New Songs Vs. Old Songs

“Because maybe, you’re gonna be the one that saves me. And after all, you’re my wonderwall,” from the famous song Wonderwall, by Oasis. These are the type of lyrics that songs used to have meaning. Since the 2000’s songs have completely lost their meaning, songs from the 70’s through the 90’s used to have a story behind them. The songs now days are like the economy, all downhill.


Back in the day, around the time when most of RHS was born, 1990’s, there were singles being put out by artist such as, Nirvana to The Goo Goo Dolls. Though each has its own style, each song also had a meaning even if the listener didn’t know that’s what they were singing along to in the radio.

“Jeremy spoke in class today, clearly I remember, pickin’ on the boy,” one of the most meaningful songs of the 90’s seems to be Jeremy by Pearl Jam. This song comes from a true story about a boy named Jeremy Delle who was 16 years old; he killed himself in front of his English class as revenge on the students who tormented him at his school in Texas.

“I don’t ever wanna feel like I did that day, take me to the place I love,” most people have probably heard this song Under the Bridge by the hit group Red Hot Chili Peppers When listening to the lyrics you never would guess that this song is about the lead singer when he was a heroin addict, it talks about his loneliness that came along with his addiction. The bridge that he talks about in the song is a place where he would sometimes go to buy drugs and to get high.

“Shorty sent a twit pic sayin come and get this, l-o-l smiley face l-o-l smiley face,” after the 90’s music just started to regress into songs like You’re a jerk, Crank the (soulja boy), and Drop it Likes it’s Hot. These songs are completely meaningless, oh let’s talk about moving your butt down to the dance floor and moving from one city to the other, wow there’s an exciting song! If you turn on the radio all you here is “soulja boy up in this hoe, watch me crank it, watch me roll,” I bet if you asked the student body at RHS that not even half of them would know what the song is even about. But I will admit that some newer songs do have meaningful lyrics, such as songs like Watcha Say, and Love Drunk. Both of these songs are about relationships in which everyone can relate to at one time.

Songs used to have meaning; they were something that everyone could relate to: break-ups, finding love, and that person who saves you from yourself. Lyrics that not only meant something to the writer but to the people that listened and related to the music. Whatever happened to the music that got you through all of the hard times, 2000 was the year when the music died.

-Jessica Wise