My Music Journal 2025 - February 24, 2025

 

Monday, February 24, 2025

Time: 6:05 AM
Song: Use Somebody
Artist: Kings of Leon
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s while riding an exercise bike.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5VGlqQANWDKJFl0MBG3sg2?si=2981681237934675

I remember seeing a clip of Paul McCartney sometime over the last few years where he was explaining that early in the Beatles career, they were trying to write songs to make money. The modern audience had a mixed reaction to this admission.

Authentic art, after all, isn’t supposed to be motivated by money.

But, as a teenager from a lower-to-middle class family in Liverpool, McCartney and his bandmates, each of similar backgrounds, weren’t thinking about songwriting as art as much as a skill. One they hoped would open doors to a better life for themselves.

The Beatles, as it turned out, could write songs that made money. That instinct or motivation never left the group, even after the music stopped. The band broke up in 1970. Each decade since the band has become bigger and bigger and so has the money.

I’m not saying the Beatles are sell outs. I am not saying their music isn’t art. I’m just saying writing songs that the masses liked was always part of their makeup.

That’s what pops into my head when I hear “Use Somebody.”

Kings of Leon was the underground band of the mid-2000s that all the hardcore music fans and critics seemed to love.

“You got to hear these guys!”

“There going to be huge!”

They were the darlings of critics. Their fans couldn’t understand why everyone wasn’t getting into them. 

I had a couple different friends bring Kings of Leon to my attention. I liked what I heard, but didn’t follow them that closely.

Then “Use Somebody” hit in 2008. And that was it. A hit. A song clearly written to make money. It had a hook. It was an earworm. It was superficial enough to be universal.

Suddenly everyone knew Kings of Leon.

And all the people that had pumped the band up, professed to disliking that song.

The very thing that all those people had said would happen, happened. Kings of Leon became a huge band. And they hated it.

Weirdly enough, while I am sure that single is a big reason why Kings of Leon are living very comfortably now, it feels to me like it’s the reason their momentum ultimately slowed down. I know Kings of Leon are still together. They still release new music. But I never get the sense that there is a lot of momentum around it. While I have heard some of it, I can’t even say without looking it up, if I like their newer music or not.