Musical Analysis

Royals by: Lorde

Verse 1

I’ve never seen a diamond in the flesh
I cut my teeth on wedding rings in the movies

  • The artist is talking about never experiencing wealth & has only seen it in movies where they make people want to live in a wealthy life too

And I’m not proud of my address, in the torn up town
No post code envy

  • She’s talking about her modern life, she wasn’t exactly poor but, just living a moderate life style

Pre-Chorus

But every song’s like gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin’ in the bathroom
Bloodstains, ball gowns, trashin’ the hotel room
We don’t care, we’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams

  • Talking about how she like expensive things but not the message it sends (People with money think they can be reckless and do anything they want)

But everybody’s like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece

  • These are high status symbols

Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash

  • These are things that are also high status symbols but, more crazy and extravagant

We don’t care, we aren’t caught up in your love affair

Chorus

And we’ll never be royals
It don’t run in our blood
That kind of lux just ain’t for us

  • The artist talks about how she doesn’t crave to be trapped in the spotlight of fame

We crave a different kind of buzz
Let me be your ruler, you can call me Queen B
And baby I’ll rule (I’ll rule I’ll rule I’ll rule)
Let me live that fantasy

  • The artist does crave fancy things just like everybody, but she knows that not everything you want you can get, if you want something expensive or to rule over a country you don’t have to hurt others to get what you want – just be content with what you have

With Marxist criticism you can see that the artist Lorde makes fun of those who live in luxury and waste their money on ridiculous things. In this song we see the power and control that money has over people since, we know money can make people do crazy things.  It also shows that people with money live a care-free life with lots of expensive things while, people without money crave to have that type of lifestyle, some will do bad things to get that lifestyle while others just dream about it. This also brings up the question, do people with money have too much of it? What about the people with no money, while people of high class live in luxury, can something be done to better the life of the poor?