Prompt: "The best fucking song of 1994"
Selected by Brianna
Jeff Buckley
Grace, 1994
The thing about art these days is that once it's out there, anyone can do what they want with it. Art, in its truest form at least, is someone expressing some deep part of themselves and sharing it with the world. Do you think it bothers them when it's used in ways they didn't imagine or intend?
I'm not even talking in a hateful way, or like politically. Not even about covering a song, like Buckley does so masterfully here. I'm talking about pop culture, man.
Think about it. You listen to this song and you can actually hear Jeff Buckley pouring his heart and soul into the thing. It feels so incredibly intimate and important, almost like you're intruding on something not meant for just anyone's ears. And yet...
...the first time I heard it was on an episode of The O.C., when the rich kid burned down the other rich kid's mom's model home because a poor kid was living in it. The second time was on a later episode, when the poor kid was sent back to poorville because he wasn't getting along with the rich kids—they really liked this song on the show, I guess. The third was during a montage in Shrek.
What I'm saying is: What would Jeff Bukley think? Would he be bothered with his heart and soul being used as a backdrop to a cheesy teen drama or to some sweet ogre love story? Or would he be happy to share this beauty with the world and let the world use this beauty to make things, any thing, better?
As a kid who got to hear music well beyond herself at a young and formative age thanks to things like The O.C., I hope it'd be the latter.
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