Results for “courtship as narrative”

Songs

What's on Your Mind?

Eric B. & Rakim

A narrative rap about a chance subway meeting that develops into a courtship built on mental rather than purely physical…

courtship as narrative mind versus body urban geography and transit

What's on Your Mind?

Eric B.

A New York subway pickup evolves into a slow-building courtship narrative, told from the perspective of a smooth-talking…

courtship and seduction urban geography as narrative backdrop mind versus body

When the Love Light Starts Shining Through His Eyes

The Supremes

An early Supremes single that plays out a small courtship drama in miniature: a woman rebuffs a suitor's advances, only to be…

courtship and resistance non-verbal communication gendered power in romance

Fly Me to the Moon

Frank Sinatra

A love song that uses cosmic imagery as an elaborate courtship metaphor, translating grand celestial longing into the plainest…

romantic devotion longing and desire the vastness of space as metaphor for feeling

She's Not There

The Zombies

A minor-key pop song built on a contradiction: the narrator lavishes sensory detail on a woman while insisting, flatly, that she…

romantic disillusionment denial unreliable narration

Love Vigilantes

New Order

A soldier narrates his homecoming from war in earnest, patriotic terms, only for the song to reveal in its final verse that he…

war and its human cost irony of patriotism death and denial

Billie Jean

Michael Jackson

A first-person account of a man accused of fathering a child by a woman he insists was never his lover, told as a paranoid,…

paranoia and fame denial and guilt seduction and manipulation

Little Girl

Muddy Waters

A raw, low-slung blues courtship number in which the narrator badgers a woman with flirtatious questions, building desire…

flirtation and pursuit sensual desire Southern imagery

Treat Her Like a Lady

The Temptations

A mid-80s Temptations single that reworks old-fashioned courtship etiquette into a slick, upbeat pitch. The narrator presents…

chivalry and gender roles nostalgia for traditional courtship masculine self-presentation

Greenman

XTC

A hymn-like invitation to submit to an ancient nature spirit, framed as both courtship and worship. XTC build the song out of…

paganism vs. Christianity nature as deity surrender and devotion

willow

Taylor Swift

willow is a courtship song that frames romantic surrender as both fate and craft, using water and tree imagery to describe a…

romantic fate versus choice yielding as strength seduction and manipulation

Oo-De-Lally (From "Robin Hood")

Roger Miller

A breezy narrative song from Disney's animated Robin Hood, built on the folk-troubadour convention of a wandering minstrel…

friendship carefree adventure danger treated lightly

Ms. Fat Booty

Mos Def

A narrative rap unfolding like a short film in three scenes, tracking a pursuit-and-fallout romance with a woman the narrator…

desire versus discernment the performance of masculinity and vulnerability cynicism eroded by intimacy

Heavenly

The Temptations

A smooth soul plea in which a narrator tries to talk a wounded woman out of her cynicism about love, positioning himself as…

persuasion and courtship healing after heartbreak idealization of love

Shake It Off

Taylor Swift

A pop anthem built entirely on deflecting criticism: the narrator catalogues the gossip aimed at her, then refuses to engage…

public scrutiny self-image vs. reputation resilience as performance

Oh Yeah!

Bill Withers

A late-career Bill Withers song that trades the wary, weathered voice of his earlier work for uncomplicated romantic…

romantic contentment courtship and commitment simplicity of feeling

The First Noel

Emmylou Harris

This is a straightforward reading of the traditional English carol, with Emmylou Harris's plainspoken vocal treating the…

nativity narrative revelation and light humility of shepherds

All Right Now (Single)

Free

A blues-rock pickup story stripped to its essentials: a street encounter, a home invitation, a moment of resistance, and a…

seduction and courtship male bravado reassurance versus persuasion

Recurring

Bonobo

"Recurring" is an instrumental mood piece from Bonobo's Days to Come, built on looping samples, muted percussion, and layered…

repetition memory cyclical time

I Love L.A.

