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8 | [[quoteright:350:[[Music/CrazyCod https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crazycodcopingsmiler.png]]]] |
9 | [[caption-width-right:350:"You can laugh and say that you're alone and happy\ |
10 | You're not"]] |
11 | * Music/MarinaDiamandis' "Teen Idle" manages to do this with just one line: |
12 | -->''(cheering)'' Feeling super! Super! Super... [[spoiler: suicidal...]] |
13 | * One of the interpretations of Music/{{BTS}}' "Fake Love" is that it describes the relationship many Kpop idols have with their fans, with companies creating an idealized, sanitized version of artists through make-up, editing, and control of their image through ContractualPurity, which idols maintain in order to make their fans happy. |
14 | --->''Why you sad? I don't know, I don't know'' |
15 | --->'''Smile, and say I love you''' |
16 | --->''Look at me. I even gave up on myself'' |
17 | --->''Even you can't understand me.'' |
18 | ** The entire concept of the ''LOVE YOURSELF'' album series - which "Fake Love" is part of - is based on the idea of a person hiding their true self (sadness, pain, mental illness, external or internal flaws) from their loved one to maintain the relationship; "Fake Love" and ''LOVE YOURSELF: Tear'' is the point where the person realizes they've [[LossOfIdentity lost themself]] [[BecomingTheMask in the process]], and the relationship becomes unsustainable due to being based on lies. This concept (which as shown above, has also been interpreted as a commentary on idols) is made especially explicit in "Outro: Her": |
19 | --->''[[BeneathTheMask Because the me behind this mask]]'' |
20 | --->''Is not the one you know'' |
21 | --->''Make up to wake up today too'' |
22 | --->''And dress up to mask on'' |
23 | --->''In order to become the me that you love'' |
24 | * Smokey Robinson: |
25 | ** "Tears of a Clown": |
26 | -->Now if there's a smile on my face |
27 | -->It's only there trying to fool the public |
28 | -->But when it comes down to fooling you |
29 | -->Now honey, that's quite a different subject |
30 | -->But don't let my glad expression |
31 | -->Give you the wrong impression |
32 | -->Really I'm sad, oh I'm sadder than sad |
33 | -->You're gone and I'm hurtin' so bad |
34 | -->Like a clown I pretend to be glad |
35 | ** Also "The Tracks of My Tears": |
36 | --->So take a good look at my face\ |
37 | You'll see my smile looks out of place\ |
38 | If you look closer, it's easy to trace\ |
39 | The tracks of my tears |
40 | %%* The song "Happy Go Lucky" by Steps is made of this trope. |
41 | %%* "Facade" by Music/{{Disturbed}}. |
42 | * In the planned music video for "Rhinestone Eyes" by Music/{{Gorillaz}}, there's a sequence where Crazy Cyborg Noodle goes on a killing rampage while wearing a creepy ear-to-ear grin, which ends with a close up of her crying eye. |
43 | |
44 | * "Centuries of Damn" by Music/{{Death Grips}} is an intensely sad example of this trope. |
45 | -->To centuries of damn\ |
46 | I've never been so yawn\ |
47 | Can't believe I'm still standing\ |
48 | Can't believe life take this long\ |
49 | |
50 | * The subject of "Everybody's Fool" by Music/{{Evanescence}} is somewhere between Depressed and Empty. In the video, the dissonance between the facade and the emptiness inside results in some |
51 | -->Look, here she comes now\ |
52 | Bow down and stare in wonder\ |
53 | Oh, how we love you\ |
54 | No flaws when you're pretending\ |
55 | But now I know she never was, and never will be\ |
56 | You don't know how you've betrayed me\ |
57 | And somehow you've got everybody fooled |
58 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WKcocEMGT8 "Where Will You Go"]] counts as this, too. |
59 | -->''I know who you really are'' |
60 | -->''You're the one who cries when you're alone'' |
61 | * Music/{{Morrissey}} (in his solo career after Music/TheSmiths) has "When I Last Spoke To Carol" where she said: |
62 | -->I've hammered a smile across this pasty face of mine |
63 | -->since the day I was born in 1975. |
64 | %%* Everclear's "Wonderful" hints at this. |
