Hello!
Time for another friendly game of "ANALYZE...THAT...SONG!"
Yes, I am using another Depeche Mode song for two reasons. One...they really have complex lyrics that make you think and are great for analysis...two...I love their music.
Since we have been practicing how to breakdown songs and poetry, I am expecting a little more insight in your analysis of the song than I did before. Simply stating "the song is sad....it's about people who break up...it makes me feel emo" is not going to cut it. If it's a sad song (TONE) then back it up with proof from diction....syntax...figurative language...etc. Up your game, peeps!
Enjoy!
video with lyrics....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH2UB2uD-tA
lyrics only...
http://www.metrolyrics.com/wrong-lyrics-depeche-mode.html
24 comments:
This song left me depressed. They repeated wrong so many times and used it as an adjective so many times that I just wanted to shut it off. This guy seems depressed almost beyond helping. The whole tone of the song, including the wicked techno beat, made the whole song seem depressing. The singer seemed angry at himself for being wrong and acted as if he was seen as stupid for his wrong-ness. Overall it is a terribly dark song, sung by a seemingly hopeless man.
I personally hated the video. I thought that it did not portray the song correctly. It made the man look like he was put in those bad situations by someone else. But the song made it seem like it just happened that way. No one made those things happen to him. In the video he was stuck and couldn't avoid the situations. The tone of the song was diffinately resentful. He seemed to resent his life and what he has gone through. It was almost like he pitied himself for going through those things. The diction showed that he hated his life and from the moment he was born it all went downhill.
Okay so first off that was one of the strangest videos I have ever seen, and I most defiantly was not a fan. The song was awful and the video just made it ten times worse. However if you just look at the lyrics, the song is pretty powerful. While I personally find these lyrics to be extremely repetitive and annoying, I can see how some people may like it. It is very powerful in the sense that it using the word in every line at least once to get across just how wrong he is. He feels as though everything in his life is wrong and I feel the passion this man has in his words. The song leaves you feeling slightly depressed and empty. While I don't personally like the song, I can appreciate the artist passion.
Just like Alex said, I was not a fan of the song, but once I took a closer look at the lyrics, I realized how powerful they were. They were about a person that basically seemed like they could not do anything right, "I took the wrong road That led to the wrong tendencies I was in the wrong place at the wrong time For the wrong reason and the wrong rhyme." That quote from the song basically sums up what the song is mainly focused on. This person could never do anything right or be in the right place. This person may have gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd, or maybe they just had the worst luck.
Although this was not my favorite song i still believe that it conveyed a message. Just by looking at the lyrics I could see that the speaker was pretty down on himself about taking the wrong path in life. However after watching the music video, i got a different understanding. The video showed a man trapped in a car in reverse at first you just think that he is going in reverse for no reason. As the song progresses you see that his mouth is taped and his hands tied almost as if he was forced that way. From this i thought that now the song could be about how he was trapped into the path he had followed, or maybe even forced. The tone of this song is pretty depressing in that its all negative repeating "wrong" about every aspect of the song, and was also almost every other word. The connotation of wrong was not what you usually feel when you hear it. Often when you hear wrong it isn't really a big deal but in this song its used numerous times and in such a context that makes you actually feel like wow this guy like hates himself. I'm not 100% sure if this is right but it had a lot of anaphora repeating the word wrong before almost every line but also within.
The use of diction and word choice prominently made the point clear. I thought that the whole song was like one of the depression commercials they play during powerblock where its like "you dont fit in at school. you dont fit in at home. you dont fit in anywhere." The use of "wrong" so many times is to make it clear that this person never feels right. Its a negative word and it brings a negative tone to the whole song, no matter what the beat is. The rhyming is mainly there for catchy-ness but it also helps emphasize the depression this person is feeling.
