As all other teenagers do these days, I spend countless hours of my time listening to music. In fact, I am doing just that as I write this. Music can convey so many emotions and meanings that sometimes it's hard to know just what's being talked about. Everyone knows of the revenge- driven Blondie hit " One Way or Another". Blondie may have written one of the more popular revenge songs, but she is most definitely not the only music artist with revenge on the brain. After scrolling through my iTunes library, I was surprised to find that it contains quite a bit of songs about revenge, in all different music genres.
When I think of revenge in music, I almost automatically think of the song "Before He Cheats" by American Idolist Carrie Underwood. This song speaks of a woman's revenge after she finds out she is being cheated on. She vandalizes his car by slashing his tires and keying the door. Carrie Underwood sure proved that she is not someone to be messed with, because she will get you back. Another more violent revenge song is "Kim" by Eminem. Like many of Eminem's tracks, this one is very descriptive and emotion-driven. The lyrics explain how a man gets back at the mother of his child when she leaves him for another guy. Unlike Carrie Underwood's song, Eminem is much more ruthless towards his target of revenge. In these songs, the artist felt that someone did them wrong, and they took it upon themselves to settle the score.
Another form of revenge would be to just ignore the person who did you wrong and to not give them the satisfaction of getting to you. P!nk's "So What?" is one of the best examples of this idea, aside from Cee Lo Green's "Forget You." Both of these songs are perfect examples of not letting revenge get to you, but rather walking away from the problem and not even bothering with it. They both just basically say "Forget you, I'm not even gonna waste my time."
Another music artist, Ed Sheeran, has been quoted saying "Success is the best revenge for anything." The best way to get even with someone who did you wrong is to do exactly what they made you feel that you couldn't. Not only will you succeed in not letting them pull out the revenge-crazed person inside of you, but you also look like the better person for not giving in to their remorseless ways.
Growing up, my mom always told me that "what goes around comes around." Because this philosophy is permanently cemented into my mind, I feel that revenge is usually unnecessary and that it's better to just keep doing what you're doing to be successful. It's better to just let things play out they way they will naturally and hopefully, whoever did you wrong will get what they deserve. I guess it's safe to say that I believe in karma. But who's to say that you can't speed up karma's processes with a little revenge action?
My question for you is this. Which artists do you most relate to; Blondie,Eminem and Carrie Underwood, P!ink and Cee Lo, or Ed Sheeran? I challenge you to find the best way to deal with your feelings of revenge by using your own unique combination of all three ideas.
This is such an interesting, reflective, and original post that I'm going to let slide the fact that Hamlet didn't make even a teensy little appearance at the end. :)
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, I like the way you summed up the big ideas in each of your examples and then pulled everything together under the umbrella of your mother's advice. Those are words of wisdom and this is a great blog.
I totally agree about music! I love how you listed different examples of songs and then told how they reflect the different forms of revenge. The first song I thought of was "Better than Revenge" by Taylor Swift. Its about getting back at a girl who took her boyfriend(surprise,surprise). My mom always told me the same exact thing. I would tell her that my brothers were picking on me and she would just tell me "what goes around come around". I never really got the meaning of it until I was older. Music is my escape from reality. I listen to all kinds of music and you could probably find some sort of revenge in almost any song. I kind of laughed when you mentioned Carrie Underwood! Country music is made fun of a lot, especially out of the midwest. most everybody has listened to that song around here! I guess its a stereotype that everybody from the midwest listens to country music and that everybody thinks they are hicks!
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