Waiting on the World to Change — John Mayer
Waiting on the World to Change released in 2006 in the album “Continuum” is one of John Mayer’s most popular songs. Not only is the music itself beautiful but the lyrics and the music video are both works of art as well. John Mayer uses his music to portray a message like most of his songs.
I believe that John Mayer is singing about the youth of today and about the problems that they are frequently faced with. Much of the younger people of today feel powerless against the political leaders of this world and feel like they don’t have a say in anything. They are “waiting on the world to change” because one day they will rule the world and they will have enough influence to change things and have a positive impact, but until then they just have to wait. They see the problems that arise on a day to day basis but don’t have the means of fixing them. John Mayer writes “It’s hard to beat the system when you’re standing at a distance” meaning that the youth of today are the outsiders of society and are essentially watching from the sidelines without any means of fixing or changing anything. Another thing that John Mayer talks about in this song is the problem with the media of today. The media picks and chooses what is displayed on the TV and on the radio so essentially they are sheltering people from reality and portraying news and stories in a bias way. This is dangerous because the media has an effect on everyone and can portray messages that are completely misleading. He essentially is saying that we can’t be too quick to believe everything that the media says because manipulate and change the information to make it say exactly what they want. There are so many problems with society that the youth of today have no control over and I believe that John Mayer did a great job of portraying some of the main issues.
Lyrics
Me and all my friends
We’re all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There’s no way we ever could
Now we see everything that’s going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don’t have the means
To rise above and beat it
So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
It’s hard to beat the system
When we’re standing at a distance
So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want
That’s why we’re waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
It’s not that we don’t care
We just know that the fight ain’t fair
So we keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
And we’re still waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population
So we keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
No we keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change
