Lyrical analysis for our chosen song (yet to be finalised)

'Firestarter'- Torre Florim

I'm the trouble starter, punkin' instigator
I'm the fear addicted, danger illustrated

I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter

I'm the bitch you hated, filth infatuated yeah
I'm the pain you tasted, well intoxicated

You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter

I'm the self inflicted, mind detonator yeah
I'm the one infected, twisted animator

I'm a firestarter, you're a firestarter

This song can be seen as unconventional, due to the fact that it has minimal lyrics and relies upon instrumentals quite a lot. This could provide quite a large struggle for my group, due to the fact that when analyzing lyrics and giving them a meaning within our actual video, we will have to not only use the lyrics, but also the different tempo changes and instruments used within the music.

Our song is called 'Firestarter' by Torre Florim and up to this point is most likely the song that we are doing, but our ideas may change. It is a cover of another song of the same name by The Prodigy. The widely accepted meaning of the lyrics is that of the lead singer of prodigy (Keith Flint) telling the audience about his personality as a fire starter. Another less known idea is that the main singer thinks too much and lets ideas get to him which is him starting a fire within his head, the fire being an idea.

The song could be seen to follow the uses and gratification theory as it could be seen to cause self understanding through the personal identity side of the theory. This means that we could have a wider target audience of youth, due to the fact that they are stereotypically the ones who are trying to find an identity so we could target them when it comes to our video as we could portray teenage problems, this links to Dyer's star theory as audiences may look up to our band because of the problems portrayed being in line with their ideals.

We could see a link with the lyrics as well as the reception theory, due to the fact that the lyrics are up for debate as to what they mean as some people believe the fire starter aspect of the song references to America and how they start wars in other countries. So the lyrics of what the 'fire starter' is are up for debate with audiences, which also ties in to Barthes theory on enigmas. The semiotic codes of the music is that of violence as fire has the connotations of danger, which shows off that the song as well as the band could be attempting to promote violence to the audience. The song was originally used as political propaganda, due to the fact that the "Fire Starter" referenced throughout is talking about George Bush and his invasions of the Middle East.
Through Barthes theory of symbolic codes, we can see from the lyrics "I'm the fear addicted, danger illustrated." and "I'm the bitch you hated." This could have the denotations of Torre Florim being a troublesome character within the video, making him the Proppian antagonist. This represents him negatively and goes against Dyer's star theory in the fact that the persona of a musician should be likable and more desirable, yet here we can see the breaking of conventions with him being seen as the bad guy throughout the entire song.

As well as this, we can read between the lines using Goodwin's theory to see that he isn't a likable character and that he believes himself, that he is of a lower level to everyone else, putting himself down. We can see through Barthes theory of action that he sings "You're the firestarter" in order to show that it is everyone and that everyone is very critical of themselves. It also shows that people are not alone in this self deprecation, which could show off Dyer's star theory as he is promoting that people aren't alone in their struggles and that there are always people who are feeling the same way.