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Dangerous by Big Data featuring Joywave: You're Being Watched


This is the best song of 2014. I am not accepting any rebuttals or sources that show that this song came out before 2014. I loved this song’s paranoid guitar line and nervous vocals from the beginning. I found out about this song by breaking rules. I was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the time. One preparation day, I discovered it, which is not appropriate behavior for missionaries. Anyway, I’ve loved the song since that moment and want to analyze the lyrics.

About the Artist:
Big Data is an electronic project by producer Alan Wilkis. He made a name for himself by remixing indie songs like “Sweet Disposition” by the Temper Trap among other, less famous songs. He released his first EP with this song on it in 2012. I downloaded his first album, 2.0, and it is pretty forgettable, other than the song we are talking about. He could be a one-hit-wonder if this song was a hit. It reached number-one on the alternative charts, but it peaked at #106 on the Hot 100.
Joywave, on the other hand, has been relatively more successful than Big Data. They are four friends from Rochester, New York that formed a band together. For all of you familiar with current alt- “rock,” they are the band with the guy with the glasses and mustache. They have released three albums so far. Songs of note: “Somebody New,” “Now,” and “Obsession”

Analysis:
Let’s take this song verse by verse. If you haven’t heard this song, go listen to it. Warning: the music video is fairly satirical and very gory.
Verse 1:
How could you know, how could you know'
That those were my eyes
Peepin through the floor, it's like they know
It's like they know I'm looking from the outside
And creeping to the door, it's like they know
And now they coming, yeah, now they coming
Out from the shadows
To take me to the court because they know
That I shut this down, ‘cause they been watching all my windows
They gathered up the cause they


Daniel Armbruster, Joywave’s frontman, sings about how he is spying on someone and gets caught. Since he got caught, they are coming after him. It turns out they have also done their share of spying, as well to build a case against him in court.

Chorus:
You understand, they got a plan for us
I bet you didn't know that I was dangerous
It must be fate, I found a place for us
I bet you didn't know someone could love you this much

Our main character in the story turns out to be a dangerous man. I get the feeling that the “they” in this story is the government, trying to catch this criminal and do some nefarious things to our protagonist. This song is becoming a conspiracy theory without any try to.


Verse 2:

How could they know, how could they know
What I been thinking'
Like they're right inside my head because they know
Because they know, what I been hidin'
They're right under my bed, they're in control
Here they come, yeah here they come
Out of the shadows
To take me to the club because they know
That I shut this down, cause they been watching all my windows
They gathered up the warrant 'cause they

The secret government group is in his head, or at least he feels that way. They know that he is hiding something from the world. Then the group comes out of nowhere to end whatever he is doing, and they are allowed to. They have a warrant.

According to an interview, Wilkis said the album is about his distrust of technology taken to satirical extremes. So he is looking at the idea that the Internet is spying on us. The government is watching him from over his computer screen. He thinks he has done or said something the government does not like, and Big Brother is coming to take him away. The phrase “watching all my windows” is different now it is an internet tab, not physical windows. As the last line in the chorus states, they are doing it out of love. They are doing it for the country's own good. We can’t have your deviant thoughts.

Overall, this song is great. It shows the mindset of a man that is paranoid the government is after him and he needs to run away from all technology.

Sources:


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