A distinct, if uninspired bass line, repeating piano chords, and a 20 second long intro are the way one of the most popular songs in the world begins. When the lead singer’s voice begins to cry into the microphone, there is an almost barked quality to the performance, though the voice is nasally, and high pitched. But it is an opening line that cuts across regions, countries, language barriers, and time. Just try it some time. If you drop a dime (realistically, a dollar) into a jukebox (or more likely, swipe your credit card through a digital rock-o-la at some club/lounge), and the din of conversation is too loud for people to pick up on the quiet, brooding intro, as soon as the vocals begin, everyone will be on the same page. The song does not even need to be sung. Speaking the lyrics results in a parroting back of the completion of the line. As soon as it strikes it’s hum through the bar:
“JUST A SMALL TOWN GIRL…”
Instantly, the vast majority of the bar’s denizens will instinctively cut off conversation to call back “LIVIN’ IN A LONELY WORLD!” Most everyone knows every lyric to this song. In fact, the only thing harder to find than a person under 40 who doesn’t know “Don’t Stop Believin’” is someone under 40 who legitimately doesn’t like “Don’t Stop Believin’” – when is the last time the song was brought up, and someone made a point to express their hatred for it?
The question remains, though: Why? Why is “Don’t Stop Believin’” so damned popular? Is it because it is a lyrically or musically superior song? (No) Or because it has that quality that keeps songs as popular as they day they were released? (No) Or is it because Journey is a wildly popular band (no) whose best song is remembered by a vast majority of fans, and the children of those fans? (No.) Then, I ask you: why did “Don’t Stop Believin’” become so popular? Is it even popular? Or, is it “popular” in the post-modern teenage ironic sense, where it’s popularity is directly connected to open mockery?
Don’t Stop Believin’ was released on Journey’s album “Escape” in 1981. It was the 3rd single off of the album, and it hit number 9 on the US Billboard charts. Journey’s first major single, “Any Way You Want It” was featured in the film Caddyshack, charted at number 23 in the US, and the band had begun to catch on by this point (Any Way You Want It was released on the previous album, “Departure”). In 1981, “Don’t Stop Believin’” was a successful single. It was not, however, the most successful single from the “Escape” album up until that point (that distinction goes to “Who’s Crying Now?” which charted at number 4), or even the most successful song released after “Who’s Crying Now?”, that distinction goes to “Open Arms” – the band’s most successful song on the charts, having been a number 2 song for them. In England, “Don’t Stop Believin’” was less successful: it peaked at number 62 on the charts, and faded away. The song, however, has resurged in England. Other songs that re-enter the charts do so because they were covered, such as “Hurt” – reached #8 on the Modern Rock charts and #54 on the Hot 100 chart for Nine Inch Nails, and then reached #33 on the Modern Rock charts and #1 on the Country Charts for the folk rendition done by Johnny Cash; a song can also re-enter because of political reasons, such as Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”, which was a hit in 1981 (#7 on the Country Charts), and reached number 16 on both the Country and Hot 100 Charts in 2001 after the 9/11 terror attacks. But Don’t Stop Believin’ isn’t a cover, and it isn’t propelled forth by some sense of jingoistic grief. It re-entered the charts without a larger rationale for its resurgence.
Many diehard fans consider songs that are not the artist’s most chart successful song to be their greatest work. Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run (Charted 23) and Thunder Road (Never released) charted much lower than Hungry Heart (Charted 5). Some artists disagree with their fans over their greatest songs. The aforementioned Springsteen did not include any work from his first two albums on his 1995 Greatest Hits album, nor did he include Incident on 57th Street (long considered one of his top songs) on his “Essentials” collection. One of Billy Joel’s most popular songs, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”, long considered his masterpiece, was not included on the LP release of his 1985 double Greatest Hits collection, but was included on the CD release. Don’t Stop Believin’s lack of initial chart success may not have been indicative of the true fans’ opinion of the band.
