Recently I’ve re-awakened my love for a certain singer/song-writer Stromae, who writes songs unlike the ‘cliché’ love songs. As he says in an interview, he likes singing about sad things in a cheerful composition. ‘It is not only about having fun or only sadness, it’s both at the same time,’ it is like life. Even though his songs are in French, you can still feel happiness and melancholy, as Stromae says.
His very popular song ‘papaoutai’ is, at the same time, the happiest and saddest songs I’ve ever heard. It’s so upbeat, but as you look into its lyrics and music video, that sense of melancholy comes creeping in. The repetition of the line:
which translates to ‘where are you? papa, where are you? …. where are you, where are you, papa?’ really emphasises his desperation for his father. Not only that, but the symbolic use of the father being like a mannequin in the video, unmoving, refers back to the thought i had before about taxidermy, being stuck in time.
(Where is your papa? tell me, where is your papa? Even without talking to him, he knows whats wrong. Ah, dear papa! tell me where you’re hiding!’)
This part is almost like he is stepping back from another perspective or point in time and asking his child self where his father is. I suppose it is similar to what I am doing in this project now. Having an absent father is one of the factors that caused some unease in childhood.
Another gifted songwriter is Adam Young, whose lyrics are known to be very poetic but also have a melancholy undertone to it. He said himself, that he likes to contrast sad lyrics to happy tracks, much like Stromae. One of his most famous projects is Owl city, where his most poetic songs come into view. Below are some lyrics that follow a very cheerful melody.
I wanted to note these two influences down as they are helping me to think more about the concept of presenting something sad in a more care-free, happy way. Perhaps I could implement this by painting in a light color palette or medium, for example. I’m very interested in the power of words, which is why I like to look into lyrics as they are presented in a different way altogether, in a melody.