"So you girls remember a while back when we were talkin' about songs that don't mean what we think they mean?"
The girls all looked at Rainbow Dash, who seemed unusually exasperated as she sat down on the plinth by the portal, arms crossed and a sour expression on her face. "Yeah, it was when you had that song from The Lego Movie as your ringtone, right?" Sunset asked. "What about it?"
Rainbow grimaced. "My dad's latched onto this one song..."
* * * * *
"Some day, I'll wear...pajamas in the dayTIME!" Bow Hothoof crooned chipperly as he wandered around the house oiling door hinges and tightening loose screws.
As he passed by Rainbow's room, she looked up from her tablet with an annoyed groan. "Will ya give it a rest with that song, Dad?"
"No can do, hon!" Bow said with a grin. "You know I'm taking early retirement next week! I can't wait! This song is so what I'm gonna do! Well, except for the T.S. Eliot part. I'd rather read the sports page. But just sitting around drinking coffee and reading the paper, not changing out of my jammies all day? Yeah, that sounds like the life for me..."
Rainbow gave him a flat stare. "Dad? Have...have you listened to any of the words to that song except the chorus? I mean, really listened?"
Bow tilted his head and hummed. "Nah, not really," he said. "I just like that dude's deep voice, and I really dig that chorus! Soooome daaay, I'll have—"
Rainbow groaned and slammed her face into her open palm.
* * * * *
"And it's like, all he cares about is the part that sounds like his ideal retirement, but the rest of the song's just humming noise to him, and it bugs the crap outta me!" Rainbow ranted.
The other girls frowned. "Okay," Sunset said, "and what's the song really about? Because I've honestly never heard of it."
"I haven't either," Fluttershy said, looking it up on her phone. "Oh wow, no wonder. It's really, really old."
Twilight Sparkle frowned. "It's not that old," she said as she searched the song as well. "I mean, sure, none of us were even born yet when it came out, but..."
"Oh wow, that's not a happy song at all," Pinkie said, her curls deflating as she took out her earbuds. "I mean, it kind of is? It's like, the singer's not letting it get to him and the song's really upbeat and all? But...wow..."
"I...I see why it disturbs you so, Rainbow Dash," said Rarity as she removed her own earbuds. The other girls were now listening to the song as well and frowning thoughtfully.
"Yeah," Rainbow said. "I don't like listenin' to my perfectly healthy except for a busted shoulder dad singin' a song about dying of lung cancer all the time."
"You know, I've been getting fed up with commercials using songs that just aren't right lately," Fluttershy said. "I mean, like that one car commercial. What's that even supposed—I mean—how's that even work? Are they trying to market their car as being the devil? Or that the devil drives their car? What?"
"Huh? What's that?" Applejack asked. "Ah kinda ignore commercials. Course, Ah kinda don't watch that much TV neither."
"Oh, well...there's a bunch of commercials for this new car that use the Rolling Stones' 'Sympathy for the Devil'," Fluttershy explained. "Except they only use the very beginning and the chorus. You know, 'Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste'..."
"'Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name,'" Sunset finished. "Maybe the guys who came up with the ad are so young they don't know what that song's about, or hope the audience they're trying to sell the car to is too young to know the song? I mean, it's a pretty old song."
"It's a classic song," Rainbow countered. "And yeah, that's...that's just weird."
"I had to stop going to my favorite party store because one of their commercials really ticked me off," Pinkie Pie said. "They use the opening of this really, really nasty rap song in a commercial full of little girls and pink balloons and stuff, like...I don't know," she said. "I mean, just because the song's called 'Party Up'..." She gestured expansively. "It's so dumb!"
"I don't know that song," Twilight said with a frown.
"You don't wanna know that song," Pinkie said. "It's basically about a gangbanger raging out threatening to kill a whole bunch of other gangbangers."
The others stared at her. "And...and they use that in a commercial that features children?!" Rarity exclaimed, aghast.
"Just the 'safe' part of the song," Pinkie said. "Which is only about like, fifteen seconds of it."
"Man, what the heck is wrong with ad people?" Rainbow wondered, shaking her head.
"There's dozens of articles online about this kind of thing," Twilight said, looking at her phone. "Apparently, it's pretty common—has been for a while."
"Ah know that there ad for them fancy cruises uses a song about shootin' up drugs," Applejack put in. "That one's been around for ages."
"How about any use of 'Welcome to the Jungle' EVER?" Fluttershy suddenly exclaimed. "I mean, how many movies, TV shows, and video games have used that song with absolutely no awareness?"
"Oooh, yeah, good example!" Pinkie said.
