! CONTENT IS NOT ORIGINALLY BY ME !
A compilation of all Panic! At The Disco songs and their meanings based off of Genius.com with a little bit of my editing. FYI, The second album and onwards, is where pictures start to appear, the debut album is j...
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"Time To Dance" is based on the events of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Invisible Monsters . The story centres around three fashion models: Brandy, Evie, and an unnamed narrator. Evie lashes out on her wedding day and shoots Brandy. Brandy then pleads for the narrator to tell her life story.
Brendon Urie and Ryan Ross are big Chuck Palahniuk fans, and many song titles on the album can be traced back to a Palanhiuk novel.
A time to mourn and a time to dance -Ecclesiastes 3:4
This line fits the book and song perfectly. The protagonist is mourning her career, beauty, and later, Brandy's death. But at the same time, she is celebrating her new freedom, being a new person, and her new lifestyle.
Well, she's not bleeding on the ballroom floor
Just for the attention
'Cause that's just ridiculously oddWell, she sure is going to get it
In the novel that inspired this song, Chuck Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters, many of the narrator's actions are a result of her desire to get more attention than her brother.
It is another character, Brandy Alexander, who is bleeding out on the ballroom floor. She was shot at a wedding by Evie, who was the narrator's best friend in modeling school. Brandy asks the narrator to tell her life story, drawing a lot of attention to herself. The rest of the novel tells this story. While she didn't purposely injure herself to get attention, she still received a lot of it.
Here's the setting Fashion magazines line the walls now The walls line the bullet holes
In Invisible Monsters, the main character, who is presumably this song's active voice, and her friends are fashion models. At her friend Evie's wedding, Evie goes on a shooting spree while her mansion catches on fire.
The fact that the "walls line the bullet holes" shows that the bullet holes are what draws eyes to the walls. In addition, the models grow to despise their jobs. These lines suggest that Evie was shooting the magazine covers to liquidate any reminder of the job she detests. This could also be her way of fighting back against societal standards of beauty.
These lines allude to a section of the novel's second chapter, in which the narrator compares the story to fashion magazines to warn the reader of how chaotic and wild the tale is:
What happens here will have more of that fashion magazine feel, a Vogue or a Glamour magazine chaos with page numbers on every second or fifth or third page. Perfume cards falling out, and full-page naked women coming out of nowhere to sell you makeup. (Page 20)
Have some composure And where is your posture? Oh, no, no You're pulling the trigger Pulling the trigger All wrong
This references Evie Cottrell from the book Invisible Monsters. It's her wedding day, and she's supposed to be composed and perfect – but instead she shoots her friend, literally. She thought she was shooting the protagonist, but accidentally shoots Brandy, her transgender sister. Thus, she shoots the wrong person and is pulling the trigger "all wrong."
"Have some composure, where is your posture?" sounds like something that would be said to a model during a photoshoot, which plays on the characters' occupation.
Give me envy, give me malice, give me your attention Give me envy, give me malice, baby, give me a break!
This section references parts of the first chapter in the book, in which the word "FLASH" follows each line. The novel's narrator was a model and is mocking the different poses that would be called out, like "lust," "sympathy," and "adoration." The flashes represent the camera flashes when she was photographed. Panic! even borrows some lines from the book.
Give me lust, baby. Flash. Give me malice. Flash. Give me detached existentialist ennui. Flash. Give me rampant intellectualism as a coping mechanism. Flash. [...] Give me sympathy. Flash. Give me brutal honesty. Flash. [...] Give me attention. Flash. Give me adoration. Flash. Give me a break.
When I say shotgun, you say wedding
Shotgun, wedding, shotgun, wedding
In the book, Evie goes on a shooting spree at her wedding with a rifle. It's quite literally a "shotgun wedding." The expression shotgun wedding, though, refers to when a wedding is rushed due to the bride being pregnant.
Although Evie wasn't pregnant, the wedding was somewhat rushed, as she wasn't in love and was only being married off to save her family trouble.
She didn't choose this role But she'll play it and make it sincere So you cry, you cry (Give me a break) But they believe it from the tears And the teeth right down to the blood at her feet
She didn't necessarily mean to be forced into this situation (shooting someone) or into being a model (as she just wanted to impress her family), but she'll go along and pretend to be upset and mourning the victim's injury to seem innocent.
In the first chapter the three characters (Evie, Brandy and the protagonist) are fighting for the limelight in their own moment of desperation. Each says something that brings the attention to them and even the protagonist notes this happening. Theyre all fake, and are faking to the max.
"(give me a break)" is interjected by the narrator (who knows what happened), telling her to knock off the act. Everyone else believes it from her tears from crying to the blood at her feet from the dying Brandy.
The last line is referencing when the narrator shot her own jaw off and how there was a splattering of blood tears and teeth across her dashboard.
Boys will be boys Hiding in estrogen and wearing aubergine dreams
The subject of the novel, Brandy Alexander, is a transgender woman who poses as a member of high society to get into parties at the homes of the rich in order to steal prescription drugs, particularly estrogen. Estrogen is a hormone typically known for its importance in female homeostasis. This substance is often used in hormone therapy when people transition from male to female.
"Boys will be boys" is probably meant to be coming from someone who is transphobic and doesn't approve of Brandy's lifestyle. They might believe that gender is strictly determined by someone's sex at birth, and refuse to acknowledge that Brandy is a woman.
Brandy's favorite shade of eyeshadow in the book is Aubergine Dreams, a vivid shade of purple.
Come on this is screaming photo op, op Come on Come on This is screaming This is screaming This is screaming photo op.
"Photo op" is short for 'photo opportunity.' It is a perfect time to take a photo, often because a celebrity is present, or it could just be a memorable situation.
It also references the book Invisible Monsters, where the main characters are models and the dramatic moments they create are likely inspired by the pursuit of fame.