65 | * The song "Ah, but Underneath" from ''Theatre/{{Follies}}.'' The entire song sings about a woman who seemed to be something on the surface, but was something different underneath the top layer. But that layer, too, was "just a shell," and so it continues. The very last line is "Sometimes when the wrappings fall, there's nothing underneath at all!" making this Emptiness. |
66 | * The chorus of Music/TaylorSwift's "Tied Together With A Smile" is about a depressed childhood friend of Taylor's who had anorexia. |
67 | -->And no one knows |
68 | -->That you cry, but you don't tell anyone |
69 | -->That you |
70 | -->Might not be the golden one |
71 | -->And you're tied together with a smile |
72 | -->But you're comin' undone |
73 | * "Smiling Faces Sometimes", sung by Music/TheTemptations, the Undisputed Truth, David Ruffin solo... |
74 | -->Smiling faces sometimes |
75 | -->Pretend to be your friend |
76 | -->Smiling faces show no traces |
77 | -->Of the evil that lurks within... |
78 | * "The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most" by Dashboard Confessional is about a Depressive: |
79 | -->Buried deep as you can dig inside yourself, hidden in the public eye |
80 | -->such a stellar monument to loneliness. |
81 | -->Laced with brilliant smiles and shining eyes, |
82 | -->perfect makeup, but you're barely scraping by. |
83 | * Music/LadyGaga: |
84 | ** "Dance in the Dark": "Baby loves to dance in the dark / cuz when he's looking she falls apart". |
85 | ** "So Happy I Could Die": "I do my hair / I gloss my eyes / I touch myself all through the night." |
86 | %%* "Lucky" by Music/BritneySpears. The video shows it perfectly! |
87 | %%** Don't even BEGIN to forget about the music video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aEnnH6t8Ts "If U Seek Amy"]]. |
88 | %%* The song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl_QbG5RTPg&feature=channel_video_title "Eight Hundred"]] by Pinocchio-P. |
89 | * Skin's "Nothing But" rings as either Depressed or Empty. The entirety of the song has lyrics which insist that the narrator is happy ("I feel nothing just joy, and pride, and happiness.") but the tune denotes a sense of LyricalDissonance. |
90 | %%* ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'': "Gift from the Princess who Brought Sleep" by Music/{{Mothy}}. More specifically, the character who sings it, Margarita Blankenheim (played by Music/{{Vocaloid}} Hatsune Miku). |
91 | * In the song "Stereo Love" by {{Music/Edward Maya}} featuring Vika Jigulina, the song is about a couple attempting to rekindle a relationship but they always smile for each other. |
92 | -->I hate to see you cry.\ |
93 | Your smile is a beautiful lie.\ |
94 | You won't see me cry, I'm hiding inside.\ |
95 | My heart is in pain but I'm smiling for you.\ |
96 | |
97 | * Music/EmilieAutumn: |
98 | ** Compared to her other, much deeper songs about sadness/depression, "Willow" can come off as this. |
99 | -->I'm not unique in this |
100 | -->Nor am I special, sweet or kind |
101 | -->I court a thousand smiles |
102 | -->Yet I keep my own to hide behind |
103 | ** "Marry Me" can be interpreted this way: not only [[LyricalDissonance is it a terribly depressing song sung to the tune of a cheery waltz]], but the narrator seems to be trying to ''convince herself'' that's she happy, despite being trapped in a loveless arranged marriage and relying on alcohol and a lover. |
104 | -->But, oh, what beautiful things I'll wear |
105 | -->What beautiful dresses and hair |
106 | -->I'm lucky to share his bed |
107 | -->[[TearJerker So why do I wish I was...?]] |
108 | * Mr. Smiley from the Mustard Plug song of the same name is a variation of the classic smiley-face badge thing. He's Unstable- he goes nuts and kills his entire family. |
109 | %%* Nick Cave's "Good Son". |
110 | * Music/InsaneClownPosse's "Mr. Happy" details the day-to-day life of a friendly serial killer who is all smiles unless deprived of victims to strangle. |
111 | %%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z4m4lnjxkY Eduard Khil]], to the point of MemeticMutation. |
