Paper Planes

I have listened to the song “Paper Planes” numerous times and have never really thought what the lyrics were about.  It is so easy to dance in the car with your friends to a song and have no idea what the heck you are singing about, just like it is easy to ignore the bad things around you and only focus on the good things.  I personally love finding meanings to song lyrics and researching them online because lyrics are like poems in the sense that there are many different ways you can interpret them.  The first time I really thought about the deeper meaning of this popular song was when I saw it being played in the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”.  Because the movie is more serious and dramatic, it makes the audience consider what the song lyrics really mean.  In the movie, you see the Indian children riding a train to different cities and cheating people out of their money by stealing and making up any job they can find.  This makes sense after paying attention to the lyrics and watching the video, because you see the singer MIA constantly handling money.  MIA sings about how she is a hustler, if you need a visa- she’s got it, and about shooting people to take their money.

The target audience is undeniably Americans in this video, but most prominently children.  The video uses flashes of American buildings, signs, and people.  The voices of the little kids in the background followed by gunshots and the sound of the cash register ringing make you think about the message this song is trying to send out.  Usually gunshots have a negative connotation and the sound of a cash register has a positive one that reminds us of money and shopping.  Consumerism is a huge problem in the United States, and the gunshots suggest that people will literally kill for cash.  Because there are little kids singing the chorus in the background, it shows that even little kids are obsessed with getting money any way they can.  The sound effects are both catchy and disturbing once you think about it.  How did we allow our culture to be so consumed with wealth that we would literally kill another human being or hustle drugs in order to obtain it?  There are drug issues even at the elementary schools, there are kids bringing weapons and guns to school, and numerous child thieves that steal just for fun.  At first, I liked this song because I thought it was interesting and catchy and fun to sing a long to.  After looking deeper into the lyrics, I think that it really does say a lot about American society and how we will abandon our dignity and turn against laws just to make a few extra dollars.

The wide variety of settings that this song is presented in makes it an effective argument.  It has been played on the radio, made into a music video, and featured in the popular film “Slumdog Millionaire”.  The music video and appearance in a feature film make the audience think about the lyrics in context to how it applies to the individual and American society.  The sound effects used in the song also make the audience really listen to what MIA is saying in her song.

This song “Lie In Our Graves” by Dave Matthews does not have a music video because most of his music is performed live.  The major argument in this video is that we should not wait until we are done with our lives to think about all that we have missed out on.  Basically- he is telling us to live our lives to the fullest.  Dave Matthews challenges us to go out and experience new things without wondering what could’ve been.  I think his argument is that too many people live their lives without actually LIVING.

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