"Or using 'Crazy Train' as a sports anthem," Rainbow said. "That bugs the crap outta me. When I got to CHS, the baseball team was usin' it. I put a stop to that shit."
Fluttershy stared at her incredulously. "Uh, Rainbow Dash? You replaced it with 'Song 2'. That's...that's not exactly any better."
Rainbow blew on her bangs. "Yeah, well the football team uses 'Tubthumping', so..."
"Are we getting off subject here?" Twilight wondered.
"Were we ever on subject?" Applejack countered.
"What even was the subject?" Pinkie wondered.
"Wonky songs in ads," Sunset pointed out.
"Oh yeah," Pinkie said. "Oh! How about any ad with 'Sister Christian' in it ever?"
"Or that one EMF song," Rarity said, lips thinning. "They sell cheese cubes with that song, of all things." She frowned. "But Pinkie Pie's example about the rap song in the party commercial, I think that...that pretty much tops the list. What were they thinking?"
* * * * *
Lily Pad, wearing a pink, frilly unicorn-themed party dress, stood over the fallen body of a girl in a blue fairy princess dress, a pistol held loosely in her hand as she stared with cold eyes.
A black SUV screeched up to the curb next to her. The passenger door flew open. Another nine-year-old girl leaned out from the driver's seat. "We gotta bounce, Li'l P!"
Lily Pad nodded and hopped into the SUV, which roared off into the night, veering crazily on the road and bouncing on its suspension as its speakers shook the ground.
Ooookei, that happemd...
Uuuh... I'm not sure, but that ending... was that meant to be an FoE reference? Because I've heard the name Li'l Pip associated with that series, and 'Li'l P' is very similar...
This is one of the many reasons I no longer watch cable.
Oh Jesus. That's gotta do a number on ya.
Wonder what she'd think of Party Party Party.
To be fair, it has a fun beat.
Wat.
WHAT?
Or at least I am.
https://derpibooru.org/1455367?q=99+luftballons
When you think of the Carmina Burana's Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi, do you think of an epic cinematic battle? A room of goth kids having a black mass? The poems are mostly about medieval college kids praising wine, love and, in that case, dorm gambling.
When you think of the
Infernal Galop"Can Can music", do you think of Gay Paree, Moulin Rouge and dancing girls? (Though most productions include burlesque elements, and in any case, the Opera was a comedy, and considering the context of the scene, the composer probably would have approved.)upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Frans_Francken_%28II%29_-_Orpheus_in_the_Underworld.jpg
When you think of Entry of the Gladiators, do you think of anything even slightly resembling gladiators?
When you think of The Streets of Cairo, do you think of French nudists and peepholes or do you think of an innocent country girl who travels to the city and inadvertently gives the men there venereal diseases? (depending on how you interpret the lyrics 'Now he's sorry that he met her, And he never will forget her, In the future he'll know better, Poor little maid.')
And then, of course, there's all the politicians who still think Born in the USA is a patriotic anthem.
I've actually known 20 year olds who think Johnny Comes Marching Home is about... ants. Or Die Hard 3.
What just happened?
And just like that, Sister Christian is once more stuck in my head and never will leave. Ever again.
EVER.
9180785
No.
... yeah. That seems legit.
I think they're being overzealous. The best songs are the most ambiguous ones.
"You say you want a revolutio-o-on, we-eell you kno-ow...We all want to change the world."
Is that a story I'm seeing at the end there?
Lily watched the houses pass. "I wish I could be as innocent as my babysitter."
"Not the kind of world we live in, Li'l P."
"Yeah. Hasn't been since kindergarten. Everything must be so simple by the time you get to high school."
"Isn't your babysitter the girl who can turn anything she touches into a grenade?"
"Yeah, but she just has to fight wizards and shit. Not like she's dealt with any real threats."
The driver gave a grim nod. "Word."
(Why is this idea so enticing?)
I remember a Nissan commercial that used Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" in this really sentimental story about Nissan bringing families together. Bit the song's about how he was always too busy for his son, and his son grew up to be too busy for him, so they never connected.
Oi, What does Welcome to the Jungle mean to you? I always thought it was a warning againt getting mixed up in Hollywood, cause of all the drugs, sex, backstabbng, drugs, ect....
as for Sympathy for the Devil, all I took it for was Ol Lucifer splaining how he was present during various important moments in History, that and Its one of the Two main Themes for Interview with a Vampire, one the last great Vampire flicks to ever be made.
sides, part of me feels like Dashie would love songs like that because of how hardcore rock they are,
9180785
Zecora calls Pipsqueak Lil Pip in season 2.
