Okay this is a long time coming but please bear with me.

The song "Party in the USA" portrays a fairytale story about a girl from Nashville visiting Los Angeles for the first time, and all her homesickness is routinely cured by hearing music she recognizes. It is a dark look into the party-life image that Hollywood portrays and its influence on the younger generation, and how for a lot of lonely people music is the only true escape from both the city, and yourself.

The protagonist sings about how she lands at LAX by herself (she isn't traveling with her friends) with "a dream and a cardigan." Los Angeles is known as a killer of dreams for young people who come here and aren't prepared for it- and the only other item she mentions having is a sweater. The time of year she visits isn't directly stated, but a cardigan is not an item typically recommended to be "prepared" for Los Angeles weather. Subsequently, her first thoughts convey how worried she is about trying to fit in- and a cardigan is not a distinctly "Los Angeles" type of clothing, with the possible exception of Highland Park in the winter. The most common outerwear in Los Angeles are hooded sweatshirts ("hoodies") as evidenced by Venice beachfront shops, and a cardigan would definitely stand out in most places- especially any sort of club.

The protagonist then takes a taxi toward Hollywood (this was pre-ridesharing and likely about 1-hour after leaving the airport) and notices the Hollywood sign "to [her] right" which means she is either facing westbound and is in Hollywood (possibly on Hollywood or Sunset), or much more likely her driver is padding the fare and going the wrong direction on the 10, taking the 105E to 110N to 10W, and then later up La Brea. It's a common theme that she just doesn't understand how Los Angeles works, and evidenced with her being star-struck as she laments that "this is all so crazy, everybody seems so famous" which draws parallels to the homeless/hipster dilemma of the early 2010s in which it was hard to differentiate someone's wealth because everyone in Hollywood dressed like trash.

It's a compounded nervousness, but she finds relief when her driver turns up the radio and she hears music she loves (Jay-Z) and starts dancing. She immediately feels better as her anxiety wanes, and she claims it is indeed still a party within America. This is the first occurrence.

She then (presumably in the same taxi) arrives at a club in Hollywood and the people there (implied to be club-goers) immediately notice her and comment how she's "rockin' kicks" and likely a tourist or transplant- clearly not from Los Angeles. This starkly conflicts with the protagonist's original worry about fitting in- because she's not fitting in, she's standing out- but her perception is only positive and she dismisses their stares as either jealousy or appreciation. This would be fine on its own (to have a positive outlook about those around you), but knowing her intent of "fitting in" stresses a desire to be like everyone else, and so in turn: standing out is fitting in.

It's a juxtaposition/oxymoronic position. If you are one, you aren't the other. But if you are either, you are both. This creates a failsafe capture of anyone hearing the song because they will relate to one, or the other, or neither, and because of the counter-equilibrium the concept itself is invalidated and "flies away"- just like butterflies when the protagonist hears them "playing [her] song".

She comments how difficult being there is (approximately only 2-hours after landing at the airport) without her friends, and that the vibe the club has is very much unlike the one she experienced in Tennessee [author's note: having personally been to both Hollywood and Nashville I can confirm they are not similar except for copious amounts of woo-girls], and she mentions that everyone there has a "stilleto"- which is an Italian stabbing weapon, similar to a knife or dagger with a long slender blade and needle-like point. Likely a metaphor, "stilleto" represents the culture forcing its way into her, coursing its way into her very being, and simultaneously ignoring her- because she "never got the memo."

She again feels the nervousness and comments how the pressure to go to a club in Hollywood for the sake of appearance is a straining endeavor, but inside the club the DJ coincidentally plays more music that she enjoys (a song by Britney, likely Spears). The protagonist again immediately feels better as her anxiety wanes again, and again she claims it is indeed still a party within America. This is the second occurrence.

The song then blends together in a somewhat blurry, possibly drug-fueled [author's note: molly?] bridge that brings up the protagonist's desire to return to Tennessee within the next 24-hours, while the length of time elapsed in Los Angeles is left unclear. She then once again hears music played by the DJ and immediately feels better as her anxiety wanes, and she claims it is indeed still a party within America. This is the third occurrence?

We don't know.

The protagonist stresses that the music he plays stops her "every time" but without an accurate count we have no idea how long she she has been at this club. It could be the same night, it could be a different night years in the future, and may actually be an unannounced prequel song to the 2007 punk hit "Thrash Unreal" by Against Me! about a woman who year after year is stuck within a raging party scene.

It is a Los Angeles tragedy.

The protagonist is eternally trapped in a party lifestyle and despite wanting to go back to the east coast (like all the natives probably keep telling her to do), every time she hears music she recognizes she finds the strength to endure.

Just like me at Jumbo's tonight at 7:30.