|
With her best lyrics, she uses very specific imagery and terms and is CLEARLY referring to something specific that happened to her. It's just that the details are so numerous - statements are rarely generic in most of her songs, so you end up with a pile of details (or apparent details). When you do the math with all those specific things, though, it's hard to tell what happened exactly because those details could add up to multiple situations (and sometimes she'll use words with double meanings). With "The GIFT," there are only 2 or 3 details in the lyrics that you don't hear with a lot of wedding songs - like the two you quoted. Even then, the "it's been hard but we made it here" sentiment was used in "Dearest" as well under entirely non-wedding circumstances, and most of the rest of it are sentiments used often in love songs by Ayu and others.
Ayu has other songs that could be interpreted multiple ways, but those ways are all FAR more specific than "a couple getting married after hardship in their individual lives." Ayu's past lyrics have stories that not EVERYONE can relate to, but those who can are hit VERY hard by it.
"WHATEVER," for example, could be about a writer (lyricist, poet, novelist) who's in love with her boss. To someone else it might be about someone writing a suicide note to someone they care about and reminding them to tell those THEY love that they're important. For another person it could be about an unemployed impoverished woman trying to turn off romantic feelings for the time being until after her life is in order. And the lyrics ALL sound like they could point in any or all of those directions - but those stories are all very, very specific.
Even "Dearest" could be construed as a general, safe love song, but she makes references to "what's really important" that, especially combined with the theme of freedom in the video, makes it sound like she's upset about their respective careers getting in the way of them being together like a normal couple as much as they'd like (if she's singing to Tomoya Nagase, that would make sense given their respective touring & work schedules and his status as a Johnny's Entertainment guy). This means "Dearest" is applicable to a lot of people, sure, but it's REALLY applicable to people in long-distance relationships or people who have to travel often and be away from their families because of their work.
"The GIFT" includes things like calling their love a gift from the heavens. Generic, doesn't apply specially to anyone. Life together being compared to a staircase, tons of things use that imagery, and it applies to anyone's life together. Walking down the aisle daydreaming about the times you've had together, also very general and not specific to anyone aside from someone getting married. On top of it, even if your life wasn't CRAZY hard and full of heartbreak before meeting the person you marry, your dating life was probably full of drama and tears if you're, you know, human.
There's a lot here to make me say "Yeah, that's definitely how people feel in this situation!" but nothing here to make me say "Oh my god THIS IS TOTALLY MY SONG" the way other Ayu songs have done for so many people.
Do you see the distinction I'm trying to make here?
|