Written by JD Valdepenas
Photography by Sylvie Goodblatt , Edited by Mark Bluemle
Creative Director: Jake Pranian
Movement Direction: Sophia Querrazzi
Styling: Sophia Querrazzi, Diamond Durant
Makeup: Kindra Kirsch
Production Management: Amy Kapel
Production Assistance: @clay.baae
Models: @living_.dead_.gir1 @sxhaani @shes.so.dope @sabsyduan @diamondashle.y @kindrakirsch
Monsters are real and these are the songs to prove it. Perhaps it’s unlikely that you will ever encounter a sparkly, fang-toothed immortal who wants to drink your blood, but it is likely that you have a boss who drains you of your time and energy. Maybe the literal spirits of the dead don’t haunt your house but doesn’t the lingering memory of a certain someone do something similar? While some Civil War soldier with a sliced-off head doesn’t follow you around, an ex-best friend could linger in the back of your mind. Witches are real, but what makes a woman a witch? Is it because she’s older or openly angry? She may not fly on a broom, but she is certainly tired of her neighbors bothering her.
In “Ghosts” by Mayday Parade, the band chooses to cut the crap and outright tell the audience that “metaphorically this ghost is you”. While it may start with the statement, “there’s a ghost in my bedroom,” backed by a ghostly choir, the song is about the metaphorical haunting that a person goes through when someone that they used to be close with leaves. The song is frantic – a cross between a vaudeville track and a garage band. Its fast pace evokes the cartoonish image of someone running away from ghosts as they are being chased around the house. The narrator admits, “I’ve asked him to leave, but he keeps stopping by”. Ghosts only stay when they have unfinished business in the world of the living; they leave when they are finally at peace. The narrator’s relationship ended in a place that they felt was unfinished, hence why there is a ghost in their bedroom. The music slows, becoming more peaceful as the narrator sings, “there’s a ghost in my bedroom and he’s dying to meet you, God knows he’s heard all about you”. The ghost is still there, but it torments him less. There is hope that one day the ghost won’t be in his bedroom at all.
Witches in songs are often reduced to either their Halloween caricatures or a woman who is hell-bent on causing harm simply because she can. When Taylor Swift wrote “mad woman” she saw the witch differently. The song is told from the perspective of a woman who has been accused of being a “witch” because her neighbors hate her. But as she’s tied to the stake, about to be burned, her voice remains steady as she asks, “What did you think I’d say to that?” When women express emotions that make people uncomfortable or go against how women are expected to act, society attempts to label them as crazy. In a 2019 interview on Good Morning America, Swift commented on how “a man is allowed to react, a woman can only overreact”. This sentiment is reflected in the lyrics, “everytime you call me crazy, I get more crazy […] And when you say I seem angry, I get more angry”. A witch is just a woman whom society wants to throw away because they don’t like her. A woman who isn’t crazy, but complicated just like any other person. A woman who has a right to be angry, but whose anger isn’t taken seriously. She gets called “mad” because she won’t let people get away with insulting her. Unfortunately, it’s because of her reactions that she is accused of being a witch. A woman becomes a witch when she deviates from society’s expectations of how women should behave. As Swift says, “no one likes a mad woman”.
Lastly, in her song, “vampire,” Olivia Rodrigo calls out the monster in her life. At first listen, “vampire” comes off as a breakup song about an ex-partner who took advantage of Rodrigo for her fame, money, talent, connections, etc., but alternatively, one can view the song as an expression of all the pent-up anger and resentment toward the music industry for the way that Rodrigo, and other famous women, have been mistreated. After the debut of her first album, it seemed like Rodrigo was being hit left and right by accusations of plagiarism which led to her giving up 50% of her royalties to the artists that demanded credit (Hayley Williams for supposed similarities between her song “Good 4 U” and “Misery Business” and Taylor Swift for the similarities between “Deja Vu” and “Cruel Summer” as well as an interpolation of Swift’s song “New Year’s Day” on Rodrigo’s song “1 step forward 3 steps back,” despite gaining the rights to use the chords). Knowing all of this, “bloodsucker, fame-fucker, bleeding me dry,” takes on a different meaning. Yet, has this not been done to several other female artists, as well? How many times have we heard about or even seen paparazzi chasing down an actress or a singer? The way that photographers mercilessly hounded Britney Spears during a difficult time in her life, or that clip of Selena Gomez asking photographers to leave her alone as they terrorized her. “You said it was true love, but wouldn’t that be hard? You can’t love anyone ‘cause that would mean you had a heart” reads like a denouncement of the music industry — the one that promises to take care of their artists, only to exploit them for all that they are worth and discard them once finished.
There we have it, readers. Ghosts are the long-dead relationships of our past, witches are women who just aren’t likable, and vampires have been music executives all along. They may not exist as the creatures from horror movies, but the real-life monsters are still just as terrifying.
Written by JD Valdepenas
Photography by Sylvie Goodblatt
Creative Director: Jake Pranian
Movement Direction: Sophia Querrazzi
Styling: Sophia Querrazzi, Diamond Durant
Makeup: Kindra Kirsch
Production Management: Amy Kapel
Production Assistance: @clay.baae
Models: @living_.dead_.gir1 @sxhaani @shes.so.dope @sabsyduan @diamondashle.y @kindrakirsch