The band may not even have many true diehard fans. Steve Perry is no longer the lead singer. The band mostly plays revival shows, though it has recorded and released new material, nothing of which has charted in the US since 1996, and only serve as de facto intermissions while casual fans run to use the bathroom or get a beer from the concession stand. Steve Perry was openly mocked in the Trey Parker/Matt Stone movie “BASEketball”, as being one of the “psych-outs”. It’s safe to say that Journey is not popular so much as they are “popular.” The song is by far more popular than the band. So it can’t be that so many Journey fans name “Don’t Stop Believin’” as their favorite band’s favorite song.
The song has not met its revival solely because of true Journey fanatics. In fact, fans of “Don’t Stop Believin’” are not necessarily fans of Journey. Many of them cannot name other songs by Journey, or think “Oh, Sherry” is a song that Journey recorded (Perry recorded it solo). More popular charting songs, like “Open Arms”, “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)”, have largely been forgotten, save for that ironic “popularity.” “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” has gained a YouTube following for it’s ridiculous video in which the band plays air instruments interspersed with images of the band playing real instruments, while they chase down an elusive woman who looks like a flock of seagulls groupie. Seriously. “Open Arms” has come to be seen as a syrupy pop ballad love song; mocked because of Perry’s jarring falsetto performance, and the notoriously bad lyrics. Don’t Stop Believin’, however, lives on, stronger than ever.
The song itself is not a treasure trove of glorious pop or rock m,usic writing, both musically and lyrically. The song is an arena anthem along the lines of “We Will Rock You”, “Friends in Low Places” and “Born in the USA” – something that the band would turn the lights on for, and let the crowds sing back to them. However, the opening chords are soft, and repetitive. They don’t have the snare drum riffs exploding in the listener’s ears like mortar shells of “Born in the USA”, the friendly thump-thump-clap join-in beat of “We Will Rock You”, or the three second guitar strum followed by the famous line in “Friends in Low Places”. Journey has a slow building and simplistic rise to Steve Perry’s eventual shriek. It’s a basic bass line, with a simple piano melody that does not cut above the sounds of a noisy pub, let alone a raucous stadium. While most could probably identify the piano/bass intro, the song could just as easily begin with Perry’s “Just a small town girl” line, with a quick drum beat or guitar slowly plucking as the crowd sings back “livin’ in a lonely world!” The song does not rely on a traditional format, either, of verse, chorus, verse, chorus verse (or bridge) chorus. Rather, it’s actually a bit hazy as to what the chorus of “Don’t Stop Believin’” is. Is the “Strangers, waitin’/up and down the boulevard/their shadows searchin’ in the night/Streetlights; people/Livin’ just to find emotion/hidin’ somewhere in the night” part the chorus? It is repeated in the song. Or, is the “Don’t stop believin’/hold on to that feelin’/streetlights, people/Don’t Stop Believin’” portion the chorus?
The lyrics themselves are not anything particularly special. There is no discernable plot to the song, which is fine. There are characters introduced – the singer in the smoky room, the small town girl, the city boy. Unnamed strangers, people who frequent the swath of light underneath a streetlight. However, it is important to note that none of these characters are fleshed out, or called back upon if they have any depth or identity to them at all. The first verse boils down to the following: a girl, she’s alone. She wants to go anywhere but here, and it’s late at night. There’s a boy, he’s from the city, south Detroit (there actually kind of isn’t a south Detroit – the southern side of Detroit butts up against the Detroit River. Realistically, South Detroit is Windsor, Ontario) to be exact. He also wants to go anywhere but here, and it is still late at night. The song later mentions singers who probably won’t make it, strangers who are just searching, and living to find emotion that is hiding somewhere in the night. Some will find it, some won’t, some were born to sing the blues (?!). They assure us, this movie – this nightlife – that some call an existence, it never ends. It will go on. The search will continue for emotion, or to go anywhere but here. There is nothing significant about these lyrics. There isn’t anything particularly bad about the lyrics, either. It’s a pop-rock song. The song ends on the possible chorus – and fades off as those who listen to it presumably refuse to quit believing that they can find the emotion in the night, rushing out into the streets to continue the search. The song has optimism, anyway.
