Hook

                     There is one thing that comes to mind whenever I hear the word Hook.  It’s not the story of Peter Pan, and doesn’t have anything to do with fishing.  The hook I speak of is actually the title of a song, along with the meaning of what a hook can be in almost any given song.  One of my favorite bands is Blues Traveler in which John Popper is the lead singer, as well as one of the best harmonica players in the history of the harmonica.  His song, “Hook”, just seems like any other song on the radio, but it’s not until you listen to and read about the song’s lyrics that you will find the deep but simple truth about why a song can seem so great to us.  
                       In this song, he first explains that it doesn’t matter what he says in the song, as long as he sings with inflection, or emotion.  He secretly sings an explanation of why we like the song, which is because of the chorus acting like a hook, which brings us back to something familiar that we enjoy, and that seems to stick with us.  He begins singing about simple nothings, and even confesses to doing so in his lyrics, but the listener doesn’t even catch on to what he is saying, as they are so wrapped up in the tune.  He goes on referring to Peter Pan, to try and bring something irrelevant into the song, possibly to throw us off.  What comes next are lyrics said so fast, that you can barely make sense of any of it.  In this, what some call a “rap”, John Popper explains how crazy the music industry is.  His lyrics actually become a satire of the music industry, and how there are many “cookie-cutter” songs that are produced every year, as one person puts it.  This song is specifically about the song itself, and how often people don’t listen to the lyrics of songs.  One line says, “It’s so MTV it’s killing me”.   I think he may be alluding to the fact that in MTV, it’s all about appearance, and the way they criticized him about needing to appear less fat is just completely bogus.  He spits out so many meaningful  lyrics, that it just passes us all by, but he basically says that nothing even matters to us as long as that chorus, or “hook”, comes back, which it does right after his long spiel of words.  
                        I love this song, because it is in and of itself an example of the types of songs out there that grab our attention.  John Popper is a musical genius that helps us see that lyrics almost don’t even matter in the success of a song.  But what is it that made this song so great?  You will just have to listen to it yourself, but first without paying attention to the lyrics.