Imagine you wake up one morning, craving the feel of a love song in your eardrums. You hop into your car and hope that one will play on the radio, and lo and behold, one does! But unfortunately, it is not what you exactly hoped for. Love songs today are being tarnished each day by the newer song’s lustful intentions. Most of the world has forgotten the meaning of love, leaving it in the dust around 1975. In other words, today’s ‘love songs’ inhibits the true meaning of a love song because they most often sing about hookups, sex, and lustful intentions about the other person. In contrast, music from older generations showed how sweet(and sappy) love could truly be and feel, allowing the listeners to feel the love within the lyrics. As I will say for as long as I am breathing, songs from the 60’s to the 70s were, and always, be the best years in which proper love songs were created, while songs from more recent years are more lustful and sing less about actual love.

Paul Anka’s song, “Put Your Head On My Shoulder” from 1960 utilizes literal meanings to tell listeners that love songs from the 60 are more about love than about lustful activities. The lyrics describe how the singer wants the other to, “put your head on my shoulder / hold me in your arms, baby / squeeze me oh-so-tight / show me that you love me too” to show their love and affection to the singer, (Anka 1-4). They use literal language to explicitly say how they want their partner to show their true feeling towards the singer, and to have their partner say that they love them too. It implies how in many relationships, one may want the other to show their love and commitment to their partner. Along with “Put Your Head On Your Shoulder,” another song that pops up is “Fly Me To The Moon” by Bart Howard from 1965. This song uses an extended metaphor to again tell listeners that love songs from the 60s are more about affectionate love. The lyrics explain that the singer wants their partner to, “fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars”, (Howard 1-2). The song implies that their partner is a rocket, and the singer wants to use them to fly to the moon and play among the stars. But what are they playing in the stars? Is it an instrument, since the singer is a songwriter? Or perhaps the singer just wants to see if their partner loves them so much, that they would fly them to the moon to prove their love. 

Years later was where love songs become a little more lascivious rather than affectionate. Queen’s song “Good Old Fashioned Lover-Boy” from 1976 utilizes implied and standard metaphors to confess their feelings toward the person they are singing about. The lyrics tell their partner, “I can serenade and gently play on your heartstrings”, the singer is implying that they can play on their partner’s heart like an instrument with strings, like a guitar (Mercury 3). Another bit of lyrics from the song states that the singer wants their loved one to “come on and sit on my hot seat of love”  (Mercury 11). The singer is metaphorically saying that their love is a hot seat, and they want to warm you up with their love. 

Cut forward a multitude of years, and we have the 2000s. The song “Marry You” by Bruno Mars which came out in 2010 utilizes a standard metaphor to ask himself a question, and that question was, “Is it the look in your eyes, or is it this dancing juice?”, (Smeezingtons 3). The singer is asking himself if he can see a glimpse of affection in ‘your eyes’, or if it's just a ‘dancing juice’. But what exactly is ‘dancing juice’? It appears to be alcohol, by the way, that Bruno sings about it multiple times in his song. So, that would only mean that this is a metaphor and that he doesn't know if he loves you, or if it's the mass amounts of alcohol he has consumed while hypothetically hanging out with you. Another song that was released in the 2000s was Paramore’s “Still Into You” which was released in 2013. The song employs an implied metaphor to say, “I’m into you, baby, not a day goes by/that I’m not into you”, (Williams 37-38). The singer is implying that you are something they can ‘be into’, like a room, that they can use as a safe space.

And finally, we have the modern 2000s. When I began this essay, the first song that came to mind was “I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE” by the popular band Måneskin. Being released in 2021, the song gained popularity for numerous reasons, the most prominent was that singers voice is exceptionally nice. But behind the popularity and nice singing, the lyrics, even though the song might seem like a modernized love song, are anything but that. The singer firsts starts with, “I wanna make your heartbeat run like rollercoasters”, which uses a standard simile, comparing your heartbeat to a rollercoaster. This could say multiple things, but the most logical one would be that the singer wants your heart to beat extremely fast, like a rollercoaster, when you think of them(Angelis 2). As the song goes on, the lyrics get more lascivious, such as, “I wanna touch your body, so [       ] electric”, (Angelis 6). The singer uses a metaphor to compare your body to electricity and to explain how they find your body so striking, that they would consider it ‘electric’.

As I said before, and I will always say, today’s love songs inhibit the true meaning of an actual love song by singing about hookups, sex, and libidinous intentions about their partner. Along with that, the love songs being created today are tarnishing the true meaning of a love song by singing about all of those lewd things they think of their partners. But, sometimes people just like those types of songs, and no one can do anything about it. Even if the newer love songs are horrible at talking about actual love, some are decent to listen to. And with that, love what you love, even if it’s just a love song.