☆ TIMESTAMPS ☆ 00:00 preview 2:07 intro 3:10 lorde's inspiration 3:47 what's a satire? 4:38 question for you! 6:15 verse 1 8:16 "dark as my roots" 13:10 "oceans have riptides" 15:02 rest of verse 1 17:27 verse 2 22:04 possible reasons lorde made this satirical 23:05 dark side of wellness culture 28:01 trends can be distractions 29:07 rest of verse 2 29:40 chorus 32:21 verse 3 36:42 verse 4 40:20 millennials 41:22 chorus part 2 44:49 last verse 46:51 closing thoughts
I didn’t know the song was satire at first listen, I interpreted ‘today it’s as dark as my roots’ as Lorde comparing her mood to ‘dark’ family roots, for example hereditary mental illness. After watching her genius video explaining this song I started interpreting it as a very surface level protagonist only being able to compare her mood to something that can be seen as superficial. Her mood being compared to her hair may indicate that she puts a lot of thought into appearance which can be a psychological fixation to deal with stress. For this character wellness trends, celebrity news mentioned later in the song and her definition of self care (to her self care may be something like tending to her appearance like purple shampoo to brighten her blonde hair) are her way of avoiding doing deep healing work like therapy. For some reason this specific line has stood out to me the most I find it very interesting.
i love your initial interpretation of "roots" referring to her family history. that has so much depth to it! i love what you're saying about it suggesting she may spend time fixating on her appearance... to the point of it being a distraction it really is an interesting lyric, can signify so many different things as you noted 😊✨
When I first heard the song I laughed at multiple points and had said out loud to my friend, "i don't think she's being serious." & we even argued for a few minutes about it. Then, like a month later or so, I saw Lorde's Genius interview and it confirmed that.
I think it’s pretty much a protagonist who is trying literally everything to make themselves happy, even if they know something isn’t working, because they’re so desperate for happiness. “tell me how I’m feeling” she just wants to feel happy and she’s using the most random thing, a mood ring, to give her guidance to feel happy
tbh i didn't get the satirical intention the first time i heard it. i did, however, got the feeling that it is when i watched the music video. it was so creepily cult-y that i was like, naah she's definitely mocking here lol
What an incredibly detailed video hello??? Where are all the views people need to find your accountt. She also explained the song herself on genius, but that was much shorter than this. Love your videos soo muchh💗
I think this is one of best lorde songs. the character is so good built that you can’t tell if its being real or based. I knew after the first line it was a satire but I have been a lorde fan long time, i know she does that since day one. kinda felt sorry when she had to explain, cause you know then it didn’t work out well, she never had to explain before. Its so lorde-coded that an outsider cant get it. But just imagine a serie with that girl in the song. Ha. Don’t worry lorde, it happened to the best writers in history. Its still there.
tbh, when i first heard i knew (or i thought) it was satire. but that was probably because, even before listening, i already had pretty strong (and similar) views on this topic, which is probably why i was able to draw the connection immediately :D
