The Pursuit of Happiness: an analysis
This song is currently popular in what has become my most frequent social circle. It was introduced by Antonio and is one of Sabin School's current favorites. I didn't listen to the lyrics much until last night.
I learned that it's actually got a lot going on. Now it's time for ANALYSIS.
VERSE 1:
Crush a bit, little bit, roll it up, take a hit
Feelin’ lit feelin’ light, 2 am summer night.
2am on a summer night is a great time.
These lines set up the hedonism that is the subject of the song.
I don't care, hand on the wheel, drivin drunk, I'm doin’ my thing
Rollin the Midwest side and out livin’ my life getting’ out dreams
People told me slow my road I'm screaming out fuck that
Imma do just what I want lookin’ ahead no turnin’ back
Introduces the subject of dreams. The role of dreams is unclear, but here, it's an activity consistent with hedonism.
Note the speaker's independence. He is independent from other people--the Other--as well as his past--his own facticity (the things about his condition which he has no way of changing).
if I fall if I die know I lived it to the fullest
if I fall if I die know I lived and missed some bullets
The speaker acknowledges his mortality, and hence his finitude. Something about the situation described above--was it his happiness, or his freedom?--has redeemed his life despite the possibility of death. Living to the fullest makes death acceptable.
CHORUS
I'm on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shine ain't always gonna be gold
I'll be fine once I get it, I'll be good.
This is my least favorite part of the song. It's fitting that it's sung by those poisoners, MGMT.
Here the speaker announces his hedonism explicitly. But he explains the profound disappointed of the lifelong "pursuit of happiness" naively. He believes the failure of the pursuit is due to the attainment of things that he was attracted to (that glitter) and the subsequent realization that they are not ultimately fulfilling (gold).
Despite what we should infer as repeated failures of this kind, the speaker remains hopeful of finding happiness and, as a result, peace.
VERSE 2:
Tell me what you know about dreamin’ dreamin’
you don't really know about nothin’ nothin’
The speaker is suddenly sarcastic and combative. All is not well.
Notice that in the music video, during this moment of intensity the party setting around Kid Cudi freezes. He is no longer a part of the milieu. He has acknowledged and now transcends his situation. His future is his to decide now.
The speaker is frustrated about the dreams that earlier he was exalting as part of his fast-paced, liberated lifestyle. They are not shared by us (other hedonists, his company at the party?). We know nothing about his dreams. (This lack of understanding on our part further establishes his transcendence. His consciousness is unconquered by our understanding.)
tell me what you know about them night terrors every night
5 am, cold sweats wakin’ up to the skies
The speaker's dreams are not dreams of happiness. They are nightmares. They are terror.
Earlier when the speaker was drunk driving in the Midwest and "livin’ [his] life getting’ out dreams," the context suggested that he was attaining dream-ambitions, or finding dream-happiness. Perhaps the "pursuit of happiness" is instead a kind of exorcism of terrifying dream-demons. The pursuit of happiness is in fact a flight from anxiety.
We may at this point question the speaker's sincerity about their comfort with falling and dying.
tell me what you know about dreams, dreams
tell me what you know about night terrors, nothin’This must be an important part of the song because the speaker repeats himself.
you don't really care about the trials of tomorrow
rather lay awake in a bed full of sorrow
For me, these are the most confusing and rewarding lines of the song.
Is he speaking to Us, who don't understand his terror? Does he see the pursuit of happiness coupled with nightmares as the only proactive alternative to miserable waking sloth? Is the pursuit of happiness an active coping with the trials of tomorrow? This reading is challenged by the direction the video takes as well as his characterization of his hedonistic project in the first verse. However, perhaps the speaker is, by reciting these lyrics, reconfirming their commitment to the pursuit of a static Heaven, the only perceived solution to the "trials of tomorrow," which are otherwise endless and horrifying.
Or is he speaking to himself? Is he accusing himself of lack of forethought (because of his reckless pursuit of happiness), which he realizes when lying awake after a nightmare? This moment of transcendence may be his chance to choose Freedom over Happiness and redirect his life project more deliberately.
