1982-Tears for Fears, a British New Wave band releases “Mad World” as their third single becoming their first hit on the United Kingdom singles chart.
2009-Adam Lambert sings “Mad World” as one of one of the finalists on American Idol.
It’s amazing to think that after twenty-one years after its original release “Mad World” would become a hit and even more mind-boggling that “Mad World” would help propel an American Idol contestants to become the runner-up and one of most popular American Idols contestants.
“Mad World” by Tears for Fears on initial listening is an unremarkable song. Its synthesized New Wave instrumentation instantly make the song sound dated. The driving tempo and pulsing drums sounds like s a dance club song, however if you listen past the “blips and bloops” and focus on the lyrics an emotional rawness is revealed.
The lyrics of “Mad World” express a bleak world view. The song opens observing “familiar faces” that are “going nowhere.” In reaction to this the singers is crying wanting to “drown my sorrow.” The chorus bring us deeper into the thoughts of the protagonist contemplating how he feels about his own depression.
And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I ever had
I find it hard to tell you ‘cause I find it hard to take
When people run in circles, it’s a very, very . . . mad world.
The idea that people are running in circles without meaning feels like insanity to the singer. The contemplating of dying engenders a feeling of humor and sadness, which evokes a sense of madness in the main character. The singer rather die than live life aimlessly. It is kind of funny and kind of sad to conclude that death is the only way to make sense out of the insanity of life.
Some lyrics are ambiguous enough in their meaning that imagining different interpretations is no problem. Even though the words in “Mad World” don’t seem to leave a lot open for interpretation different performer have found different meaning in this song.
Tears for Fears with their faster tempo and synthesized sounds has paranoid feel. The jagged instrumental lines have a feeling of insanity. Here there is a man sitting in an apartment in a futuristic distopia frustrated, angry and scared not so much of the world but what his emotions are doing to himself.
Michael Andrews and Gary Jules interpretation of “Mad World” is similar to Johnny Cash’s cover of Nine Inch Nails’“Hurt.” The slower tempo and simpler background instruments expresses a feeling of solitude and quiet contemplation. Instead of anger, there is a feeling of letting go and giving up. It just doesn’t make sense. Shivering, tired and close to tears, he no longer has anything left.
Adam Lambert takes the arrangement of Andrews and Jules and adds the anger and bitterness from the Tears for Fears version. The purity of Lambert’s voice against the lyrics expresses a feeling of disappointment, an innocence lost. Here is a man in conflict struggling with the world around him near the point of giving up.
There is one more interpretation to consider that bring forth the soul of "Mad World." In 2006, in front of a choir and full orchestra, Curt Smith from Tears for Fears performed “Mad World.”
What instantly hits the ear is the sonic world that it revels to us that this song is not so much about the individual but the “mad world.”
Every interpretation is a different reaction to the same world. Within the constructs of the song there is universality in the meaning of this song, the idea that we all at some time see the world as being insane. These different performances remind us that we all react to the world in our own unique way. They challenges us to examine ourselves and questions whether what we find inside is kind of funny or kind of sad.
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