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Sherlyn Ramos-Chazari

Mr. Dayton

AP English Language and Composition

06/01/2023

The meaning behind Doo-Woops & Hooligans

The songs on Bruno Mars' album called Doo-Woops & Hooligans are mostly about his past relationships

with women. They are romantic songs that describe someone or something. True to its title, "Doo-Wops

& Hooligans" departs from the standard pop album and instead examines a smooth, soulful viewpoint on

contemporary music. Bruno Mars claims that he came up with the pop-rap song's hook last year while out

and about in London and slowly realizing how broke he was. Mars said about the album title, "I have

records that women are going to relate to and men are going to relate to. So doo-wops are for the girls,

and hooligans are for the guys.

The common theme is romantic for the Album Doo- Woops & Hooligans. “Just the Way You Are'' is a

song that talks about how he is describing a girl and how perfect she is. He also says “When I see your

face There's not a thing that I would change ' 'cause you're amazing”. He is telling her that he would not

want to change anything about her because she's perfect and amazing. He is just complimenting her on

everything and that she should not change anything. The literary devices I found are Repetition: “Oh, her

eyes, her eyes”, and “Her hair, her hair”. “Somewhere in Brooklyn'' tells the story of a man who met a

woman while waiting for a train. The boy and the girl struck up a great conversation, and he began to fall

in love with her. However, before he could ask the girl what her name was, he was already taken with her

beauty. He desperately attempts to find the girl of his dreams after losing her, but all he knows is that she

is in Brooklyn. “She's, somewhere, somewhere, somewhere in Brooklyn'' He was just saying that she was

somewhere out there in Brooklyn. He would search everywhere for her asking people if they knew her

and then at the end of the day he went back to the train station to see if she'd be there. Some literary
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devices I found were Repetition: “Somewhere, somewhere, somewhere in Brooklyn '', Ecphonesis:

“Ohhhhhhh! Ohhhhhhh!”.

The second common theme is Heartbreak. Bruno Mars' Grenade song talks about How Bruno did all these

crazy things for his girlfriend but she wouldn’t do the same. For example, He would catch a grenade for

her, hence the song title. He would die for her, throw a blade for her, jump in front of a train, and even do

anything for her. But she wouldn’t do anything for Bruno even if his body was on fire. Bruno explained

his past relationship with the girl and how he was trying so hard to keep this as a relationship but this girl

wouldn’t. The literary devices that I found were Repetition: “No, no, no, no”, “Black, black, black and

blue”, Alliteration: “Had your eyes wide open Why were they open?”, “Take, take, take it all”. Another

Song that is about Heartbreak is Runaway Baby. The song is basically about saying that he's a player and

telling a girl to run away before he breaks her heart. This song is not about his heartbreak but about other

people's heartbreak that he might do to them. “Run, run, run away, run away, baby Before I put my spell

on you,” he says this because girls probably fall in love with him quickly so he is telling them to run away

or else he will break their hearts. The literary device that can be found in Repetition: “Run, run, run away,

run away, baby”.

The other side addresses how it might be challenging to let go of our old habits or ways of thinking, but

that it is eventually necessary if we want to advance. The lyrics "It's better if you don't understand" might

be implying that he didn't want her to try drugs since then she wouldn't know what it was like. When he

sings words like "all you gotta do is cross the line" later in the song, it appears like he is pleading with her

to try drugs. The literary devices that can be found are: “You're as straight as they come”, Repetition: “It's

better if you don't understand, It's better if you don't understand, It's better if you don't understand” Liquor

Store Blues talks about A dissatisfied young man who relies on his meager earnings from work to pay his

bills. It is so tiny that it cannot even cover his housing. He then decides to try his luck at gambling, while

also attempting to drink and ignore his woes and pains, in the hopes of eventually reaching a place where

he won't have to worry about anything. He is attempting to drink and forget his pains and sorrows, and if
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possible, reaches a point where he won't have to worry about anything, when he says, "One shot for my

pain, one drug for my sorrow." “One shot for my pain, One drag for my sorrow”.

They talk about problems, heartbreaks, and romance. This album was about the stories and Bruno Mars'

life stories. This can affect people listening to this album because they know the backstory. They may

visualize the music when hearing it. Every song on this album has a backstory and may feel the music

more.
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Work Cited

Hinton, Andrea. “Review: Bruno Mars’ ‘Doo-Wops & Hooligans.’” The Stanford Daily, 15 Oct.

2010, stanforddaily.com/2010/10/15/review-bruno-mars-doo-wops-hooligans/.

Lipshutz, Jason. “Bruno Mars Steps into Spotlight on ‘Doo-Wops & Hooligans.’” Billboard, 4 Oct.

2013,

www.billboard.com/music/music-news/bruno-mars-steps-into-spotlight-on-doo-wops-hooligans-95

5458/.