"We can turn this mess around one beat at a time."***

Please place yourself in the following conversation. How do you feel?

Person #1: You know, I always wanted someone provocative and talkative*, but you? You're so not my type, but I'd actually catch a grenade for you. I would THROW my hand on a really sharp blade for you. I would take a bullet straight through my brain.* That would be really productive, and I would do it all just for you. Aren't I sweet?
Person #2: Oh that is so sweet. I feel the same way! I would gladly crack concrete falling down for you.* I mean, I'm not totally sure why, but I feel like a limb has been torn off because no one is ever going to love you more than I do.* Do you know what I mean?
Person #1: Yes! That makes perfect sense. It's just like, you know, your the gun to my holster.* Maybe like my pistol. Probably not the rifle though. You know what? What are we waiting for? Just take a bite of my heart tonight.* 
Person #2: Well, I don't know. After all, we are so fragile and our cracking bones make noise and we are just breakable girls and boys.* It's kind of scary.
Person #1: I don't care! I don't care if my bones shatter! I want to feel a car crash! I want to feel the capsize. I want to feel a bomb drop, the earth stop until I'm satisfied!* It is all about me anyways, and I won't be satisfied until I feel that excruciating pain or you are mine. Because you're the equivalency of pain. Also, not to compare you to a sick addiction or anything, but if I didn't have you, I would miss you like coffee and cigarettes.* What if, what if I had been born 50 years before you in a house on a street where you lived? I would still be outside as you passed on your bike.* Watching you. Wanting you. Loving you. It's fine.
Person #2: You're right. I love that you're not a creeper and that you talk so sensibly. Happiness is hitting me like a bullet in the back.* Yeah, that's how happiness feels. In fact, forget about cracking bones. I am looking for something dumb to do. I think I want to marry you.* I want you staple gunned right to my side all of the time.*
Person #1: That was such an attractively committed, respectful, and passionate thing of you to say. And you mean you finally realize that all those other guys, they wouldn't ever take a bullet for you? They wouldn't ever cut their heart out for you?* Maybe carved out with an ice-cream scoop or something? Because I would.  I would never let you choke on a noose around your neck.* Nope. 
Person #2: Yes. It is your summer sweat, and your summer sweat only that I want to feel in my eyes.* Just hold still and let it drip right in. That sounds nice.

Alright, alright. It is here we will extract ourselves from this conversation and give these two some privacy. Or maybe a mental check. Or maybe the whole world needs a mental check seeing as these lines are played on the radio all day every day, blasted from passing cars, jammed to while people come home from work, sung along with as the tune becomes stubbornly stuck in heads. I had no idea how violent and weird our society and pop culture had become, or maybe death and carnage and just plain dumb is the new romance. And this is only scratching the surface. 

The strangest part of it all is that I (and I don't think I'm in the minority here) never thought twice  about many of these lyrics, and I'll be the first to admit that I've been caught singing along and enjoying many of these songs myself. I'm as big of a pop culture connoisseur as anybody else. I seek out my jams, download them from the internet, pump up the bass when they pop up on the radio, and dance around the house with them blasting from my speakers.

It wasn't until I thought three times that I realized that there was a pattern in the lyrics of many of these songs. It wasn't until I carefully listened to and thought about the words that I realized that the imagery presented through the lyrics are quite a dichotomy to the message that is actually trying to be portrayed (however, let's be honest, some are just plain weird right from the start.). The sad part is that this is so ingrained into our society that this wasn't obvious to me. I actually had to think about it to realize it. No wonder people today are growing up confused as ever. We're being bombarded with the idea that love and happiness is equivalent to bullets, guns, blowing up, violence, sex, flippancy, nonsense, and disrespect. Or maybe I'm the one that's confused. Maybe graphically being ripped apart into a thousand pieces is happiness and romance at its finest...

How did we get here?

*The awe-inspiring song Lyrics. Just giving credit where credit is due.

• "I'd catch a grenade for ya, throw my hand on the blade for ya. I'd jump in front of a train for ya...I would go through all this pain, take a bullet straight through my brain. Yes, I would die for ya baby."  -Grenade by Bruno Mars
• "It's looking like a limb torn off, or altogether just taken apart...but no one is ever gonna love you more than I do."  -No One's Gonna Love You by Band of Horses
• "Speak slow to get through these words I couldn't say to you. I crack concrete falling down for you."  -Tongue Tied by October Fall
• "It's a beautiful night. We're looking for something dumb to do. Hey baby, I think I wanna marry you."  -Marry You by Bruno Mars
• "I want some one provocative and talkative, but it's so hard when you're shallow as a shower." -Curse of Curves by Cute Is What We Aim For
• "Oh, oh I want some more. Oh, oh what are we waiting for? Take a bite of my heart tonight."  -Animal by Neon Trees
• "We are so fragile and our cracking bones make noise and we are just breakable...girls and boys."  -Breakable by Ingrid Michaelson
• "I want to feel a car crash. I want to feel the capsize. I want to feel the bomb drop, the earth stop 'til I'm satisfied.  -Car Crash by Matt Nathanson
• "Of all the things I think I'll miss, there's staying up with you, coffee, and cigarettes."  -Coffee and Cigarettes by Jimmy Eat World
• "What if I'd been born 50 years before you in a house on a street where you lived? Maybe I'd be outside as you passed on your bike. Would I know?"  -The Luckiest by Ben Folds
• "Just because he loves you too, he would never take a bullet for you. Don't believe a word he says. He would never cut his heart out for you."  -Popular Mechanics by Beulah
• "I want you staple gunned right to my side all of the time."  -Staple Gunned by Spill Canvas
• "I used to wanna feel your summer sweat in my eyes."  -Break a Leg by Spill Canvas
• "I will hold on hope, and I won't let you choke on the noose around your neck."  -The Cave by Mumford and Sons
• "That girl's a gun to my holster. She's runnin' through my mind all day."  -Replay by Sean Kingston
• "Happiness hit her like a train on a track...happiness hit her like a bullet in the back, struck from a great height."  -Dog Days Are Over by Florence And The Machine
• ***"We can turn this mess around one beat at a time. You're killing me. Stop playing with this whole mirage and replace the music with hydraulic cars. I'd trade my first favorite ovation guitar if we could retrace the steps we made so far."  -Flop Culture by FM Static

There's an even longer list of wildly scandalous, inappropriate, lustful, and sexual media I won't approach today. I just stuck with the weirdo violent dichotomous examples for now. I think it's funnier anyway.

Note: Granted, many of these lyrics have been pulled out of context, either way, I still find them disturbing and senseless after listening to them with my newly-found critical ear.