Serra 1Erica SerraMs. Ashley HumphriesENC110113 February 2015Cough Syrup in my WaterYoung the Giant, an American alternative rock band that came together in Irvine, California, (Young the Giant. Wikipedia.) Has an interesting take on their music. With their rock antics, (Bentley, Young the Giant drummer talks 'Cough Syrup' and finding practice spaces.) one of their most popular songs, Cough Syrup, has brought about a lot of discussion regarding the meaning of the song and music video together. The fascinating thing about Cough Syrup and many of their other songs and music videos is that they dont have a particular meaning. It is all up to interpretation. Many people believe that Cough Syrup is about the singer overdosing on and abusing cough syrup. However, I have a much different view on the video and song.

Lifes too short to even care at all oh, Im losing my mind, losing my mind, losing control, oh oh (Young the Giant, Cough Syrup). These are the first two lines of lyrics in the song. When reading those first two lines you cant help but think the writer is going through some sort of hardship or difficulty. These lyrics alone may be saying that the singer thinks life is too short to care. But there are many key words and symbols that you may not pick up on unless you watch the music video. We see in these lyrics that not much of these words makes total sense with one another. There are many words that tie into water. For example, fishes in the sea, ..a wet world, coming up now out of the blue, etc.

The video is set in an indoor pool area. We see the band members and their instruments set up in this arena. The video starts off with the camera at the bottom of the pool looking up at the band member who is standing outside of the pool. Then it switches to plastic tarp waving in the air due to the fans blowing under them to make the effect of water, then a clear aquarium fish tank filled with only water, then to three speakers on a table facing upwards filled with liquid. Next we see four women dressed in black one pieces but each have different color accessories. They each have different color belts, sunglasses, and hair caps. One with yellow, another with green, then indigo, and orange. They seem to look like synchronized swimmers sitting at the edge of the pool. Many of these images are simple but they all represent water. With the video we see all these symbols of water portrayed. There are many different ones that may play a role in this song and music video. Visually, there is a reoccurring image of water. In the lyrics we hear the singer say lines that add on to the symbol of water. A dark world aches for a splash of the sun. I believe these symbols of water represent sadness and depression. When he says that line I believe the dark world is himself. And he is aching for relief of this darkness. The term feeling blue is used to say when some is sad. I think the water represents his mental turmoil. Im coming up now, coming up now out of the blue oh. It shows that the singer is trying to escape from his emotional and mental ocean of depression. The singer is cleansing himself of his depression when he takes the cough syrup. Im waiting for this cough syrup to come down.Next we see the once empty aquarium fills with the color red and yellow and blue. After that we get a close up on the singer. We see the camera go back and forth to the objects and then back to the band members. It switches from the plastic waving tarp with the synchronized swimmers behind it, back to the artists playing. The aquarium tank fills with more colors and the speakers begin to bounce the liquid inside them. As he says Im waiting for this cough syrup to come down the four women dive into the water once again. Cough syrup: a medicated, syruplike fluid, usually flavored and nonnarcotic or mildly narcotic, for relieving coughs or soothing irritated throats. (Cough Syrup. Dictionary.com) The singer is using the cough syrup to help aide him in getting out of this blue feeling, instead of over dosing on it. The next lyric goes on to say The zombies in the park are looking for my heart oh oh oh oh. This is very important in determining how he feels. He is going back and forth with his feelings. He says he is trying to escape his sadness but then goes on to say that the zombies are trying to bring him back down. He also says Im losing my mind, losing my mind, losing control. Which helps to support his internal madness. During this part of the music video the speakers are loud and the liquid on the speakers is bouncing up and down off the speakers. I believe that the loud bass represents his anger and frustration towards his confusion. Looking into the technicality of the type of sound we hear in the song the musicians play a sort of happy tune. The first line in the song is Lifes too short to even care at all oh. Given that the song has a happy sound but the first line has a depressing tone to it, it supports the idea that the artist is confused by his emotions and his mind is making him go crazy. He doesnt know how to feel.The music video doesnt contain many colors. The colors that come about are in the four synchronized swimmer women with colorful sunglasses, a colorful belt, and a colorful swimmers cap. We also see different colors being mixed into the aquarium tanks. In the lyrics he says Im waiting for this cough syrup to come down, come down. When he says this we immediately see the colors being mixed. We also see the four swimmers dive into the water. Colors tend to show life and vibrancy and happiness. I believe these colors forming is the cough syrup. The cough syrup is giving him that small moment of happiness and color in his life. The visuals of the girls with color and the colors mixing into