“Hanging by a Moment” by Lifehouse is a song pulsating with meaning and hope.
The song serves as something of a hard line to the beginning and end of an era—of the older 1990s irony and nihilism that dominated in the grunge scene, as well as the edge of a new and in many ways more destructive absurdist nihilism that would begin to show at the dawn of the digital era:
Released in 2000, “Hanging by a Moment” acts as a kind of demarcation between the two now visibly different worlds, at the time barely perceived.
It seems both a response to the straightforward nihilism common to the rock bands that preceded it, as well as a kind of prophetic preparation for the compulsive, empty irony that would soon come to dominate popular culture.
While the 1990s popular culture was full of interesting social commentary and honest, unguarded broken hearts expressed in song, something more sinister was taking root as this more human influence waned: love became something mostly laughable; noble affective intuitions became embarrassing; earnest, poetic work became passé; self-focus, debasement, and pure entertainment for marketing purposes became bold and unapologetic rather than something to at least strive to keep in the background.
Originally started as a Christian worship band, which is likely out of which its uncommon and striking tone of hope grew, Lifehouse cut through this noise.
“Hanging by a Moment” was released while radio airplay was filling up with bubblegum pop, metallic costumes with strobe lights, and the increasingly shallow, obsessive “hook” culture revolution taking place in the music industry.
This revolution was made possible by new digital technology which no longer required full, reflective, interior-based songwriting as its basis.
Popular songs, right down to older folk traditions, have always needed to have something of an ear worm quality to stick in the memory of listeners.
But post-2000, increasing technological capacity for fragmented sound files layered together haphazardly made it too easy to be preoccupied with creating something merely sonically addictive. The longstanding, normal, human tendency to be drawn to memorable melodies became easy to exploit, and incentives quickly followed.
Lifehouse, with others like Coldplay and Our Lady Peace, seemed to carry forward some of the earlier earnestness which characterized the perennial singer-songwriter tradition, like Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Tracy Chapman, Bruce Cockburn, Jewel, and many others.
While lead singer Jason Wade’s lyrics are not in the vein of more impressionist poetic language some of these tend more toward, they communicate a real and visceral engagement with the human experience, as well as a gentle awareness of life outside of a purely materialist worldview:
Desperate for changing
Starving for truth
I’m closer to where I started
I’m chasing after you
I’m falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I’ve held on to
I’m standing here until you make me move
I’m hanging by a moment here with you
I’m living for the only thing I know
I’m running and not quite sure where to go
And I don’t know what I’m diving into
Just hanging by a moment here with you
I remember hearing that the song was originally written as a worship song, and it seems apparent that the song could easily and perhaps most convincingly be directed toward the divine.
But whether it applies to some conception of God or another person, the main thrust of the song is one of real hope in the midst of an age of despair. Wade expresses the desperation of the human person for more truth and meaning, and the willingness to give everything for something real.
The truth revealed in the words is that some things are simply worth everything we have, regardless of the cost, and regardless of whether we can reasonably predict the whole form of the story arc yet.
In a time when hopelessness and disenchantment was starting to seep into everything, Lifehouse was proclaiming earnestly and without shame that life was worth passionately living.
But as with Coldplay’s “Yellow,” the song isn’t only lyrics. It is the whole experience: the strong but bright, driving guitar with Lifehouse’s characteristic distortion and satisfying, varied drumming, paired with Wade’s intense, masculine voice, and beautiful dynamic contrast throughout, punctuating the themes.
I first heard the song as a little kid, a short while after being heavily affected, in a very different way, by Britney’s “…Baby One More Time.” It was a favorite of mine as soon as I heard it, and stayed a favorite for a long while after. I’ve always been grateful the band found their way into my life via this initial hit song.
It’s a song worth returning to, now decades down, to be instilled again with fresh hope, energy, and a sober but real joie de vivre.
beautyrebuild.com 