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Price tag (Jessie J) (UK)
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A song by British singer Jessie J, featuring American rapper B.o.B. made to critisize today's materialism.

You can listen to a great cover of this song with comments and explanations: Price Tag (cover) by Conor Maynard.

Okay, Coconut man, Moon Heads and P.
You ready?

Seems like everybody's got a price
I wonder how they sleep at night
When the sale comes first
And the truth comes second
Just stop, for a minute and
Smile

Why is everybody so serious
Acting so damn mysterious
Got your shades on your eyes
And your heels so high
That you can't even have a good time

Everybody look
to their left (yeah)
Everybody look to their right (ha)
Can you feel that (yeah)
We're paying with love tonight

It's not about the money, money, money
We don't need your money, money, money
We just wanna make the world dance
Forget about the Price Tag
Ain't about the (uh) Cha-Ching Cha-Ching
Ain't about the (yeah) Ba-Bling Ba-Bling
Wanna make the world dance
Forget about the Price Tag

Okay!
We need to take it back in time
When music made us all unite
And it wasn't low blows and video hoes
Am I the only one getting tired
Why is everybody so obsessed
Money can't buy us happiness
Can we all slow down and enjoy right now
Guarantee we'll be feeling Alright

Everybody look to their left
Everybody look to their right
Can you feel that (yeah)
We're paying with love tonight

It's not about the money, money, money
We don't need your money, money, money
We just wanna make the world dance
Forget about the Price Tag
Ain't about the (uh) Cha-Ching Cha-Ching
Ain't about the (yeah) Ba-Bling Ba-Bling
Wanna make the world dance
Forget about the Price Tag

Yeah yeah
Well, keep the price tag
And take the cash back
Just give me six strings and a half stack
And you can keep the cars
Leave me the garage
And all I..
Yes all I need are keys and guitars
And its with in 30 seconds I'm leaving to Mars
Yeah we leaping across these undefeatable odds
Its like this man, you can't put a price on the life
We do this for the love so we fight and sacrifice everynight
So we ain't gon stumble and fall never
Waiting to see this in the sign of defeat uh uh
So we gon keep everyone moving their feet
So bring back the beat and then everyone sing

It's not about the money, money, money
We don't need your money, money, money
We just wanna make the world dance
Forget about the Price Tag

Ain't about the (uh) Cha-Ching Cha-Ching
Ain't about the (yeah) Ba-Bling Ba-Bling
Wanna make the world dance
Forget about the Price Tag

It's not about the money, money, money
We don't need your money, money, money
We just wanna make the world dance
Forget about the Price Tag

Ain't about the (uh) Cha-Ching Cha-Ching
Ain't about the (yeah) Ba-Bling Ba-Bling
Wanna make the world dance
Forget about the Price Tag

Yeah, yeah
Oo-oooh
Forget about the price tag

DAMN= An emphatic word (sometimes a bit rude but not here). Here it is giving emphasis to the word "mysterious".

GOT= You have got.

SHADES= (slang) Sunglasses.

HEELS= Shoe heels, design to make you look taller (see picture)

EVERYBODY LOOK= This is an imperative form (otherwise, if it were a present tense it should be "everybody looks"). When the subject is "somebody/someone" we use the plural forms "them, they, their, themself" but with a singular meaning to avoid "he" or "she" because "everybody" can be used for male, female or both:
- Everybody look to their left
- If you see anybody there, tell them to come.
- Someone is talking to themself in that room or is it the TV?


WANNA= (coll.) Want to.

PRICE TAG= A little tag attached to something to show its price (see picture).

AIN'T= (coll.) The negative form of the verb to be or to have:
- It ain't expensive = It's not expensive
- You ain't no doctor = You aren't a doctor
- I ain't go no money, man= I don't have any money

CHA-CHING= The sound that a cash register makes when its drawer is closed after money has been put inside. Used in conversation to indicate that the person being spoken about is going to or already has made quite a profit at little expense.

BA-BLING= (slang) "Bling" is flashy expensive jewelry and "ba-bling" is a reference to showing off expensive possessions (also "bling-bling").

LOW BLOWS= An unscrupulous attack; an insult.
This metaphor comes from boxing, where a low blow is an illegal blow that lands below the opponent's waist.

VIDEO HOES= Girls who have sex with Casting directors to get jobs and money. (singular: video ho).

The lyrics here are kind of simple and straightforward: money isn't everything. It's all against modern materialism, when everything and everybody has a price and the more you have the more you are worth. The song says that money is not the measure of everything, in fact, it is the measure of nothing (forget about cha-ching and about ba-bling = making money and showing off your possessions is not important). The important things are loving and enjoying life.

Now, if we see the video you'll find that there is a deeper meaning under the surface. This song is against the materialism of modern life alright, but more specifically against the materialism which is dominating the music industry today. Music used to be all about having fun and making people have fun, but now it is simply an industry to make money. Singers will do anything to get famous and also they look so sophisticated and trained and "professional" that we can seriously doubt they're having any fun at all. Against all this, the singer suggests we should go back to the good old times when everything was just about having fun, not about the money.

The only problem is that to succeed in the music industry, as she says, you must comply to their wishes, you must become a puppet, a marionette in their hands (as the video shows), and that's what Jessie J went through, becoming in the process exactly the same typical product she's criticizing.

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