Mia Wild
Gwen emphasises throughout the whole song that time is ticking, as per the “tick tock tick tock”. This reiterates that simply sitting around and doing nothing is going to merely result in poor performance, perhaps you could even perceive this as someone who has not set a goal correctly and does not know how to accomplish the steps needed to fulfil that goal. Time is ticking. You will not achieve a goal if you are lazy. Put in the work, damnit! Goals improve persistence. Persistence requires effort. The lyric “like an echo pedal you’re repeating yourself, you know it all why are you standing in one place” pushes this concept further because the steps taken to achieve a goal is overlooked and not particularly thought about. So we keep setting unrealistic goals and expecting ourselves to achieve them. We know a goal is unachievable if we don’t know how to achieve it. Finally, the lyric “you got your million dollar contract, and they’re all waiting for your hot track”, is perhaps another way of saying that the extrinsic motivation (like the tangible award of money) is simply a motivator for working hard, which is an expectation that certainly comes with a higher salary. Overall the song puts emphasis on motivation, particularly persistence and intensity.
Madi Stocker
"What a family/What a time gone by/How did the years go by?/Now it's only me" Gwen Stefani sings in her song "What You Waiting For?" These lyrics relate to a particularly predatory aspect of organisational psychology - the framing of the workplace, and one's colleagues as a "family". According to a study conducted by Harvard Business Review (When Work Feels Like Family, Employees Keep Quiet About Wrongdoing (hbr.org), countless workplaces employ this tactic to make an employee feel obliged to stay with the company. Such an environment can even pressure employees to keep quiet about their colleagues' wrongdoing. This can make employees feel trapped in the same job, unable to break out of the cycle ("What a time gone by/How did the years go by?"). Yet when Stefani sings "What you waiting for?/Take a chance!" she encourages employees to pursue a new job and a new opportunity. The music video contrasts between Stefani's colourful fantasy world and the dull, uninspiring environment she is trapped in. When Stefani sings about taking a chance and trying something new, her clothing and environment is vivid and exciting. Yet when the bubble bursts, Stefani is reminded of how dire her real circumstances are. The "Writer's Block" poster relates to her lack of creativity as a result of her job. The woman at the end of the video who knocks on the door and says "I've got your bill!" references the responsibilities of the real world. By contrasting her current situation (uninspiring, money-focused, deprived of new opportunities) with her possible future (exciting, inspiring, focused on creativity), Stefani is showing how important it is to take a chance. Break out of the boring job which you feel trapped in and go for a new opportunity.
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