A lot of people turn to music when they want to express their feelings in a stronger way. Released on September 9, 2006, Continuum is John Mayer's third album. Containing many nationwide hit songs such as "Waiting on the world to change," "Gravity," "Vultures," and more, this album showed a change in John Mayer's work as this album was thought to be more of a blues and soul compared to his previous albums of pop-rock. Although some of his songs in this album reveals life through the kingdom of God, most of his songs reveals life through the empire. For example "Waiting on the world to change" reveals about life in both ways. John Mayer and his friends have awakened and are able to see things from different perspectives. They know that the government controls power by using the military to enforce certain things and uses the media to bend the truth and hide their doings. However, what they fail to do in this song is to take action. Instead they are at a distance staring at the world and waiting for the world to change. Even though they have become aware of the empire, they are still trapped in the system, feeling powerless to make a change. One of his other songs, "Your Body is a Wonderland" reveals life through the empire. This song is mainly about him having sex with his girlfriend. What's sad about this song is that it shows that in order for songs to sell better it has to attract people. Our society has become one that we are attracted more to the empire and by the empire here I mean sex. Sex was created by God to be a good thing but the empire has distorted it. This has become apparent in us because as we hear the word "sex" we feel at least a little bit of discomfort. This album reached 2nd on the U.S Billboard 200 chart, but it never reached 1st because it got impeded by Justin Timberlake's album FutureSex/LoveSounds, released at the same time. I remember this quote from this movie called "the Chronicle." In this movie when one guy tells the other that he didn't ever have sex, the other guy says to him "how can you be this cool?" Sex has become distorted so much in our society and in the U.S. particularly that a stereotype has been established among teenagers that you can't be "cool" without having sex. It has become strange to not have sex. I remember in Biology class when studying diseases, seeing the statistics of sexual intercourse happening between students in an average American public high school. It was crazy how it turned out. It wasn't strange for someone to have had sex with at least 3 or 4 different people. It is easy to say the John Mayer speaks to people with differing intensities. Although some of his songs don't have a particular meaning, there aren't many artists who are able to point out problems in society like John Mayer does with songs like "Waiting on the world to change".
Discussion questions:
1. What kind of music do you listen to and do you ever think about the lyrics and the song's meanings?
2. Is it even possible to produce music that reveals life through the kingdom of God that the general audience will find it attractive? Why or why not?
I am a huge fan of John Mayer’s music and think that he is incredibly gifted at what he does. However I agree with you that he is a man who writes primarily about the empire. As you identified, “Waiting on the World to Change” is supporting the idea that even if we see what’s wrong with the world, there isn’t anything we can do to change it anyway. What if Martin Luther King Jr. had the same attitude? What if he saw the injustice in the world but just thought he was useless because he was only one person. The idea reminds me of another John Mayer song called “New Deep.” The song sounds great, but a closer look at the lyrics just makes you think “what?!” The song sings about numb being the new deep. It just encourages our numbness to the world and our inability to make changes. To address your point on the song “Your Body is a Wonderland”, I think one can take the song both ways. It is of the empire that we have these sex networks like you so beautifully articulated, but I also think there are some values of the Kingdom in this song. I think that it is part of the Kingdom that we find our bodies, temples of God, attractive. As it was stated in Colossians Remixed, sexuality is not a sin because it is sexuality. Sexuality is a sin when it is selfish and covetous. Sexuality in itself is a blessing from God. To address your questions, I often do listen to music and think about the lyrics. However, I do think it is possible to enjoy music from the empire, when you look at it with the lens of the Kingdom.
ReplyDeleteI'm also a huge JM fan, and he's definitely one of my musical inspirations. He writes some really catchy songs, and his guitar playing just blows me away. But like both of you, I definitely wrestle with the messages of his music. Reading your opinions about "Waiting on the World to Change" made me think of his song "I'm Gonna Find Another You." In this self-confident breakup song, he sings about how he plans to find a better lover than the one he presumably just dumped (or got dumped by? who knows). But it occurred to me that this song is similar to "Waiting" and "New Deep" because they all start with some kind of enlightenment but fail to take any action. The sentence "I'm Gonna Find Another You" initially sounds pretty motivated toward action, but it just occurred to me that trying to find "another you" might be a little misguided; should he really be looking for more of the same? Wouldn't it be better to seek something completely different and better? I.e. the difference between the empire and the kingdom.
ReplyDeleteI still love John Mayer though hahaha.
Good observations, Han Gil, and nice comment, Noah. Songwriters are often representing complex ideas in very few words. In "Waiting," Mayer seems to be acknowledging the world's wrongs, feeling hopeless, and waiting for the people who ought to be making change to do so. On the one hand, it seems like he's simply avoiding getting involved and doing anything. On the other hand, it seems like he's moved beyond that, gotten cynical about the possibility for change, and now finds hope in merely waiting.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested to hear more from Mayer about why he wrote the song and what he was hoping to do with it. While his answer wouldn't necessarily be definitive, it could help in providing additional context for us to hear the song better.