My Dad and I were on our way to the library. I followed my Dad mumbling complaints on why I had to come with him. “ Don’t worry,” he said. “ we’ll be in and out. We’re just picking up some books.” When the door to the library opened, everything went silent. I couldn’t even hear my own breath when I first took a step inside. It was like walking through a tomb. I trailed closely behind my Dad, afraid of getting lost. ‘Okay,’ I thought. ‘we’re only picking up a few books.’ I took no time to reach the reserved section. My eyes darted around, looking for the books under our name. When I saw them, I scooped up the books and examined them carefully. Some comics for me and my sister, one large one for my Mom, but one thing in the stack caught my eye. It was a music case.
Confused, I asked “Is this ours? I thought we were just getting books.”
“Oh, I’m getting music, too. Do you want to get some?” He replied.
“Sure.” I said. I made my way to the music section. When I returned, I brought back a handful of discs and listened to them at home. Since I liked them, I decided to go look up more songs like the ones I found in the library. I ended up listening to tons of music in the span of a weekend. While some artists were good, one band I liked in particular was a band called ‘The Offspring’.
Their music really hit near home with me and carried important messages.
The offspring inspired many others along with me when they broke new ground with one of their most popular songs, “You’re gonna go far, kid.” The song was released in 2008 and fits in the genre of rock. In 1985, the band was formed as a couple of high schoolers who were raised in working class households. Once the entire band was formed, a lot of their music went unnoticed as other bands with more popularity buried the music of more popular bands at the time, such as Nirvana. They have learned through experience that things in life do not come for granted, and that there are challenges that prevent you from achieving your goals. In ‘You’re gonna go far, kid’, the message the band shows is about lying: how you think it may benefit you, and how it has unavoidable negative consequences.
From The Offspring’s use of verbal irony, rhyme, and loaded language, the message is revealed that if you lie to get what you want, you distance yourself from your peers and are trusted less.
One way The Offspring is able to convey their messages with loaded language. Throughout the song, there are many examples that show the negative aspects of lying, but one with a greater impact is in the first verse, where they sing “Show me how to lie/You're getting better all the time / And turning all against one/ Is an art that's hard to teach”(1-4). Here, The Offspring is displaying their aggressive attitude towards being lied to. They also suggest that someone they trust lied to them many times before in the phrase “you're getting better all the time”. This helps reveal the artists’ negative tone towards being lied to . In all, the theme that when you deceive others for your own needs, you hurt others and they will trust you less is revealed by showing that people who are lied to will feel betrayed or vengeful, and that lying only weakens your credibility and creates unhealthy relationships.
Another way The offspring is able to convey their message is through rhyme. Their use of rhyme helps compare the act of lying to its negative impact. In the 17th verse, they sing
“With a thousand lies
And a good disguise
Hit ‘em right between the eyes
Hit ‘em right between the eyes
When you walk away
Nothing more to say
See the lightning in your eyes
See them running for their lives”(17-25).
By rhyming “a thousand lies” with “ hit ‘em right between the eyes” and “see them running for their lives”, The Offspring compares the idea of getting what you want from lying with the idea that people will fear you and feel betrayed by your actions. This helps reveal the theme that lying to get what you want distances yourself from your friends and leads to unhealthy relationships because if you only use deception for your needs, you will achieve less because there will be less people who trust you.
One last way The Offspring demonstrates their theme is through verbal irony. Throughout the song, there are many examples of the band expressing negative emotions towards lying and being lied to, such as their use of loaded language. But unlike before, the band uses a sarcastic, angered tone when they sing
“And now you’ll lead the way/Show the light of day/Nice work you did/ you're gonna go far, kid/ Trust, deceived!” (45-49). Although the band is saying that whoever lied to them will go far, what they really mean is that nothing good will come to that person from deception, and they even go out of their way to add the phrase ‘trust, deceived!’ to demonstrate their sense of betrayal. This reveals the theme that your peers will feel betrayed if you try to deceive them.
The song has many intriguing aspects that help display the theme, but the most powerful aspect is The Offspring’s use of tone and mood. Throughout the song, the band uses a vengeful and aggressive tone that helps create an intense, fast-paced mood. For example, when The offspring sings “Now dance, f***er, dance/ Man, he never had a chance/ And no one really knew/ it was really only you”(9-13). By the use of explicit language and rapid guitar music, the song is strengthened by the bands’ angered attitude which encourages and empowers the listener to speak up if they know they are being lied to.
There are many interesting and powerful components of this song, which are so powerful, the weakest part of this song doesn't even reside within the lyrics or the music, but rather the music video. It's representation of the song falls short in multiple ways. The way the video is paced is slow and awkward compared to the intensity of the music. Secondly, the visuals depicted in the video show little effort into translating the lyrics meaning into compelling images. Finally, despite the video showing some aspects of deception, those visuals don't add on to what is already expressed in the music and sang in the lyrics.
Though rhyme, loaded language, and verbal irony, the message delivered in “You're gonna go far, kid” is that lying has an impact on those around you, and those who trust you will distance themselves from you because of your actions, and only to get what you want. I can connect this to my own life experiences, because there are people I know who I would still be friends with if they didn't lie to me about how they felt towards me. This also relates to issues in the media. One of the most recent and most prominent example is with Beyoncé and Jay Z, with lies and affairs damaging and eventually ending their relationship. I would recommend this song to people who like classic rock, songs about lying , and songs about revenge.
I really liked your analysis, I completely agree with the different literary devices used. I do think that some of your grammar could use a little improvement. Otherwise, a thumbs-up!
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