Category Archives: 2010s songs

The best 500 songs from the 2010s. Lyrics, meanings and interpretations from your favorite musicians. Adele, Halsey, Sara Bareilles, Grouplove, Sia, The 1975, Harry Styles. Find out our highest ranked music acts of the 2010 decade. It was a great decade for music.

2010s songs, songs about exes

The One that Got Away (acoustic)-Katy Perry

Leave a comment

In another life
I would be your girl

In “The One that Got Away” Katy Perry thinks about a prior boyfriend and wonders how her life might be had things worked out a different way. What if they hadn’t broken up? What if she had valued their relationship more? In a different world—one where she made different decisions–she might be still with him all these years later.

The fact that those decisions can be so small but lead to such a largely different future is a complicated concept to grasp when you’re young. One movie that deals with this concept well is Sliding Doors.

The One that Got Away meaning
Katy Perry

 

Perry reminisces about how close she and her ex were—they were inseparable. They spoke of forever, made promises, even got matching tattoos. Were they just clueless about the difficulties of making relationships last? Or was it all just meaningless? I think we know how she feels.

However, what she is really wondering is if he feels the same way about her. Is she “the one that got away” for him, just as he is for her? She heard he got their tattoo removed and is beginning to come to the realization that he does not romanticize her the same way she does him.

The One That Got Away
Perry

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the song is how personal it seems. If one has these feelings, is it appropriate to be seriously involved with another person? How can a new boyfriend compete with a romanticized ghost?

The sound of the acoustic version really captures the emotional aspect of the lyrics well. The regular version is completely off. Her feelings are regretful, sad, nostalgic; these emotions are perfectly captured in the acoustic version. It is a different sound that what one might expect from Katy Perry. One could argue that the song could even be stripped down more.

Perry’s voice sounds good—especially the lower notes. I think most artists would be tempted to sing those a couple octaves higher. The song has a great sounding verse and chorus—making for an altime great song. The bridge does a decent job of transitioning between the two while summarizing the meaning of “The One Who Got Away”. This is Perry’s best work.

The One Who Got Away Lyrics

Summer after high school when we first met
We’d make out in your Mustang to Radiohead
And on my 18th birthday we got matching tattoos
Used to steal your parents’ liquor and climb to the roof
Talk about our future like we had a clue
Never planned that one day I’d be losing you

In another life
I would be your girl
We’d keep all our promises
Be us against the world
In another life
I would make you stay
So I don’t have to say you were
The one that got away
The one that got away

I was June and you were my Johnny Cash
Never one without the other, we made a pact
Sometimes when I miss you I put those records on (whoa)
Someone said you had your tattoo removed
Saw you downtown singing the blues
It’s time to face the music, I’m no longer your muse

But in another life
I would be your girl
We’d keep all our promises
Be us against the world
In another life
I would make you stay
So I don’t have to say you were
The one that got away
The one that got away

The one
The one
The one
The one that got away
All this money can’t buy me a time machine, no
Can’t replace you with a million rings, no
I should’ve told you what you meant to me (whoa)
‘Cause now I pay the price

In another life
I would be your girl
We’d keep all our promises
Be us against the world
In another life
I would make you stay
So I don’t have to say you were
The one that got away
The one that got away
The one (the one)
The one (the one)
The one (the one)

In another life
I would make you stay
So I don’t have to say you were
The one that got away
The one that got away

Songwriters: Katy Perry / Lukasz Gottwald / Max Martin

2010s songs, party songs

Tongue Tied- Grouplove

Leave a comment

Take me to your best friend’s house/
I love you then and I love you now…

Grouplove’s “Tongue Tied” does a great job of setting a scene–immediately we know we are at party. A young man takes his girlfriend Marmalade, to a party, something bad happens and they are no longer together. Or at least they are moving in that direction. The song is a sort of plea to get her back, as he says: “don’t wave no goodbye/ don’t kiss me goodnight…”.

What exactly happened? We don’t know, but he may have cheated with her friend. Can’t she just look past this minor indiscretion? (whatever it might be). In his mind he loves her now just as much as he loved her then. He has some good excuses…he was high, he has Peter Pan syndrome… but hey, we’re good together! Maybe they’ll stay together maybe not.

Tongue Tied Meaning Lyrics
Grouplove

The stakes seem low because of the sound of the song. The sound is a party song, so we feel the upbeat, pulsing high of the party—when everyone was dancing, and they were still together. However, most of the lyrics are a plea to get his girlfriend back. Perhaps this up-and- down is reminiscent of a lot of young relationships. “Tongue Tied” creates a weird combination of feelings in the listener of excitement, nostalgia, discovery, sadness and hope.

Tongue Tied Lyrics

Take me to your best friend’s house,
Goin’ ’round this roundabout, oh yeah.
Oh, take me to your best friend’s house,
I loved you then and I love you now, oh yeah.

