TPCASTT Paper

Sydney Branom
TPCASTT Paper

Grand Theft Autumn and Dance, Dance, both by Fall Out Boy, have comparable attitudes and themes, among other characteristics. The attitudes of both songs are bitter, jealous, snarky, and fed up. Both deal with themes of loss and unrequited attraction.

The first song, Grand Theft Autumn, may be named as a play on the phrase “grand theft auto”. Replacing auto with autumn changes the meaning of the phrase to staling autumn. This may mean the song is about stealing a whole season of someone’s time. The title will be revisited later, after the rest of the song is analyzed.

Paraphrasing the lyrics of Grand Theft Autumn helps to understand the story the singer is telling. In the first verse, he asks someone where their boyfriend is, and that he (sarcastically) hopes he’s good to them. He then says that their boyfriend will never appreciate them as much as he does. Every day he thinks about how badly his crush is being treated by their current boyfriend and tries to forget about it, because he knows he has no chance. He tries to forget about them, but can’t. He wants to be the one his crush needs, and while he may mess up a lot, at least he’s still trying. Someday he’ll get braver and make his move, but until then he’s content with wasting his life away on the couch.

Imagery and word use help paint a picture of a lonely boy pining over someone who doesn’t notice him. The line “…in the meantime I’ll sport my brand new fashion of waking up with pants on at four in the afternoon” uses imagery to show us how miserable the singer is when he’s not with his crush (Stump). Waking up at "four in the afternoon" in regular clothes is usually an activity of someone who is in a tough place in their life. (Stump). He’s saying that they are "the last good thing about this part of town" but cares about the world around him very little.

In addition to portraying the singer as a lonely boy, the song's lyrics also demonstrate how jealous and bitter he is. When people are jealous of someone else, they tend to point all their flaws. The singer says that while he is failing to catch the attention of his crush, at least he's still trying to please them, and "That's more than [he] can say for him" (Stump). Another common act of jealous people is to compare themselves to the one they are jealous of. Many times in the chorus, the singer asks they really need him, and then says that "[he] could be him" (Stump). He is jealous of this person's current boyfriend and wants to take his place.

The attitude of Grand Theft Autumn can be described as bitter, snarky, jealous, and resigned. The singer feels like he is more worthy of his crush than their current boyfriend, making him angry. While he believes he would be better for this person, he has also come to terms with the fact that he will never be picked by them. However, this doesn’t stop him from being jealous.

The song’s attitude changes slightly with the shift. After a verse about how he is wasting his life building up the courage to talk to her, the beginning of the chorus changes from “You need him” to “Do you need him”(Stump). Asking if they still need him instead of stating that they needs him indicates that he may be collecting himself and getting ready to actually ask them. After the shift, the singer sounds less hopeless and bitter and more jealous and determined.

After analyzing the lyrics of Grand Theft Autumn, the title doesn’t seem to be about stealing time. The theme of the song is a boy trying to steal someone from their current boyfriend, so perhaps the title is a reference to that. The name of the singer’s love interest may be Autumn, which would help the title make sense with the lyrics.

The theme of the song is a jealous boy watching his crush’s boyfriend mistreat them, and wishing they would choose him instead. This is developed by first establishing that his interest has a boyfriend who isn’t such a gentleman. The singer shows his disdain for them, and the fact that his crush would pick someone who isn’t even trying over himself. He reflects and says that someday he will talk to them, but for the moment, he’s too scared and lazy. Then he starts building up courage, and the song ends with him sounding more confident in himself than before.

The second song is titled Dance, Dance. This creates a feel of upbeat activity. The song could be about two people getting lost in a dance, or about the beauty of dancing in general.

When paraphrased, Dance, Dance is revealed to be about a couple breaking up, and the singer shows resentment for the game of love and loss people play. The first verse of the song shows the tense scene of his girlfriend breaking up with him over the phone. She tries to be gentle with him but he can’t handle it. He reflects in the chorus that everybody loves falling in and out of love, and compares the way people fall in love to the misery he feels. He starts to think that maybe his girlfriend was cheating on him, and decides to call her again. He goes from feeling crushed by sadness to accusing her of being unfaithful and not wanting her sympathy. He’s done with her, and he’s done with people who play love like a game.

Dance, Dance is darker and more desperate than Grand Theft Autumn. The singer in this song is more severely lonely, and angrier about it too. His pleas to his girlfriend and to the world are more desperate. “I don’t want to forget how your voice sounds” and “These words are all I have" demonstrate how dependent he is on this girl at the beginning of the song. He clings to her words and “Need[s] them just to get by” (Stump).

Not only is he aggressively lonely and desperate, but he was just dumped in an unfortunate way. Nobody likes being broken up with, but it's worse when it happens over a phone call. We know their breakup was over the phone because he describes himself as “Two quarters and a heart down”, implying that his heart is gone and so are the two quarters he needed to reach her by payphone (Stump). This solidifies the image of the singer wandering on the street, lost, and using a payphone as a last resort.

While the singer is obviously upset about his girlfriend leaving him, he believes that she may have been deceiving him the whole relationship. In most card games, one holds their cards in a way that doesn't allow the rest of the players to see their hand. Keeping your cards a secret is essential, and in poker, when you believe you're done for the round, you fold your hand, never showing the rest of the group. He compares her secret-keeping to a game of cards by saying that "[she] always fold[s] just before [she's] found out" (Stump). He is saying she always backs out before someone catches her lying and her secrets are revealed.

This song’s attitude is angry, bitter, jealous, and fed up with the world, comparable to the Grand Theft Autumn. The singer feels cheated by his ex-girlfriend and by love in general. This would make anyone angry. Additionally, he feels that his ex was cheating on him before she broke up with him and left him for this new boy. He feels jealous and used because of this, leaving him bitter towards her, and leading him to yelling at her later in the song. His feeling of disgust for the world is a constant feeling in the song, visible in every verse.

A shift in the attitude appears in the verse after the singer calls his girlfriend a second time. When he accuses her of cheating, his mood shifts from loathing to anger. For the rest of the song, his tone is less resigned and bitter and more angry and disgusted.

When revisiting the title, it's obvious that the song isn't about literally dancing. The dance the singer is referring to is the routine of love and loss that people go through in their lives. Some people play love like a game, and he feels like he is the victim, or loser, of this game. He despises the rising and falling dance of relationships.

The theme of Dance, Dance is a boy who gets dumped by his girlfriend reflects on how people play love like a game. This is developed by the opening scene of his girlfriend breaking up with him over the phone ending poorly. He gets upset with her and thinks about how the whole world is full of people who take advantage of others and use them. While the theme is dark, I partially agree, and I think it's wrong to use people for personal gain or entertainment.

Grand Theft Autumn and Dance, Dance have similar themes with very different moods behind them. Grand Theft Autumn is about a boy who wants his crush to pay attention to him and not their current boyfriend, and Dance, Dance is about a relationship that's coming to an end, and the boyfriend isn't very happy about it. Both themes are things that happen every day. I feel like, in both songs, while the singer seems to be overreacting a little, his anger is based in truth.