Is “Don’t Stop Believin’” even genuinely popular? Or is it ironically “popular” – only successful because it is coolly uncool? Could it be that people like it because of the falsetto, because of the goofy lyrics, the simplicity of the music, and its reputation as a song that is okay to like despite it’s lack of cool? Simply, no. People genuinely LIKE “Don’t Stop Believin’”. It is the top downloaded song released prior to the advent of digital downloads, according to Neilsen SoundScan. It has resurged to number 6 in England. The song has been gaining in popularity over the years, gathering steam on television, as well as in karaoke bars, with sports teams, and in the iTunes store.
It was also featured in an episode of the third season of Scrubs, wherein the main character (JD) implores his best friend (Turk) to hire a Journey cover band to play Turk’s wedding. When Turk gently rebukes him, and claims that no one loves Journey that much, JD agrees, trying to distance himself from the band. However, when Turk calmly states, “Just a small town girl.” JD parrots back “Livin’ in a lonely world!” The band’s version plays over the final scenes, as two other characters, Eliot (the small-town girl) and Sean (her boyfriend, and apparent city boy) take the midnight train to each other.
The Chicago White Sox, in the midst of their run to the postseason, adopted the song as an anthem. The White Sox had not won the World Series since 1917, and was imploring the fans to keep the faith. They won the fall classic that October.
The Sopranos producer/creator, David Chase, personally asked Steve Perry for permission to place it over the final 4 minutes of the series (Perry very seriously demanded to see the episode – he did not wish for the song to be remembered as the muzak while Tony Soprano was murdered – a request which was granted) in 2007.
This all culminated in 2009. The Fox musical dramedy “Glee” anchored its’ pilot episode with “Don’t Stop Believin’” because of it’s genuine connection to the audience, and the way the song has become a pop culture phenomenon in recent years. Don’t Stop Believin’ is now back. It hit it’s peak in the UK, and on the worldwide digital downloads chart in 2010. Bars across the country routinely play it as the final song of the night, turning on the lights and opening the doors.
We’ve proven that Don’t Stop Believin’ was not initially the craze it is today. We’ve taken a look at it’s lyrics and composition, which are uninspired if not lacking. We’ve discussed it in the pantheon of other Journey songs, all of which have mostly faded away, and discussed it’s popularity in relation to the band itself. Suffice to say, I’m not satisfied wit any of the answers. Why the hell is this song so damned popular? There are facebook groups dedicated to it, where teens and pre-teens join in droves, despite the fact that they are anywhere from 10-18 years younger than the song itself. There are meta-facebook groups, where they don’t even overtly discuss loving the song, but rather loving “hearing ‘Just a small-town girl’ and immediately screaming ‘LIVING IN A LONELY WORLD!’”
Certainly the media attention has brought this popular song from a forgettable, if not unpopular band back into the consciousness of the consumers. But could it be that Journey’s unendingly optimistic lyrics that have reignited its popularity? Maybe you see the song as a big metaphor – emotion in the night is a good time – having fun, drinking with friends, feeling the flow of the crowd (this could be the reason bars play it as they close – the party doesn’t end, it just ends here!), and you don’t want to see an end to this great movie – it just goes on and on and on. Those strangers, waiting up and down the boulevard? They are just like you, and they want to have a good time like you. Whatever your connection, there is only one message to remember – you cannot, you must not, you WILL NOT stop believing. The feeling you feel when you are screaming the lyrics to this song in a club, pub, karaoke bar, concert hall, stadium, or wherever, that tingly feeling that you’re a part of something incredibly special, even as it happens hundreds of times every night throughout the world, keeps you feeling that sense of camaraderie.
To be sure, the lyrics are noticeably banal and non-specific to be overly inclusive. If you are someone, somewhere, a boy, a girl, from a small town, from a city, who lives for emotion, who’ll pay anything to roll the dice, a winner, a loser, a blues singer – you have a place in “Don’t Stop Believin’”. The song asks nothing of you. You need to be yourself; you need to do what makes you happy (maybe the emotion you find isn’t in a bar – the song doesn’t say it has to be); and you need to keep the faith. You need to believe. It doesn’t even tell you what you need to believe in. You just need to believe, and not stop. Like the midnight trains, metaphorical or otherwise from the opening verse, you just need to get on board with the song, and let it take you away. It’s that simple.
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