#NowPlaying: My CSO - "Get It Right"

Welcome to my first CSO (Current Song Obsession) post! In this new series of posts, I'll be highlighting at least one song that isn't only stuck in my head, but I want it stuck in my head. I have no idea how long my obsessions last, but I am the type of person that when I get obsessed with something, I hang on it for a while - days, weeks, months, even years, depending on the depth of the obsession.

Songs connect with us because of 2 things: music and lyrics. Lyrics clearly connect with us because the words can be processed in our brains, and make us react to them, but the music may strike us in a way we didn't expect either. Music serves as a vehicle to transport the emotions in the lyrics, thereby giving songs the power they have over our hearts and minds.

This Spring Break, I've been re-watching Glee Season 2, and one of the episodes that really hit me was the episode where they perform original songs. When they perform at Regionals, they sing "Loser Like Me" and "Get It Right". "Loser Like Me" is a fun, upbeat, inspiring song for the underdog telling their bullies to keep hating on them, because it won't stop their rise to the top, and that they know that the bully is only treating them that way because "you wanna be a loser like me". It's a fun, anthem-like pop song, and I love it.

But I truly connect with the other song, "Get It Right". Simply summarized, the song laments that despite one's best intentions in wanting to help a person or situation, they only make it worse somehow.

When I really listened to the lyrics in this song, I felt like I was listening to my autobiography. I don't know how many mistakes I've made in my life where I was trying to help someone or something, and all I did was made it worse. After such incidences, I feel terrible about myself, and wonder why I should even bother helping anyone or anything anymore when all I seem to do is exacerbate the problems. I've done it to friends and family, and in rare cases, colleagues. I'm human. I make mistakes, and this song recognizes that desire to help that comes with the inadvertent consequence of worsening the situation, but finally accepting that everything will be okay as long as you learn from your mistakes and accept that that's life. Shit happens, and it happens to everyone.

When I listen to this song, part of me wants to cry, but it also gives me hope. I listen to the words and I just see a video play in my mind of all the mistakes I've made where I was trying to help. I want to let others listen to this song, and tell them, "This is how I feel a lot, like I can't get anything right, and when I try to help, I end up worsening something."

I know. It's kinda sad to make my first post about a lament of a song, but I connect with it so deeply that I felt like I just had to start sharing the music that moves me.

I hope you enjoy the music and connect with the lyrics. That's why music is such a force to be reckoned with. It moves people in ways nothing else can. Music is powerful also because it's so emotionally versatile. Songs can express just about ANY human emotion, and the musical spectrum is just as wide as the spectrum of the human condition. When you listen to a song, you can liken it to opening up a wrapped present; the gift itself is the lyrics and how they'll make you feel, but the music is the first thing you hear, just like the size of the box and the wrapping paper used to conceal the gift.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave comments here or on Facebook.