Does anyone remember that song “There’s Gotta Be More” by Stacie Oracle Orrico?
The video is a wildly accurate portrayal of people struggling to make ends meet, finding conventional and unconventional (i.e., illegal) ways to make it happen, while navigating old white male gatekeepers and entitled, poorly behaved children of the next generation. All while she sings, “there’s gotta be more to life than chasing out every temporary high to satisfy me.” I found that ironic, given that “chasing highs” was really just her finding creative ways to pay to put a roof over her child’s head. From girl bossing to waitressing to robbing banks, she was quite inventive, given that influencing and selling feet pics wasn’t quite a thing when this came out in 2009.
What makes any of us different when today we’re all side hustling online, maintaining corporate jobs, paying bill after bill, while attempting to find some whimsy in a martini glass or a doom scroll? We were in our teenage years when this song came out, and yet we’re still relating to it so hard.
So I have to wonder… are we in the era where we’re reliving our teenage angst? Or is this song just one big self-fulfilled prophecy? Or has this always been American life, and we’re arriving at the age where we’re aware of it? Hard to say when every day feels like Groundhog Day.
What song from way back is making you question how long things have been this way?