That ending was glorious, and I must applaud you for it.
9180963
That IS what it's about. So naturally it gets used to promote action movies and games.
9181044
Which song am I right on? Or is am I right on Both?
9180885
That one was a warning against adopting Communism just because you hate Capitalist corruption, and for good reason.
"But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao... you ain't gonna make it with anyone, anyhow!"
9181044
That actually makes it thematically appropriate, then. Nobody in an action movie or game is having any fun.
9180963
I think it'd be more accurate to say that he was using those events as hints to his identity, which he actually only reveals near the end of the song shortly before demanding that the listener give all of their money to politicians.
9181078
Welcome to the Jungle. Sorry, I was on my phone and trying to finish typing fairly quickly.
Okay, I was going along just fine until the last bit, at first I was like , then I was like
9181146
No Prob. anyways, since WTJ is a Warning, wouldn't that actually make it good song that needs to be heard?
9181135
:) "But if you want money from minds that hate, all I can tell you is brother you have to wait."
9181135
Now that's an Interesting take on the song, in that sense, wouldnt that make Sympathy for the devil a warning like Welcome to the jungle is?
Looking at the Party ad, I think they knew exactly what they were doing with that song choice as it was trying to pair edgy with cute.
What was up with the last part? I don't get it.
9181231
WTJ isn't a warning. Axel, if not all of GNR and many other rock artists (especially of the time) actually embraced that lifestyle, granted they were ruined as a result of it, but that's a choice they knowingly made. SFD is probably a warning against sympathizing with individuals who are demonstrably monsters, which is pretty interesting in light of current events and the show this is a fanfic of.
On the Australian side of things, Waltzing Matilda is a song about a man who drowns himself to avoid being arrested.
We nearly made it our national anthem.
9181216
You're missing the point by like, ten miles. The song, its message, is about the destructive and toxic lifestyle of Hollywood. So, uhh...what does that have to do with blazing guns and car chases, exactly?
9181231
Again with this "the song's a warning" crap! You're not very observant/attentive.
9181259
I honestly don't give ad execs that much credit in the intelligence department.
9181351
*spittake*
Aaaaand I died. I'm dead. It's your fault.
Well... that was an interesting end to this chapter, lol
Nicely done
9181302
Truer words have never been spoken
9181469
Touche friend, touche. as for the why its used for guns and car chases, I think its because of the flow and Rythym of the music, not the lyrics themselves.
An Example is when I'm driving a Warthog in Halo, and I play the song, it just seems to make the drive much more fast paced, more adrenaline filled, specially when I Power slide around a corner and the Tempo takes makes a sudden change as well or when my Passenger uses a rocket to blow up a Tank when just the guitar solo starts.
You see what i'm trying friend?
9181712
There are half a dozen Metallica songs that would work better.
9181469
I would argue that blazing guns and car chases are also elements of a toxic and destructive lifestyle. These aren't things performed by ordinary people, at least in my neighborhood. That's why they're considered entertaining to watch on a screen: you don't have to worry because you might get run over or you might get shot.
There should be a song warning about wedding singers playing Every Breath You Take, or couples requesting it.
9180921
I can see that still working, sort of.
"Buy a Nissan, and you'll have the time to follow the visuals, not the music."
9182499
"Oh, no. We're perfectly aware. Turns out we alternated stalking each other throughout college. "
9182499
Already went over that song the last time I did this. Also, what's with all this "warning" shit you guys are on?
This really sums up this story, doesn't it?
9181351
I thought Waltzing Matilda was the Australian Anthem? Or at least was?
Still that is pretty funny.
9183071
Nah - Advance Australian Fair won the referendum. But Waltzing Matilda came close....
9183364
Lol cool. I'll need to look it up on YouTube .
Context of songs in ads...summation: ‘Yhe shit gets WEIRD, no limit bar.’
9184028
...I had a YouTube video in my first post...
What are you talking about? It's about the dark and violent underbelly of big cities. It's used in Grand Theft Auto, a game about the criminal underside of big cities. It's used in Burnout Paradise a game about Illegal street racing in big cities, it's used as a sports anthem for teams that want to intimidate by saying our team comes from a tough violent city.
Seems apropos to me.
9184582
I'll scroll down to see it there then. Thanks .
9184846
My first exposure to the song was the movie Lean On Me, when the ousted teacher returns to the school, and sees what a complete shithole it's become in the interim. The school is an inner city one, as well, so it fits that theme as well.
So that ending...it's obviously a reference to SOMETHING but I can't figure out what.