"Stop & Stare"
This town is colder now, I think it's sick of us
It's time to make our move, I'm shaking off the rust
I've got my heart set on anywhere but here
I'm staring down myself, counting up the years
Steady hands, just take the wheel...
And every glance is killing me
Time to make one last appeal... for the life I lead
Stop and stare
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere
Yeah I know that everyone gets scared
But I've become what I can't be, oh
Stop and stare
You start to wonder why you're here not there
And you'd give anything to get what's fair
But fair ain't what you really need
Oh, can you see what I see
They're trying to come back, all my senses push
Untie the weight bags, I never thought I could...
Steady feet, don't fail me now
Gonna run till you can't walk
Something pulls my focus out
And I'm standing down...
Stop and stare
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere
Yeah I know that everyone gets scared
But I've become what I can't be, oh
Stop and stare
You start to wonder why you're here not there
And you'd give anything to get what's fair
But fair ain't what you really need
Oh, you don't need
What you need, what you need...
Stop and stare
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere
Yeah I know that everyone gets scared
But I've become what I can't be
Oh, do you see what I see...
Our Plan Of Action
As a group we sat down and analysed the song lyrics of our chosen song putting forward our interpretations of important line and stanza. We printed off the song lyrics and discussed the different interpretations and argued against any ideas we didn't think were relevant. We then came to a rough conclusion of the general story of the music video "Stop and Stare".
General Story Line Interpretation
As a group we were under the impression that this song was about an individual who is isolated from society and feels alone and doesn't belong anywhere. We are unsure of the actual meaning of the video as we would need to speak to the artist and director so we decided on our own interpretation of the song lyrics. As you can see below we annotated the lyrics to present our ideas on the individual lines to which we could use when filming.
Annotation of Lyrics
Analysis of Song Lyrics
"Colder" use of pathetic fallecy to emphasise the negative emotion towards the town he lives in. The fact that he uses the town as personification implying it is "sick" of them.
He feels he needs to leave as he doesn't belong in this town, he's demorilising his bad energy he feels about this town.
Trying to reach out to other people to make them "see what I see" almost the idea of saying 'put yourself in my shoes and see what life is like for me'
After the previous line meaning doing anything to fit in, we analysed this following line to highlight that fitting in is not enough and the feeling of isolation will still be there
Idea of being cautious of being stared at for being unusual or isolated in society
In this line he is judging himself and waiting for something to happen, could this possibly foreshadow something?
Starting to feel concious of himself as people are staring at him as if he is an outsider, hinting at this idea of alienation and isolation
He tries to ignore it and move on however this feeling and emotion won't go away, he constantly feels isolated and alone. This idea of being stuck in a town that he doesn't belong in
We interpret this line as him expressing his feelings of sorrow and admitting into becoming something that is not considered acceptable in society
This is the moment in the song when we feel he realises what has been happening and discovers something vital in his attempt to belong in this society, the idea of something pulling his "focus out" implicates the idea of a moment of realization such as the focus on the camera becoming clear
This line hints at the idea of determination and not giving up as these feelings keep coming back, however this time "all my senses push" suggest rebelliance in a final attempt to fit in
Here we think the meaning behind these lyrics is the idea that this person would give anything to be normal and fit into society as he feels he is nothing but an outsider and doesn't belong
"everyone gets scared" hinting at the element of denial as if he believes its normal to be scared and alone
By Me