the water represent the cough syrup going down to relieve his pain and anguish and to bring about his happiness.As the song progresses we see the scenes flipping through more quickly from one shot, to the next, and then the next. I believe the process of the different scenes flipping through more quickly represents the chaos going on through the singers mind. Throughout the whole song the singer portrays his confusion through the lyrics. When he is doing that, he is also going through this mental instability and that is portrayed through these scenes. It is portrayed with the girls swimming in weird directions, the colors blending in the water in a psychedelic way and the drummer banging on the drums. Towards the middle/end of the video we see all the synchronized swimmers all standing outside of the water. After he says Im losing my mind, losing my mind, losing control it goes right to a clip of the girls. I believe this is the turning point of the video. As I had mentioned before that the water represents his sadness and depression. Now we see the girls standing outside of the water. I think that represents him getting out of his depression. The next scene is the girls swimming in the water again to show he isnt out of it fully but the fact that the girls were out of the water for the first time since the very beginning of the video, it makes it a big turning point.The last line is One more spoon of cough syrup now, whoa. With these last words we dont know if he was cured from his depression, but how could we? Cough syrup is a temporary relief. When you take cough syrup it may not cure you from your cough but instead only make you feel better for a little while. When he is being very indecisive with his attitude towards his depression, the cough syrup is wearing off so he needs to keep taking more to help him get out of this depression. There are a few scenes in the music videos where two of the synchronized swimmers get colorful smoke shot at them. Another one gets glitter poured on her. Smoke tends to cover up things and fog your vision. I believe the fog is a metaphor for the singers cloudy judgment and his depression is fogging over his clear state of mind. Glitter is usually used to make a statement and it shines and attracts light. I think that the idea of the swimmer getting glitter poured on her shows the happy side of the singer. That the singer has light that shines in him. It is just buried by the depression and the fog.The next part I noticed was there is a very short scene where a part is reversed. The glitter starts coming off of the girl and the smoke clears in reverse. This represents more of his instability. When people use the word reverse, its to go back. When youre watching a movie and you missed a part, you reverse and go back to the part of that movie and watch it again. The same concept goes for this except the singer is going back to his depression. Throughout the whole video and song we experience a lot of confusion. The singer starts by saying that you shouldnt care about life, then he goes on to say hes coming out of the blue. We are in constant back and forth. Young the Giant states that the lyrics paint a picture of a melancholy existence in young suburbia and a longing to change the dull thought patterns or space sometimes the head can get in.None of us have ever done cough syrup recreationally, Comtois jokes. I dont even know what that song really means necessarily. Thats the name of the song, so I think people automatically assume its about people taking drugs, he reflects. We wrote that when we were so young. It started with a tiny little riff that Eric (Cannata) put together when he was 12. There was no meaning to it at the time. (Bentley. Young the Giant drummer talks Cough Syrup and finding practice spaces)The song Cough Syrup has brought about many discussions regarding its true meaning but no one actually knows or will know. In my opinion, the song and music video are tied together significantly. Sometimes when you listen to a song, you think you understand the meaning but once you watch the music video for it, you see things in a whole different light. That is exactly what I got out of this song and video. Young the Giant didnt give this song a meaning originally, or maybe they did and did not want to share it. Regardless, this song and music video is filled with hidden symbols that can be analyzed. Cough syrup is a medicine and medicine is supposed to give you relief and in the end, he says One more spoon of cough syrup now, whoa. In the end I believe that he is starting this cycle of depression and relief all over again. He is not actually cured but instead is kind of continuing the depression and using the cough syrup to get out of the dark blue sea. Water can represent many things on its own. Water is a universal symbol of change. (Water. Symbolism Wiki.) I believe it represents not only his depression and sadness but I think it also represented change. That taking the cough syrup would make him change into a happy person for a little but then he would go back. I think it also has to do with his fear of change. The water has given him comfort and he hides in his depression. Why not take medicine that will cure you completely, instead of something that is only temporary.

BibliographyYoung the Giant. Young the Giant: Cough Syrup [OFFICIAL VIDEO]. Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, June 22, 2011. February 13, 2015.Bentley, Tiffany. Young the Giant drummer talks Cough Syrup and finding practice spaces. Lehighvalleylive. Advance Digital. August 03, 2012. February 13, 2015.Young the Giant. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d, February 13, 2015.Water. Symbolism Wiki. Wikia. n.d. February 13, 2015.