Fireflies

 

     Owl City's song, Fireflies, encompasses the ideas of childhood wonders and dreams. The lyrics and music give an alert subconscious vibe. It's chorus goes "I'd like to make myself believe that planet Earth turns slowly. It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep, 'cause everything is never as it seems when I fall asleep." The chorus' main points are time, sleep, and fantasy. The fact it seems like the Earth is rotating slowly suggests the irrelevancy of time, how time is nonexistent in dreams, how time is not restricting us. The slowed down time also implies that he wants to hold on to his childhood and the innocence that accompanies it. The desire to sleep instead of being awake invokes that feeling that sleeping and dreaming is in fact living and not the other way around.

      The music and instruments used in this song sound uncommon. Along with the voice, they really give the feeling of an upbeat exciting wonder. It seems to stimulate an active imagination which ties nicely into the idea of the song. I also feel that some of the instruments were used to mirror the sounds of the beeps and rings of childhood toys. The first and last times the chorus is sung the music takes a quiet, soft drum-like turn. I can't tell for sure if the music is repetitive as it feels like it changes ever so slightly over the course of the song.
      The music video itself uses many of those childhood toys, everything from little plastic robots to disco-balls. When ignoring the lyrics and focusing on the video I feel that the song is more about toys than sleep. That in his innocent mind, to him, the toys are really coming to life. But part of him feels that their animation is fleeting (like when the calculator writes goodbye or farewell). The video takes place entirely in his room and so much happens within that small of a space. Over the course of the video toys come out on the floor along with trains and a blimp. Near the end there is a whole bustling toy city in the center of his room. At the end all the toys and lights go away. I am torn between two ideas of why the toys left. They either left because he was waking up from a dream or growing up, or perhaps even both.
      My final interpretation of the song takes into consideration of the man at the keyboard's age. He seems far to old for a room like that (but then again that could just be him not letting go). I believe he lost his childhood and he is in constant longing to go back. The only way back is through his dreams.