The interpretations of song lyrics done on this site assume:
1) That the listener/reader of the lyrics is not someone who has read every magazine article, press release, biography, etc., of the band. The interpretations here assume that you have a bit of basic background knowledge of the song, but that you are experiencing the song as the artist intended, i.e., as someone who did not know every word that had ever been uttered by the songwriter.
2) Thus, it assumes that the song lyrics are in essence stand-alone poems; on one level, and so the poems are interpreted as such.
3) However, it is also assumed that there are connections between songs on an album, unless proven otherwise.
4) It is assumed also that individual artists continue certain themes throughout their oeuvre, and sometimes these are quite significant.
5) In general, this presupposes that song lyrics are in fact poetry, which they are. You can read about iTrivium’s take on this here:
6) It also assumes that song lyrics, as poetry, can be read as mini-philosophical statements. The best poetry always contains elements of philosophy. But poetry also has other things. Philosophy is meant to be prose; it is meant therefore to explain, in full, all of its meanings. Poetry, however, by employing the primitive and universal human mode of symbolism (which is hard-wired into our brains, and which pre-existed philosophy by tens of thousands of years, if not more), it adds a richness, layeredness and multi-facetedness which is very satisfying to most people. This is why almost everyone likes song lyrics, for one thing. The fact that the meaning is instinctually understood, but yet open to interpretation, even more than philosophy or other prose, means that it invites you to unpack it.
7) Poetry is always intended as a gauntlet. It is a challenge. It is there to be interpreted. The artist feels that s/he has something to say, and so s/he says it. Then it is up to you, the audience, to interpret it. The work of interpretation is what is being taken up here.
7.5) Poetry, like music, is a social experience; primitive tribes have since time immemorial held dances and recited poetry at night, around the fire, as a means of creating social meaning.
Poetry creates interpretive communities, who are united by the symbolism of the poetry. In modern music, people voluntarily respond to given symbols, and they come together, and form an interpretive community; they all have a shared knowledge of the language in which the poetry is written, and or an otherwise similar cultural context, which draws them to the music/poetry.
So the poetry is a big part of the cement, which holds this type of subculture together. One of the jobs that can be done is for people to elucidate further the meaning of these symbols. Not all will like this, but many will find it enriching.
8) It is assumed here that the artists of a hugely culturally important movement such as Alternative Music must have something worth saying, or they would never have become so popular amongst the intelligencia. It is assumed here, that yes, the intelligencia, when it likes something, likes it because it has significance. While popular taste is usually banal; the taste of the intellectual elite can certainly be banal as well, but sometimes, it latches onto things which are more meaningful, and which drive the direction of the culture at large.
9) Is this elitist? Well, yes and no. Intellectuals, after all, drive politics, the economy, the universities, culture;; even art and fashion: all the best people in all of these fields are intellectuals of various stripes. They create the paradigms that the rest of us follow. Since Alternative Music was the music of an elite, it is quite possible that it was significant. Many now dismiss it as not being as significant as, say, the hippie movement. This site argues that it was equally, if not more significant.
10) But it is not elitist, insofar as it is an open invitation to be inclusive. Alternative Music was usually left-leaning; and it would therefore hope that it could help to enrich the lives of as many people as hear the call.
Trivial Alternatives 