“Beam me up”: The Instagram account that inspired Wet Leg’s biggest hit
They don’t write love songs like they used to, do they? Well, maybe not, but at the same time, love doesn’t exist in the same way it used to. You can’t swipe for someone on Tinder and expect ‘God Only Knows’ by The Beach Boys to come out of it. “God only knows what I’d be without you?” Well, you’d probably still be swiping on Tinder.
They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but thanks to modern technology, we never need to be away from our loved ones, no matter the physical distance between us. We can talk all day, constantly speak to one another, and even if you’re on the other side of the world, we can still feel somewhat close. Maybe it’s the lack of absence that has caused the quality of love songs to plateau?
The lack of absence doesn’t just get in the way of writing great love songs, but it also means that some people are unwilling to let a relationship end when it has already reached its breaking point. People are able to contact their exes easily, and when they’re struggling to deal with a breakup, they continue trying to speak in a bid to keep elements of that relationship alive. This is what happened to Wet Leg’s Rhian Teasdale and led to her writing one of the band’s greatest songs.
If you’re ever looking for a good dance, look no further than Wet Leg’s ‘Wet Dream’. The bounciness of that song, the repetitive hook used for some of the lyrics and the all-around fun feel to it make for one of the most exciting songs to listen to at a festival, or a night out or just generally when you feel like you need a pick-me-up. However, when you move past the sound of the song, the lyrics by Teasdale are actually about a tricky break-up where her ex-partner refused to stop messaging her even after they had broken up.
“It’s got a little bit of my own personal breakup injected into it,” she said, “This particular person would message me since we’d broken up being like ‘Oh, I had a dream about you. I dreamt that we were married’, even though it was definitely over. So I guess that’s why I decided to set it within a dream: It was kind of making fun of this particular message that would keep coming through to me.”
Her ex wasn’t the only inspiration for the song, though, as she also took some lyrics inspired by the Instagram account “Beam_me_up_softboi,” which shares cringeworthy messages people have received over dating apps. Classics on the Instagram account include lines such as “Nice ass! Sorry about the mental illness,” and “As if you know about Berghain omg… Are you into techno?”
In the song, Teasdale essentially compares her ex to one of the “softbois” portrayed on this Instagram account, and she gives it a nod with the line “Beam me up, count me in.” So, does technology get in the way of modern love songs? Maybe. However, in lieu of them, we get some great break-up songs, such as this one written by Wet Leg.
