Results for “parody of pop romance”

Songs

La La Love You

Pixies

A deliberately dumb, deadpan pastiche of teen pop-song sincerity, sung by drummer David Lovering rather than the band's usual…

parody of pop romance adolescent sexuality irony through simplicity

Superheroes

Ethan Whitney

This is a straightforward pop declaration of devotion that borrows superhero mythology to dress up a fairly conventional promise…

devotion and support escapism fantasy of destiny

Treat Her Like a Lady

The Temptations

A mid-80s Temptations single that pitches courtly-gentleman romance as a self-help pitch, with the narrator cataloguing small…

traditional courtship gender roles nostalgia for inherited values

California Sun

Ramones

This is the Ramones' cover of a 1964 surf-pop nugget, stripped down and sped up into a blast of bubblegum escapism. It's not a…

escapism idealized geography youthful pleasure-seeking

Kool Thing

Sonic Youth

Kim Gordon plays a seductive, sardonic call-and-response with a fetishized male icon, using come-ons and spoken interruptions to…

fetishization of Black masculinity gender and power celebrity worship

Yesterday

Donny Hathaway

This is a live soul reinterpretation of the Beatles standard, in which Donny Hathaway strips the song of its chamber-pop…

loss and regret nostalgia as refuge romantic bewilderment

Damaged Goods

Gang of Four

Gang of Four fuse a breakup song with the language of consumer transaction, treating a relationship as a defective purchase to…

commodification of relationships desire versus love alienation under capitalism

Bizarre Love Triangle

New Order

A euphoric synth-pop track built on lyrics of paralysis and unspoken feeling: the narrator is caught between infatuation and…

romantic paralysis emotional confusion fear of vulnerability

Stay Up Late

Talking Heads

A family gathers around a newborn and, with a mix of adoration and casual selfishness, decides to keep waking him up because…

infantilization and possession domestic joy selfishness disguised as love

Generals and Majors

XTC

A jaunty, whistle-inflected pop song that uses upbeat melody as a Trojan horse for a satire of military brass hungry for…

militarism and glorification of war irony between form and content boredom and status anxiety among the powerful

Freeway of Love

Aretha Franklin

This is a driving-metaphor party song: sex and romance recast as a joyride down an open highway in a pink Cadillac. It's…

romantic/sexual liberation escape and momentum playfulness and flirtation

There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

The Smiths

A speaker without a home begs to be driven anywhere, anywhere at all, and finds in the prospect of a fatal car crash not tragedy…

homelessness and displacement unrequited or unspoken love romanticized death

In My Life

The Beatles

A meditation on memory that moves from cataloguing remembered places and people to a declaration of present love, arguing that…

memory and nostalgia mortality the persistence of the past

Baby, This Love I Have

Minnie Riperton

A love song built around the anxiety of being misunderstood -- the singer insists that her feelings are genuine even if her…

communication and its failure reassurance devotion

Veronica

Elvis Costello

A deceptively bouncy pop song about an elderly woman lost inside dementia, watched by relatives and caregivers who can no longer…

aging and memory loss identity erasure institutional care/neglect

Hush

Deep Purple

This is a cover of Joe South's garage-pop original, reworked by Deep Purple into a driving rock jam built around a simple…

obsessive infatuation powerlessness in love desire vs. self-control

Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely

Hüsker Dü

A breakup song built entirely around avoidance—the narrator insists he doesn't want updates on an ex-partner's emotional state,…

denial and self-deception emotional exhaustion codependency

Denis

Blondie

"Denis" is a girl-group pastiche dressed up in new wave attitude: a breathless, repetitive crush song built almost entirely…

infatuation teenage devotion nostalgia/pastiche

Can't Take My Eyes Off of You (I Love You Baby)

Lauryn Hill

This is Lauryn Hill's faithful cover of the 1967 Frankie Valli pop standard, tucked into The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill as a…

romantic infatuation gratitude vulnerability

Fight the Power

Public Enemy

A protest anthem built as a dance record: Chuck D argues that political consciousness and Black pride are things you build in…

Black pride and self-definition institutional racism who gets to be a national hero

God Only Knows

The Beach Boys

A love song that opens by admitting its own limits "" the singer won't promise permanence "" and then spends the rest of its…

conditional devotion dependence and identity uncertainty as a form of honesty