Analyzing The Song 'Best Of You' By Foo Fighter

The song “Best of You” by Foo Fighters explicitly describes a situation between two people who had a really close relationship and one experienced mistreatment and abuse physically or mentally. That’s one way the lyrics of this song could be translated, but the idea expressed in this song, I think, is much bigger than that. The relationship described is a metaphor for anything that constrains an individual in life. The song was written with the purpose of self-help from problems ranging from relationship problems to mental sicknesses such as depression, not just for relationship problems. One way you can see evidence that this song is not just a song about a heartbreak relationship, but a song written specifically to motivate individuals to …show more content…
This characteristic is the same as the overall goal, self-help and self-empowerment. The strategy that he uses is to use a strong powerful tone in strategic locations in the song and a softer tone in other parts. This gives a listener an experience optimized for motivation. In the powerful parts of the song such as in repetitive lines, “Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best, the best of you?”, this strategy is used on top of a sort of rhetorical question. The answer to this question is mostly implied, of course the answer is yes and if it isn’t, the overall effect stays unchanged. These lines are screamed and repeated to give a self-realization and empowerment effect and isn’t designed to have an answer, but to be applied to general personal problems. Another section of the song where the loud and fast paced lyrics come into play is after the second chanting portion of “Is someone getting the best of you” of the song and beginning with the self-empowering question, “Has someone taken your faith?” and followed by what seems to be a series of statements of uncomplete thoughts and again leading into another line of “the best of you”. The lines that seem to be uncomplete, or at least semi-complete, take full advantage of the effect created by the yelling of Grohl by creating a sort of chant. Although the content within this make-shift chant fits perfectly with the intended atmosphere of the song, the more important aspect of this portion is the structure. Without the structure and the chant-like yell of David Grohl, these statements would have little to no meaning and would be experienced by the audience as an uncoherent segment of the song. Because he yells it and because its arranged in short choppy statements, it gives an effect of blood-pumping motivation and is designed specifically for that. To give the song an