Love is good, bad, or both? Essay on Love in Songs
The thematic concept of love can be inferred in different ways depending on who is talking about it. Rihanna’s “Love on the brain”, Bruno Mars “Just the way you are”, and Miranda Lamberts “Kerosene” all talk about love but view it differently. Rhianna states that love is confusing and misleading as she still loves someone even though she is in an abusive relationship. Bruno Mars illustrates that love is amazing as he has found that special someone that he wouldn’t ever want to change. And Miranda Lamberts has given up on love as she kills her ex-boyfriend for cheating on her.
Rihanna’s “Love on the brain” starts with her stating she is in an abusive relationship. She then, however, continues on about how she loves her relationship and doesn't want to end it. She states things such as “It beats me black and blue” as well as “No matter what I do, I'm no good without you” illustrating her mixed feelings on love. To Rihanna love is a confusing force that can tear people’s emotions apart and it can also be misleading as even though she is in an abusive relationship she still loves the man and doesn't want him to leave her.
Bruno Mars has a different take on love than Rihanna as he has found the perfect person and would do nothing to change her. He states “When I see your face There's not a thing that I would change 'Cause you're amazing” this further displays how perfect he finds her. Later in the song, he talks about how she denies herself, he states “Her laugh, her laugh she hates but I think it's so sexy”. He states she hates it, but he loves it so much that even her imperfections are perfect to him. For Bruno Love is an amazing thing because he has found someone that he wouldn’t want to change one thing about and he wouldn't give the world to change her.
In Maranda Lamberts “Kerosene” she takes an approach that love is not fair and it is a terrible, bitter, experience. In the beginning, she is going along life and watching her life go, then she decides to go and break some rules as stated: “ain't a rule that ain't worth breakin'”. After that Maranda reveals that she has killed her ex-boyfriend for cheating on her, and she plans to blame his new girlfriend for the murder. Every verse of the song ends with “Well I'm giving up on love 'cause love's given up on me” displaying that she has given up on love. In Maranda’s eyes, she did nothing wrong and had justifications for everything she did, once her lover started cheating on her she gave up on love and got her revenge.
All three of the songs share a common concept of love, however, quite evidently don't all view it the same way. Bruno Mars has the most positive and original intake of love as most people interpret love as a good thing. Some, however, like Maranda get the negative less talked about side of love, the side of pain and sorrow. She clearly illustrates how it can be a bad thing and it doesn't always work out and she went one step further and killed a man over love. Finally, Rihanna who gets the negative effects of love but still can't drive herself to get over it. She clearly loves the man she is with even though he abuses her and she knows that her emotions are being toyed with but love is the only thing on her brain and she can’t do much about it. So even though love is a language that everybody understands not everybody has the same viewpoint on it and the three songs strongly show different intakes on love.