I'm on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shines ain't always gonna be gold
I'll be fine once I get it, I'll be good
Whatever he meant in the second verse, it's clear from the return of the chorus that the speaker is back to his old ways. Somewhere, in a world of imitation, there is gold; he will be fine once he gets it.
I'm on the pursuit of happiness. I know everything that shines ain't always gold
I'll be fine once I get it, I'll be good
I'm on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shines ain't always gonna be gold, hey
I'll be fine once I get it, yeah, I'll be good
I'm on the pursuit of happiness
And I know everything that shines ain't always gonna be gold, hey
I'll be fine once I get it, yeah
I'll be goodHe's really serious about the pursuit of happiness. Oh, an Ratatat does a sick interlude here.
In the video he sprays champagne all over those girls. Get it, Kid Cudi!
I think that the balloons mean that he's having a good time. Has our protagonist, at last, attained happiness? Is he, at last, good?
Pursuit of happiness, yeah
I don’t get it, I’ll be good
The video does a lot to provide context for interpreting these otherwise almost inaudible lines.
No matter how sweet Ratatat's interlude was, the attainment of happiness is only fleeting.
The speaked "do[es]n't get it"--doesn't get happiness. By the logic of the chorus, that means what he was pursuing was not "gold"--genuine and lasting satisfaction--as he originally supposed.
And where does this leave him? With his terrifying dreams? The final "I'll be good" affords us two readings of his situation.
The first is a denial of his past disappointments and a reaffirmation that there is gold/happiness out there which can permanently assuage his nightmares. Faith triumphs against despair.
The second and I'll admit more tenuous interpretation is that in the last seven words of the song he achieves existential insight. The it is not happiness itself that saves him from his nightmares. Rather, it is the free life of pursuit. As long as he doesn't get the gold, he is capable of standing at the edge of his own abyss in order to transcend all the aspects of his situation: his nightmares, his car, the party going on around him. The unstoppable force of the chorus is the distraction, the pushing of the boulder up the hill, framing the second verse and the last lines, which is when Sisyphus looks on the rock as it rolls back down into the valley and smiles.
Click to viewI learned that it's actually got a lot going on. Now it's time for ANALYSIS.
VERSE 1:
Crush a bit, little bit, roll it up, take a hit
Feelin’ lit feelin’ light, 2 am summer night.
2am on a summer night is a great time.
These lines set up the hedonism that is the subject of the song.
I don't care, hand on the wheel, drivin drunk, I'm doin’ my thing
Rollin the Midwest side and out livin’ my life getting’ out dreams
People told me slow my road I'm screaming out fuck that
Imma do just what I want lookin’ ahead no turnin’ back
Introduces the subject of dreams. The role of dreams is unclear, but here, it's an activity consistent with hedonism.
Note the speaker's independence. He is independent from other people--the Other--as well as his past--his own facticity (the things about his condition which he has no way of changing).
if I fall if I die know I lived it to the fullest
if I fall if I die know I lived and missed some bullets
The speaker acknowledges his mortality, and hence his finitude. Something about the situation described above--was it his happiness, or his freedom?--has redeemed his life despite the possibility of death. Living to the fullest makes death acceptable.
CHORUS
I'm on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shine ain't always gonna be gold
I'll be fine once I get it, I'll be good.
This is my least favorite part of the song. It's fitting that it's sung by those poisoners, MGMT.
Here the speaker announces his hedonism explicitly. But he explains the profound disappointed of the lifelong "pursuit of happiness" naively. He believes the failure of the pursuit is due to the attainment of things that he was attracted to (that glitter) and the subsequent realization that they are not ultimately fulfilling (gold).
Despite what we should infer as repeated failures of this kind, the speaker remains hopeful of finding happiness and, as a result, peace.
VERSE 2:
Tell me what you know about dreamin’ dreamin’
you don't really know about nothin’ nothin’
The speaker is suddenly sarcastic and combative. All is not well.
Notice that in the music video, during this moment of intensity the party setting around Kid Cudi freezes. He is no longer a part of the milieu. He has acknowledged and now transcends his situation. His future is his to decide now.
