8 Songs with Insects in the Titles

8 Songs with Insects in the Titles

Mainstream music has a wide range of subject matter, from love to heartbreak to family to living life in general. Similes and metaphors abound in the lyrics in order to convey the experiences of the narrator in the most artistic way possible. A popular genre of these metaphors is insects, typically as a stand-in for the narrator’s emotions and circumstances, or even as an actual insect. Let’s take a look at some popular songs, some with the same titles, that feature insects in a more flattering way than real life. 

Black Widow – Iggy Azalea featuring Rita Ora

Insect Stereotypes: being attached to a mate to a dangerous degree

This 2014 hit captures the essence of the dangerous spider in a couple of ways. The most obvious is in the lyrics, but the other is the intense, bordering-on-creepy melody in the background of the chorus. This song is from the perspective of a woman in a relationship where she is more emotionally attached to the man than he is to her. The relationship starts off great, but then fizzles out in a one-sided way. He wants to leave, but she is so attached to him, that the lyrics hint at her intent to go down a darker path in order to keep him for herself. She goes so far as to say that since he messed with her emotions, she will love him like the infamous arachnid in the song. 

The feelings of a female black widow are unknown, so we can’t speak to how “in love” they are with their mates. But there has been a stereotype for years that the female kills the male immediately after mating. This isn’t always true, since the male will often just leave. But they definitely aren’t the most loving or connected pests, so maybe there is some truth to this pop song and its dark undertones.

Fireflies – Owl City

Insect Stereotypes: “dancing” around; giving a wondrous feeling to witnesses; being kept in a jar

This is another case where the insect is acting as a metaphor, but the whole song leaves it up to interpretation on whether or not they actually exist in the narrator’s life. The narrator is awake in the middle of the night and experiences some sort of dream that leaves him sad in its absence. The fireflies act as a metaphor for these dreams (or memories) and how they capture the attention and imagination of the speaker. He goes from watching the dreams/fireflies dance around and being ravaged by his racing mind to saying goodbye to them, except for the few that he keeps in his room. He leaves the song feeling wistful and nostalgic for the things that kept him company throughout the night when sleep was evading him and his racing mind. 

Real fireflies typically don’t like to spend time indoors, since they usually spend time in fields and meadows. But they do seem to do a sort of dance as they fly around, with their bodies lighting the way. The bioluminescence, the ability to naturally glow or produce light, makes these insects fascinating to look at and almost produces a sense of wonder at how something so small can produce such a noticeable, appealing light. Many movies and children’s books depict fireflies being caught in a jar with holes in the lid by a curious child, so the speaker keeping some in his room to remember them by is not out of the ordinary. It might not be the best idea to catch every insect you find, but as long as they can breathe and have a source of food and water, it might be okay to occasionally keep these fascinating insects in your home.

Fly on the Wall – Miley Cyrus

Insect Stereotypes: being unnoticed in the background; staying on a wall for safety and scouting

This classic 2000s pop song comes from the time when Miley was making slightly edgier pop music separate from her Disney persona that skyrocketed her to fame. “Fly on the Wall” became a hit with a popular music video that gave away the true meaning of the song. Although it has the name of a common pest in the title, this song is about being bothered by a different kind of pest entirely: the paparazzi. The narrator taunts the paparazzi with all of the areas of her private life that they will never know, and how they probably desperately wish they could be a fly on the wall of her life. It seems like we know everything about celebrities, often way more than we ever wanted to in the first place, but there is more to a person than what is splashed on the cover of a magazine or social media site.

Real flies definitely like to be on the walls of our homes when they get inside, but they usually make more noise than this stereotype says. The buzzing of a large fly is completely noticeable in a quiet home, so it’s not like they can hang around forever to listen in on our conversations and annoy us. But assuming that the fly can stay quiet, they could stay on the wall for hours and observe life around them. This is what the common saying is conveying; if people could be a fly on the wall of people’s homes, they would learn so much more than normal since they could fade into the background and just take in the information. 

Butterflies – Kacey Musgraves

Insect Stereotypes: getting caught in a spiderweb; flying freely; coming out of the cocoon

The classic saying that initial romantic attraction gives a fluttery feeling in the stomach of the smitten person is at the heart of this song. The narrator describes how she was just going through life, not tied down to any kind of real relationship, until she met this new love interest that makes her feel all kinds of excitable things for this new adventure. She felt stuck with the old interest, likening it to being stuck in a web, and now feels renewed with this new love. She feels uplifted by this fresh relationship and now understands the happiness of a life lived with a respectful, loving partner who gives her metaphorical wings.

Butterflies in real life seem weightless and free of any worries that would weigh down their beautiful wings. They fly from flower to flower, since they’re helpful pollinators, and let the breeze guide them to where they’re going. But they do get caught in spiderwebs from time to time, making their wings a possible negative. They don’t have any defense mechanisms, which means that they are rendered helpless if they get caught up in a web. Similarly, the narrator in this song describes the feeling of her old relationship as being caught up in a web and stuck in life. But the new relationship makes her feel like she is renewed and coming out of a chrysalis. Butterflies are famous for beginning as caterpillars and emerging from the metamorphosis stages as a beautiful creature. Since this is the feeling that she has with this new love, it can be concluded that she is in a good place in life and finally has the love that makes her feel alive again.

Fireflies – Faith Hill

Insect Stereotypes: being caught in a jar; being fascinating to watch

We have our first repeat song title! This country song has a different take on fireflies, and uses the actual insects to tell the story. The first pre-chorus depicts the narrator as a child capturing fireflies in an empty jar and poking holes in the top, true to the stereotype. She would pretend they were fairies instead of fireflies, which is how she observed everything in life. Everything was very magical and seen through rose-tinted glasses, thanks to the classic childhood innocence and fascination with romance that she has. The song seems to be the narrator as an adult talking to her current love, and describing how she used to believe in all of the typical fairytale elements, including fireflies which have their own kind of real-life magic. The narrator still believes in love, inspired by the stability of fireflies amidst the rest of the childhood wonder that unfortunately dissipates over time.