112 | * Music/DavidBowie's "D.J." is sung from the perspective of a Empty radio deejay who's "got believers" but is losing his mind and approaching Unstable status; the ConceptVideo contrasts his happy public facade with his increasingly violent, despairing nature in-studio. "I am a D.J., I am what I play/Can't turn around, no, can't turn around..." |
113 | * Music/TheBeatles' "I'm A Loser," mostly written by Lennon: |
114 | -->Although I laugh and I act like a clown\ |
115 | Beneath this mask I am wearing a frown\ |
116 | My tears are falling like rain from the sky\ |
117 | Is it for her or myself that I cry? |
118 | * Music/{{Queen}}'s "The Show Must Go On" describes Emptiness (it could also fit Depression): |
119 | -->Inside my heart is breaking |
120 | -->My make-up may be flaking |
121 | -->But my smile still stays on. |
122 | ** For what it's worth, the RealitySubtext (the song was written and recorded as Freddie Mercury as entering the final stages of dying of an AIDS-related illness) heavily supports a Depressed interpretation of someone desperately trying to put a brave face on tremendous pain and unhappiness. |
123 | * The Music/SimonAndGarfunkel song "Richard Cory," based on the Edward Arlington Robinson poem. The song's chorus, an {{Everyman}} wishing he could be Richard Cory, becomes ironic when repeated one final time after we learn about Cory's suicidal depression. |
124 | * The protagonist in Music/JonathanCoulton's song "Good Morning Tucson", a morning news anchor who keeps his trademark smile going even as he's trying to get through his day's work, interviewing guests he doesn't particularly care about, and [[spoiler:''literally setting the studio on fire, watching it burn down around him'']]. |
125 | ** Also the [[ChristmasEpisode Christmas song]] "Chiron Beta Prime": |
126 | -->''This year has been a little crazy for the Andersons,\ |
127 | You may recall we had some trouble last year.\ |
128 | The Robot Council had us banished to an asteroid,\ |
129 | That hasn't undermined our holiday cheer!'' |
130 | %%* Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Happy House". |
131 | * The song "The Great Pretender", originally sung by The Platters and later covered by Music/FreddieMercury, describes this kind of person, who puts on a happy facade to hide their sadness about losing a lover. |
132 | * The song "[[https://youtu.be/EaGcBIVfUSI?list=PLjACqN5i5sDWjx8wkdUyCl4MjctV4SE6o Shallow]]" by Music/PoetsOfTheFall could be the Empty Smiler's Anthem. |
133 | -->''More in my face\ |
134 | Than is my taste\ |
135 | I grow so weary I'll surrender.'' |
136 | * The Music/RiseAgainst song "The Approaching Curve" is about a relationship built around this trope by both sides; the relationship is falling apart, but according to the lyrics "They'll remember, only our smiles 'cause that's all they've seen. Long since dried, when we are found, are the tears in which we had drowned..." Overall, it makes the song about a tough breakup even sadder than it was before. |
137 | * "Go Away" by Delain is a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to a Depressed person who puts all their effort into putting on an act instead of solving their problems. |
138 | * [[VideoGame/WildArms4 "On the outside they would smile, laughing, joking all the while; On the inside, they would cry, painful truth they try to hide."]] |
139 | %%* Go relisten to "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby [=McFerrin=]. That bouncy, happy a cappella track [[LyricalDissonance hides one grim song]]. |
140 | * Music/{{Paramore}}'s "Brick By Boring Brick" has shades of this: |
141 | -->Well you built up a world of magic/because your real life is tragic. |
142 | * Creator/CharlieChaplin's "Smile": |
143 | -->Smile, though your heart is aching...Smile, even though it's breaking... |
144 | * Music/TheKinks' "I'm Not Like Everybody Else": |
145 | -->And make out I smile though I wear a frown |
146 | %%* "Don't Let It Show" by Music/TheAlanParsonsProject. |
147 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG7DoUR93yk "Leave a Scar"]] by Music/MarilynManson describes an Unstable person: |
148 | -->''I'm well aware I'm a danger to my self\ |
149 | Are you aware I'm a danger to others?\ |
150 | There's a crack in my soul\ |
151 | You thought was a smile'' |
