A Hearty Dose Of "Fuck"

"Even though I play the part, this is way too fucking far" - when I came across margø’s song "play pretend" with these lyrics, I was kind of thrown off. Not because of the word "fuck" itself, but rather because it felt like such a mismatch in tone. This is the only time margø swears in the entire song and it really doesn’t seem to fit the song’s vibe of pretending everything’s fine, sticking out like a sore thumb.

After thinking about the song for a while, I’ve realised that no, it’s meant to stick out. It’s meant to be the "mess behind the scenes" breaking through and showing itself for just a short moment before being shoved right back down. And that, in turn, got me to think about swearing in music in general.

A lot of The Discourse™️ around swearing in music is solely focussed on whether lyrics should contain foul language at all, never stopping to think about the artistic effect it can have. While "play pretend" is a good introductory example, this will mainly be a case study of Underoath and how their lyrics evolved.

For the uninitiated, Underoath is an emo rock band from Florida and for the longest time defined themselves as being Christian, in turn never swearing in their lyrics. If anything, curse words were left implied (such as "such a sucker for that \[hoe\]" on "A Boy Brushed Red Living In Black And White" - drummer/vocalist Aaron Gillespie would later start singing that part out loud).

This all changed after the band temporarily disbanded in 2013. Between then and their reuniting album "Erase Me" in 2018, vocalist Spencer Chamberlain’s opinion on the church changed, especially seeing how he was treated by his peers while trying to recover from his drug addiction. This also meant a shift in the band’s lyrics - "Erase Me"’s lead single "On My Teeth" would contain the first "fuck" featured in Underoath lyrics and generally focus on venting Chamberlain’s numerous issues with the church - "So where were you when I fell out?".

I feel like Chamberlain was still holding back when writing Erase Me, though. Let’s compare it with the follow-up album "Voyeurist"s first song, called "Damn Excuses" (yes, that’s swearing in the title already. You know you’re in for some good stuff here). The song, similarly to "On My Teeth" a few years prior, is about frustration with the church, but with a lot less facade in front of it this time - "You never gave me anything I wanted, but I’m stuck in this cycle with you/ Fuck your revelation and fuck your weak conviction, I’m finally exposing the truth".

Going from "we’ve made 7 christian albums with no swearing" to "Fuck your revelation" is quite the leap to say the least, and it gives that message, the image of Chamberlain turning against Christianity all the more power for it for two distinct reasons:

Firstly, it’s because even now that he doesn’t limit himself for religious reasons, Chamberlain doesn’t swear too much, mostly reserving it for huge cathartic moments like "We’re All Gonna Die"s "I think you’re fucking fake" or "Hallelujah"s final "This is fucking hell!". We all probably have people around us who barely ever swear, so hearing something like this has from them has a lot more power than, say, from me. The same goes for bands - take Slipknot for example: Outside of Vol.3 (which was deliberately made with zero cussing), vocalist Corey Taylor swears like a sailor all throughout the album, so hearing this from someone like him wouldn’t have the same effect.

Secondly, no matter how much or little usage "fuck" finds in your lyrics, it still is a powerful word by itself. Picture a world where Chamberlain decided to censor himself - "Screw your revelation" or "I don’t care about your revelation" both wouldn’t be nearly as immediate and strong as a simple "Fuck".

Funnily enough, the people around Underoath don’t seem to have adjusted to this change too much yet - in the podcast about the song "Cycle", co-host Matt Carter won’t dare speak out the hook’s "Stuck in my head, it’s a god damn maze", calling it a "G D maze" instead. In that same episode, Chamberlain also talks about how keeping the "god damn" in was a very conscious decision, precisely because it emphasizes just how stuck in place he felt. In his words, "when you get to the fact that you’ve hit a wall and you feel like giving up, are you gonna go ’gosh darn it’? No!"

And I think that’s the perfect summary for what I’m trying to say here - music is a way to express yourself, and sometimes, what you feel is best expressed by a hearty dose of "Fuck". Forcing swear words out of your toolset for lyrics cuts out a really strong means of showing rage or despair, for no real reason. So do me a solid and keep swearing, alright?