First off, I STRONGLY disagree with the idea that this song is "depressing" or "sad". There are no literary devices within this piece that support a depressing/sad tone. The tone is closer to what Katt said, resentful and angry. Anger radiates off of the lyrics with the repetition of the word "wrong". Wrong is an extremely negative word, with no possible positive connotation to it. The idea that the speaker was born in the "wrong house" which led to his "wrong tendencies" yields a resentful tone in that it blames society for his actions. The speaker feels like he never had a shot or place in the world, but he is not sad about it, he is mad about this. This is clearly shown through his choice of diction - strong, powerful words to represent his steaming furious perspective on the world. Words like "pissing" and "scum" are used. These can have no possible positive connotation as well as they are not sad words. "Scum" is an insult which serves to represent the lowest of lows in society - the bottom of the world's population. This shows that the speaker believes that the world looks down upon him, and whether or not this is true, it seems to show that he also agrees with society. There is no sense of the speaker trying to prove society that they were incorrect about him, but he agrees with them by grouping him in "with the wrong scum". Furthermore, the repetition of the word wrong makes it seem somewhat meaningless by the end of the song, perhaps as a representation of how useless and meaningless the speaker is in society. If the songwriter had replaced the word "wrong" with a synonym like "incorrect" or "mistaken", it would have yielded a different tone to the piece but the choice of the word wrong is a clear representation of his resentment and anger. Wrong in this piece equals bad, but bad does not always equal sad.
The song was very interesting. As katt said, the music didn't quite fit the lyrics. I expected an acoustic song with a long querulous moaning and groaning. The speaker used the word "wrong" so many times, that to me it lost its meaning and then changed from an idea to a complete state of being. The techno/industrial sound to the song made it seem robotic like the speaker is just used to using the idea that he's wrong for every situation. I feel that the speaker feels frustrated that everything he does, and is, and will do is wrong no matter what. He is mired in wrong-ness.
The song is pretty moving, based mostly on the repetition of the word "wrong". Not just that it is said in literally every line, but the parts in between verses when all that is said is the word "wrong" are depressing. The song is all about mistakes that a person made, and the choices that he made were all wrong. Some of the imagery includes "wrong house", "wrong road", "wrong drum", and "wrong moon". It seems like the song is very literal, with few metaphors. There is only the repetition of things the speaker did wrong.
I agree with Amy that the tone is not really depressing, but more angry, bitter, and resentful. The repetition of "wrong" is used to emphasize the anger and frustration about the current place the speaker has found himself in his life. The speaker blames his parents that gave the "wrong mix in the wrong genes" and put him in "the wrong home" which he believes caused him to make bad decisions. He is angry at the world for making him the way he is and hates himself for being the man he is with "the wrong method with the wrong technique" and never doing anything right, which causes him to lash out, and hang out "With the wrong scum". The language illustrates the type of life he has made for himself with the words "drum", "scum", "moon", "night", which may connotate the nights he spent playing music and hanging out with the wrong people, doing things that might have pushed him further down "the wrong road". Depeche Mode chose to isolate "wrong" and for a couple of lines at the end add "too long" to emphasize that the speaker is ready to change his life and be better.
Agreed with pretty much everyone else that the tone is angry and resentful. One thing I thought was interesting was the part that said "I was born with the wrong sign, in the wrong house, with the wrong ascendancy." Sign, house, and ascendancy are all related to astrology and zodiac signs. This could mean that he was born to fail and be wrong.
The repition of "WRONG" shows that the singer is constantly faced with the fact he is always wrong and never does anything right. Although, the singer is not blaming himself for his wrongs, but fate and luck. He thinks he does not deserve what is happening to him.
ALEX IANNITELLI
The denotation of the word wrong taken from dictionary.com is not proper or usual. In this song the connotation that the listener receives from the word wrong is a dark and almost evil one. The singer seems angry as they say each wrong...all 64 of them. While counting how many times wrong was said something caught me by surprise, I stopped immediately and made a double take. There is a complete shift in the song when the singer says "With the wrong tune playing till it sounded right yeah". The last two words in that quote completely caught me off guard. They are the only two words in this entire song that, in context, have positive connotations. To me it seems as if this line does not belong at all, almost as if the artist could not think of anything better to put. I do not know if anyone else picked up on it, but this line stands out to me the most.
