And apparently that movie spawned a song that was just as popular, so popular that it cracked the Top Ten of the Hot 100 last week? Well, that's something I just simply can't ignore.
Okay, let's be real here: it's impossible to ignore this song. Everywhere you look, people are singing "Let it Go", whether it's former Disney characters, horribly exploited children, or goddamn Minecraft parodies of all things. But why? Why is everybody so abuzz about this song? Well, let's take a look. This is Idina Menzel.
Before Frozen, she had a career as a wildly successful Broadway performer, most notably winning Tony awards for Rent and Wicked. But she never really made it big on the pop charts, except for the occasional Glee song (ugh, Glee). Enter Frozen, a movie so monumentally powerful with a song just as powerful, striking fear into the hearts of men and pride into the hearts of women!
...Or so I'm told. I haven't seen it yet.
Yep, this analysis will be coming from a guy who has little to no context for this song. I'm sure there are better sources than me for this one, but I'll do the best I can. Bear with me.
Okay, so I do know that Frozen is the first Disney movie directed by a woman. Apparently, it's the tale of two sisters and there's a snowman, and there's no real villains, and you can't marry a man you just met, and... look, I'm doing the best I can with the material I have.
*sigh* This is not going to be easy. Well, maybe I should just watch a random scene from the movie to get the gist of it.
...
Watching random clips is not the best way to get the gist of something.
Okay, let's start over. "Let it Go" is a song about being yourself. About "letting go" of your inhibitions and letting your true self out to shine. Say, isn't there a long-marginalized group of people to whom this song could easily apply?
No, it's not flags... oh yeah, gay people.
Yes, the song has been widely adopted as a gay anthem, which makes sense. It does have some relatable lines:
Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know
I don’t care
What they’re going to say
Let the storm rage on,
The cold never bothered me anyway
I’m never going back,
The past is in the past
Vaguely relatable, but relatable. Of course, because society hasn't progressed as much as we'd like to think, this made some controversy surrounding the movie rise. Oh, no! Can't let the gays have their own song! Then they might think that they're scoailly acceptable! Can't have that!
It's sickening that people still think like this, but anyway, back to the song. I never really understood the song or its hype until I really looked at the lyrics like this. Now I can definitely see why it's Oscar-worthy and Billboard-worthy alike. We need more songs like "Let it Go". Pushing the envelope in clever ways to make people angry, but also make them uncertain as to what they're really angry about. Makes me laugh. But seriously, good song. Really good song. If you don't like it, well... just let it go.
No, of course I'm not the first one to use that joke.
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