Monday, March 12, 2007

Meaning Behind the Lyrics – Part 2 “Beautiful One Day”


Will and I have always been fascinated and a little bit horrified about how women are portrayed in the media. From the time they are young girls reading things like Cosmo Girl or watching shows like America’s Next Top Model, they are bombarded with the idea that they must be thin, their hair and makeup must be perfect, and they that they should look like the idealized version of female perfection – the Barbie doll. This of course is anatomically impossible in the first place.

XONE felt that the world needed to hear that this image of female portrayal is horribly wrong and despite what the popular media sources would have you believe, men aren’t attracted to popsicle women who look like an Auschwitz victim. Additionally, we felt that we needed to branch out and tackle some song content that wasn’t either a historical account or a science fiction theme. We felt that this would be might be our version of a metal "love song".

The writing process for this song began with this idea of wanting to let women know that not everyone agrees with the popular media stereotyped image of them, and this evolved once Will brought the music from one of his old songs into the mix. From there, we began discussing the types of things that did make a woman beautiful, things like their presence, charisma, confidence, intelligence, wit, and natural charm. Many of these themes resonate strongly within the chorus parts, “your energy is beautiful, contagious as can be…” and “confidence is beautiful…” Other themes such as the implication that these media moguls are actually destroying their bodies are reflected in the verse areas such as “staring back from the magazine, like a victim of an evil regime, a world of purging behind the scenes…”

Admittedly, what Beautiful One Day ended up being was not a love song at all, but more of a call to arms for women to stand up and be in charge of their own bodies. This reasoning is reflected in the line "why don't you just stop a moment, and look at you like me...". What this means is that we actually all have the potential to see each other as beautiful and that if women could look at themselves from their lovers and best friend's eyes they would see that they really are beautiful already and don't need "fixing".

We’d like to hear from you about what you feel Beautiful One Day means to you. Leave your comment and be heard. Thanks!

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