Well, if you're reading this then you've come to the very last (at least for right now) comment. What a lot of people seem to think is that Jarvis is berating a rich girl. "Common People" is deeper than that.
When we think about the narrator of the song, it's tempting to think he's a working-class Brit fighting the good fight. But he meets this rich Greek girl at St. Martin's liberal arts college - a fancy place for people to get fluffly degrees and credentials. So while Jarvis could, perhaps, be a working class hero, he's not exactly the underdog people want him to be. He's mingling with the upper crust of society.
...and that adds another level of irony to the song. The narrator is telling her she has no idea what it's like to be poor, but is he living it too? Clearly not - he's at University, with no roaches climing the wall, and he's living with purpose and direction. When the chorus comes in it's romanticizing poor people, as persons without "meaning or control" but that's not true - being poor doesn't mean you're hopeless, or stupid, or without reason to live. But our narrator lumps millions of people into this category to make this girl feel like shit. Yet he's part of the joke too.
So there's quite a few levels of irony to this song that people seem to gloss over. What "Common People" is about is how we can never truly understand people who live tougher lives than ours - no matter how much you think you know, you're never going to experience what it's like. This song is about feigning empathy, and our protagonist does that here. Let me ask you, what do you think happens in this story after the song ends? My guess is that our protagonist and the girl get it on - she wants to know what common people are like, and he's glad to exploit his "knowledge" of them to make himself seem like an authority. And it gets him in her pants, which is why he goes on this rant in the first place.
He doesn't (didn't) attend St. Martin's College, he was just on the campus (probably to meet girls). You can tell by 2 things. His response to her dad being loaded, and when he quotes her as saying 'common people like you.'
He doesn't (didn't) attend St. Martin's College, he was just on the campus (probably to meet girls). You can tell by 2 things. His response to her dad being loaded, and when he quotes her as saying 'common people like you.'
@Sparrowned While you are right that being poor doesn't mean you are stupid, unfortunately that's how the upper class are brought up to believe. They believe that by going to a top school and being educated they are better than others, That is the perspective this song is written from. One of those people see's things in the working class that they don't have, things money can't buy. And that's the point of the song, there are some things money can't buy, and you can't fake it either. Only when you are living it for real can you have it....
@Sparrowned While you are right that being poor doesn't mean you are stupid, unfortunately that's how the upper class are brought up to believe. They believe that by going to a top school and being educated they are better than others, That is the perspective this song is written from. One of those people see's things in the working class that they don't have, things money can't buy. And that's the point of the song, there are some things money can't buy, and you can't fake it either. Only when you are living it for real can you have it.
@Sparrowned Jarvis himself said in an interview I watched about this song that the only bit which wasn't true was the part where the girl said she wanted to sleep with him. So I'm sorry but you're wrong with your assertion that they eventually get it on. Unless Jarvis was fibbing of course, but I doubt that was the case.
@Sparrowned Jarvis himself said in an interview I watched about this song that the only bit which wasn't true was the part where the girl said she wanted to sleep with him. So I'm sorry but you're wrong with your assertion that they eventually get it on. Unless Jarvis was fibbing of course, but I doubt that was the case.
Well, if you're reading this then you've come to the very last (at least for right now) comment. What a lot of people seem to think is that Jarvis is berating a rich girl. "Common People" is deeper than that.
When we think about the narrator of the song, it's tempting to think he's a working-class Brit fighting the good fight. But he meets this rich Greek girl at St. Martin's liberal arts college - a fancy place for people to get fluffly degrees and credentials. So while Jarvis could, perhaps, be a working class hero, he's not exactly the underdog people want him to be. He's mingling with the upper crust of society.
...and that adds another level of irony to the song. The narrator is telling her she has no idea what it's like to be poor, but is he living it too? Clearly not - he's at University, with no roaches climing the wall, and he's living with purpose and direction. When the chorus comes in it's romanticizing poor people, as persons without "meaning or control" but that's not true - being poor doesn't mean you're hopeless, or stupid, or without reason to live. But our narrator lumps millions of people into this category to make this girl feel like shit. Yet he's part of the joke too.
So there's quite a few levels of irony to this song that people seem to gloss over. What "Common People" is about is how we can never truly understand people who live tougher lives than ours - no matter how much you think you know, you're never going to experience what it's like. This song is about feigning empathy, and our protagonist does that here. Let me ask you, what do you think happens in this story after the song ends? My guess is that our protagonist and the girl get it on - she wants to know what common people are like, and he's glad to exploit his "knowledge" of them to make himself seem like an authority. And it gets him in her pants, which is why he goes on this rant in the first place.
He doesn't (didn't) attend St. Martin's College, he was just on the campus (probably to meet girls). You can tell by 2 things. His response to her dad being loaded, and when he quotes her as saying 'common people like you.'
He doesn't (didn't) attend St. Martin's College, he was just on the campus (probably to meet girls). You can tell by 2 things. His response to her dad being loaded, and when he quotes her as saying 'common people like you.'
@Sparrowned While you are right that being poor doesn't mean you are stupid, unfortunately that's how the upper class are brought up to believe. They believe that by going to a top school and being educated they are better than others, That is the perspective this song is written from. One of those people see's things in the working class that they don't have, things money can't buy. And that's the point of the song, there are some things money can't buy, and you can't fake it either. Only when you are living it for real can you have it....
@Sparrowned While you are right that being poor doesn't mean you are stupid, unfortunately that's how the upper class are brought up to believe. They believe that by going to a top school and being educated they are better than others, That is the perspective this song is written from. One of those people see's things in the working class that they don't have, things money can't buy. And that's the point of the song, there are some things money can't buy, and you can't fake it either. Only when you are living it for real can you have it.
@Sparrowned Jarvis himself said in an interview I watched about this song that the only bit which wasn't true was the part where the girl said she wanted to sleep with him. So I'm sorry but you're wrong with your assertion that they eventually get it on. Unless Jarvis was fibbing of course, but I doubt that was the case.
@Sparrowned Jarvis himself said in an interview I watched about this song that the only bit which wasn't true was the part where the girl said she wanted to sleep with him. So I'm sorry but you're wrong with your assertion that they eventually get it on. Unless Jarvis was fibbing of course, but I doubt that was the case.