Results for “perverse pride”

Songs

A Song from Under the Floorboards

Magazine

A first-person monologue delivered from a position of self-declared abjection, in which the speaker inventories his own…

self-loathing as identity perverse pride alienation

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

Doin' Time

Lana Del Rey

This is Lana Del Rey's faithful, lightly reworked cover of Sublime's 1996 track, itself a reggae-inflected reimagining of the…

betrayal and possessiveness local pride and belonging romantic disillusionment

Proud to Be Black

Run-DMC

A blunt, celebratory statement of Black pride built from direct proclamation, historical name-checking, and defiant refusal of…

Black pride and self-affirmation historical memory and education defiance against oppression

Fight the Power (From "Do The Right Thing" Soundtrack)

Public Enemy

A rallying anthem built on funk breaks and blunt sloganeering, the track argues that Black cultural pride and outright refusal…

Black pride and self-determination media and cultural gatekeeping collective action versus passivity

Represent

Weezer

A brash sports-anthem pep talk built for the 2010 World Cup, 'Represent' trades Weezer's usual self-deprecation for…

competition and pride integrity versus winning family and reputation

Blindness

The Fall

This is a plainspoken cautionary tale about romantic self-deception: a man ignores his own instincts, falls hard for a woman who…

self-deception romantic ruin pride and consequence

Mr. Big

Free

A blues-rock warning shot aimed at a rival encroaching on the narrator's relationship. It's less a fully worked lyric than a…

jealousy and possessiveness masculine pride confrontation

Stackolee

Mississippi John Hurt

Mississippi John Hurt's version of the Stagolee legend strips the story down to its bare bones: a hat, a gun, a killing, and an…

violence and its casualness justice and law folk mythology

Foolish Heart

Alison Krauss

A young narrator rehearses her own exit from a doomed relationship, arguing herself into leaving before she can be hurt again.…

self-protection versus vulnerability romantic disillusionment pride as armor

The Next Episode

Dr. Dre

A West Coast victory-lap posse cut in which Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg reassert their partnership and their region's dominance,…

regional pride hedonism and ritual (weed, cars, drinking) reunion/partnership

Above And Beyond (The Call Of Love)

Rodney Crowell

A plainspoken proposal song built almost entirely around one repeated pledge: that devotion, not money, will be the measure of a…

romantic devotion class and money courtship and destiny

Friday

Ice Cube

This is Ice Cube's contribution to the 'Friday' soundtrack lineage, a loosely structured verse-by-verse tour of a South Central…

neighborhood pride and territoriality hedonism as escape normalized violence

Dublin Blues

Guy Clark

Guy Clark builds a heartbroken travelogue out of restlessness, cataloguing cities and cultural landmarks as a way of avoiding…

heartbreak and longing restlessness and travel as avoidance pride versus vulnerability

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

In Your Eyes

Peter Gabriel

A love song that treats romantic devotion as a form of spiritual salvation, where another person's gaze becomes the only stable…

romantic devotion as salvation spiritual longing expressed through eros restlessness and escape

Theme from "the Dukes of Hazzard (Good Ol' Boys)"

Waylon Jennings

This is a theme song that doubles as a character sketch and a wink at its own singer, framing rural outlaws as harmless folk…

rural outlaw mythology folk-hero framing of crime Southern identity and pride

When It Rain

Danny Brown

A relentless portrait of Detroit street violence set to a hyper-fast, footwork-inspired beat, where the manic tempo and…

urban poverty and survival violence and fatalism addiction as coping mechanism

409

The Beach Boys

An early Beach Boys car song that treats a Chevrolet engine like a lover and a racehorse at once, built almost entirely on chant…

car culture masculine pride and status consumerism/saving toward a goal

Superwoman

Gladys Knight

Gladys Knight catalogs the domestic labor of a woman keeping a household running while her partner grows cold and indifferent,…

emotional labor and domestic care withheld affection self-respect and pride

Fight the Power

Public Enemy

A dense, funk-driven manifesto that treats mainstream American culture's chosen icons as instruments of erasure, demanding Black…

institutional racism Black pride and self-determination media and cultural gatekeeping

All Under One Roof Raving

Jamie xx

A dance-floor chant built from a handful of vocal samples looped and rearranged rather than a lyric in any conventional sense.…

collective identity cultural pride/nationalism (subcultural) defiance

Not Like Us

Kendrick Lamar

A West Coast diss track that turns a specific rap beef into a broader indictment of cultural appropriation, exploitation, and…

cultural authenticity vs. appropriation predatory behavior and exploitation regional pride (West Coast/Compton)

Lost Your Head Blues

Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith delivers a blues complaint about a lover who has gotten money and forgotten who stood by him when he had none. It's…

betrayal after success female self-respect economic power shifting a relationship

I'm Still Standing

Elton John

A breakup anthem built entirely around defiant repetition, where the narrator addresses an ex directly to declare emotional…

resilience revenge through self-sufficiency emotional survival

The Weekend

SZA

SZA casts herself as the mistress in a triangle and refuses the shame the role usually carries, framing her position as a…

infidelity and complicity self-worth versus desire possession and comparison

Hatred (A Duet)

The Kinks

A bitter breakup song that refuses reconciliation and instead perversely celebrates mutual loathing as the one stable thing left…

failed reconciliation toxic codependency cynicism about peace and progress

Don't Touch My Hair

Solange

Solange turns a simple bodily boundary into a statement about Black identity, autonomy, and the exhaustion of having one's body…

bodily autonomy Black identity and hair politics boundary-setting

Afro-Blue

Abbey Lincoln

Oscar Brown Jr.'s lyric to Mongo Santamaría's polyrhythmic tune turns a percussion pattern into a vision of ancestral homeland…

ancestral memory and diaspora eroticism as metaphor for connection to homeland Black beauty and self-affirmation