Don’t take me tongue-tied,
Don’t wave no goodbye,
Don’t break…

Oh, take me to your best friend’s house,
Marmalade, we’re making out, oh yeah.
Oh, take me to your best friend’s house,
I loved you then and I love you now.

Don’t take me tongue-tied,
Don’t wave no goodbye,
Don’t break.

One, two, three, four,
Don’t leave me tongue-tied,
Let’s stay up all night.
I’ll get real high,
Slumber party, pillow fight.
My eyes on your eyes,
Like Peter Pan up in the sky.
My best friend’s house tonight,
Let’s bump the beats ’til beddy-bye.

Don’t take me tongue-tied,
Don’t wave no goodbye.
Don’t take me tongue-tied,
Don’t kiss me goodnight.
Don’t, oh…

Take me to your best friend’s house,
Goin’ ’round this roundabout, oh yeah.
Oh, take me to your best friend’s house,
I loved you then and I love you now.
(All right, all right, all right)

A-don’t leave me tongue-tied (Don’t leave me),
Don’t wave no goodbye (Don’t wave bye).
Don’t leave me tongue-tied (Don’t leave me),
Don’t…
Don’t leave me tongue-tied (Don’t leave me),
Don’t wave no goodbye (Don’t wave bye).
Don’t leave me tongue-tied (Don’t leave me),
Don’t…

written by Ryan Rabin / Sean Gadd / Andrew Wessen / Hannah Hooper / Christian Zucconi

 

2010s songs, toxic relationship

Graveyard (Acoustic)- Halsey

Leave a comment

Oh, it’s funny how/
The warning signs can feel like they’re butterflies..

In “Graveyard”, Halsey’s partner is physically abusive. She realizes this, yet it does not hinder her love for him. She says she will “follow him down to the graveyard”. This comes across as a powerful line, rather than a trite cliché, because there is a good chance that her relationship could lead to her harm or death. It is a song about abuse that contains a great use of extended metaphor.

Graveyard Halsey
Halsey

Yet Halsey stays. Due to her upbringing, her genes, her misplaced attraction or devotion, to her, warning signs are indistinguishable from butterflies. Intellectually, she knows this. But sometimes our logic and our emotions don’t align. So, what then? Too often, we follow our emotions to our detriment. Halsey says it may lead her to the graveyard, but the excitement from the relationship is too good to give up.

If there is any solace to be taken from the song, it is that the author is singing in the past tense: “I would’ve followed you down to the graveyard.” Somehow she escaped the abuse, yet she admits to herself she probably would go down the same path again—regardless where the path leads.

Graveyard Halsey
Halsey

The sound is at times both tender and urgent. She has an extremely unique voice, which is a plus for any artist. Like Sia, she is able to produce different versions of her song that make for great acoustic mixes and dance mixes. Often they sound quite different and can provide different experiences.

Halsey is one of the most talented performers of her generation. If she is lacking anything, it is that stand-out, iconic, sing-along hit. “Graveyard” is not a singalong, but it might be her best song.

Graveyard Lyrics

It’s crazy when
The thing you love the most is the detriment
Let that sink in
You can think again
When the hand you wanna hold is a weapon and
You’re nothin’ but skin

Oh, ’cause I keep diggin’ myself down deeper
I won’t stop ’til I get where you are
I keep running, I keep running, I keep running

They say I may be making a mistake
I would’ve followed all the way, no matter how far
I know when you go down all your darkest roads
I would’ve followed all the way to the graveyard

Oh, ’cause I keep diggin’ myself down deeper
I won’t stop ’til I get where you are
I keep running when both my feet hurt
I won’t stop ’til I get where you are
Oh, when you go down all your darkest roads
I would’ve followed all the way to the graveyard (no, oh)

You look at me (look at me)
With eyes so dark, don’t know how you even see
You push right through me (push right through me)
It’s gettin’ real
You lock the door, you’re drunk at the steering wheel
And I can’t conceal

Oh, ’cause I’ve been diggin’ myself down deeper
I won’t stop ’til I get where you are
I keep running, I keep running, I keep running

They say I may be making a mistake
I would’ve followed all the way, no matter how far
I know when you go down all your darkest roads
I would’ve followed all the way to the graveyard

Oh, ’cause I keep diggin’ myself down deeper
I won’t stop ’til I get where you are
I keep running when both my feet hurt
I won’t stop ’til I get where you are
Oh, when you go down all your darkest roads
I would’ve followed all the way to the graveyard

Oh, it’s funny how
The warning signs can feel like they’re butterflies

Oh, ’cause I keep diggin’ myself down deeper
I won’t stop ’til I get where you are
I keep running when both my feet hurt
I won’t stop ’til I get where you are
Oh, when you go down all your darkest roads
I would’ve followed all the way to the graveyard

Songwriters: Amy Allen / Ashley Frangipane / Jonathan Bellion / Jordan K Johnson / Louis Bell / Mark Williams / Stefan Johnson