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It is couple of months when through Spotify algorithm I encountered a song that I really liked for its lyrics. This was the song - don't worry, I will also publish youtube link later. I have to say that the lyrics grabbed me. Just some excerptions:
Refrain:
You get the gist. When I listened to it on Spotify I said to myself how interesting it is to listen to popculture song that expresses woman's lovesong to a man, one does not see something like that anymore. I even said so to some of my friends/family. Only then I listened to youtube version of the song and it was about lesbian love
What I want to say is that "subverting the expectations" went right through over me. The cynical me did not even register it, to me it seems as if it all went through: this is what we had in the past and I can just pretend that this is man/woman love song and it has the same power. I ignore "the message" given the current circumstances and I can quite enjoy it. It is interesting how we went full circle when the current culture adopted old-timey tropes and they pretend to shock somebody. It is strange feeling, as if we are allies. Anyway that's all, I am interested in what you guys have to say to it.
So when/where were songs about straightforward love for a man from a woman's perspective actually common? The "early music" examples I can think of of unironic love songs (belle qui tiens ma vie..., Walther von der Vogelweide...) all seem to be m->f; in fact the only f->m one I can think of off the top of my head is Lana Del Rey's reasonably recent Young and Beautiful.
Common? I don't know. But I think I'll go to my grave probably thinking that the best song from a f->m romantic perspective is Simple and Clean. Yes, the one from Kingdom Hearts.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0qxdwfxbONM
Honestly, I could do an in-depth analysis of the lyrics of this song, especially in terms of modern gender politics and relationships. (And what, this is like almost 20 years old at this point?) But my hand is busted so I don't feel like typing too much.
Somewhat ironically, Utada later came out as a gynephile, I think (can't really use the term "lesbian," I think Utada also identifies as non-binary now).
I mean, that's not a surprise TBH. Like I said, I could do an in-depth analysis of the song, and its active rejection of the Male Gender Role as a romantic value and breaking the related patterns. (Note: Even though I think it's the best for me personally, because that's my personal aesthetic, at the same time, I don't think it's realistic at all)
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