152 | ** Also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL6V5YOUODI "Slutgarden"]]: |
153 | -->''My smile is a chainlink fence / that I have put up'' |
154 | * {{Sting}}'s "I'm So Happy That I Can't Stop Crying", about a man who keeps a happy facade while going through a divorce. |
155 | %%* "Apple Pie" by the BastardFairies is very unsympathetic look at one of these. |
156 | * The Supernaturals' appropriately named song "Smile": |
157 | -->''You'd better smile, smile, smile\ |
158 | Cause that's all that you've got left\ |
159 | Your life's a mess, you've been cut adrift'' |
160 | * Music/{{Sia}}: |
161 | ** "Chandelier" is about a depressed HardDrinkingPartyGirl who turns to a night of drunken debauchery to try and push down a gnawing sense of fear and distress. |
162 | --->Help me, I'm holding on for dear life\ |
163 | Won't look down, won't open my eyes\ |
164 | Keep my glass full 'til morning light\ |
165 | 'Cause I'm just holding out for tonight |
166 | *** "Unstoppable" is about [[BadassBoast how cool she is]]... so she can't show any weakness: |
167 | --->Leave my sunglasses on while I shed a tear\ |
168 | It's never the right time, yeah, yeah\ |
169 | I put my armor on, show you how strong how I am |
170 | * Music/ToveLo' song ''Habits'', especially in the music video. The HardDrinkingPartyGirl persona of her alter ego in the song is just a facade to cope with losing "her" lover, and the facade crumbles at several points in said video. |
171 | * "Dollhouse" by Music/MelanieMartinez is sung from the POV of a girl discussing her family. Despite her dad's infidelity, mom's alcoholism, the DomesticAbuse between them, and her brother's drug use they maintain a normal, happy family image to others. |
172 | -->Places, places, get in your places.\ |
173 | Throw on your dress and put on your doll faces.\ |
174 | Everyone thinks that we're perfect.\ |
175 | Please don't let them look through the curtains. |
176 | * The video for Music/CyndiLauper's "She Bop" opens with teenagers walking along as mindless zombies entering [[BurgerFool a burger joint]] and walking out with burgers and shakes eerily grinning and nodding their heads. |
177 | %%* The narrator of Music/KellyClarkson's [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OASqys4_mIY "Cry"]] seems to be convincing themselves to become one of these. |
178 | * priscilla ahn's "Fine on the outside" (used as the ending theme to ''Anime/WhenMarnieWasThere''). The title explains it all. |
179 | -->So I left home |
180 | -->I packed up and I moved far away |
181 | -->From my past one day |
182 | -->And I laughed |
183 | -->[[LaughingMad I laughed, I laughed, I laughed]] |
184 | -->[[spoiler: I sound fine on the outside]] |
185 | * "Imitation of Life" by Music/{{REM}} is about how people try to hide their insecurities while trying to be happy. The song's music video shows this by being a 20-second clip played backwards and forwards taking place at an outdoor party with all kinds of little mishaps going on throughout. |
186 | -->This sugarcane, this lemonade, |
187 | -->This hurricane, I'm not afraid. |
188 | -->Come on, come on, |
189 | -->No one can see me cry... |
190 | * Music/ViennaTeng's "The Tower" is about a woman trying to seem stronger than she really feels. |
191 | -->She carries the act\ |
192 | So convincingly the fact is sometimes she believes it\ |
193 | That she can be happy the way things are\ |
194 | Be happy with the things she's done |
195 | * "These Are The Lies" by Music/TheCab is a SuspiciouslySpecificDenial laden song about a man lying to himself and others about not having feelings for his ex-girlfriend. |
196 | -->I've got a new girl and she's my whole world/And I don't care if you're not sleeping alone\ |
197 | 'Cause life is so good, I'm doing so good/Don't spend hours sitting here by the phone\ |
198 | 'Cause I don't think about you every single night/I'll be fine without you\ |
199 | I can be fine when I'm not beside you/I'm moving on\ |
200 | No, I don't cry about you/No, these ain't tears in my eyes about you\ |
201 | Gonna be fine if I die without you/Baby I'm gone\ |
202 | These are the lies that I tell myself at night/These are the lies that are keeping me alive |