The song has a lot of repetition throughout it. The most common repeated word would have to be “wrong”. The beginning verses kind of reminded me about Elizabeth, Henry VIII’s daughter. She was unwanted, but yet she was so successful. She went through her whole life thinking that there was something wrong with her because she wasn’t male, but she was really much better than that. I especially think this because of the last verse that says, “I was born with the wrong sign”. I think the overall song is about someone being neglected by their parents, like Elizabeth was. The tone was very depressing and loveless. The speaker did not really find any enjoyment in anything, and when he did it was “wrong”. The song really makes it clear that he was born to be hopeless and wrong, but the video makes him seem the opposite. The video was very abrupt, when it said wrong it spelt it in capitols and all spaced out. This further conveyed the message of “wrong”. When I saw this I kind of thought of our 180’s in class. A lot of the times I (or someone else) thinks something completely different than what the poem is saying. Although this is a lighter example, it is like “Oh no you’re WRONG” and it’s just a little humorous in class to know how badly you portrayed the poem. The lyrics are very powerful throughout the song and it makes the speaker seem extremely helpless. There is a use of first person, so the audience knows that the speaker is referring to himself for the most part. Overall, the song was very sad and helpless. It kind of made me want to give the guy a big hug to make him feel better (even though he’s probably old and wrinkly like Castle).
-KATIE HARRIS
As Katt and Amy have said, the song is full of anger and resentment. The speaker repeats the word wrong and stresses the pronunciation of the word by elevating his volume. The word wrong has a lot of force and negativity behind it. Rather than being incorrect, the speaker is wrong, which gives the feeling that the speaker is at fault. He also blames his faults on things that are beyond his control such as his wrong “house..ascendancy… sign...chemically”. The instrumental of the song uses different techno-ish sounds that sound very artificial and cutting at the ears. The sounds are very sharp and uncomfortable sounding; it’s a manifestation of his rage.
So I didn't see this song as depressing. Instead it made me more angry than anything else. He kept saying wrong over and over again in a very harsh way that by the end of it I felt as though he was cringing everytime he said it. I got the feeling he was more full of angst than anything. I felt as if he was angry, and that he did not agree that he was always wrong but that's what other people thought, and through channeling that anger, he is now determined to be right for once in other people's eyes. Just the piercing way he said wrong over and over gave me the feeling he's using the word sarcastically, to show how others feel about him.
Although I did not watch the video, I can still imagine it to be a depressive maelstrom of misery, sadness, and negativity. The repetitive use of "wrong" eventually becomes less and less depressive as the song goes on, and the metaphors become deeper. At first, the songwriter says that they "took the wrong road that led to the wrong tendencies". Making a few incorrect choices in life is bad, but it does not stop there. The author goes on to say that "There's something wrong with me chemically," like they were never right to begin with. This gives the reader the impression that the author is either just a whiney complaining sissy or someone who has some serious issues.
Can't we do a positive song for once?
The singer sounds very self-deprecating. No matter what he has done in his mind it is all wrong. Even if it was clearly not his fault he blames himself. The tone of the singer seemed very angry too he seems to be mad athimself and scloding himself for hiw so called wrongdoings by repeating "wrong". As if he is a strict teacher in a bleak classroom with one lonely kid that never gets the question correct. The video itself did the song no justice as it really dident help support the angry and depressed tone. The guy needs to take this heavy weight off of himself. his diction indicated no matter what he did or how good it was , no matter what ,where or when he did anything it was WRONG. I'm not a fan of depression music, or literature though I do enjoy discovering the reasoning behind it all.
