The song "I Don't Mind" by Defeater is about the singer's personal experiences with his ex-fiancé. The singer wrote the song after going through a break up where he was drunk all the time. The song tells the story of someone who would do anything for their loved one, including "beg and steal and borrow." The structure of the song follows a typical structure with verses, prechoruses, choruses, and outros. The language is romantic and references the past, present and future. While the lyrics have some sad elements, the song overall makes the listener feel happy.

1. YOUR CHOSEN SONGS
MEANING/DECONSTRUCTING
SONGS
TASK 4

2. WHAT IS THE PLOT OF THE SONG
ABOUT?
The song by melodic hardcore Defeater is called „I Don‟t Mind‟. The singer of
Defeater has said that the song is personal to him. “I wrote that after me and
my ex fiancé broke up and it was in the time of my life when I was drunk
from when I woke up and drunk from the time I went to bed. We were writing
the record and it mirrors my life a lot. I don‟t know, it‟s weird; it‟s tough to talk
about. It is a metaphor, but I feel like an idiot because I‟m dating someone
who I met through the band, like through a mutual friend, we met at a show
and all that stuff had been written and recorded, and I hate having to put her
through the song knowing that I wrote a song about my life in a different
time, when I got dumped by my fiancé. It is personal, but it does tie in with
the storyline.”
My interpretation of the song is that it‟s a guy who is crazy about a girl and
would do anything for her even if that means “beg and steal and borrow” but
it would all be worth it if she was happy.

3. HOW IS MEANING CREATED?
Meaning is created in the song by the use of narrative. The way the story has
structured the song in a past, present and future way which makes us think
that the song is meant for someone who he lovely dearly and wants to spend
the rest of his life with. Things which makes me think that this song is about
someone he loves a lot is the name of the song as it is called „I Don‟t Mind‟
which kind of gives the impression that this song is about putting others
before yourself. The genre of music this song fits into is melodic hardcore
which is meant to be meaningful and also tends to be very passionate which is
where the melodic part of it comes in to the name so this song needs to fit
into this passionate style so it fits into it‟s genre of music.

4. STRUCTURE OF THE SONG
The structure of the song does fit into conventions. Usually song structure is
set out like:
Intro-Verse-Prechorus-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Middleeight-Chorus-Chorus-Outro
This song does fit into the regular structure of a song. The chorus is
recognisable because it is repeated throughout the song at the right time but
also there is use of verses, intros and outros in the song. The chorus for this
song is “And I don't mind, if we take our time. 'Cause I'm all yours, if you're
all mine.” The catchy guitar intro and outro are the same as well giving the
song a start and an end.

5. LANGUAGE OF THE SONG
The language of the song is very romantic and has references to past, present
and future in it. This suggests time and progression in the song. The song is
formal and doesn‟t have sexual references throughout it but also it doesn‟t
have swear words in it which keeps the cute themes in the song. The song also
doesn‟t have any rhyming couplets in it. The song is written in first person
giving it a more personal meaning to either the singer who wrote the song or
to you the person who is listening to the song.

6. HOW DOES THE SONG MAKE YOU
FEEL?
For me personally the song makes me feel happy. The song has sad elements
in it though but I believe that it‟s because the tone of the song and they way
the singer sings it. The song seems to have happy imaginary at the beginning
with the “In the first time that I saw you. You cleaned the mess from my
head” this is part has quite sweet and cute imaginary but then at the end when
the song goes “I will beg and steal and borrow to keep you safe your whole
life” this has connotations of sadness and struggling which is emphasised by
the tone and emotion in his voice as it goes quite low as he says this verse.
The guitar playing also emphasises this as the guitar gets lower sounding and
slower.