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Is it me or do quite a few trance lyrics have deep philosophical and psychological meanings ?
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For example, let's look at the 2018 psychedelic trance track "Blah Blah Blah" from Armin van Buuren featuring vocals Adian Bullimore.

All we ever hear from you is blah blah blah

This first line paints the general background of the song. It pulls from a trope in media: the lover's quarrel. There's a twist that I will demonstrate at the end.

In this case, there is one person, the narrator, who is fed up with their significant other. The pain they've caused them is not new; this is a deep-seated and repetitive source. Months, maybe years, have passed since the two last felt true happiness towards each other, longer since they were in love (if their love was ever more than superficial).

At this point, the narrator does not even care what their SO says; doesn't even pretend to listen. Everything is "blah blah blah". Words have lost meaning, and the level of interest the narrator shows his SO now has diminished to all but an iota.

So, all we ever do is go ja ja ja

We are brought deeper into the story of the narrator's disdain towards his SO based on their response to the degradation of the relationship. While "ja ja ja" to most Americans would be laughing in Spanish, you have to look at the artists to understand that this is instead Dutch for "yes yes yes". The narrator is being sarcastic, dismissive, and perhaps even mocking towards his SO. The tension between the two is long past the breaking point. The narrator recognizes it is not worth their time to even try and respond to their SO; it's fruitless.

And we don't even care about what they say cause it's Ja ja ja ja blah blah blah blah

This continues to paint the picture from the previous line that the narrator has "ran out of fucks to give." It's beyond providing sarcastic responses and eye-rolling to their SO's requests or questions. Day in and day out, the acme of not caring has been reached.


So you read the lyrics and you see the lover's quarrel; how the narrator has grown apart from their SO. But please, that's surface level. We want deep philosophical and psychological, no?

Well, look more carefully at the word choices here by Armin.

All we ever hear

The use of we here is strange, no? If the narrator is a single person in a lover's quarrel, it should be "All I ever hear". So why the use of we? One possibility could be it's three people in love with each other, but two people have become fed-up with the third.

But we get another clue in this line and the third line.

First line:

hear from you

Third line:

don't even care about what they say

In the space of two lines, the narrator has gone to referring to the SO as singular to plural. Unless their SO has quickly cloned themselves, this is not possible.

That's the twist in this lover's quarrel that I alluded to earlier.

Consider the song again, but from the perspective of the SO. Their narrator, for whom they've loved for years, has slowly started to lose their mind. Perhaps depression along with bouts of hypomania and primary insomnia, or suggestions of agoraphobia, bipolar, schizophrenia, even obsessive-compulsive disorder. They've slowly gone insane, referring to themselves in the plural form.

But there's still hope. There has to be a way to slow, stop, or reverse the process, the SO would think. There's always hope.

But that third line seals the fate of the narrator. The narrator refers to their SO as singular and plural within a few lines. The disease has not just progressed, but has worsened at an increasing rate. In the eyes of the SO, the narrator has gone from someone they envisioned their entire life with to someone they barely even recognize. Unlike Hollywood, there is no story-book ending here. All that remains are memories for the SO, and for the narrator, all that awaits them is a mind-prison, doomed for eternity with no chance of escape.


At the surface level, one might look at "Blah Blah Blah" as just a catchy, cash-grab by Armin. But dig a bit deeper, and you'll see it's a haunting look at the decline of a relationship with no fault to either party, only nature's uncaring path.

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3 years ago