203 | * Music/TheScript's "Six Degrees Of Separation" is about someone who is depressed after a breakup but tries to act like they're happy. |
204 | -->Fake a smile\ |
205 | Yeah, lie and say, "I'm better now than ever"\ |
206 | And your life's okay\ |
207 | Well it's not, no\ |
208 | You're doing all these things out of desperation\ |
209 | Oh, woah\ |
210 | You're going through six degrees of separation |
211 | * Hinted in the second verse of Hall & Oates' hit "Everything Your Heart Desires": |
212 | -->You tell me your best friend's world seems beautiful\ |
213 | But don't be fooled, it's nice work if you can get it\ |
214 | What goes on behind closed doors, you don't know\ |
215 | Maybe she cries herself to sleep every night |
216 | * Music/LoversAndLiars: The song "I'm Not Him" revolves around trying to get close to a person who was in an [[DomesticAbuse abusive relationship]]. The person being spoken about is a Depressed type: |
217 | -->"You smile on the outside and die from within"\ |
218 | "You lock away your secrets behind your body and skin" |
219 | * "She Walks Her Life Laughing" by ''Mashina Vremeni''. The final verse says how nobody notices how "she who walks her life laughing" cries every night. |
220 | * Music/{{Vocaloid}}: Deconstructed in the song "[[https://youtu.be/4Z1_44GUBq4 Disordered Self-Restraint Girl]]", by otetsu ft. GUMI, which showcases the mental breakdown of a girl who's a mix of the Depressed and Unstable types. The protagonist lives out her daily life as an ordinary person, "smiling and forgiving", but she's constantly pushing her true feelings down to the point where she's begun to have a serious nervous breakdown, complete with [[AxCrazy homicidal fantasies]]. |
221 | -->Showtime, inside the cage, a strange freakshow\ |
222 | Continue to complain and complain, boasting of one's misfortune\ |
223 | I've lived, without saying how unpleasant things are unpleasant\ |
224 | [[TitleDrop Disordered Self-Restraint Girl]] |
225 | ** Also from Vocaloid is "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp8tHkEON-Q Masquerade]]" by r.i.p. ft. Avanna and GUMI. The protagonist refers to herself as always wearing a mask to fit in with what other people want, to the point where she doesn't even know who she is underneath. At the end of the song, she takes off the mask...[[FacialHorror and her claims that there's nothing beneath prove]] ''[[FacialHorror very]]'' [[FacialHorror literal]]. |
226 | --->Be scared, cause it only gets worse\ |
227 | Prepare for myself to get hurt\ |
228 | Keep on trying to get away\ |
229 | I know I cannot escape\ |
230 | I don't own the thoughts in my head\ |
231 | So come here to speak my mind instead\ |
232 | Waiting for the bell to chime\ |
233 | They all keep on changing my mind |
234 | * Music/SasakureUK's "Little Cry of The Abyss" is about a mermaid in unrequited love with a human male. The lyrics include the line "Even if I knew it's all in vain / would I force myself to smile and be hurt? / I pretended to be tough and happy when I couldn't tell of my love". |
235 | * Music/CrazyCod: "Coping on Valentine's Day" has the man try to laugh and say he's alone and happy, even wearing such a mask, but he's not. |
236 | * LetsPlay/{{Dream}}'s "Mask" is about how he puts on a symbolic smiley face mask to hide his true feelings from everyone, using his iconic (and literal) smiley face mask to represent it. |
237 | * Creator/JoeIconis's "Ammonia" is about a housewife tolerating an abusive husband and troubled daughter by huffing ammonia while they're out of the house. After an afternoon of naked existential panicking in her kitchen, she puts the bottle away and puts herself together when her husband and daughter get home, asking about their day and insisting [[ObviouslyNotFine hers was fine]]. |
238 | * Implied in Music/{{Jimin}}'s "Like Crazy" video when Jimin parties with others in the club but is visibly sadder when no one is looking and [[BathroomStallOfAngst angsts when he is alone in the bathroom]], seeing the walls move apart to expose a void around him before coming back together.. |
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