We're Gonna Party Like It's 2012!

The apocalyptic genre has taken over music in our popular culture. Jay Sean and Nicki Minaj’s song “2012 (It Ain’t the End),” asks that we all “party like it’s the end of the world”. This song address the fear that 2012 will be the year of the apocalypse and attempts to reassure everyone that it will not be the end.

“It ain’t the end of the world. No, I’m not going to follow anything they say anymore. It’s never too late to start living so lets start it with here, right now… You know it doesn’t matter, as long as we got each other.”

            In the above quotation from the song, Jay Sean tries to put everyone at ease by suggesting the idea of the world ending in 2012 is some fabrication that “they” created, and encourages everyone to live life to the fullest without fearing the unknown.  In my opinion, Jay Sean is taking the biblical approach of the end of days coming “like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). It will be completely unexpected, so we should “start living” and make the most of our time here since it could happen at any time, even tomorrow. He encourages everyone to go out and celebrate like it is our last night instead of being fearful of the end. However, I did find it funny that Jay Sean himself is a bit fearful: “You know it doesn’t matter, as long as we got each other” implying he is even unsure of his fate, and just incase “they” are right, he will at least be surrounded by those he loves.

            Another song in the apocalyptic genre but touches the Christian apocalypse in particular, is Coldplay’s “’Til Kingdom Come”. The song was originally written for a special event and was to be performed by Coldplay and Johnny Cash, but Cash had unfortunately passed away before the event was finalized. The song is a hidden track on Coldplay’s album, X&Y and in Rolling Stones magazine Chris Martin of Coldplay explained that he got the idea of this song from the Lord’s Prayer. The song is definitely a Christian one, and some even believe the song is about one’s relationship with Christ. I believe it is simply a song about eternal love. What do you think?