Defending B.o.B.'s "Airplanes" and Searching for Creativity

I was scrolling through the newsfeed on Facebook this morning when I saw that one of my friends had posted a link to some guy on Youtube ranting about how the song "Airplanes" by B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore annoyed him. His main complaint is the song's overwhelming popularity, and he tries to deconstruct the lyrics to point out how "annoying" and "stupid" it is to wish upon an airplane. He made me laugh a little, but he looked like he was being overly dramatic.

I responded to the link on Facebook, and it actually turned out to be quite lengthy. I decided to re-post the Youtube link here, along with my thoughts on the matter:





I happen to really like that song! I agree with this guy... but only on the point that yes, the song is pretty much everywhere. I'm going to try to defend B.o.B. here because the song struck a chord with me.

The only reason why someone would want to pretend an airplane is a shooting star is because they've hit rock bottom. B.o.B. (before his fame and success) felt hopeless that his dream of becoming a music artist would never be realized. He was so depressed and disillusioned that yes, he wanted to make a wish on a shooting star. But since he couldn't see the stars in the night sky because he lived in the city, and the only things he could actually see in the night sky are the tail-lights of aircrafts, B.o.B. was so far gone in his despair that he wished on an airplane.

It may sound stupid, but I assure you, there's more to it than that.

And I guess that figuratively speaking, the airplane represents B.o.B.'s desire to escape from his struggles and his self-doubt. He felt that he could never have that ticket to success, and he found that because his dreams are so out of his reach, it's next to impossible. So yes, it's silly to make a wish on a boeing 747 because that wish will never come true. You could also say that it's stupid to make a wish on an actual shooting star because that never actually produces results. Or that it's stupid for someone to pray to a higher power, despite the lack of evidence that said higher power actually does exist.

But people wish and pray anyway because they feel as if their lives are out of their hands. It may seem childish, illogical, and futile to think that these wishes and prayers actually stand a chance at coming true, but people do it anyway. These behaviors -- wishing and praying -- usually reinforce other behaviors that increase the likelihood of attaining the desired goals (such as persistently submitting demos to a record company or writing query letters to literary agents in the hopes of getting discovered, despite the high probability of ending up in the slush pile).

People may relate to the song because it expresses the feeling of longing. Everyone's longed for something that they felt was impossible to attain, especially if that something is an unrealized dream to become someone who's successful in all of his or her creative endeavors. B.o.B.'s "Airplanes" was written on such a personal level that it's almost as if you're B.o.B. himself, trying to get the music producers and influential people in the music industry to give his songs just one little listen, but feeling invisible and rejected in spite of all his efforts. It stings when you've come so close to achieving your goal, but the opportunity just never turned out the results you were aiming for. And now that he's a success, B.o.B. is thankful to have finally achieved his dream. All those struggles made him the man that he is today.

Some people get so annoyed with something that infiltrates their everyday lives that they vent about their frustrations. That's fine -- everyone's entitled to the freedom of expression. The problem, however, is that people often vent about something without looking at the big picture. This person in the Youtube video, for instance, poked fun at this song and took it so literally that his belittlement of the chorus destroyed any meaning the author meant to convey. If the person in the video didn't like the song, then that's okay because that's his opinion. However, because this person took the lyrics so literally, it becomes obvious to anyone watching this video that he only took the chorus at face value and didn't at least try to dig deeper to uncover any merit that the song might still possibly hold. I can't take his opinion that seriously because he sounds like he's never actually thought the song through, and his outright refusal to at least consider the possibility that someone else might appreciate the song shows that he's biased and not open to views that may differ from his own.

Being annoyed with the song's popularity and its overwhelming salience in pop culture is one thing, but mindlessly poking fun at it without critically thinking about the possible merit and substance (in terms of figurative language, tone, and the overall meaning, etc.) that the song might actually contain is something else altogether. If the song actually lacked substance and meaning, then I would probably hold the same opinion as the person in the Youtube video. However, since there is some meaning and relatability that I can derive from the lyrics of the song, I can appreciate B.o.B.'s efforts as a recording artist. I find that he's really quite talented because of his willingness to share that personal part of his life in a song. That takes guts. For someone to just simply scrape across the surface of the chorus for the sake of belittling B.o.B.'s experiences without at least thinking about the overall meaning of the song is immature. Sorry if it sounds like I'm ranting, but I really think that the guy in that video missed the point completely.

Now if there's one song out there that annoys the freaking hell out of me, it's Usher's "OMG." I don't appreciate a song that contains gratuitous hate and excessive cussing, or a song that obnoxiously objectifies a woman's body as if the totality of a woman's worth is solely determined by men who substitute their brains with their scrotums. Usher's "OMG," in my opinion, falls under the latter category.

Just look at some of the verses in the lyrics:

"I fell in love with shawty when I seen her on the dance floor
She was dancing sexy, pop, pop, popping, dropping, dropping low
Never ever has a lady hit me on the first sight
This was something special; this was just like dynamite
Honey got a booty like pow, pow, pow
Honey got some boobies like wow, oh, wow
Girl, you know I'm lovin' your, lovin' your style...

...Fell in love with honey like my, oh, my
Honey looking wonderful; fly, so fly
Honey like a supermodel; my, oh, my
Baby, how you do that, make a grown man cry?"

Lust in and of itself is not love. If anything, the lyrics of "OMG" suggest lust at first sight, and it's obvious that the guy in the song was so at a loss for words because he's thinking with another body part rather than his brain. Is a woman only deserving of love if she's got the figure of a supermodel? Way to sound like a superficial caveman.

