Matt Healy Chocolate Language Analysis

The 1975’s synth-pop indie tune Chocolate is a warning. What exactly could it be warning and who is that warning aimed at? Although it may not be clear, the song warns teens of rebellion; it warns of the dangers of rebelling against the social norms. After closely analyzing the lyrics, the listener can conclude that the song contains many examples of ethos, pathos and logos. Within the lyrics, examples of ethos are extremely prominent. The song is written in the viewpoint of teenagers who rebel against the norms of their small town; a topic the writer, Matt Healy of The 1975, has much experience with. Along with the ethos that Matt Healy holds, pathos also makes itself well known within the lyrics. As the listener plays the songs and sings
“Chocolate” was written by Matt Healy when he was nineteen. He used his own personal experience to connect to the audience. The song was written from a teenager’s point of view and is aimed at that same age group. The hook from the first verse, “Now we run run away from the boys in the blue, oh my car smells like chocolate. Hey now think about what to do, think about what to say, think about how to think. Pause it play it, pause it play it, pause it,” accurately describes Matt’s credibility because this was a personal experience. The line explains how the police go after a group of teens who have just bought drugs in the hope of rebelling. The police in this particular small town would target youth simply because they believed they were up to no good. These actions led to rebellion of the youth within that town. The overall meaning of the song states just this, rebelling and revolting against the authority figures by turning to drugs and
Ethos juxtaposed with pathos further explains Matt’s frustration with authority and his way of handling the police. The line, “yeah we're dressed in black, head to toe, guns hidden under our petticoats,” describes exactly how Matt feels about authority figures within his town. This line is simple to understand, black is a rebellious color. When a youth is dressed in black, authority and elderly figures may think of them differently, the exact idea Matt wanted to convey. He wanted the listener to understand that one of the main reasons this particular group of youths were targeted was simply because they looked suspicious, although they were in fact up to suspicious activity, their dress alone put a large target on their backs. The second part of the line states exactly how the teens feel about the police, as stated by Matt Healy, the idea of the petticoat “is a metaphor for our relationships with authority in our town, I supposed the petticoat was kinda of synonymous with the idea of the upper middle class, the guns hidden under our petticoats is a metaphor for the way the police perceived the upper middle class youth in our town, kinda of a bit overbearing because they were a bit