Song lyrics can express powerful, passionate feelings; they can verbalize a feeling that you yourself could not put into words. Each song conveys a different message. They can be upbeat and carefree tunes, heart-wrenching break-up anthems, or angry and vulgar raps. Spencer Fort is an alternative singer and songwriter that coveys honest emotions through his lyrics. In his song, “To the Moon and Back,” he uses both song lyrics and music to express his desire to ultimately live a full, rewarding life after he overcomes the obstacles he faces.
The lyrics alone carry this message that Spencer Fort is going to make his life worth something and that he will be able to look back at his life and smile in the end. The beginning of the song talks about a man up on the moon smiling down at Spencer. The man represents what Spencer wants to accomplish: Being able to look back at his life and smile down on it. The moon is the only consistent thing in his journey as a musician. As he states in the song, “I get older every day,” different anxieties approach and challenge him because his job is so unpredictable as a singer just starting off in the music industry.
He does not know where his career is going or where his next paycheck is coming from along with normal anxieties that any human goes through. As a performer, he’s had a lot of anxieties on what his life is going to be in five or ten years, because it is a rather unstable industry. The line, “I want to make it to the moon and back,” is purely stating that he desires to make it to the moon, which in itself is one of the most difficult thing to accomplish. That line is a parallel to him pursuing his career as singer in the music industry, because that is also a very difficult thing to do.
The song is purely about just wanting to be happy with whatever happens in his life, but sort of being afraid of it. That is also why he tied in lines from all of his other songs in it, so “ To the Moon and Back” can be presented as “here’s what I have done up to this point in my career and I am proud of it. ” By the end of the song he ties in what he said in the beginning about the old man looking down and smiling, he says “in the end I just pray that I’ve done well” which represents how he wants to be by the end of his life, smiling down on his life.
When he states, “I just want to make it to the moon and back. ” The instrumental aspect of this song plays a major role in portraying the message Spencer is trying to convey: It portrays the consistencies of his life along with the different obstacles thrown at him and through it all he wants his life to mean something to him and others. To accomplish this feeling, the song starts off with just the piano playing softly but hard on the left hand bass as his voice is also soft and slow while he talks about the moon which is the consistent thing in his life.
Then after the first few lines drums accompany the piano as his voice picks up and is faster causing the listener to feel suspense as the drums are beating and beating along with the lyrics that begin to bring a feeling of determination to accomplish great things and overcoming any obstacles along the way. The piano plays throughout the entire song demonstrating the consistency in his life. As the drums and guitar gets added into the song it is a parallel to all the different anxieties Spencer is experiencing in his life.
Based on the instrument choice and the soft vocals, the listener can assume this will be a depressing song. Then when the drums kicks in with the piano towards the middle of the song, the listener begins to feel an upbeat and determined side of the song, because drums kind of always go along with upbeat moments in songs or just plain determination felt by the beat of the drum and the intensity of this particular instrument.
The lyrics alone in this song send out such a powerful message, but without the music behind them, the listener does not get the full affect. The way Spencer Fort uses the instrumentals to enhance the lyrics is by using beats and sounds that compliment the ideas of consistency and angst found in the lyrics. Spencer truly accomplishes what he is trying to portray with this song through both the powerful lyrics and complimentary instrumentals.
