Say Something

Have you ever heard a song that just broke your heart, that moved you so much you found yourself sobbing as you drive down the road?  Then you go home and look up the video and find that the video breaks your heart even more? “Say Something” by A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera is that song for me. The very first time I heard it I just sobbed – in my car at 65mph.  Not the best time to be sobbing, but it was so heartbreaking, the vocals so beautiful, that it just crushed me.  Upon seeing the video and how the artists related it to many different life situations broke my heart even more, and that is why I decided to write about it today.

This video is an amazing video.  Not just because of the subject matter and the beauty and simplicity of the song itself, but also because it was the video that almost never was.  A Great Big World recorded the song but it wasn’t released to worldwide success. In fact, it wasn’t until Christina Aguilera heard the song on the television show “So You Think You Can Dance” that the ball started rolling.  She wanted to record the song as a duet with them, would they be interested?  Per an article that appeared in Rolling Stone, the duo of course jumped at the chance.  After appearing on Christina’s show The Voice, the song and the duo were catapulted into the spotlight, and the song has gone platinum. (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/meet-a-great-big-world-the-new-york-duo-behind-say-something-20131218)

The video captures three very different life situations that all related to the chorus line of “Say something, I’m giving up on you”.  The first, and expected, situation is a couple lying in bed, appearing to have just been in a fight, and as the video progresses she leaves the man who is lying in bed next to her.  The second situation is a little girl sitting on her bed as her parents fight.  The fight is hidden behind sheer curtains and the focus is the little girl, hiding her head and then crawling under the bed with her dog.  Finally, there is the elderly couple, the wife lying in the hospital bed and her husband cradling her, sobbing.  The second and third situations were unexpected to me and full of tragic emotion that, had I not seen the video, I never would have thought of in my mind.  It is a beautiful, simple set without a lot of fancy lighting or special effects – just people singing earnestly while life plays out around them in spotlights. By putting the focus on the subjects this way, it plays on the raw emotions of the song even more, leaving me in tears even as I write this post.

The duo of A Great Big World is made up of Ian Axel and Chad Vaccarino, and per the article in Rolling Stone, they met at New York University where they were both students studying the music business.  They didn’t have commercial success prior to this song, although they did put out an indie album and their music was noticed and played on television shows such as “One Tree Hill” per the Rolling Stone article.  Their debut album was released January 21, 2014 on Epic Records.

A Great Big World doesn’t have a large base of music to look at since they just released their first album.  The music that I’ve listened to off their album is similar to “Say Something” in the way it is simple and not overpowered by over-produced vocals and overpowering synthesized music.  As artists they seem to focus on the story of their songs, communicating with the audience in an earnest way that makes you relate to what they are singing about.  In their song “Already Home”, they again focus on a single couple, with a simple premise – the male is on the West Coast while the female is in New York and how they fly to get to each other.  The duo themselves are shown throughout simply playing and singing in a dressed down room, with nothing fancy.  While not as stark as “Say Something”, it definitely has the same intimate feel to it.

“Say Something” really is a stand-alone song, and that is what drew me to write about it.  It isn’t similar to really anything that has been released in the last year in the Pop genre, which is what it is classified as.  While there are songs that may come close to the mood of the song – sadness and loss – there aren’t any that are close enough to compare to.  They seem to have a similar mood about them as the bands One Republic, Fun!, and The Fray – groups that are able to convey emotion through songwriting and not overproduction.  But the song itself is incomparable, I can’t think of another song that has just made me sob the moment I hear it, every single time I hear it.  My goodness, even a 4-year old boy sobbed to the song (caught on video by his father!)

It is different from other works in the Pop genre because it is so very simple.  A lot of Pop music you hear on the radio is overtly sexual, talks about drinking and drugs, and is overproduced to the point that you don’t even recognize the artists when you hear them live because they don’t sound the same without all the editing.  “Say Something” stands out in a crowd of look alikes.

This video is important because it shows that simplicity can move people, that a song can create deep emotions to run through those people, and that music is still alive in the simplest forms.  I think there is a trend in our culture of wanting to get away from all the violence and sexualization of everything we are exposed to, and this song moves away from these things.  It takes a universal message – broken hearts – and makes it relatable to everyone.  People need to feel and our culture and our teenagers and young adults, who are the target audience of Pop music, hasn’t been creating much music in the last several years that leans that way. However, in the past few years there seems to be a movement in Pop music towards softer music, music that touches the soul, music that moves people.  There aren’t any stereotypes or offensive messages in this song, just a crossroads in life that people face when life isn’t shaping up to what they were hoping for.

I have a hard time finding any weaknesses with this music video.  It is so beautiful, so simple, and I think it really will stand the test of time.  The video features a mixed race couple which I think is very progressive and important to the integrity of the band and the video itself.  It also features an older couple and a young girl, spanning situations that everyone can relate to or even fear (I know I fear the day I’m lying in a hospital bed with my husband in our old age).  The video plays on the emotions of the viewer and keeps everything very stark and clean in order to let the viewer really feel what is going on.  I think this is a beautiful song and a beautiful video, I don’t believe they could have done it any better.

Seeing as A Great Big World is a very new duo on the scene, it is hard to tell if this will be their best work.  It will be interesting if they do top this, because it invokes such raw emotions it would be hard to replicate it.  This may be a downfall for them in fact – coming on to the scene with such an amazing song for their first act, how will they follow it up?  “Already Home”, while a great song, isn’t as moving as “Say Something” so it will be interesting to watch them as they grow and see what happens.  This video will definitely be memorable for a very long time, as you can just say “you know that one song that is so sad” and people know exactly what you are talking about.

Critics, while split on the whole album released by A Great Big World, seem to feel that “Say Something” is a wonderful song, masterfully done.  One reviewer, Bill Lamb, says “At a time in which pop music is lacking in emotional ballads, "Say Something" sounds just right.”  (http://top40.about.com/od/singles/fl/A-Great-Big-World-Say-Something-featuring-Christina-Aguilera.htm)  On DigitalSpy.com, Lewis Corner says “It's reassuring that every now and then a song can emerge solely on its stripped-down melody and emotive lyrics, becoming the antithesis of the club-thumping blow-outs radio currently prefers.” It seems the critics feel the same as I do – that we needed this beautiful simple ballad.

I listened to quite a bit of work by A Great Big World on YouTube.  I do plan on going out and buying this album. I asked my husband if he wanted to watch the video since he has only ever heard the song and he told me absolutely not because he was sure it was one-hundred times harder to watch than to just listen to it, because it is so heart breaking.  My teenage daughter cries with me when it comes on, every single time.  It is just that moving of a song.

A Great Big World is a new, emerging duo.  They hit it out of the ballpark with their debut release of “Say Something”.  Evoking so much emotion out of a song isn’t an easy task, one that happens rarely, especially for a new artist.  With Christina Aguilera’s help, they were able to show the world this amazing song and we are all better for it.  The video takes it a step further, exposing us to not only the raw emotions of a break-up, but also putting the song into the context of other life circumstances, such as the death of a spouse and the horror of a child living with parents who fight.  A Great Big World has a big road ahead of them to find success in the Pop world, but they are off to a great start.