26 Songs That Hit Differently After You Read the Lyrics

The internet has spawned a whole host of strange adages over time: “Pics or it didn’t happen,” “Don’t feed the trolls,” and of course, the favorite of every “deep” middle schooler, “Real eyes realize real lies.” 

But of all these now-cliche messages, Tumblr teens — or Frank Ocean, if you believe Goodreads’ attribution — managed to get one right: “When you’re happy, you enjoy the music. But when you’re sad, you understand the lyrics.”

Don’t believe Mr. Ocean? Just take a look at the Bad Bunny-approved banger that was Los Del Río’s “Macarena.” “(It’s the) song they played all the time for stuff when I was in elementary school,” recalled Redditor thesystem21. “It’s about a girl cheating on her boyfriend with multiple people while he’s away.” 

But it’s not just the Macerena’s protagonist’s boyfriend — the boy whose name is Vitorino — that we should be worried about. Whether it’s “Greased Lightnin’” or “Hey Ya!”, these songs hit much differently after you read the lyrics — especially that one track by Mike Posner.