So there’s this song by Bruno Mars — It Will Rain. It tells the story of a guy who feels like he can’t live without the girl he loves — the love of his life, or so he says. If you really listen to the lyrics, you can feel how desperately Bruno Mars needs her, how deeply he adores her. Which is kind of lame… I know.
Anyway, apart from the drama, the song actually uses a lot of modals. Now, don’t get confused — this isn’t the kind of models who get paid to wear clothes, and it’s definitely not the kind of morals where you talk about values or ethics.
The modals I’m talking about are words like should, could, and would — and other words related to them. In Bruno Mars’ song, there are plenty of modals that strongly express his feelings for the love of his life.
Our lovely lecturer gave us a fun task: to replace the modals in the song with different ones and see how it changes the lyrics. And surprisingly, when you swap them out, the entire mood, setting, and storyline of the song completely change. It’s amazing how powerful just a few words can be!
The cool thing is, you can try this with other songs too — for example, We Will Rock You by Queen, How Could I Live Without You by Celine Dion, and many more.
So remember: just because a singer gets all dramatic with their song doesn’t mean you have to get caught up in it too. Change the modals, change the mood — and who knows, you might just feel better after!
