It sounds like a strange religion or nasal habit, but from Latin ‘nos’, this is the practice of using the ‘we’ pronoun when really only referring oneself in action or opinion - it’s more common in song than ‘we’ might imagine. Nosism’s best known form is the royal we - “We are not amused” goes that quotation attributed to Queen Victoria, and no doubt it has been used many times by Queen Elizabeth II about her husband and various offspring. But it can also be used as a collective voice for a publication, such as a newspaper, a company, or by an author as official policy, tone or opinion.
The Oxford English Dictionary’s first publication citation comes from Black’s Edinburgh Magazine (1819): “The egotism or nosism of the other luminaries of the Lake School, is at times extravagant enough, and amusing enough withal.” But it seems to have first appeared, at least in the royal context, much earlier, in Middle English, as well as by Henry III (1298), King James I (1603), and King Charles I (1642). And in literature, used with irony and humour, it first appears in John Vanbrugh’s comedy The False Friend (1702): “Well, old Acquaintance, we are going to be Married then?”
Nosism is common in song, and perhaps that's no surprise as the form itself is at least in part an attempt to capture the universal from individual experience, trying to say something on behalf of many, but really only coming from one. But where do you distinguish between a genuine plural 'we' and someone pretending, or presuming to be more than one person, or elevating themselves into a collective opinion? The following examples go across a spectrum from the subtly ironic to the presumptive and generalised.
There are many contexts, but let’s begin with a humorous example from the cartoon series Futurama, created by The Simpsons’ Matt Groening.
The Queen Victoria quote is also the reference in Kayak’s 1975 song, We Are Not Amused:
In another way, Chumbawamba, the ardent political anti-royalists, lay into the actual royal we, in Farewell To The Crown:
Goodbye to the media whore
And all the pious work for the poor
And all the faces that she wore
Goodbye to the crown
Goodbye to the royal We
And all its famous pedigree
“We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams” is a famous line in the poem Ode by English poet Arthur O'Shaughnessy first published in 1873. But who is the we here? The author, Britain, all writers? Sir Edward Elgar set the ode to music in 1912 in his work entitled The Music Makers:
We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems
The line also crops up in the fantastical film version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory:
And in a very different style, but sampling that quote, Aphex Twin does is own We Are The Music Makers:
Many of the following examples use nosism with irony and ambiguity. Neil Young’s 1969 Here We Are In The Years from his first album is a double-edge ‘we’ – a celebration of country life, but also a criticism of mainstream American culture, and ambiguity about the hippie dream.
Suede’s We Are The Pigs, from Dog Man Star (1994) shows a parallel, if not greater disdain for society, and has an element of Lord of the Flies with its Piggy character reference and children’s choir at the end. “"I suppose my vision was of some sort of post-apocalyptic landscape where society has crumbled and man is reduced to his primal childlike, animalistic form picking at the rubble,” said Brett Anderson.
Though according to The Rakes, We are All Animals. We might be but not all animals are the same, are they?
We all breathe. And on that note, but on the other end of the musical spectrum, Sharon Van Etten’s We Are Fine is all about trying to talk a friend through and out of a panic attack, adopting a gentle, ‘you and me’ we as a cure.
Weezer’s We Are All On Drugs, from 2005, according to frontman Rivers Cuomo, is about over-stimulation. Fair enough, but again who is we?
Are we also all mad? Not according the bonkers Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, who insist of course that We Are Normal, from the album The Doughnuts In Grannys Greenhouse. Perhaps we are all on acid, then.
Taking a cosmic turn, according to Moby, We Are All Made of Stars:
How did he work that one out? Is that our past or our future. Perhaps we could all find about as The Thompson Twins’ hit of 1982 We Are Detective. In that case we’ll all find out.
Even more positive though, the noughties’ answer to Leo Sayer, Mika, reckons We Are Golden, apparently inspired by an Angela Carter novel:
But perhaps the most nosist song of all, and taking the saccharine level up to diabetic level, is the big charity US song of the 80s, We Are The World. All for a good cause, naturally, but let’s not presume we all want to sing along to this rather anthem sung by multimillionaires about poverty.
And on a similar level of nosism, Queen’s We Are the Champions. Is that Queen, the audience, the fans everyone? Or just the collector of royalties? What about those of us who might sometimes be losers?
Pink meanwhile uses a particular self-addressing form of nosism with Are We All We Are, something of a self-empowerment anthem. But does that really apply to us all?
Among the We Are The World singers was Bruce Springsteen. Here he states a fact that some might question, though admittedly it is from a great album, Wrecking Ball.
On the other end of the scale, David Bowie, from Diamond Dogs, puts we in a darker place:
But let’s finish with a piece of irrefutable poetry about all of us,, performed by Iggy Pop from his latest LP.
So then, any more lyrical nosisms spring to mind? Care to assume universal enjoyment or otherwise? Then please feel free to share any further examples in songs, instrumentals, on albums, film, art or other contexts in comments below.
You can also get in touch the contact page, and also visit us on social media: Song Bar Twitter, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube. and Song Bar Instagram. Please subscribe, follow and share. New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...
Please make any donation to help keep Song Bar running: