Interpretation
The song 'Nachbeben' by
Alligatoah is a sharp critique of our current society, characterized by consumption, digital overload, and emotional coldness.
In the opening lines 'I bombard myself with the sickest video content, Jihadi John shit, eFukt and Bondage', the artist criticizes the morbid curiosity and desensitization caused by constant consumption of extreme content on the internet. He suggests that we have become emotionally numb due to constant exposure to extreme content ('My facial expression is like a layer of concrete').
He then addresses the world of work, where one has to work hard to afford things like 'burnout therapies', highlighting the high pressure and negative psychological effects of our work culture.
The chorus 'Our head is made of steel, we are tough, Until we lay ourselves to sleep in the evening, Aftershocks, Just a shock, but even years later, Our hearts are porcelain shops' speaks to the emotional hardness we develop in our society. This leads us to appear strong on the outside but be very vulnerable on the inside, as depicted by the image of the 'porcelain shop'.
In the third verse, Alligatoah criticizes the transience of the digital world, where we consume a flood of information in a short amount of time ('I scroll through a century in a fraction of a second into the subconscious'). He also addresses the sadness and pressure in the workplace, where we work until exhaustion and ignore our own needs ('With tired tunnel vision, no matter if the boss insults me').
In the final verse, he portrays the emotional coldness and hardness of society, where even violence towards one's own child is normalized ('And in the process, I make noises like a male pinscher, 'Everything okay?' - 'I'm just tired!'').
The song 'Nachbeben' is thus a bitter critique of our current society, characterized by emotional coldness, digital overload, and high performance pressure.