Connor Ellis

AP Language Final Project

5/31/19

Ms. Boehm

Intertwined: Presenting Romantic Toxicity

Dodie Clark wrote “Intertwined” based on how her mental state at the time would affect a

relationship. The song tells the story of someone who is struggling with anxiety and depression

and how that could and does bring down the relationship to an obsessive, toxic, unhealthy, and

overall miserable state. This is shown through all three mediums the song has with different

ways it is perceived, all of which having undertones that could be used for different meanings as

dodie herself said the meaning of the song is open for interpretation. These mediums also have

varying amounts of subtlety to exaggeration and play into vast amounts of juxtaposition in

between.

The instrumentation of the song is very barebones, consisting mainly of baritone ukulele,

bass, lead vocals and backing vocals. Instantly this leads into our first instance of juxtaposition,

the musical space. The song itself is very happy and warm sounding with both acoustic

instruments being very front and center in the mix but the backing and lead vocals are mixed

with a very prominent reverb1 making them sound distant and further away. This makes the song

feel a bit off-kilter and tense due to its oddity. The vocals themselves are sung very in a very

pretty, soft manner in the beginning verse but over time gets sharper and more expressive around

the middle to end part as the lyrics become darker and more tense with heavy back up vocals

1
Reverb, short for reverberation, is something used in recorded music to normally convey different
spaces.
conveying a surge of emotion at the climax of the song as well as hitting higher registers. The

instrumental tone doesn't really change very often except for a section in the chorus which uses a

secondary dominant2 to add a bit of dissonance to the chord progression. During this chorus the

song also uses a bit of dynamic tempo to give a feel of tension and movement. The song also

emphasises half cadences3 to keep the tension never ending until the very end of the song where

we get our first perfect authentic cadence to signal finality of the feeling though the song.

The musical tonality is just an enhancer of the real feeling put into the song - the lyrics.

The first verse begins by using more space as talked about before and painting a picture of things

commonly found in a loving relationship. The first four lines are very focused on the physical

and cute parts of a relationship but unbeknownst to the listener begins the gross, body based

imagery used in the latter half of the song. The second part of the verse solidifies the relationship

fine at first with the lines “you and I” but then begins the problematic imagery and tone of these

phrases with “safe from the world”, implying a danger to be hidden from. This danger is clarified

and personified in the chorus to be the character’s anxieties but cut short to “I’m afraid the things

in my brain” which also continues the unnerving bodily word choice. The latter half of the

chorus uses imagery of togetherness and uses the metaphor “laughing away the fear” to show

that the significant other is helping with the problems. All of the first half of the song

foreshadows the rest of what the song is about with subtle and weird turns. All of these lyrics are

sung with a very simple melody and lullaby esque vocal tone.

The second verse starts with a gut punch of a line that really kicks the song into

overdrive4. The first two lines clearly counteract the nice cutesy lyrics the song began with.

2
Secondary dominants are used to make the sound of a key change by using the dominant chord of a
different scale.
3
A cadence ending on a dominant chord, giving no resolution.
4
Not literally, the song keeps at basically the same volume. What i mean is the lyrics are more impactful.
“Numb” and “fine” instantly conveys to the listener that something's wrong, even more so with

the way she sings the lyrics; numb sung very cold and dead sounding and fine sounding very

sharp and dismissive. Dodie says herself that the line, “fine” can be taken as a response in a

conversation. It is very likely the response would be to the question “How are you feeling?” The

sharpness of her voice continues with the following line conveying more problems happening

within herself as well as the relationship. The line shows the real state of the character, lacking a

smile a majority of the time; meaning she isn’t happy. The next three lines continue with the

bodily imagery, breathe being an intimate image but that is juxtaposed by and explicit and

unnerving image and choice of words (“drink all my thoughts”) right before the very climax of

the song. The climax technically consists of one line but has the absolute most emotion of the

entire song. The word “can’t” in the line is hit with a very high note giving the notion of a

scream and the addition of the backup vocals with the following “oh-s” conveying crying out as

the wavering mental stability fails and leaves the character in a broken feeling. The last verse

lays out the meaning of the song in a very backward and juxtaposed way which is very in tune

with the rest of the song. “Intertwined. Free.” : the character is only free with the attachment to

the partener. With the context of the rest of the lyrics this single phrase unleashes imagery of

obsession and unhealthy dependency upon the listener. With all of this displayed for the listener

the chorus is sung once again but this time when its sung it’s understood that the character was

never okay, the façade was broken and the chorus is much more dark. The last word of the song

is cleverly placed to leave end on a sour note: “Fear.”

The music video for the song is the most explicit and exaggerated of the mediums. The

video takes a lot of the feeling and imagery of the song and puts it into literal images, even going

as far as literally showing some of the images the lyrics show. The video starts as the song does:
happy, carefree, warm. The colors are bright and accented, the skies are blue, and everything is

perfect. The video uses barbie to convey a “perfection” to everything. The video wastes no time

with the shock elements though, as once the lyric “skin” is sung it cuts to an image of the naked

barbie doll couple in bed. Just a simple jump cut to show this isn’t exactly the most subtle of

imagery. The images continue showing the parts the lines mention properly painting the scene

told by the lyrics. All of which looking perfect and pretty to the eye but nonetheless jarring. With

the first unnerving line the outside gets darker, changing the visual mood. The first horrifying

image is revealed with the brain line showing a barbie with its head cut open and its brain out.

The video uses imagery like this as well as horrifying images consisting of: the barbie shaving its

head with its faced visibly scratched, the ken doll without a face, the ken doll with pins covering

its head, and the couple literally being intertwined as their body parts are swapped onto the same

body. However all of this is beaten by the images of “blood floods” and both barbie dolls and

their house being burnt down, both shocking the watcher and solidifying the feeling of a poor

situation meaning the relationship even existing in the state it's in.

With all the literal imagery within the music video it gives a little bit of angry undertones

and can change the meaning of some lines in the song. "You create a rarity of my genuine

smiles” could be taken as the partner making the character frown. The image of the character

gritting their teeth in anger with the like “Breathe”, stopping them from bursting and telling

themself to breathe. Although it isn’t the real meaning behind the song, anger can be taken from

it most potently with the violent imagery and the barbie burning everything down in the end of

the video. Nonetheless all three mediums bring an unnerving feeling to the song, cementing it

with the themes of toxic relationships and obsession due to dependency.

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Works Cited:

doddleoddle. “Dodie - Intertwined.” YouTube, YouTube, 7 Apr. 2017,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaHrWLCUmfc.

doddlevloggle. “Dodie - Intertwined | My Meaning.” YouTube, YouTube, 12 Apr. 2017,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bfBcuXOCx4.

“Dodie – Intertwined.” Genius, 23 Apr. 2016, genius.com/Dodie-intertwined-lyrics.