The speaker is frustrated about the dreams that earlier he was exalting as part of his fast-paced, liberated lifestyle. They are not shared by us (other hedonists, his company at the party?). We know nothing about his dreams. (This lack of understanding on our part further establishes his transcendence. His consciousness is unconquered by our understanding.)
tell me what you know about them night terrors every night
5 am, cold sweats wakin’ up to the skies
The speaker's dreams are not dreams of happiness. They are nightmares. They are terror.
Earlier when the speaker was drunk driving in the Midwest and "livin’ [his] life getting’ out dreams," the context suggested that he was attaining dream-ambitions, or finding dream-happiness. Perhaps the "pursuit of happiness" is instead a kind of exorcism of terrifying dream-demons. The pursuit of happiness is in fact a flight from anxiety.
We may at this point question the speaker's sincerity about their comfort with falling and dying.
tell me what you know about dreams, dreams
tell me what you know about night terrors, nothin’This must be an important part of the song because the speaker repeats himself.
you don't really care about the trials of tomorrow
rather lay awake in a bed full of sorrow
For me, these are the most confusing and rewarding lines of the song.
Is he speaking to Us, who don't understand his terror? Does he see the pursuit of happiness coupled with nightmares as the only proactive alternative to miserable waking sloth? Is the pursuit of happiness an active coping with the trials of tomorrow? This reading is challenged by the direction the video takes as well as his characterization of his hedonistic project in the first verse. However, perhaps the speaker is, by reciting these lyrics, reconfirming their commitment to the pursuit of a static Heaven, the only perceived solution to the "trials of tomorrow," which are otherwise endless and horrifying.
Or is he speaking to himself? Is he accusing himself of lack of forethought (because of his reckless pursuit of happiness), which he realizes when lying awake after a nightmare? This moment of transcendence may be his chance to choose Freedom over Happiness and redirect his life project more deliberately.
I'm on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shines ain't always gonna be gold
I'll be fine once I get it, I'll be good
Whatever he meant in the second verse, it's clear from the return of the chorus that the speaker is back to his old ways. Somewhere, in a world of imitation, there is gold; he will be fine once he gets it.
I'm on the pursuit of happiness. I know everything that shines ain't always gold
I'll be fine once I get it, I'll be good
I'm on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shines ain't always gonna be gold, hey
I'll be fine once I get it, yeah, I'll be good
I'm on the pursuit of happiness
And I know everything that shines ain't always gonna be gold, hey
I'll be fine once I get it, yeah
I'll be goodHe's really serious about the pursuit of happiness. Oh, an Ratatat does a sick interlude here.
In the video he sprays champagne all over those girls. Get it, Kid Cudi!
I think that the balloons mean that he's having a good time. Has our protagonist, at last, attained happiness? Is he, at last, good?
Pursuit of happiness, yeah
I don’t get it, I’ll be good
The video does a lot to provide context for interpreting these otherwise almost inaudible lines.
No matter how sweet Ratatat's interlude was, the attainment of happiness is only fleeting.
The speaked "do[es]n't get it"--doesn't get happiness. By the logic of the chorus, that means what he was pursuing was not "gold"--genuine and lasting satisfaction--as he originally supposed.
And where does this leave him? With his terrifying dreams? The final "I'll be good" affords us two readings of his situation.
The first is a denial of his past disappointments and a reaffirmation that there is gold/happiness out there which can permanently assuage his nightmares. Faith triumphs against despair.
The second and I'll admit more tenuous interpretation is that in the last seven words of the song he achieves existential insight. The it is not happiness itself that saves him from his nightmares. Rather, it is the free life of pursuit. As long as he doesn't get the gold, he is capable of standing at the edge of his own abyss in order to transcend all the aspects of his situation: his nightmares, his car, the party going on around him. The unstoppable force of the chorus is the distraction, the pushing of the boulder up the hill, framing the second verse and the last lines, which is when Sisyphus looks on the rock as it rolls back down into the valley and smiles.