Songs and The Truth

[Hank Green]

A comment on "This is Not Harry Potter" got me thinking. The commenter wanted to know why I was so judgemental of Twilight, and why I was excluding them with my song lyrics.

I'm not going to talk about Twilight, I'm going to talk about writing songs.

When I write a song, I don't generally write it from my persepective. I write it from a perspective I understand, but often, it's either just a facet of me, or some character that I imagine.

Obviously, "It All Makes Sense at the End" is from another person's perspective, I'm not 80 years old. Obviously, Anglerfish isn't from my perspective, I'm happy and have lots of friends and a fantastic wife.

But it's true of just about everything I write, even if it seems like it's all me. I actually like some of the books I mentioned more than Harry Potter, particularly Terry Pratchett books and Ender's Game, which come in my top five books of all time, along with Half Blood Prince.

I like these books in different ways and for different reasons, of course. And in a lot of ways, there are literally no books that top Harry Potter. In terms of the influence on my life and on the world, Harry Potter is entirely unique. The culture surrounding it makes it special in a way that a book is never going to be for me again.

But I'm not really throwing down Mockingjay and thinking "why couldn't this be more like Harry Potter." I'm thinking "I could see a world where I feel that way" and creating that person to write the song for me.

Does that make sense?

And as for dissing Twilight...let's be honest, it's an easy target. I devote an entire verse to it for a reason...everyone knows Twilight (not the case for Tithe or Wee Free Men or Frankie Landau Banks.) And people have definite opinions, many of them negative. And so it's fertile ground. It's easy to mix the worlds and have everyone understand them.

It's not that I hate Twilight, it's that it was an easy target for the song's writer to aim at and hit nerves and funny bones. And, let's be honest, I like hitting nerves and funny bones!

[Kara Parker]

I stand firm on my belief that if someone wants to 'hit nerves and funny bones",you have to have to be able to take anything and make fun of it.Twilight is an extremely easy target.

[Runa]

Because we're nerdfighters, and we are, above all, about being tolerant.  Making fun of (albeit subtly and with no malicious intent) a subgroup of people who enjoys what is, in my opinion, although I know others disagree, a harmless book series, isn't entirely following in that spirit.  Just my two cents.

[Joleen Montague]

I completely understand what you mean. When I write songs sometimes people get upset (my family mostly) because I usually write from other people's point of view. It doesn't seem like people understand that just because the song has harsh words in it about something, doesn't mean it's your point of view.

[Katniss Everdeen]

Someone asked if Hank had done this song before.. And yes, on the anniversary of HPATDH coming out, Hank sang the chorus if this song but said he didn't have time to sing the whole thing.
Also, just so that this comment isn't totally irrelevant to the thread, I don't think making fun of Twilight is a bad thing at all. We all make fun of things we love (and in Twilight's case, things that we maybe don't love as much.) A great example is A Very Potter Musical. The creators of that brilliant show all love Twilight, but the entire musical is devoted to mocking the books.
Its like making fun of a good friend.

[Gabie]

I think it's an important skill to be able to laugh at ourselves and the things that we love the most. I mean, not as much to be nasty or vindictive, but the ability to have a bit of self deprecation. Like, come on people, the last Harry Potter should be called "Harry Potter and the Copious Amount of Luck", and the main character is a whiny bitch who can only use expelliarmus. And that's okay! We should be able to say something like that, and not get into a ridiculous argument.

That said, I read Twilight. It's okay - I'm not sprouting fangs nor will I ever go fangirl on Robert Pattinson. I. Read. Twilight. And was entertained by it. Do I get why it sucks? Yes. Am I willing to make fun of it? Heck yes. We should be able to make fun of Doctor Who, and Mockingjay, and HP, and still love it intensely.

Because I love Harry Potter with all my heart, and cried at the end of the movie, at two in the morning on Friday. Yet, I can joke about it, and laugh at AVPM, and poke at how freaking ridiculous the whole series is. And that's a good thing.

[Rachel Comarella]

To Jon Garcia - he put a preview of this song in a video, like, forever ago. I think he just played the chorus then.

As for this whole Twilight thing, I really think we should be able to make fun of everyone. I will admit that I actually do like the Twilight books. But I still think we should be able to make fun of them, just like we should be able to make fun of Harry Potter. I love Harry Potter more than I could possibly explain, but I still think the seventh movies should be called "Harry Potter and the Extended Camping Trip" and "Part 2: Voldemort Does Stuff." I think they're all fertile ground for snide jokes, myself.

[Sangrebloom]

In the eternal words of Thumper the rabbit " [clears throat] If you can't say something nice... don't say nothing at all. "

But really, I actually thought your twilight verse wasn't something I thought to be really offensive. Kudos on another fab song!

[Jon Garcia]

I think people are blowing this out of proportion.
Also, I SWORE that I had heard this song before Wednesday. At least the chorus sounded extremely familiar. Have you ever done anything that sounded really similar?

[Eesha Babe]

I do not understand why people think that if you do not talk about Twilight... you're crazy. I mean, your a Harry Potter fan, so you write songs about it. But if you do not write songs about Twilight, you either done something wrong, or you're crazy.

Did I not get the memo?

[Vondell Swain]

but Hank, Twilight DOES suck.