Previously: Who’s the Saddest Girl?
As the Saddest Girl is to singer-songwriters, so is the Different Girl to rockists and pop stars. Other girls are as alike as sands in the hourglass, but not she. She is like the bald eagle wearing a steel crown circling high above the prison fortress the hourglass is trapped in.
It’s hard to say what exactly makes her different, but rest assured that she is very much so. Whether in kind or in degree, she is set apart. Whatever the other girls are doing–whether it be investing in rental properties or attending business conferences–she does the opposite. She kicks rocks with steel-toed boots and uses the resultant dust for nail polish.
To not be different would kill her. Whatever the other girls do, she must do its unlike. Not its opposite, for then she would be allowing those other girls to dictate the terms of her difference. But better, and stranger, and operating on a higher frequency.
Like I said, she’s different. But who is the most different of all the Different Girls, and what sets her apart?
Song: “Not Like the Other Girls”
Band: The Rasmus
Who Isn’t She Like?: “She’s not like the other girls I know.”
Spell It Out for Us: “She’s not like the other girls/ She lives in the clouds/ She talks to the birds.”
How Different Is That, Really?: Very different. The majority of girls live in Vermont, or in apartments, and speak primarily to math teachers and small dogs.
Song: “Not Like Other Girls“
Band: S.O.A.P.
Who Isn’t She Like?: “I am not like other girls.”
Spell It Out for Us: “I don’t breathe for Sundays.”
How Different Is That, Really?: Difficult to parse. She’s certainly more inscrutable than other girls, breathing as they may or may not be for only one day of the week, which has to count for something.
Song: “The Girl Got Hot“
Band: Weezer
Who Isn’t She Like?: “The other girls in town.”
Spell It Out for Us: “She got hot/ And they did not/ Satin tights, boots so white/ Leather handbag, out of sight/ An eagle feather in her feathered hair/ Dash of rouge, buyer beware.”
How Different Is That, Really?: Not particularly. Leather handbags, blush, and white boots are fairly common, although harming an eagle is a federal offense.
Song: “Scarlet Begonias”
Band: The Grateful Dead (or Sublime, depending on your frame of reference)
Who Isn’t She Like?: “I knew right away she was not like other girls.”
Spell It Out for Us: “She had rings on her fingers and bells on her shoes/ And I knew without asking she was into the blues/ She wore scarlet begonias tucked into her curls.”
How Different Is That, Really?: Her difference is conditional. While plenty of other girls enjoy jewelry and flowers in equal measure, her ability to assure the narrator her preference for blues music without speaking suggests that she may possess rudimentary telepathic abilities.
Song: “Give Your Heart A Break”
Band: Demi Lovato
Who Isn’t She Like?: “When will you realize/ Baby, I’m not like the rest?”
Spell It Out for Us: “Baby, I can ease the ache, the ache.”
How Different Is That, Really?: Very little. While the number of male nurses in the U.S. has tripled since the 1970s, women still overwhelmingly dominate the profession, and often act as unofficial caregivers to injured or aging family members.
Song: “Are You Happy Now?”
Band: Megan & Liz
Who Isn’t She Like?: “She’s not like other girls.”
Spell It Out for Us: “She stood out in the crowd, was a little too loud/ But that’s why we love her/ She’s not like other girls/ She could have conquered the world/ Until you broke her down”
How Different Is That, Really?: Dependent upon several factors. Being only a little too loud suggests she is no louder than at least 40% of the total girl population; however, her potential to bring the world’s armies to their knees is compelling. Since she has been broken down, this claim is specious and can never be proven.
Song: “The Night Will Go As Follows”
Band: The Spill Canvas
Who Isn’t She Like?: “And to be completely honest/ You’re not like all the rest.”
Spell It Out for Us: UNKNOWN
How Different Is That, Really?: The narrator lays claim to honesty but gives no details as to what makes this girl different. Too close to call.
Song: ”Different Kind of Girl”
Band: Phil Collins
Who Isn’t She Like?: “She’s a different kind of girl.”
Spell It Out for Us: “Does what she wants to do/ And says what she wants to say.”
How Different Is That, Really?: Not at all. Most women who are not sociopaths or being compelled by a warlock do the same.
Song: ”She’s Long Gone”
Band: The Black Keys
Who Isn’t She Like?: “She’s not made like those other girls.”
Spell It Out for Us: “Well, her eyes, they’re rubies and pearls.”
How Different Is That, Really?: Tremendously. Very few girls have jeweled eyes.
Song: ”Give Me All Your Luvin’”
Band: Madonna
Who Isn’t She Like?: “Cause I’m a different kind of girl.”
