People Don't Listen

The Beckhams, Victoria in particular, being in the news recently got me thinking of how people don’t listen. Then they misunderstand with the confidence and entitlement of a middle-aged white man in the USA. As vocally too.

Not about her, actually. At all. I do not have such an intense parasocial existence with celebrities that they take up my time. Not even Taylor Swift, or Shania Twain when I was younger. I do enjoy keeping up with their news but it’s with detachment. Perhaps a certain level of joie de vivre, but not this maniacal fanatic engagement with celebrities and their lives like I see on the internet, as though they personally affect my day to day, like they were kin or neighbour. I do enjoy a gossipy girl sesh or a Sociological musing or two but then I just shrug it off and say: hey, celebrities are not real; they only live in my phone screen. 

The reason the Beckhams got me thinking about people’s listening skills is because their PR team is on overdrive and pushing a lot of nostalgic 90s Spice Girls and Girl Power era on my FYP and a lot of those reels are set to the song Wannabe. Slightly going off tangent is my specialty.

Now Wannabe is always touted as a nonsensical song. Because why? People. Don’t. Listen. 

Wannabe is actually not a nonsensical song at all. It is very upbeat, no doubt. And an earworm especially with the zig-a-zig-ah, which is also the reason why people think it is nonsensical. Additionally, as about 97% pop songs of that era, Wannabe has a lot of repetition of words. Which is because the tune demanded it. 

The chorus is definitely an earworm. If someone were to straighten out the chorus as a standalone conversation, it would read simply as “I will tell you what I want.” The rest of the song – the verse and the bridge and the rap – is telling you exactly what she wants. It is very clear. If you want to be my lover, this is what you need to do; if you want my future, this is what must happen; if you want to get with me, you must do this.

This is what happens with the Meatloaf number I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) as well. Drunk intellectuals love to joke about how he just keeps saying he won’t do “that” but he never tells you what “that” is. But if you listen right, every time he says he won’t do “that”, the preceding line tells you what he will, in fact, do like run to hell and back, that he’ll never forget the way she felt, or take a vow and seal a pact. This is when he says he will do anything for love, but he won’t do those things; that, in other words.

In fact both songs actually randomly go deep. Meatloaf bursts into sheer poetry, in fact.

And some days it don't come easy

And some days it don't come hard

Some days it don't come at all

And these are the days that never end

And some nights you're breathin' fire

And some nights you're carved in ice

Some nights you're like nothin' I've ever

Seen before or will again

And maybe I'm crazy

Oh, it's crazy and it's true

I know you can save me

No one else can save me now but you

As long as the planets are turnin'

As long as the stars are burnin'

As long as your dreams are comin' true

You better believe it

Meanwhile, Wannabe delves into philosophy. A proverbial stance, you could say.

If you wanna be my lover

You gotta get with my friends 

Make it last forever

Friendship never ends

If you wanna be my lover

You have got to give 

Taking is too easy

But that's the way it is

If you take things out of context, things seem off. But listen properly and consider the whole, and you might be surprised that what you’ve never understood suddenly makes sense.

Honestly, you can’t tell someone anything if they’re not willing to listen. 

Little bit like ranting and raving about celebrities and how they live their lives. If you shave off their frills and put them in context like they were your neighbours, a lot of the things they do actually makes sense. It’s just difficult to see this when they’re so much prettier, richer and more famous than you are. 

Besides, recently I’ve started thinking perhaps one of the reasons so many of us are having such godawful days is our Karma for the gleeful way we consume the misery of celebrities. True they are serving out their karma for whatever hustle they pulled to be where they are. But perhaps some of our bad days are us serving Karma for how we treat the stories of the actual human beings behind the people that live in our phone screens.

Anyhoo.