Grammar nazis, this ones for you. Songwriter and hit maker, Max Martin, is a Swedish transplant responsible for writing popular lyrics for artists as famous as the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Jennifer Lopez. Hilariously, Slate reports that this european expat has been getting away with churning out head-scratching foreign syntax for decades, and his lyrical clumsiness is behind such confusing lines as Ariana Grandes latest, “I only wanna die alive/ Never by the hands of a broken heart/ Don’t wanna hear you lie tonight/ Now that I’ve become who I really are”. ... Now that Ive become who I really *are*? ARE?! The grammatical bar for pop lyrics is plenty low, but some effort, at least, is required to clear it. And while we are fairly forgiving when it comes to the grammar of pop songs, we expect them at least to be fairly idiomatic most of the time. The lines above don’t sound like someone who’s careless about grammar. They sound like someone who is not a native English speaker and is also careless about grammar. I remember growing up listening to Backstreet Boys Quit Playing Games With My Heart and thinking, What the--? That line doesnt make sense. What does it mean? I dont get it. Is it supposed to be poetic? Am I not smart enough to understand it? Now I know that its just Max Martin spitting his viral Swedish musical genius. Damn you, Max Martin. Damn you.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 16:02:47 +0000
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