On October 27th of 2019, JP Saxe and Julia Michaels released a song called "If the World Was Ending" that was weirdly put out right before the Covid-19 pandemic struck in America. Due to its timing, conspiracies began to surface that the song had been a prediction about Covid-19, but in a Billboard interview, JP Saxe explained that the song actually had to do with the history-making earthquakes that had struck Los Angeles in July of 2019. This is certainly something that makes a lot more sense judging by how the song lyrics go "when the earthquake happened," and not "when the pandemic happened." Even so, the setting of the song isn't so much about the earthquakes as it is about a hypothetical situation in which a travesty has forced the world to a halt. The song still coincides with Covid-19, but just through a different kind of travesty. The point of the song is to propose a question: "If the world was ending, you'd come over right?" In other words, if there was a catastrophe, would all of the things that killed a relationship still apply?
Lyrically, the song clearly brings us the male and female perspectives. JP Saxe first sings about being "distracted" and in "traffic." Obviously, "traffic" could mean that the male speaker is literally in "traffic," though it could also mean that he is focusing on other things. Either way, both actions are circumstances in which a man could get very "distracted" as men tend to try to go about their lives normally to forget about their breakups and pain, often unsuccessfully. This numbness is also reasonable justification for the male speaker to not "feel it when the earthquake happened." Julia Michaels then sings in the female perspective, trying to "imagine" the male speaker's reaction to the earthquake, considering the emotional impact that it may have had on him. As previously stated, it was nothing. This is a clear distinction between men and women. Women tend to dwell on things a little bit more and voice their emotions, whereas men tend to have a more (at least outer) nonchalant, keep-it-moving kind of attitude. The line "It didn't scare me when the earthquake happened," then seems to be a huge indication of numbness and (for lack of a better term) depression, especially coming from a woman. The depression on both sides show that this is not a relationship that ended because of emotional reasons, but because of "contingences" (contingencies) (Barthes 69). In Barthes' A Lover's Discourse, he uses this as the term for the setbacks of a relationship that seem to happen because of fate. You could also extract the fact that the relationship ended because of "continginces" from the line "I know, you know, we know we weren't meant for each other." All this to say that it is a relationship that seems to have ended quietly and unfinished. The song is a form of wishful thinking between two exes, suggesting that if a catastrophe were to occur, the depression of a breakup ending because of "contingences" would reveal itself, hopefully resulting in the continuation of the relationship. But would a catastrophe really achieve this result?
Look no further than Ashe and Finneas' "Till Forever Falls Apart," which is also about the effects that a catastrophe would have on a relationship ended because of "contingences." The difference? It was released on April 7th of 2021 and made in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic. Coincidentally, the song is also a duet between a man and a woman with separated verses for each, but there doesn't seem to be any differing perspectives. It seems as though both speakers are on the same page. The verses are noticeably briefer than in "If the World Was Ending" with both speakers emphasizing the same points in different ways: That there is no control over the situation at hand, and that if things really go south, they didn't live life with any regrets knowing that they had found the love of each other. In interviews, Ashe and Finneas talk about how the love in "Till Forever Falls Apart" is about a friendship, expanding and making the idea set out by "If the World Was Ending" more relatable for a broader audience. The song also answers the question posed by "If the World Was Ending"—Would a catastrophe really achieve the continuation of a relationship ended by "contingences"? The answer is no. "Till Forever Falls Apart" is a song about acceptance. You get this feeling in the choice of the calming acoustic guitar over the depressing piano melody in "If the World Was Ending." Also, the song is forcefully, sometimes awkwardly, placed in the past tense. For instance, "If the tide takes California, I'm so glad I got to hold ya'" Ashe (the writer of the song) clearly wants it to be known that the song is not about a current love, but the thankfulness for a past one.
If these songs and the pandemic taught us anything about past relationships, it was not to dwell on what was lost, but to be thankful for what was had. Coincidentally, this was the same type of thing that a lot of people developed during the pandemic about a lot of things, though this idea seemingly left like another trend. At least when nobody had any control, we pretended to believe this. Nowadays, the pandemic feels like it was just a fever dream. Gone with the illness.
Citation:
Barthes, Roland. A Lover's Discourse. Hill and Wang. 2010.
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