Posted Dec. 12, 2022
By Reed Mulkey
Staff Reporter
Conan Gray's Family Line is a moving, inspiring piece about the struggles of having a rough family life.
Gray talks about how he struggled with having a rough childhood. Gray grew up poor. He says that his world was consistently changing. Gray believed that he would never do anything great based on how he was raised and what people around him told him due to where he was raised. He thinks that the past does define you.
¨That can be a terrible thing but it [your past] can also be a wonderful thing. I look back at my life and there are so many things that I would never wish upon anyone else, but I wouldn't change about myself. I think they are the things who made me who I am today." Gray said while introducing the song at the Grammy Museum.
It takes a lot of bravery to write a song like this. The song talks about how you might never be able to get over the trauma that you went through growing up because it makes you who you are. It does not define you, how you have been raised shapes you.
Gray talks about how he learned to lie from his mom and that he needed to tell good lies to survive. His father was abusive; he could never understand how his dad could do what he did.
¨It's hard to put it into words how the holidays will always hurt. I watch the fathers with their little girls and wonder what I did to deserve this. How could you hurt a little kid? I can't forget, I can't forgive. Cause now I'm scared that everyone I love will leave me.” Conan states in the song.
This lyric amplifies the effects of his traumas and allows him to talk about what his father did to him. For some people, this song is very relatable. Songs like this can help people cope with what they are going through. Sharing a story like this can bring a community together.
This song gets into how it is okay to inherit bad traits from your parents and that they make you who you are. Gray talks about inheritance sucking sometimes. That it is what it is and how that hurts. He talks about how sometimes it is hard to understand why certain things happen to you rather than others.
The music accompanying the lyrics are simple. The simplicity allows the intensity of the words to be amplified and highlighted. The simplicity doesn't take away from the beauty of the cords.