If a guy walks up to you and says any of those lines, you would think he's a total creep who feels as if he's entitled to sex just because he tried to flatter you with how much he thinks you're sexy. It's actually insulting if you think about it -- whether he intended it or not, he's insinuating that the only thing he cares about is getting into your pants, and he doesn't even pretend to like you for your personality. Because anything that has boobs and a butt that happens to be dancing right in front of him is the only thing that warrants his attention. And I'm sure that yes, the emotions that the guy is feeling must be like dynamite... because his efforts of schmoozing any self-respecting woman with his shitty attempt at flattery is sure to blow up right in his face.

So why are songs like "OMG" among the chart-topping songs of 2010? Simple: sex sells.

There is no substance in Usher's "OMG" -- nothing that even remotely qualifies as having depth or creativity with the use of figurative language. Instead, we get a mindless repetition of some horny creep's sexist and unimaginative wet dream. The redundancy and the uninspired diction of the lyrics grate at me so much that they make my ears bleed.

The lyrics of "Butterfly" by Jason Mraz and "Nothin On You" by B.o.B. have more creativity and meaning than "OMG" will ever have. The lyrics of these songs actually sound somewhat poetic, if you consider the diction, syntax, and use of figurative language to create imagery. Usher's "OMG" fails to use any of these. Don't get me wrong. I like some of Usher's other songs -- "Confessions Pt. 2," "Burn," and "My Boo," to name a few. But his latest singles, which have a more club-like ambiance to them, fail to impress me. They sound way too contrived.

A song doesn't need to hold a deep and profound meaning for me to appreciate or like it, but it should have something in the lyrics that shows that the artist or songwriter behind the song made a sincere effort at aiming for creativity.

Hoping and Hitting My Head Against the Wall

Well, it's been a while -- about a month -- since I last updated. Time moved on, and I didn't really notice how much closer the days were getting to the start of the new Fall semester. I'm starting classes again on the 26th, so the cycle of mindless morning routines and procrastination begins again. At least it won't be so bad. I've got two days off during the week, so maybe I can use some of that time to watch the TV shows that I'm going to have to DVR throughout the semester. I hope I can also use my free days to grab a cup of coffee with some friends that I haven't seen in a long time.

I still feel sort of guilty over not having spent time with some of my high school buddies this summer, since I'm either usually swamped with chores or my mother just won't let me go out at night. This semester I've really got to get started on planning for grad school and applying for internships. I haven't the slightest idea how to properly create a resume, since I've never actually had a job before. I mean, there was that one internship I had at the Queens district attorney's office about four years ago, but I was only there for a couple of weeks before my junior year of high school. I haven't had any other internships or work experiences since then. Unless you count the times when my mother asked me to type up her paperwork for her or the times when my dad asked me to e-mail some documents to one of his clients. I just... I don't know.

I don't know what to put on my resume.

That scares me. I'm never afraid to write an essay, or to submit my poems to a school literary magazine, or to post my thoughts to the Internet for the world to read. What I'm most afraid to write is my own resume. The main problem is that I don't think I have anything really worthwhile to put down.

Sure, there's that internship from four years ago. And the fact that I've taken leadership roles in the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls for the past couple of years. But I don't know what else I should put down, since I've had no job experience whatsoever. People look at me like I'm a gorgon or something whenever I even mention Rainbow, and they continue to do so even after I try explaining to them that it's a Masonic youth organization that shows girls how to be leaders in their communities and raise money and awareness for charities. Whenever that happens, I start to wonder if I'm even making sense anymore.

You're probably reading this right now, thinking that I'm sweating over nothing. You're right. I need to get over this ridiculous anxiety.

But then I get to thinking that maybe I have some sort of fear of growing up. The quick passage of time freaks me out. It's not that I'm afraid of getting older -- I'm not vain. It's more of the idea of stepping up to shoulder the burden of real-world responsibilties, like getting a job, paying for my grad school tuition, helping pay for my sister's undergrad tuition, moving out when I'm finally stable on my own feet. I just wish that the days would go by slightly slower so that I can take a breath as I keep track of everything going on in my life.

I'm two decades old already, and I have no idea what to do with the rest of my life besides write my stories. That novel I've been working on is nowhere even close to half-way done. That was actually my goal at the beginning of the summer: to get to the half-way mark by mid-August. But instead, what did I do?

Edit like crazy and write myself into corners. I'm still trying to crawl my way out of the plot holes and fill them in with more substance by coming up with ways I can torture my whiny protagonist. I noticed that I get super cranky when I have the burning itch to write but can't produce the results that I want. Writer's block isn't the problem. It's trying to find a clear and strong way to put all my ideas into words -- but never actually finding it -- that makes me want to hit my head against the wall.

With all the upcoming stress from the new semester, I just hope I can still hold on to a thread of tranquility. Good luck to anyone else who might need it. I sure as hell need all the luck I can get.

P.S. I'll try to post a review of Wuthering Heights next time. (SPOILER ALERT!: Is it bad that I only actually started liking the story after Catherine died?)

P.P.S. My family and I are kind of -- well, okay, very -- obsessed with the dramas on TFC (the Filipino Channel). We've been watching TFC all summer. One thing I've noticed -- WHAT IS THE OBSESSION WITH WHITENESS? I mean, really. Is it so bad to have a dark complexion? Why should one's complexion matter when it comes to judging a person? More on this in another post.