Spell It Out for Us: “Every record sounds the same / You’ve got to step into my world.”
How Different Is That, Really?: She is Madonna; she has achieved difference. This allows her to remain a girl despite being in her 50s.
Song: ”Stupid Girls”
Band: Pink
Who Isn’t She Like?: “I don’t wanna be a stupid girl/ Baby, if I act like that, flipping my blond hair back/ Push up my bra like that, I don’t wanna be a stupid girl.”
Spell It Out for Us: “Disasters all around/ World despaired/ Your only concern/ Will it fuck up my hair?”
How Different Is That, Really?: Enormously. Pink must be immediately rescued from this planning facing impending doom, where all of her compatriots cannot be bothered to stop pushing around their bras to save their own civilization.
Song: ”Don’t Tell Me”
Band: Avril Lavigne
Who Isn’t She Like?: “Did I not tell you that I’m not like that girl?”
Spell It Out for Us: “Did I not tell you that I’m not like that girl?/ The one who gives it all away?”
How Different Is That, Really?: She is only different from “the one” girl who has given it all away. No mention is made of other girls. The Different Girl must be unlike all or at least most of the others. Being different from one other girl is insufficient.
Winner: The Rasmus. While their girl might not have eyes of topaz and quartz, she is capable both of flight and of talking to animals, which even St. Francis of Assisi could not do. She is a living miracle and must be treated as such.
Tags: difference, girls, madonna, music, not like the rest, weezer
Song: “Burning Up”
Band: Madonna
Who Isn’t She Like?: “I’m not like the others.”
Spell It Out for Us: “I’ll do anything / I’m burning up”
How Different Is That, Really?: Not as different as it should be, unfortunately. Unwilling to share the spotlight with Alicia Keys, Madonna ultimately set out to distinguish herself in other ways (cf. the aforementioned “Give Me All Your Luvin'”).
“How different is that, really?: Not as different as it should be, unfortunately; the ten hottest years on record have all been recorded since 1998, and scientific consensus says that the globe’s average temperature has risen by nearly a degree Celsius over the last decade”
Whenever anyone starts talking about how misogynistic & terrible hip hop is, I point them right the fuck to Rivers Cuomo. Indie rock hero/incorrigible misogynist. Fuck that guy forever. /tangent
And the Beatles.
Haha my dad once ranted to me about the Beatles song We Can Work It Out because it’s basically like “Your opinion is wrong, let’s keep arguing until you agree with me”
The Beatles are also a good reference when people start complaining about the quality of lyrics “these days” and bemoaning how much better music was in the 60s and 70s. Like, man, have you listen to
“Love Me Do” recently?
I get ridiculously annoyed when people talk about how misogynistic hip hop is. A pretty significant part of me figuring out feminism is all credit to TLC’s first album. And Queen Latifah existing.
Misogyny: It’s In Every Genre, Folks.
http://misogynisticlyricsthatarentrap.tumblr.com/ was started by a few people tired of pointing that out.
You can point them to country, too. “Knoxville Girl”, for instance, is unbelievably graphic:
She fell down on her bended knees
For mercy she did cry
Oh, Willie dear, don’t kill me here
I’m unprepared to die
She never spoke another word
I only beat her more
Until the ground around me
Within her blood did flow.
Also I think like 70% of Loretta Lynn’s songs are addressed to women she perceived as man-stealing whores.
There’s an entire subgenre in country/American folk music called “murder ballads”. The vast majority of them are about men confessing to killing women.
I was almost positive that Deadeye Dick’s New Age Girl would have some “not like other girls” reference, but it doesn’t, really!
Anyway, this was awesome as usual!
These are definitely posts where it would be super helpful for me to be AT ALL musically literate. I have never heard of that song at all! BUT I WILL LISTEN TO IT
You probably know it even if you think you don’t know it! It’s the “Mary moooooooooon, she’s a vegetarian, but she sure likes the bone” song.
I know that song!!!!
One of my uncles once dated a woman named Mary Moon. I remain unsure whether she named herself after the song or the gentlemen of Deadeye Dick wrote the song about her. She was/is definitely a New Age Girl type lady.
I haven’t even heard any of the songs you reference in this post. take THAT!
These are so good I can hardly stand it.
What about the girls that aren’t necessarily different from other girls but their personalities are just so fucking special and wonderful? Nelly Furtado’s “I’m like A Bird” (full disclosure, LOVE her/ this song anyway), and Meredith Brooks “Bitch” (hate this song with the fiery intensity of a thousand suns)
Or the imaginary girl being described in Cake’s “Short Skirt/Long Jacket”–presumably they’re singing this song because they have not yet found a girl whose fingernails shine like justice.
