'CONTINUMM' Process of 'Waiting On the World to Change'

©Aware, Columbia, Sony Record labels

So, a strange incident is happening with me since last few days. Basically I'm having a glitch in my matrix (according to Dark's language) because everything, I'm listening to or reading, is leading me to the song 'Waiting on the World to Change' by John Mayer, one of my most favorite musicians. 

   

            John Mayer released this song on 2006 as a part of the'CONTINUUM' album, though later a limited-edition ep, consisting of this song and a cover of this song by Ben Harper, was launched. After that a decade passed but the song is still so much significant today throughout the world. He basically reflected the crisis the young generation faces when they talk about the change they want to make and no one pays any heed to their proposition.

John, who is mainly known for his superhuman guitar skills, is also a great lyrics writer. This Berklee alumni is very conscious about the message he wants to deliver through his lyrics as he addressed this issue during his talk on 'Berklee Clinic'(you can check it out here). Drummer and producer Steve Jordan and bassist Pino Palladino also accompanied him on this track by playing their instruments.

                      In this song, John started the first verse stating the world's nonchalant attitude towards the changes he and his friends want to make for turning the world a better place. But, this disbelief of the old generation makes the young generation lose their urge to change in spite of seeing continuous process of world's decaying in the hand of power-monger politicians. As a result, they just stay at a distance waiting for their turn. John then tried to uplift their spirit saying that staying out is not a solution because it's quite impossible to beat this unhealthy system by staying at a distance.The figures of young voters turnout in U.S. election in 2004 was lowest than other age groups and it definitely proves the point John wanted to make here.

        The second verse starts with the things that could have been possible if young generation were allowed to make the changes. He stated that if they had the power they would eradicate war and as a result no one would miss the chance of spending their holidays with families. Basically he wanted to say that the young generation emphasizes on peace instead of promoting war unlike most of the current war-monger politicians. Then he talked about the issue of 'Yellow Journalism'. Media and communication is one of the biggest pillars in a democracy. But, now it has become a phenomenon among the political parties throughout the world to use this medium for promoting their own propaganda by manipulating the news. In fact, it's a proven truth how a manipulated news can turn the outcome of an entire election of a country. So, as a responsible citizen John addressed this issue and said that fighting with them would not be fair for the youths. So he just dreamed about the day when his generation would take over the charge of the world.

                                In the music video, we can see that the youth generation just tries to create awareness by using their art forms. Here they are seen to make graffitis, banners, doodles to convey their messages through them. We can read the messages like 'Exploited'(on the graffiti) and 'Wake Up'(on the banner over the city) from the video (check it out here). They were not seemed to engage themselves on any kind of active protests or campaigns which shows that they were just waiting for their turn.

                           In fact, this song is so relevant today because again John is using his social media platforms like other social influencers to encourage the youths for registering to vote for US election 2020 and this proves that this waiting process is not over. Sometimes this waiting appears to be an unending process but we should continue to dream with our broken heart. Humanity is still alive and protests like 'Black Lives Matter' prove that again and again. So, we can hope that our turn is not so much far away.