just be broad and say... pretty much any lyrics Taylor Swift makes millions writing that pertain to her failed love life?

A more specific example that isn't from Swift:

"All the other boys
try to chaaaase me,
But here's my number
so call me, maybe?"

It's just so... SELFISH. I mean, even by "selfish lyric" standards. To me it's pretty much what it says: "Heyyyyy I know I'm pretty sought after by ever OTHER guy but here, I happen to want the one that *I* have to approach so you must be worth it. Did I mention all the other boys like me but I'd rather be with you? CALL ME"

Sounds desperate. The whole song sounds desperate (I miss you so bad, I miss you so, so bad). I guess I just don't like it.

Also, I don't wanna quote it here because I feel like I lose a chunk of brain cells just thinking about it, but the entirety of "What Does The Fox Say". -rubs temples-

Quotes are a bit harder to pinpoint but I remember always grating my teeth at

"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it."

Now, that's just rude. It insults the people who actually have such a disability and it makes the person quoting it sound like one of those random annoying people you don't wanna spend any time with because they're fully aware of how "weird" they are and how "fun" it must be to not be in control of your mind. That quote ALWAYS bugged me.

 

[ERaptor]

Quotes are a bit harder to pinpoint but I remember always grating my teeth at

"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it."

Now, that's just rude. It insults the people who actually have such a disability and it makes the person quoting it sound like one of those random annoying people you don't wanna spend any time with because they're fully aware of how "weird" they are and how "fun" it must be to not be in control of your mind. That quote ALWAYS bugged me.

I agree with that, especially since i used to say that too. However, after being told that insanity is more a term used for the disability, I switched over to just saying that I enjoy being "weird" (at least in English). It may just come from the fact that he terms are a bit less distinguishable in german, but i would feel bad offending people with the actual problem.

 

[Evonisia]

Any song that involves a band singing about how much money doesn't matter...

From pop

Spoiler: Jessie J

It's not about the money, we just want to make the world dance

She got worse, I'm pretty sure there's like one lyric in "Domino" which makes any sense.

 

[DanielBrown]

Lyrics with kindergarden rhymes make me cringe a bit.

Spoiler: Example from Mustasch's Spreading the Worst

I can't read, I can't follow
And I walk in costant sorrow
What I earn is what I borrow
I don't care for tomorrow