Keep it up!

Music can be looked at as poetry in many ways, whether it be as simple as rhyming phrases, to double meanings, to the lyrical pauses within the songs themselves. Andy Grammer is a musician who made his debut in his song "Keep Your Head Up," which talks about how everything will be alright in the end, even if things are looking grim at the time.

In the first stanza even, Grammer says connects everything to each other, while still using symbolism and double meanings. "I've been waiting on the sunset / Bills on my mindset / I can't deny they're getting high / Higher than my income / Incomes bread crumbs / I've been trying to survive" This is one of the most poetic parts of the song, and it really introduces the mood, with an idea of hope along with the tragedy, while the music in the background is upbeat. Within the first two lines, "sunset" has a double meaning. It could literally mean the sunset, marking the end of the day and a passage into another one, but it could also represent the end of his struggles with the bills on his mindset. In the lines surrounding "income's bread crumbs," bread crumbs could also have a double meaning in relation to his income and survival. It could be the perceived meaning of just being extremely low, limiting his ability to survive. These bread crumbs could also be literal bread crumbs, and he's trying his hardest to survive off of these crumbs that he's being provided.

The rest of the song is much like this, although with not as many double meanings as the first stanza. One thing that I personally found striking was that instead of saying the general "rainbows come after rain" at many points in the song, he adds in the word "only." This shows that there has to be sorrow/negativity in order for there to be happiness/positivity, and that's just the way it works, because "the sun will always come again," with the sun representing happiness. Another instance of this comes much earlier in the song with the chorus, instead of just saying "keep your head up," Grammer adds in the word "but." There are requirements, and happiness won't come entirely with ease, but it will come if one tries.