Last week, I discovered that the bass in my car was on the lowest setting. Since I’m a pretty down and dirty person, I decided to crank it up to the max. Now, my car is downright gangster in sound. A thumping bass is the optimal setting for all these new songs that come out, especially by one of my favorite groups, the Black Eyed Peas. I’m not sure if you’ve heard one of their newer songs, The Time (Dirty Bit) but that song combines two of my favorite things: lyrics from the movie Dirty Dancing and downright dirty lyrics.
Closer scrutiny of the song in my rocking commute today led me to find the following lyric: “All these girls they like my swagger/ They call me Mick Jagger”. Interesting rhyme, and for those of you who don’t listen to HOT99.5 24/7 like I do, Ke$ha’s made the same rhyme in her timeless song TikTok: “Now, the dudes are lining up cause they hear we got swagger/ But we kick 'em to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger”. This makes me wonder—is Mick Jagger aware that he’s suddenly being name dropped in hit music? Does he care? Does he know he has swagger? Does he even know what that is? But more importantly, did he know I wanted him before all these poser pop musicians did?
That’s right, I liked Mick Jagger in that way before it was acceptable to in Top 40 songs. I know that he looks like a crack addicted scarecrow but there’s something about him that makes me weak in the knees. I’ve had a thing for Mick ever since I hit my teens and I didn’t know why until now—I was the first to understand and fall in lust with his swagger.
What exactly is swagger, anyways? I decided to consult my two top reference dictionaries: The Oxford English Dictionary and Urban Dictionary. The former defines swagger as: “The action of swaggering [way to go OED, using the word you're defining in the defintion] ; external conduct or personal behaviour marked by an air of superiority or defiant or insolent disregard of others” The most thumbs-upped definition on Urban Dictionary proclaims that swagger is: “How one presents him or her self to the world. Swagger is shown from how the person handles a situation. It can also be shown in the person's walk”. Interestingly, swagger has turned into something to admire, to emulate, but to ultimately respect. In this day and age, I guess you’re supposed to party with anyone with swagger (or who can provide free booze, which probably is part of the swagger anyways).
You hear the word swagger dropped in a lot of songs now. People throw it in their speech to describer some baller at a club. It went from a word used in a piece of Swift’s literature (A New Song on Wood’s Halfpence) to a T.I. rap song (Swagger Like Us). Do I have a point with this? I guess it’s just to say, move bitch, get out the way to Ke$ha and GTFO to the Black Eyed Peas. I liked Mick Jagger’s swagger before it was a compelling rhyme and a topical phrase. I like him for the rocker he is. Plus, I hear he’s single.
i love this. more please.
ReplyDelete