Gym Class Heroes Featuring Ryan Tedder: “The Fighter” (2012)
Evan Peng
Everyone has an inner fighter, but what if “Half the population’s just waitin[g] to see me
fail”? People don’t want me to succeed. Now what? I think I’m just going to give up. No. I’m going
to press on. I will retaliate and say “Yeah right, you’re better off trying to freeze hell.” What if I fell?
I would just stand back up and dust my clothes off. So naturally I should do the same if I get
discouraged, for “Every time [I]… fall it’s only making [my]… chin strong.”
If I don’t give up, people might even think well of me. The road to getting there might
“Give me… scars [and]… give me… pain.” Is it worth it then? I’ll just say: It’ll sure feel good when
they “say to me…This one’s a fighter.” If I give up right away, nothing is going to happen in my
favor, so why not try, right? Even if something doesn’t go my way, “What [are] we [going to]… do
kid?” And really, my situation cannot be the worst in the world, and “[I] really [don’t have]… it
bad.”
Now two things about the song itself, and not the message. First, this song has beautiful
vocals that help get its points across, and it features Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic. The tone of
his voice implies happiness. The song uses a drum beat at the beginning rap, and is very upbeat
throughout the song. Second, this song is unbelievably empowering. At first, when I listened to it, I
didn’t listen to the lyrics much (mostly because I couldn’t understand it). But once I got the lyrics
online, I saw how this song actually had meaning to it. So that is one way this song is excellent:
having a moral. Another is the moral itself, which is it’s going to be okay. If others knock me over,
just stand right back up. Especially at my age, dealing with fitting in, school, relationships, and
maybe bullying, sometimes I just want to give up and give in. I sometimes stress for assessments and
so this song would really help people who just feel like they want to stop trying, with extremes going
to stop dealing with their entire life. I just feel as if more people who have done or does what this
song wants people to do, then this world would be a much better place. I’m also a fighter. Being a
fighter helps me now in life by still taking singing class even when they said I wasn’t so good. “There
goes the fighter”!
"The Fighter Lyrics." MetroLyrics. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. <http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-fighterlyrics-gym-class-heroes.html>.1
McCoy, Travie, et al. "The Fighter (featuring Ryan Tedder)." The Paper Cut
Chronicles II. Rec. 2011. Fueled By Ramen, 2012. MP3 file.