 This song uses fireflies in a similar way to the Owl City song from earlier. The fireflies act partly as a metaphor for dreams and wonder, but this song also uses them literally. The image of a child capturing the lightning bugs in a jar makes a return here, which is the typical use of fireflies in a song or movie. Fireflies use their lights to attract mates and signal to one another, so there is a romance aspect there that is definitely present in the song.

Ticks – Brad Paisley

Insect Stereotypes: being hard to find and remove; found in fields

This is a humorous song that uses ticks and their annoying ability to latch onto us for a romantic purpose. It is a clever song that doesn’t take itself too seriously, giving a larger focus to the ticks and the double entendres that they represent. The narrator spends the song trying to spend time with a woman in the wildflower fields, and uses the excuse at the end of the chorus that he wants to check her for ticks. It’s unclear if the woman ever takes him up on this offer, since the song ends with the narrator explaining the tick situation again. While this probably isn’t the best line to start with when asking someone out, it is a funny song that makes light of a typically annoying and potentially scary insect. 

The narrator certainly knows his stuff with ticks, since they are found in fields with tall grasses and flowers. Ticks are not the type of pest to invade your home and get in your food, but they are the type to latch onto you and not let go until they get their fill of warm blood (gross!). It is important to be careful in tall grass, unlike the plans of this swooning narrator, since ticks love to hide there and wait for an unsuspecting mammal to pass through. Not every tick carries diseases like Lyme disease, but it is a possibility. This is why it’s a good idea to have someone check you for ticks after being outside for a while – maybe not in the way the song means – so that you don’t bring them inside.

Honey Bee – Blake Shelton

Insect Stereotypes: drawn to flowers; friendly type of insect 

Another love song, this tune uses the back-and-forth method of the narrator trying to convey his romantic feelings for his love using only metaphors. One of these, which also serves as the hook for the song, is that she can be the honeysuckle that he, as the honey bee, is attracted to. The verses serve as the narrator’s explanation for why he is professing his love in a laundry list of metaphors that have a country-theme to them, and how the woman essentially swept him off his feet. Although the honey bee is a small part of the song, it is important since it’s the actual song title. 

Honey bees are drawn to many types of flowers, so that is definitely an accurate part of the song. They follow the scent to the flower and gather the pollen or nectar in order to feed their colony and gather materials to help them produce the honey that we love. Honeysuckle is a major attractor for bees due to the sweet smell that they emit. They are mostly attracted to flowers with sweet, floral smells and bright colors. Honey bees are also one of the more friendly insects, since they won’t bother or sting us unless we get way too close to them or their home. In terms of romantic metaphors, this is an oddly sweet way to profess your love for someone, but if it works….

Fly on the Wall – Thousand Foot Krutch

Insect Stereotypes: staying in the background when possible; eyes that can see anything

Our second repeat song title has similar meanings to the first mention, but this one has more religious undertones. This song could be broken down to the classic saying “united we stand, divided we fall.” The dark reality that the narrator describes is fully divided and turned away from truth, but he wonders if he would be able to accept everything and love everyone if he could be a fly on the wall and witness everyone’s real problems. Similar to Miley’s song from earlier, this one also wonders about the implications of a person being a fly on the wall and watching everything transpire beyond them, giving them more information and insight than they ever had before.

Flies like to stay in the background and away from humans when possible, despite the amount of times we’ve swatted them away, which gives them plenty of opportunities to witness many types of interactions and conversations. A fly’s eyes can see so many areas at once since they are compound eyes, meaning that they are made of thousands of lenses. This means that a fly on the wall would not only hear everything, but would likely see everything as well. So a fly on the wall would likely be the best spy ever, which makes the classic saying an actually relatively accurate stereotype. 

Pest Control is in Tune

While the insects in these songs are presented in a more interesting light than real life, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t pests in real life. Our pest control team has the training and expertise to tackle any pest problem. These songs are entertaining, but the real life pests aren’t welcome in our homes and lives like these melodies. 

Citations

Azalea, I. & Ora, R. (2014). “Black widow.” Genius. Retrieved on April 18, 2022, from https://genius.com/Iggy-azalea-black-widow-lyrics 

Owl City. (2009). “Fireflies.” Genius. Retrieved on April 18, 2022, from https://genius.com/Owl-city-fireflies-lyrics 

Cyrus, M. (2008). “Fly on the wall.” Genius. Retrieved on April 18, 2022, from https://genius.com/Miley-cyrus-fly-on-the-wall-lyrics 

Musgraves, K. (2018). “Butterflies.” Genius. Retrieved on April 18, 2022, from https://genius.com/Kacey-musgraves-butterflies-lyrics 

Hill, F. (2005) “Fireflies.” Genius. Retrieved on April 18, 2022, from https://genius.com/Faith-hill-fireflies-lyrics 

Paisley, B. (2007). “Ticks.” Genius. Retrieved on April 18, 2022, from https://genius.com/Brad-paisley-ticks-lyrics 

Shelton, B. (2011). “Honey bee.” Genius. Retrieved on April 18, 2022, from https://genius.com/Blake-shelton-honey-bee-lyrics 

Thousand Foot Krutch. (2012). “Fly on the wall.” Genius. Retrieved on April 18, 2022, from https://genius.com/Thousand-foot-krutch-fly-on-the-wall-lyrics