Eight Commonly Misinterpreted Songs
In college, I took a class called “The Author’s Intention,” which analyzed whether readers (and even the authors themselves) can ever really understand the meaning behind a piece of writing. When we read a poem or a story, we bring our own experiences into the text and that often yields vastly different interpretations. Thus, the meanings of things such as songs, which can be interpreted as poems set to music, become blurred and stretch far from what their writers might have originally intended.
1. “Born in the U.S.A.,” Bruce Springsteen
2. “Losing My Religion,” R.E.M.
3. “Every Breath You Take,” The Police
4. “Hollaback Girl,” Gwen Stefani
