Thursday, October 7, 2021

Fireflies Lyrics Analysis- Owl City

 

Owl City- Fireflies Lyrics Analysis✨


Genre

            The song is known as a mixture between electronic and pop- these songs are known to usually have up beat tunes along with a slightly fast pace. Electronic music is known to use a lot of sounds that do not sound natural though, usually being fast paced to make a tune or theme that sounds good.

Rhythm

           Fireflies is a relatively fast paced song (although not too fast), this fits with the electronic music characteristic whilst also having an up-beat tune and vocals that fit in with the normal pop culture.

Rhyme

A foxtrot above my head

A sock hop beneath my bed

A disco ball is just hanging by a thread

You would not believe your eyes

If ten million fireflies (slant rhyme)

Tone Colour& Texture

         This includes 6 layers, most instruments used in 'Fireflies' are commonly used in all Electro Songs except some of the string instruments used in this song including Drums/electronic drums, violin, cello, piano, voice, and the main melody that is electronically created. New layers of instruments added after and in each verse as the song progresses until the hook. After the hook the "layers of instruments" decrease until it comes up to the chorus again.

Figurative language

1. Simile

    Cause I feel like such an insomniac

    He says he feels like an insomniac which makes this a simile

    I feel like such an insomniac

2. Metaphor

    My dreams are bursting at the seams

    I got misty eyes

3. Hyperbole

    Ten million fireflies

4. Personification

    Cause I'd get a thousand hugs

    I'd get a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs

    As they tried to teach me how to dance

5. Symbolism

    If ten million fireflies

     Lit up the world as I fell asleep

6. Alliteration

    (Please take me away from here)

Imagery

1. Visual

    But I would just stand and stare

    (This is visual imagery because he is using his eyes to look at the fireflies)

2. Touch

    Cause I'd get a thousand hugs From ten thousand lightning bugs

    (This is touch imagery because he can feel the fireflies hugging him)

3. Hearing

    A foxtrot above my head 

    A sock hop beneath my bed

   (By this he can hear the sock hop and foxtrot above his head and beneath his bed, therefore it is hearing imagery)

Subject

           Firflies by Owl City is about a little boy enjoying the thrills of chasing fireflies with his friends on a summer night. Upon the realization that his fireflies will not survive in his glass jar, he is challenged with the decision to let them live and release them or enjoy them for the little time they will live. The central theme of the text is compassion and reality. Understanding that what brings people joy could also bring them sadness and the action of releasing the fireflies brings the mixed emotions that compassion and reality frequently requires no matter how life goes on.

Theme

            I don’t think the song is about his insomnia. It seems like such a shallow topic. I think it is about his innocence and childhood. The verse "It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep" Means that because the experience is so wonderful you want to be in that state all the time and stay asleep.

            It starts with first lyrics:

You would not believe your eyes
If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep

            I think each firefly is a different childhood memory. Shortly after, comes.

            I’d like to make myself believe that planet Earth turns slowly

            He is saying that he would like to make himself believe. The Earth turning slow is such a ridiculous and childishly happy concept. He wants to keep the Earth turning slowly, not the way it does in this cruel world.

It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
'Cause everything is never as it seems

             He is talking about the real world. In the real world, there is lying and deceit everywhere. Nothing is ever as it seems. So he would rather not look at that, staying with his fireflies.

'Cause I'd get a thousand hugs
From ten thousand lightning bugs
As they tried to teach me how to dance

A foxtrot above my head
A sock hop beneath my bed
A disco ball is just hanging by a thread

             This is all referring to the fun and innocence of childhood. You have hugs and dancing and all the fireflies.

Leave my door open just a crack
Please take me away from here
'Cause I feel like such an insomniac
Please take me away from here
Why do I tire of counting sheep
Please take me away from here
When I'm far too tired to fall asleep

             He wants to leave his door open just a crack, just like children. His sleep is his innocence, and he feels like an insomniac because the world is taking it from him. He wants to get out of the evil world. When he says he’s far too tired to fall asleep, that can be explained as each evil makes him more tired, in a negative sense. So he can’t sleep because of the evils of the world.

To ten million fireflies
I'm weird cause I hate goodbyes
I got misty eyes as they said farewell

But I'll know where several are
If my dreams get real bizarre
'Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar

             He doesn't want to let the memories go. He knows they need to go, he needs to step into the world, but he doesn’t want to. He’ll know where they are though. He keeps them in a jar, that is his brain. The metaphor once again alludes to childhood. But he has saved a few, to look back to, because although he is in the real world, he keeps some of his innocence and childishness. 

             And that's all my interpratation of the lyrics of the 'Fireflies' song by Owl City which accroding to the subject incident of his life.

Read Also: The Fact Of Fireflies Song

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Fireflies Lyrics Analysis- Owl City

  Owl City- Fireflies Lyrics Analysis✨ Genre             The song is known as a mixture between electronic and pop- these songs are known to...