Existentialism on Prom Night

I fought with this song time and time again to first figure out what the heck existentialism meant and then figure out what the entire song, title and lyrics, meant together. Here is what I came up with.

Existentialism is concerned with the concepts of self-existence and decision making. In this song, “Existentialism on Prom Night,” it’s underlying meaning is to lay out the fact that decisions need to be made. After prom night, essentially, is when the “party” ends and the next step of your life begins. As the song begins, it depicts a laid-back, lazy image of sleeping in and dreaming. This dream, however, must come to an end just as prom night had to come to an end. Decisions must be made and your “self” must be established. For this reason, the last lines of the song “sing me something soft, sad and delicate, or loud and out of key… sing like you think no one’s listening” are important to hear and grasp. These lines encourage the listener to be their own self, and “sing” as they want to be heard. To sing like you want to, and to live like you want to, is the real message of the song, I believe. The existential challenge here is to become your own person as you want to be seen and as you want to live. The decisions you make and the choices that guide you also guide your existence.