Bedroom Community represents the transfem community in a similar way to Yoshi’s Island. The name of this song, Bedroom Community, could refer to an online community that the main character is a part of, a community of trans teens who hide away in their bedrooms online, where they feel like they can be themselves under digital personas. The song goes in depth in different ways, such as her relationship with her father, who is both unsupportive and extremely religious, going as far as believing that “Satan waits upstairs, watching over his daughter”. The daughter is going through a whole emo phase, struggling to express her femininity and writing sad songs as the only way she knows how to express her feelings.
This song also seems to connect to other songs by Glass Beach, specifically “yoshi’s island” and “glass beach and blood rivers”. The repeated verse in yoshi’s island, “run yourself out of words to say you’re hopelessly lonely”, could be a reference to the songs written by the main character of this song. bedroom community includes the verses, “melancholia can spread like a virus, I know you got it from that stupid girl”, which is a line spoken by the father to his daughter. This part of the song seems out of place, as there’s no specific “girl” referenced anywhere else in the song, but it starts to make sense if you consider it in the context of “glass beach and blood rivers”, which centers around two genderqueer characters and their storied relationship. These three songs tell the story of one trans girl’s life and her relationships with her parents and lifelong best friend.
Song links:
Full song lyrics:
Here it is again, a heart of excitement
in the form of a girl who hates her life
as she sits alone on the floor of her bedroom
waiting for answers, wasting time
Here it is again, the son of a soldier
Remington shotgun, rolled up sleeves
to keep Satan out of the walls of the suburbs
His last bastion of modernity
But Satan waits upstairs, watching over his daughter
She writes emo songs, she’s so depressed
Her lyrics are naive but she still sings her heart out
The only way she knows how to confess
And as she gets up to shut the bedroom door behind her,
he stands right beside her, she’s trying to get her head on straight
With box dye hair to match her black thigh highs
and scratched nail polish, she performs femininity
She laughs so hard, I watch her lose her balance
fall over backwards to the arms of Mephistopheles
but she’ll never leave her bedroom in this bedroom community
He said you’ll never be okay, ‘kay, if you don’t come to your senses
With you everything’s the end of the world
Melancholia can spread like a virus
I’m sure you got it from that stupid girl
You’ll never be okay, if you don’t come to your senses
but I feel so defenseless, so alone
I thought he was right when he said that he loved me
He’s still thinking of me from up there
And as they stop to look at her they won’t look further
Like it’s not a murder, it’s an inevitable tragedy
The bloody hands of all the heartless fuckers
who emotionally fucked her to monetize her suffering
Flipping through a spiral notebook for some
sad, hopeless words to turn into a liturgy
So she’ll never leave her bedroom in this bedroom community
Da-na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no
No, no, no, no-no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no-no, no, no, no
No, we’ll never leave our bedrooms
We’re a bedroom community!
Ba-da-da-da, da-da-da
Here it is again, a heart of excitement
in the form of a girl who hates her life
as she sits alone on the floor of her bedroom
waiting for answers, wasting time
Sidenotes:
A demo version titled “bedroom community demo 11” can be found on the internet, which is a little different than the released version. Some parts of the tune and some lyrics are slightly different, but it’s not too far off the later version, and is really just as good.
ne Member Notes:
I love this song so much!! I think it’s tied with Yoshi’s Island as my favorite song, it represents the trans experience in ways and words that, like Yoshi’s Island, WILL legit just make me cry a bit if I’m in a vulnerable mood. Like the lyric “but I feel so defenseless, so alone”, OH boy yeah that one hurts sometimes, I love this song
-Sylvie <3
Sorry to anyone who uses Amazon Music and wanted a link. I gave up on finding it because not only am I not familiar with the site, but for some reason the pages are only coming up in Spanish. I’ll add the link when I can ><
-Win!