Interpreting my current 5 favorite songs

Time To Pretend by MGMT

I think this song captures the tension between the destructive, hedonistic fun of young adulthood and the idyllic childhood that preceded it. It justifies and perhaps glorifies a party lifestyle, fatalistically accepting the consequences of making the "decision to live fast and die young" because not doing so would result in an even worse fate - a life that centers around a boring, unhappy, meaningless "jobs in offices" and "wak[ing] up for the morning commute." Yet, it recognizes the costs of this joyful burnout - innocence and pleasure in simple things fade, family ties strain, and winding up "chok[ing] on...vomit and that will be the end."

Fireflies by Owl City

This song is a surreal reminiscence on childhood. It describes fantastic visions which are embodied in the music video by childhood toys coming to life, symbolizing the imaginative fantasies of childhood that are lost as we grow into adults. There is a desire to hold onto this time, articulated as the desire for the "world turn slowly." This song describes remembering and daydreaming, but it places this activity in a less happy setting - the narrator is inventing fireflies as he lays in bed unable to sleep, trying to believe in the scraps of bursting dreams that he's held onto.

Punk Rock Princess by Something Corporate

This song expresses romantic wishful thinking. The singer hopes for a girl to be his Punk Rock Princess, speaking of all the different ways they would be counterparts to each other. He wants to be her "first real heartache" and share intimate conversations with her about "why [she] just [doesn't] fit in and how [she's] gonna be somethin'" But she seems to be either unaware or rejecting of his desires, because he portrays her as "wonder[ing] if [she]should" and at the end as "only burning [his] friendship." It's a ballad about the daydreams of being with someone that may never be realized even though they're beautiful in your head.

Five Minutes to Midnight by Boys Like Girls

This song is about the hookup that the singer doesn't want to end that night. The girl is portrayed as his Cinderella, who is perfect but possibly fleeting if the opportunity is missed, when the narrator asks "And when the clock strikes twelve/Will you find another party?/Go kiss and tell?" It's a real possibility, because he has no guarantee. But he clearly wants her to stay, as he continues: "'Cause you know I never will/I think we should strike a match/We'll hold it to the wind to/See how long it lasts/We can make the time stand still." He wants to stop time, to savor this one night and hopefully turn it into something more. He knows time is running out, so he's pouring out his feelings in hope of seeing her again. He wants her to know that he's not selling her some "fiction or storyline" but that he "needs [her] for more than just tonight."

We Are Nowhere And It's Now by Bright Eyes

I feel like this song has so many layers it needs to be interpreted on a line-by-line basis. The lines at the beginning seem to be exposing the contradictions in the way we live. He lampoons the pursuit of alcoholic oblivion, and cynical atheism which covers a longing for salvation. He points out that we're living under dead stars, but even then, they're still bright - this symbolizes the way that even if life is meaningless (and God is dead) there's still a kernel of meaning, still a breath left in the old dream of God, that set everything into motion in the first place. Our current place may be nowhere, and it may be alienating, but we should still hold onto faith for good luck. Also, the reference to yellow birds was explained in this comment by plasticflowers on the linked website: "They used to send canaries (which are yellow. And birds.) down the mines to find out if there was a lack of oxygen or any other dangerous gases - if the canary died, then they knew that something was wrong, and so they didn't send the humans down. So, "did you forget that yellow bird?" - did you forget to send the bird down first, to check if the coast was clear? Did you just plunge ahead and find out too late that there was danger awaiting you?"

Farmville & Other Facebook Games

The mainstream media often covers trends relating to Facebook, but the coverage of the website sometimes fails to grasp exactly why the site is so popular for young people. One of the newest, and least-explored aspects of the Facebook environment is the mini-games that have been taking Facebookers by storm. From Mafia Wars to Cafe World, Facebook provides a plethora of addicting games for any homework-shirking young person to screw around with. But why, exactly, are these games so popular, and how have they affected the Facebook social scene?

The games are popular because they follow a model which is suited to hooking the attention of the human brain. As is explained in the book Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson, modern video games are set up to trigger the reward system in our brains. If you go up a level, you get rewarded. If you accomplish a task, you get rewarded. This applies to Facebook games like Farmville, where you are rewarded for a variety of tasks: you get rewarded with a virtual coin raffle for logging on each day; you get rewarded for planting crops and buying buildings by gaining experience points; you get rewarded with coins for harvesting crops, animals, and trees; you get rewarded for sending gifts to your friends because they usually send one back; you get rewarded for inviting friends to join the game because it increases the number of neighbors you get; you get rewarded for being on Facebook constantly when you see a "lost animal" up for adoption in your newsfeed; you get ribbons (which usually come with both coins and experience points) for mastering diverse aspects of the game; and you get rewarded for gaining experience points by gaining levels, which allows the unlocking additional crops and features as well as granting you additional coins and often gifts. This means you are rewarded for each increasing level of obsession with the game - it feels like you are accomplishing something when you earn things on a game like Farmville, so it spurs you to further achievement. This feels fun because it releases feel-good chemicals in the brain, so people play more and more. They also operate in real-time, encouraging frequent (at least daily) engagement.

The games are also varied, providing multiple options for different people to choose the games that resonate with them. For example, Farmville and Mafia Wars represent two distinct aesthetics and perhaps ethics for people to choose from. Farmville is peaceful, allowing people to grow and build, creating their own dream farm. The graphics are cutesy, with brightly colored trees and animated, sparkling crops. The horrifying nature of modern industrial agriculture is nowhere to be found, and the "harvesting" animals means collecting cute-sounding products from them (such as "truffles" from pigs and "yarn" from cats) rather than slaughtering them. Farmville represents our pastoral fantasies; it is the dream of an idyllic rural home. Mafia Wars sits at the other end of the spectrum, allowing players to engage in glamorous versions of traditional criminal and legal-but-disreputable rackets. Players run strip clubs and underground poker rings, and collect guns. This gangster image represents the fantasy of the underworld, with all of the excitement of what's forbidden by traditional society. Vampire Wars operates on a similar theme, with the added allure of the recently-popularized undead.

The game also builds on the existing social network of Facebook, but sometimes in contrary ways. First, it expands how much the social network is used. Those random people that you never used to talk to on Facebook? They're suddenly perfect people to pester with Farmville gift requests and Mafia Wars invites - because if they say yes, you're reconnected, and if they say no, you probably don't really care anyways. Second, shared obsessions give people something in common and something to talk about. Facebook friends you're already close to are brought closer as you send each other daily presents in Facebook applications. However, while these games may bind some people closer, it also sparks divisiveness. People who don't play the game are annoyed by the constant newsfeed spam. When the games are brought up in conversation, they are demeaned due to their trivial nature. Everything that causes the games to provoke interaction is also a source of irriation for those who have no desire to interact with the game in question.

Facebook games are a trivial aspect of culture, but no less deserving of analysis because they are a part of our culture.