Monday, June 20, 2011
A little John Mayer, Anyone?
When I first heard this song, I though 'Whoa, that's sort of lame." To me, the song seemed to be saying "Well, we're looking at what's around us and we know it's not right but we are just going to wait for things to change." But as I listened a little closer to the lyrics, I realized I had it completely wrong. This wasn't a song of apathy. It was a cry against the system that encourages apathy and conforming to established norms. He pinpoints issues like corruption in politics and story spinning by the media. However, I still dont he has the whole answer. Mayer has taken the first step in identifying the issues, but "waiting on the world to change" is not the answer. Change doesn't just happen, it is brought about by people like us.
Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could
Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change
It's hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change
Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information,
They can bend it all they want
It's not that we don't care,
We just know that the fight ain't fair
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change
And we're still waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change
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Wow, another song with a much deeper meaning than I though! :)
ReplyDeleteI think when I heard the lyrics that said, "It's hard to make a difference when you're standing in the distance," I began to understand what this song is talking about. It's not, like you pointed out, that he is apathetic about what's going on. It's just that he realizes that while the government "own[s] the information" and he's standing on the outside of it, there's not that much he can DO right now to make a change. I don't think I completely agree, but I totally understand where he's coming from. And he does have some hope - "One day our generation is gonna rule the population." Once his peers become the nation's leaders the change can come. Or so he thinks, anyway.
--Allie