Kellin Quinn - "If You Can't Hang" lyrics

Christina Colatriano 9/25/15 Pd 1-2 Song an*lysis Sleeping With Sirens "If You Can't Hang" The song "If You Can't Hang" is a song produced by Sleeping With Sirens about being stabbed in the back by your partners over and over. One of the ways Kellin hooks the audience by using connections and conflicts that almost everyone can relate to. This song was released in 2011 in the album "Let's Cheer To This". It is a very emotional song that can connect to its audience on many levels. Kellin Quinn is the lead singer who does an amazing job at performing this song on all occasions. He is known for his ability to go from extremely low notes to very high notes fast and efficiently Throughout the lyrics Kellin uses negative word choice to not only bring out the emotion in the song but to describe what happened and how he feels about the situation. An example of this is in stanza one when he says "she turned out to be a cheat"(Quinn,para1). The word cheat in this sentence means to be unfaithful. It ties into the theme because it shows the negativity in the girlfriends personality. Another example of the authors negative diction is in stanza two when it says "I hope he takes your filthy heart"(Quinn,para2). In this case the word filthy means to be selfish and dirty. It is used to describe the girlfriends reality and personality as it really is. If the artist didn't use this specific word choice then the audience wouldn't understand what the personality of the girlfriend is like Sleeping With Sirens uses a great deal of literary techniques in their music like hyperbole and metaphors. For example, in the chorus it says "If you can't hang then there's the door"(Quinn,para3). This means that if his girlfriend isn't faithful or happy then she can leave because he's not stopping her. In this lyric the words "if you can't hang" are used metaphorically because the girlfriend isn't literally hanging. In the way that this is used it means to be devoted. It also says in the chorus "Your such a pretty pretty pretty pretty face but you turned into a pretty big waste of my time"(Quinn,para4). This means that just because someone is beautiful on the outside doesn't mean that they are beautiful on the inside as well. Juxtaposition is used because both sides of the girlfriends personality are featured side by side. One side being beautiful and flawless while the other is ugly and backstabbing. In stanza two it says "I hope he takes your filthy heart and then he throws you away someday"(Quinn,para2). This means that Kellin wants Mr.Right to unravel her selfish ways and get rid of her to break her heart. One can infer that he wants this because he feels as if she deserves a taste of her own medicine. This line really stands out because it does an amazing job at showing emotion and how heartbroken this lost soul actually is. It also makes the audience question if the real motive behind this song is revenge