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| English: Original oil painting by Pappi, 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
As with poetry, aspects of a romantic relationship are
regular topics in songs. From longing to heartbreak to the joyfully unique
feelings a person experiences when they are with a loving companion, popular
music has it all covered. Relationships are very complicated self-imposed
institutions and no one knows how they will turn out. Worse still, the majority
of the stories we have told each other throughout time present too much of the
“happily ever after” ideal that never happens. It little prepares us for the
many twists and turns that lie ahead both in our partners and in ourselves.
Sometimes those twists lead to a bizarre perversion of what was a loving
romance. The following songs I have selected reflect on this perversion. Words
like “trap” and “abuse” are used to describe something that other songwriters,
more often than not, beautify and society, driven by our instinctive impulse to
breed, venerates as our ultimate purpose. “Love” and “heart” are in there too,
but they take the form of vulnerabilities that are being used as instruments of
torture.
