10 Song Meanings Everyone Gets Wrong
10. Song 2 - Blur
For as much as Britpop may have been raging back in England, it took a while for most of that excitement to get translated over to the States. It would be a while before Oasis had even cracked the album charts in the US, and even modern classics like Bittersweet Symphony seemed to be relegated to just one hit wonder status outside of their home country. Blur were a bit more eclectic than their peers, and Song 2 made Yanks sing along with a song that was actually making fun of them.
Having had some experience in the rock scene well before Britpop started, Damon Albarn had already felt a little bit jaded about the new form of alternative rock that was happening at the time, almost taking the kind of angst that Kurt Cobain was tapping into and trying to make their own knockoff version of it. Almost to make fun of it, Song 2 is exactly that, creating a track that means next to nothing and was all about trying to do a pastiche of the kind of alternative bands that were cluttering up the radio at the time.
And the little goof totally worked as well, becoming one of the bigger breakthroughs that the band had stateside despite having no creativity in the name of the song and openly mocking the intended audience. Radio rock didn't care about that though. They were too busy chiming in on the WOO HOOs to really pay attention to anything else.