All I Can Do is Write a Song For You

My favorite song by Rufus Wainwright is "Natasha." Here's a link to the lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/rufuswainwright/natasha.html

I think the meaning goes into why he loves her and his confusion surrounding their love--love makes him vulnerable, so the entire situation is scary. He says he waits and swallows catty remarks, and I think that goes along with how people gossip and how he and the girl fight, and everything mean that's said. He says "I'm happy that you really care/ but do you really know/ how scary/ this is for you and is for me/" and it just shows that he feels like she doesn't understand his fear.

I love these lyrics. They are about love, but not from a gushy point of view as much as an "oooh my god what do i do?" point of view. I think that generally I have a pretty chilled out personality, and the song is calm and while the lyrics have a scared tone, they aren't frantic, just questioning. I also find the lyrics very easy to relate to--any sort of relationship can be confusing because you don't know what the other person is thinking, and it's kind of a paradox: fear love and love love. I know this all sounds totally cliche, but I guess my own confusing experiences as well as the idea of the paradox, along with the really soothing background, are what drew me to the song.

Oh What A World

I love Rufus Wainwright, but I don't think he necessarily represents the values of my generation, partially because he's not remotely a part of it, and he's also not part of the current popular music scene. Wainwright's songs combine a wide variety, mainly reflecting opera, show tunes, classical piano, and older pop music from the 1930's. His songs are mostly about love, although some are about odd experiences with drugs, specific needs, and his family. I guess to an extent he represents our values--love is pretty common, most of us have faced family problems, etc--but he doesn't really do it in a way that highlights what kids of our generation are going through. His songs are more....experienced sounding, I guess. He has this one song, "Vibrate," that's about being a little outdated. It's like a song looking at today's values as opposed to being a part of them.

Thank you, thank you very much

It's weird that Elvis was a revolutionary artist and that the music we listen to today branched from stuff he did, because I don't really consider any of today's music "revolutionary." Like it kind of seems like it's all been done. I mean with every decade there's sort of a new style, but I feel like now all the originality is gone. It was clearly a huge deal when Elvis shook his hips, super immodest and scandalous, and today's dancing isn't considered remotely modest, but what Elvis did is nothing. It's like everything has been pushed as far as it can. Before the 2000's there was already rock, pop, hip hop, electronic, r&b, country, alternative, etc. Every category has already been established. I guess to me it seems like music has nowhere else to go. I still love it though!