Welcome to Twosday here on Another Flavor! Twosday is the day where we look at two music videos with something in common.

I am very enthusiastic about words and phrases. In high school I started saying “whatevs” so much that it was a real problem. I almost had to go to a special school. I try to keep my slang constantly updating, sometimes successfully and sometimes unsuccessfully. I’ve never been able to work “boss” into my vocabulary, but I was extremely successful with “radical”. I also like to make up words or adapt existing words for new purposes.

Some examples:
Hup: To hop up. For some reason it also means to take a shower.
Crate: A mispronunciation of great.
The deep: A nickname for Home Depot.
J’escuse: As in “J’escuse, I just need to get by.”

I think a lot of musicians feel that way as well. The lyrics of songs are a great way to promote new phrases and muse on their meanings. I believe this due to the videos for Bizness by Tune-Yards and Rolling in the Deep by Adele.

Let’s start with Tune-Yards and Bizness:

This song asks the question we all have on our minds, “What’s the business?” According to urban dictionary (I’m not linking to it because I just realized how offensive its name is) the business can mean a lot of things. It can mean something good, “This chili is the business!” It can mean hassling, “Stop giving me the business.” It can even refer to a business, “The business is losing money hand over fist.”

Tune-Yards wants to get to the root of this baffling conundrum. After attending the best schools money can buy…

She realized that the business cannot be explained using mere human words. Only the sheer power of interpretive dance can answer the question, “What’s the business?”

Yeah.

Okay, from an in depth analysis of the meaning of phrase we come to the invention of a phrase from whole cloth. Rolling in the Deep by Adele:

What does rolling in the deep mean? In the lyrics it sounds like a complete non sequitor:

We could have had it all. Rolling in the deep.

You’re gonna wish you never had met me. Tears are gonna fall. Rolling in the deep.

These lyrics don’t give us a lot to go on. I believe, though, that rolling in the deep means having a lot of money. I mean like a lot. Like, building a spaceship type of money. Let’s take a look.

The extremely wealthy tend to have a lot of glasses, as shown here.

They also are taken to altering their surroundings with money. Here we see Adele contemplating building a whole new, all white city.

I assume that will be her city for day time and at night she will inhabit an all black city.

There are also a lot of shots that show the downside of being extremely rich, namely the loneliness.

Doesn’t it remind you of Xanadu?

Man, rolling in the deep is depressing. That really is the business.

-PTD