Randy Newman

A booming, boosterish anthem that turns out to be a satire of boosterism itself: the narrator's civic pride is so shallow and…

civic pride as delusion class blindness American boosterism

Mister Holland

Gregory Porter

A young Black narrator recalls being welcomed into a white family's home to court their daughter, and the song turns that memory…

race and acceptance interracial courtship childhood innocence vs. adult awareness

Coffin Nails

MF DOOM

Coffin Nails is an instrumental beat from MF DOOM's Special Herbs series, the long-running set of production-only tracks he…

mortality vice and self-destruction underground hip-hop craft

Ghosts

Laura Marling

A song about romantic damage told through a slippage between third and first person: a man presents a new lover with the…

emotional baggage fear of vulnerability unreliable narration

Jim Cain

Bill Callahan

A restless, aphoristic meditation on identity and self-narration, borrowing its title's initials to nod toward the noir novelist…

self-mythology impermanence of mood the unreliability of narrative

In the Mood

Talib Kweli

A loose-limbed party track built around braggadocio and seduction, where Talib Kweli shifts between flirtatious come-ons, boasts…

seduction and courtship artistic superiority authenticity vs. performance

California Roll

Snoop Dogg

A breezy, sun-drenched ode to Los Angeles life that runs its title's double meaning -- rolling a joint and 'going with the flow'…

California/L.A. mythology cannabis culture seduction and courtship

Funeral

Phoebe Bridgers

A young singer confronts grief secondhand—preparing to sing at a funeral for a peer—while narrating her own chronic depression…

depression grief and guilt dissociation

Music

Madonna

A stripped-down dancefloor manifesto that treats music itself as the subject and the plot: a DJ is addressed, a beat drops, and…

collective euphoria social leveling through dance escapism/presentness

Bedbugs and Ballyhoo

Echo & the Bunnymen

This is a self-titled album's late, throwaway-sounding track built almost entirely from paired nouns and nonsense refrains…

nonsense/wordplay power and submission repetition as meaning

Figaro

Madvillain

A dense, breathless verse from MF Doom that piles up boasts, jokes, and half-narratives without ever settling into a single…

braggadocio wordplay for its own sake sexual innuendo

Two Left Feet

Richard Thompson

A jaunty novelty jump-blues number in which a narrator affectionately but insistently mocks his partner's terrible dancing,…

comic frustration in love physical imperfection as running gag performance and public embarrassment

Shut Off the Light

Betty Davis

A stripped-down, funk-driven come-on that turns a single domestic gesture into a sustained act of seduction and command. Betty…

sexual agency and command impatience and desire withholding/isolation from outside intrusion

Nosferatu Man

Slint

Slint's "Nosferatu Man" builds a fractured gothic fairy tale around a narrator who casts himself as royalty and monster in the…

predation disguised as romance domestic entrapment self-mythologizing delusion

After the Dance (Vocal)

Marvin Gaye

A slow-burning seduction built almost entirely on repetition, this track turns a dancefloor encounter into a mantra of desire.…

seduction and pursuit dance as courtship ritual instant attraction

So Fresh, So Clean

OutKast

A hook-driven strut through vintage cars, retro cool, and pickup lines, where the chorus's braggadocio functions less as…

vanity and self-presentation seduction and courtship rituals nostalgia for Black pop-culture iconography

Dirty Boots

Sonic Youth

A hazy, half-narrated scene of teenage nightlife and adolescent desire, rendered in fragments rather than a coherent story.…

adolescent restlessness sexual awakening ritual and superstition

Kiara

Bonobo

"Kiara" is an instrumental centerpiece from Bonobo's Black Sands, built on a slow-blooming string arrangement, hand percussion,…

atmosphere and mood over narrative organic vs. electronic texture cinematic scale

Glasgow Peggy

Ewan MacColl

A traditional Scots ballad about a Highland suitor who abducts a lowland merchant's daughter, riding off despite her father's…

class and status anxiety elopement and abduction as courtship loyalty tested by hardship

In Love With You

Erykah Badu

A hypnotic, mantra-like love song built almost entirely on the repeated declaration of its title, with verses that swap…

romantic devotion mutual vulnerability indifference to outside judgment

Winter Wonderland / Sleigh Ride

Dolly Parton

This is a medley of two Christmas standards, spliced together into one seasonal set piece rather than an original composition.…

courtship and domestic fantasy seasonal ritual nostalgia