"Accidentally In Love"

My favorite song by the Counting Crows is “Accidentally In Love.”  This has been my favorite song since the movie Shrek 2 came out.  Immediately after hearing it I was drawn into its upbeat rhythm and happy lyrics.  The lyrics are talking about someone being madly in love, and not able to contain their feelings.  This song is lighter, focusing on everything that love makes you feel, from wanting to turn around, jump, spin and belt out how much you are in love.  This song is one that completely frees the listener, allowing them to sing along, shouting their feelings to the world.  My favorite part of the song states, “Well baby I surrender/ To the strawberry ice cream/ Never ever end of all this love/ Well I didn’t mean to do it/ But there’s no escaping your love.”  I enjoyed this section the most, because when you are in love, happiness flows through you, and singing about ice cream, and never ending love, really shows the feeling of joy and happiness that comes across throughout this entire song.  I feel that I identify with this song, because it is about being cheerful, and silly, and just falling madly in love. Whenever I am sad or not feeling great, this song completely cheers me up, and I can’t help but to smile and sing along.  

"Accidentally In Love" Lyrics

Counting Crows

            I choose to do Counting Crows for my CD project, because I did not know much about them, and they wrote my favorite song, “Accidentally In Love.”  After researching them, and learning all about their lives, I feel that they mostly represent the values of my generation.  They are a Folk and Alternative Rock group, creating fun, easy to understand lyrics and beats.  Many of their heritage artists are very popular groups, like R.E.M., Nirvana, Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, and The Beatles.  Counting Crows has been able to appeal to this generation by creating songs that discuss relationships and love lives.  Everyone is able to relate to them, because they are broad popular topics.  For Example, in their song “American Girls” the lyrics are all about finding love, and the different parts of relationships. 

To go along with their crowd-pleasing songs, Counting Crows developed a laid back image.  Though this fits the group of people that are chill, and into emotional music, it does not fit my generation in the sense that people have become so obsessed with looking good and specifying a look.  For example, there are artists like Rihanna and Mariah Carey who are all about looking glamorous, and on the other side there are artists like Eminem and 50 cent, who are all about looking like the classic rappers. Though Counting Crows does not exactly fit into these standards, there are similar groups like Green Day, and Maroon 5 that have gained popularity in such a closed music society.  Counting Crows is a fun, energetic, and talented group of performers that will definitely stick around for a while.

Generation Gaps

During the 1950s it seemed that a huge generation gap was occurring between parents and their 14-17 year old teenagers.  It was interesting to see how parents were still into the classic roles and positions of the nuclear family, however, with the rise of Elvis, everything began to change.  With his risqué movement, and open talk of sexuality, he appealed to the younger generation, causing them to want to rebel against their close minded parents.  Due to this, Elvis had to deal with the parents degrading him, and trying to bring him down at any chance they got.  In my opinion, Elvis was just trying to bring out the world of Rock and Roll, while attempting to reform this racist, closed minded society to which he lived in.  It is amazing to me to see how much one young boy can change the world.  Elvis not only caused the future to be a more open, and exciting place, but he truly was able to stand strong to his will, moving out of the societal norm, while in the process altering the minds of those around him.  The power of Elvis and his Rock and Roll, had such a great effect on the people, and he truly made the younger population much more socially advanced, while in the process, creating one of the largest generational gaps ever.