Loved You First

“Because I've been waiting
All this time to finally say it
But now I see your heart's been taken
And nothing could be worse.
Baby, I loved you first.
Had my chances,
Could have been where he is standing.
That's what hurts the most.
Girl, I came so close
But now you'll never know,
Baby, I loved you first.”

Loved You First – One Direction

Five good looking young British boys crooning about a female makes for typical boy band behaviour. I shamelessly have both One Direction albums and I can vouch that every song on it is about a girl. Much like their predecessors Backstreet Boys and *Nsync, these 1D boys thrive, and let’s be honest, survive, by taking turns to sing lyrics about girls they saw / loved / lost.

But, as I typically do with most music, I saw beyond this simplistic idea. Of all the songs on both One Direction albums Loved You First stood out for me. The concept of this song is nothing new; you meet someone you take fancy to but before you can tell them you love them they slip away. 

As a society we have developed more than what could have been imaginable say, fifty years ago. We have seen the first African American be elected President of the United States. In New Zealand we now allow gay and lesbian couples to get married. And technology advances must go well beyond what our grandparents must have thought: we can communicate in an instance without having to see the other person and we can not only travel across our wonderful world, but we have the ability to send people into space. We have developed immunisation against diseases which once wiped out hundreds of people. We have the fastest runners in history, and never before have we seen our athletes jump so high and throw so far. Yes, if we take an overarching look at our society we have it pretty good.

And yet, we struggle to tell someone we love them.

It seems while we are developing our technology and socio status we haven’t managed to develop our emotional side. It is hard to tell other people our feelings as we still fear rejection and failure. We put more trust into technology and infrastructure and medicine then we put into our own feelings. It’s a bit ironic really, because without love and the special someone half our advances would be redundant. There are obviously people who have risked their feelings as happy marriage photos constantly pop up on Facebook feeds, but I can’t help but feel if boy bands are still singing about lost love then it is a problem. I just question this: amidst all our other developments and achievements will we ever be able to move past our own emotional restraints?