When I was growing up in the mid ’00s, intimacy in pop music was discussed only metaphorically in songs like Hips Don’t Lie (Pelvic Gyration) Promiscuous (NBA point guards), Temperature (Temperature), and London Bridge (I have literally no idea/Architecture).

Prior research indicates that the 1990s were a little more straightforward. Yet, still, the actual act of… uh… Joe Bush Dot Net is Not Quite a Family Website… uh… just listen to this song

I purchased five imported Now That’s What I Call Music CDs in the summer of 2013. I do not know why I did this, but it opened me up to an entire different world (read: different country) of music. The UK charts seemed to be more open towards dance music judging by my limited research coming from owning five compilation CDs ranging from 1994-1997. While Technotronic, 2 Unlimited, and Snap! All had relative success in the States, they stuck around for longer in the UK for some reason. Personally, I believe that if you create “Rhythm is a Dancer“, you deserve to have five or six more hits, but I was not alive during this period of American culture, so I know not why. It’s probably because of the huge success of jazz after president Clinton’s saxophone solo. Also I guess Hip Hop and Grunge or something else took up that place.

Anyway, here’s this song, “Think of You” by Whigfield, the only popular song I’ve ever heard that has used the term “I want you inside of me”. The first time I listened to it (which was yesterday), I had to ask myself if I had actually heard the lyrics that I actually heard. “I need your body” isn’t that risqué, and it’s been in at least one or two songs in history. But that lyric is the only time… Actually, you know what, I’m gonna stop writing this paragraph.

Metaphor and leaving things to the imagination are building blocks of musical lyricism. Leaving nothing to the imagination, on the other hand, doesn’t get enough respect in popular music.