As a lot of people before me have said, i was not a fan of the song either. In every line of the song the singer said the word wrong in every line of the song. This makes the tone of the song seem depressing. It also makes it appear that the singer is depressed about something. The singer definitely did this to himself when reading the lyrics. However, they try to say that someone did this to him in the video.
I think the word "wrong" is more of an angry word. Constantly it's used throughout the song, in just about every line. Every time it indicates something that was done wrong in life. I think it can go both ways for anger and depression though. I feel like if it was a depressing tone, the song would have...called the waahmbulance more. There was indeed regret, but I feel like it was more focused towards anger. He doesn't blame himself at all, but the world around him. He feels that he deserves more.
Also, I feel that the word "wrong"'s repetition really wears out the listener...at least at did for me. Have you ever heard something so much that the word/phrase loses all meaning? I started thinking that wrong was spelled wrong...Oy vey.
...mmyes....EXIT STAGE LEFT!
WOOP!
Matt Callachan...
When taking a look at this song, I first read the lyrics over. from the lyrics I got a strong feeling of negativity. The artist's repetion of the word wrong emphasised that the person in the song just has done everything wrong or just feels as though they can never do anything right. I then watched the music video for the song and came to realize that what I thought the song was about was totally wrong. After watching the video, I beleive the song is about how a guy started to hangout with the wrong people which in turn led him to go down the wrong path in life. In both cases, I felt that the song came off either angry or depressing. I feel as though it could be categorized as angry because the song is sung in past tense and I could see someone looking back on everything they have done and just saw how everything they did was wrong and beating themselves up over it. On the other hand I could also see someone thinking about how everything has just gone "wrong" and they wished they made better choices. The person would be very depressed with how they are now and their present situation.
Here's a video I haven't seen in quite a while. Truthfully, it is one of my least favorite music videos. They could have done a much better job with the video because the song is very transferable, but the video isn't the point.
I liked the song. It IS depressing beyond belief, but it has a very understandable theme of feeling like you can never do something right, as if it is just the circumstances of you're life keeping you down.
There is a heavy usage of the 'o' sound, which adds to the melancholy sound of the song. The singer also uses the word 'wrong' almost in the way you would you a noun as he describes that all he has ever been was wrong. Besides these two devices, the use of hard consonant sounds adds to the harsh meaning of the song. The tone over all is bitter with ties to fear and pain.
Good song, but a very sad song.
The repetition of "wrong" at the beginning and throughout the song gives a very dejecting and harsh tone. No one likes to hear they are wrong, and this seems to shut the person down even further. It makes you think that all of the wrong in the speaker's life makes their life purposeless and not worth living, suggesting a depressed, forlorn tone, as if they don't belong in society.
The syntax of the song exhibits how each "wrong" step in the speaker's life led to a chain reaction of more poor choices and bad decisions, leading their life further into gloom and depression. The rhyme scheme at the end of the lines in all four stanzas gives the song a very punchy, in your face feel. The way the lines work together suggest that all of this is happening to the person for a specific reason, and there is no changing it now.
The simple and gloomy diction don't make you think too much about what words mean, but rather get the message of depression and dejection across quickly and in your face.
The repetition of wrong is the most prominent part of the song which shows severe disappointment and sadness. The rhyme scheme makes the song memorable and it relates to many aspects of life that could be wrong. This person has hit rock bottom and seemingly is depressed.
Beginning the song with being born the wrong sign and the wrong house shows that the singer/author believes that he/she was cursed by fate and that his or her life is so miserable since even the things that can't be controlled have gone horribly wrong. From there, even all the decisions made are the wrong ones and making the right decision is out of the question. This person is doomed for failure which is seen in the diction because words such as prize, tendencies, and moon are preceded by wrong which completely negates their positive meaning. Then the diction also contains words such as pissing and scum. This person is disgusted and depressed for sure.
This was my first time listening to to this song and I really liked it. It has really powerful lyrics that say how one bad choice can lead to another even if you don't mean it to.Most people don't like to admit that they are wrong and he realized he had made bad choices and can admit it.
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