On the way home from the gym today I was listening, again, to Adam Lambert’s What Do You Want From Me. It’s been getting a lot of airtime on the radio recently. I find the tune catchy and the lyrics decent. What got my mind reeling after I really stopped to think about it wasn’t the lyrics themselves, but what I had been reading into the lyrics the entire time: that it was being sung to a woman.
As I’m sure you’re aware, Adam Lambert is gay. So there’s no reason that the song couldn’t be sung to a guy. Thinking that perhaps there was some line in the song that triggered this assumption I took a gander at the lyrics. Nope – no mention of gender anywhere in there.
Which means it’s all in my head. For whatever reason I have hetrocentric lyrical tendencies. And frankly that bothers me.
Digital Ramblings 
You’re thinking too much — just enjoy the music. Sometimes we “hermits” over-analyze things (or so I’m told). Love ya, Wally
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An ode to…
Interesting thought. To add more confusion, Pink actually wrote the song and gave it to Lambert for fear that it would soften her image too much (so I have heard from our local radio dj). Most of the time during that song, I usually think of him singing to his critics and fans rather than a single person. I’ve been told I’m an odd one out on that one, though. This does not really address your point – I’ll blame the jet lag – it is information if anything at all…RSL
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Re: An ode to…
Fascinating! I had looked at the names of the songwriters and totally missed Alicia Moore’s (aka: Pink) name on it. I can also easily see how he might be singing it for his critics/fans, something I hadn’t considered it before.
Lots of good information there R – much appreciated :)
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Do you think it could have to do with how you came across the song?
Since it was through heavy radio play, your subconscious may have just carried over those pronouns from the other 17 explicitly hetero songs you kept hearing around it.
You may have made other assumptions if you’d just bought the album cold.
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Yes, that’s quite likely. Listening to it in a different context might change how I interpreted it but I really don’t see that ever happening :)
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