Pop Cultured

Ok, so I’m just going to vent a little bit about this song, and the issue that I had with the music video.

First of all I LOVE Beyonce, she’s a total singing goddess with serious pipes, and I find her voice completely to die for. K, just getting that out of the way.

So when I first heard “Best Thing I Never Had” on the radio I was blown away. It’s a amazing melody, and Beyo’s voice rips its way through the whole song in the most gorgeous way. But it was the lyrics that did it for me. I was instantly in love, and this is saying something as I tend to notice tunes wayyyy more than lyrics. Not these lyrics. They were the most stunning thing I’d ever heard. I mean they’re SO different from what we normally hear! Think about it, sooo many songs are these huge, bombastic, passionate declarations of love. They’re about how awesome someone is, and every single reason from A to Z that makes them so gosh darn lovable. And then this song comes straight out of left field with a completely opposite message.

I mean really, maybe I’m listening to different music, but I don’t often hear a singer emotionally declare that someone was the best thing they never had. And afterwards hear them emotionally professing, “Thank God I dodged a bullet” about someone they were once with. To me, this song was saying that it’s ok to change your mind, and you don’t have to stay with someone just because you used to share something. I know so many people who have just stuck with their partners in these really sad relationships that would do nothing for them, but wouldn’t end it because I guess they felt it was better than nothing. It was so so refreshing to hear a song that was self-praising for getting out of a relationship.

But then I saw the video, and suddenly the entire song’s message was just changed to “thank god i got out of this relationship, because then I wouldn’t have been able to marry this other person who is clearly better”. This is still a good thing, don’t get me wrong! But personally I found the original message I interpreted to be much more powerful, which was getting out of a relationship for you, not getting out of a relationship to be with someone else.

That being said, I still ADORE this song and listen to it all the time, I just don’t watch the music video:)