For those of you not familiar with Clay Aiken, he's a singer who got his start on American Idol. I don't know if he's gotten much exposure outside of the country, and I missed hearing anything about him for a long time because I don't watch the show.

Since leaving the show, though, he's started a successful career in the music industry. I've only heard one of his songs, and it's time on the playlists has, for the most part, already come and gone.

I did happen to recently catch a rerun of Saturday Night Live, though, in which he appeared and sang that song. The song has bothered me since I first heard it. I'd pretty much forgotten about it, but when I heard it on SNL, the old questions came back to mind. So, I decided to post here and see what sort of answers I could get.

The song is called "Invisible," and you can find the lyrics here.

For the purposes of this post, I'll quote the chorus, which is repeated fairly often and, really, is the part that bothers me the most.

Quote
If I was invisible
Then I could just watch you in your room
If I was invincible
I'd make you mine tonight
If hearts were unbreakable
Then I could just tell you where I stand
I would be the smartest man
If I was invisible
(Wait..I already am)
Now, to some degree, this seems to echo Clark's feelings in "I'm Looking Through You." To a larger degree, though, I find it fairly disturbing.

Read it through and think about it for a while. It seems to me that what he's saying is:

If I could get away with it, I'd spy on you in your private domain. If I had the power, even though we don't have any kind of relationship at this point, I'd take you right now. If I had any courage, I'd ask you out or at least come talk to you and offer some compliments. Instead, though, I'm just going to watch you from afar and obsess about you, because, for some reason, even though I haven't told you I'm interested, you don't seem to be noticing me.

Now, if that doesn't say "creepy stalker" at the very least, I don't know what does.

Yet, somehow, he's popular, this is one of his most popular songs, and most of his fans seem to be women. I just don't understand it.

Can anyone explain it to me?

Paul

When in doubt, think about penguins. It probably won't help, but at least it'll be fun.