Sia – Elastic Heart lyrics

Shia was the embodiment of thought and reasoning (adulthood) while Maddie was the embodiment of freedom and carefree nature (childhood) all in the mind (cage which can also be formed by society among other factors). The dance i believe was meant to portray that the two cannot always co-exist in harmony. While your mind wants to be free it is still restricted to reasoning, thus they fight.

Your reasoning fights your freedom and carefree nature, trying to tame and control it, but the mind will always long for freedom and thus will never be tamed no matter what angles or whatever methods you use (shia using chains against maddie where she resists and escapes, then he tries to use the gentle approach to which he was bitten). Reasoning will get angry and lashout at this side of you, but you cannot truly hurt or banish your free side no matter how much you want, but your free side can injure your reasoning quite easily but truly wishes not to (notice how many times Maddie kicked him and threw him against the cage, but Shia could barely touch her. His hands are cut and bruised from the countless fights, but Maddie barely has a scratch).

There are then times that reasoning and freedom are harmonious, resulting in bliss. They have truly accepted one another for what they are and are not. They realize they both need each other fundamentally. At this point your freedom will try to pull you into other things, but while your freedom is as it says, free, your reasoning and thought is not. At this point I believe that it was intentional that the cage gaps was indeed big enough for Shia to slip through, but it was all in his head why he couldn't truly leave (the cage). The freedom is there, urging you and tugging you to step outside your cage, showing you the way, but your reasoning is forever trapped in the cage that your mind created (to why tears formed for Shia in the end, he saw the way but he could never leave). Freedom is puzzled and wants to understand why you cant leave but cannot due to her nature. Reasoning wants to understand how freedom can leave but cannot due to his nature. And so it will be an everlasting fight.

The more I watched the video the more I understood why SIA chose those actors to play those roles. The expressions needed to convey those ideas is not something you come across everyday (especially the last scene). It truly is unfortunate that some of us see it as something twisted instead of the piece of art it is supposed to be. The video could have been dumbed down for easier viewing and understanding, but some of its meaning would be lost. I watched the video a couple times to pick up the subtle hints (freedom is not restricted by the cage. She sees the cage, she walks around in it but it never restricts her movement, she rarely even touches it lest for entering and exiting the cage. Reasoning on the other hand interacts with the cage quite frequently. He climbs it, shakes it, punches it to show his interaction with it.)

I find the video very accurately portrays today's world.

While I agree with some of what Katrinarivera said in explanations about the video I saw something a little different in the portrayal by Maddie and Shia, what I saw was Maddie playing the part of Sias untrusting side, the side that feels the need to protect herself, and flee when necessary and Shai playing the part of her that wants and reaches out for love and affection. When the two come together and Maddie gains an understanding of the part of herself she is at war with she tried to bring Shia out of the cage with her, the cage that she discovered she can leave at will, but the Shia aspect cannot leave the cage, much as he longs to. Perhaps both the lyrics and the portrayal of the war within Sia hits a bit close to home for me, Or, as with all expressions of art, we see what we can identify with.

At first I thought they reflected a father-daughter relationship in which the father abandons the daughter and she grows up trusting no man to love. The song sounds to me like a quarrel between lovers who constantly have issues, and the person speaking says that it's not the other person's fault. "You did not break me." But instead love has been a process of losing loved ones thinking they are the one who will stay.

The Elastic Heart depicts a heart that is used to loss and cannot be easily broken, but the current lover is the one that she has opened up to the most, and may be the one to break her despite of what the singer says. The fact that the author uses the words 'break me' and 'elastic heart' demonstrate that there are conflicting emotions and that despite the fact that she says she is elastic she may see herself as broken because she sees love as a conflict 'war' 'weapons' 'trust no one' and something she cannot conquer. The fact that she says her heart is rubber and may snap if you are too close reminds me of a bullet ricochet.

Despite what I feel from the song, I think there might be an underlying dark memory because I felt uneasy after listening to it for a while. Needless to say I loved the video and I don't see anything wrong with it but I did get nightmares after listening to the song for a while.

There are several separate meanings (which I will point out) and a spattering of vague symblism dispersed throughout the song that are intentionally inserted, as many poets and songwriters often do to spice up their verse with an artsy-fartsy nonsense that is supposedly meant to be provocative, but, for me, usually comes off as boring and tedious jibberish... as in this case. To decipher the separate meanings here, one must take heed of why the words were crafted, who wrote them and exactly what they mean in context. First off, the idea for the music video and then the dance choreography came afterward, and although they could provide more clues to what the lyrics mean and should be scanned for some meaning they might have little or no value in conveying the right message (meaning a message that is on point with the intended message conveyed in the lyrics). Because this was written for The Hunger Games. two separate ideas resonate... Katniss is meant as the "speaker" of these lyrics and she is talking to someone. Her main conflict is against the oppressive regime in that antiutopian story. so she could be talking to it (or those in power) when she says "you". However. a secondary conflict in that story is between her and her two potential love interests, so she could be talking to one or both of her would-be lovers. Taking into account how "artistic-fartistic" this Sia is and how little regard she shows for speaking plainly, Katniss could also be speaking to all three and maybe even the audience of that movie as well. One major clue, though, is when she states, "You did not break me... I'm still fighting for peace." which points to her talking to the oppressive regime. Although, in my experience, this concrete clue does not mean the poetic mind of Sia actually stayed on track having Katniss address her evil government throughout this song. It is, unfortunately, more likely that she careened off that track time and time again. Now, with all this in mind, taking into account all the crazy variables, from the provocative nonsensical mind of Sia, to the video producer's imaginative vision, through the costume designer's sense of fashion, the dance choreographer's flare for the dramatic and whacko religious zealots claiming there's a subliminal Satanic message of 'I love Lucifer' being sung to us all, watch that video again very carefully and I think you will come to the same conclusion I came to... It's a hot mess that has less meaning than a mattress tag. Thanks for reading and I'm so happy I could clear this all up for you all. Have a sensible day.

When I first watched it, I was thinking it could be about mental illness. It keeps him trapped, and he slowly goes insane.

My second thought was that it was about Addiction. He tries to get free, then wants it back, etc... a constant battle between the two. And the addiction always lures him back.

However, I agree with some comments here about it being a battle between your carefree side and your reasoning side.

It could be anything, whatever fits with you!