Here's the thing (I'm sorry!
), if you're experiencing something through a cheese filter, then no matter what comes through it is gonna have a taste of cheesiness. It's a perspective to feel that SDV is kinda 'cheesy'. Maybe the whole thing isn't, but a couple of lyrics
might come across that way. "I'll never be open again" might be quite an emotional line, it might be powerful. But not necessarily to everyone. I think the line is cheesy because it sounds like emotional hypocrisy to me as opposed to the sincerity that it's supposed to represent. I don't think anyone could ever say that line with sincerity. It seems to me that offence is easily taken at the notion that something someone appreciates is being dismissed or disregarded by others, and the justification is summarised quite poorly (ala,
cheese is a very subjective and probably insufficient word to describe what's really going on). Simply put though, if someone feels this way about the song, then it relates to the fact that they're not connecting with it. Furthermore, to assume they don't understand why they're using the word, is to invalidate
their experience and point of view. Besides, as stated, there's good cheese too!
It makes me think, the thought of whether you feel something to be cheesy (god I hope I stop saying that word soon
), is related to your experience. And it's somewhat of a knee jerk reaction, you don't analyse every aspect of why you felt that way, you just did. So, you didn't connect with the ideas, perhaps you've already been through the experience before and it's become a cliché to
you because you've 'been there, experienced that' kinda deal. It shouldn't take away from anything that someone else feels from the song though.
I love, Far From Heaven, Beneath The Surface, Along For The Ride, Wither, Forsaken, The Ministry Of Lost Souls, of the more recent ballads of sorts if you will, or examples of DT holding back and presenting a more mellow piece, and as much as I like these songs, admittedly they probably have some of the cheese factor DEPENDING ON YOUR PERSPECTIVE, or interpretation of your own experience. (Let's consider that Space Dye Vest is in the same category for a moment). I personally find SDV to have more
cheesy elements, (not feeling the sincerity of the emotional ideas being expressed) than any of the above songs. But that's not to say that people won't find plenty of lines in these songs that could be interpreted and experienced quite differently. Eg. "And the darkness turned to pain, and never went away" That's a fairly powerful line isn't it? Quite effective? I guess the part that turns it to cheese, is the "never went away" part, because.. I'm sure that's not true. And it certainly wouldn't be as impactful to say; "The Darkness turned to pain, and eventually went away". It's weird because it isn't/wasn't cheesy if you feel the emotional impact of the line, but if you've experienced if before or something similar, it's not going to have the same impact, and might end up getting filtered through the cheese tube.
So, just trying to consider ways of understanding what it could mean, how many mainstream songs that you hear on the radio do you think are cheesy? Most of them? In fact, I'm guessing a lot of us are very dismissive of certain music because we don't connect to it, or it's familiar in a way that doesn't interest us, but you better bet that someone will think something quite differently. The proof is in the popularity of these pieces, someone is enjoying it on a certain level clearly.
And
really trying to understand where the term even came from, think about it, cheese takes time to develop and take form, in it's original form it's not even cheese, it's something else. The first cliché lines weren't clichés until they became relative truth to someone or a group of people, based on stereotypes and points of view. It's inevitable under certain conditions, the cheese will grow, although whether it becomes a classic vintage, or just leave a bitter taste in your mouth, only time will tell.
Anyway.. I'm trying to grasp and pinpoint something that is so abstract that I can only try and express how
I might personally interpret it, and probably still fail to express myself sufficiently, so my understanding could never encompass the full spectrum of what it might mean to different people.