OR the imaginary girl in Cake’s “Let Me Go,” who swings her arms (instead of her hips) and moves her mouth (instead of her lips). Not explicitly different, plus most people move their mouths from time to time, but clearly different from the singer’s usual lip-moving ladies.
That song is pretty much Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, now that I think about it. Right down to the shoes that cut.
True story: my friend once dressed up as this girl for Halloween. She found a fingernail polish called something like “Red Justice.” She is my favorite person.
…I have a friend who dressed up like the Short Skirt Long Jacket girl too. Did yours have a machete that had cut through red tape?
Pink! should really think more deeply about “Stupid Girls” and rerelease it as “Stupid Patriarchy.”
P!nk? P!N!K? ¡Pink!? Whatever.
Train: Drops of Jupiter, clearly. She acts like summer AND walks like rain. Also, that song I vaguely remember called “She’s So High”.
Also Train: Meet Virginia. The entirety of that damn song. Does not own a dress, hair is always a mess, will not confess to stealing even when caught, does not care about aforementioned hair, never compromises, loves babies and sunrises, wears high heels while working out, is the daughter of an alligator wrestler and a mechanic, only drinks coffee at midnight, her body shape is “unusual,” as is her timing.
Who is this woman who does not own a dress but is surgically attached to a pair of high heels? ONLY THE MYSTERIOUS VIRGINIA
And if you think about it, there’s an argument for “Hey Soul Sister”‘s inclusion in the genre. You don’t meet a lot of people who are both Madonna and gangster.
Robyn?
Fucking Train, is basically the subtitle of this thread.
I thought she loved babies and surprises?
The first lyrics site I pulled up said sunrises, but I think I always thought it was surprises too.
By Tal Bachman! She doesn’t seem to be that different from a lot of other girls, she’s just way out of Tal’s league.
I think she was long-jumping and/or pole vaulting in a Wonder Woman costume in the music video, so I stand by it.
I vaguely remember her having angel wings? I guess I need to watch the video…for research purposes.
Ohhh, maybe.
She is actually compared to other girls, “Like Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, or Aphrodite.” However, those being exceptional ladies, an argument could be made either way.
Plus apparently she’s as “perfect as she can be,” which of course cannot be matched by other girls’ non-perfection.
Also, doesn’t her touch smell like taste and sound? That’s not normal.
That definitely seems like more of a reflection on the singer than on the girl, and how he is maybe having a stroke.
Maybe he has synesthesia.
For some reason I now have that execrable Train song, “Meet Virginia,” in my head. Man, that girl is so Different that she Drinks Coffee at Midnight and Wears High Heels When She Exercises, despite the health risks inherent in both activities..
And the shape of her body is unusual, so she’s really not like the other girls.
Heels when she exercises! A body shape politely described as “unusual!” Holy shit, it’s a song about Coco (of being-married-to-Ice-T fame).
That is brilliant.
I spent all of middle school and part of high school simulatenously wondering what that meant and wanting it. And then, late in high school, a coach who was measuring me for new gear said that I had “an unusual shape” and I still didn’t know what that meant or whether it was complimentary.
I should have scrolled before posting! But yes, this, absolutely.
I don’t think satin tights actually exist, so that’s one point for the Weezer gal.
Maybe she’s just wearing those wet look leggings that are so popular right now and Weezer doesn’t know from women’s fashion.
I’m assuming Taylor Swift’s back catalogue isn’t on the list because she’s not in the genre in question, yes? (OK so not all her songs are “I’m different from those girls so date me and not them! She wears high heels I wear sneakers!”)
What genre IS she these days, anyway? Pop? Country? Country-pop? Pop-rock-Country? Wait, is that a genre or a place made of pop rocks? What is this hole I’m falling into?
If anyone writes another word about Taylor Swift, the Internet will explode, and I didn’t want to be responsible for that.
Pop Rock Country is the true Flavor Country.
I was fully expecting this to just be a list of TSwift songs.
Taylor Swift in You Belong with Me: not that different, who doesn’t wear t-shirts?
Taylor Swift in Dear John: pretty different, girl shines like fireworks over John Mayer’s hometown but still ultimately like all the girls he dated before, so.
God dammit. I like her. I’m not ashamed. I will keep pretending that I can’t hear you. LA-LA-LA-LA.
God dammit. I like her. I'm not ashamed. I will keep pretending that I can't hear you. LA-LA-LA-LA.