Trespassing Album Track #7. Pop That Lock

Adam Lambert--Banter & Pop That Lock DC




Published on Sep 25, 2012 by HannaB20

Published on Oct 18, 2012 by anthrogeekPF

Adam Lambert - Pop That Lock - Summer Sonic Festival - Tokyo, Japan - 8/18/2012



Piko Marron


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Adam Lambert - Pop That Lock - Cape Town, South Africa - 11/13/2012




Uploaded by Madeliefies on Nov 14, 2012

Why I Love Pop That Lock

Many of my favorite shamans are rock stars. They probably don’t even know they’re shamans, but they know how to get to ecstasy and back and how to take others with them. They may not have a license, but they know how to drive. – Gabrielle Roth, author of Maps to Ecstasy: Teachings of an Urban Shaman

Who wants to dance? – Adam Lambert



If you recognize those quotes, you have a great memory! I have used them before in writing about my ideas about Adam as a modern-day shaman. While I won’t belabor the point here, I do believe that Adam is a mapmaker, a person who dreams of providing direction and pointers to people who are discontent with their everyday lives and want to understand and change their inner selves. He has said as much, that music and dance can help us learn how to love, give to others, and figure out our own wants and needs.

More than any song on Trespassing, Pop That Lock explicitly celebrates the wild, free-spirited excesses and joy of the dance floor, while offering advice and encouragement to those of us still not quite sure how to make it happen.

Left, right, step up to the spotlight
Why you actin’ uptight?
I’m takin’ you to school, that’s right

The sounds of Pop That Lock are unconventional and chaotic, at least to my ear, and it took me a while to connect with this song. But now I love it! Pop That Lock takes us back to the adult playground we visited for the magical, whimsical rave of the If I Had You video. But from the get-go, Adam (the Mad Hatter full of love instead of mockery) recognizes that we come to the dance floor worried about our technique and our appearance. Sometimes just walking out there is an act of heroism.

High, low, don’t tell me you don’t know
How to ever let go
I’m takin’ you to school, that’s right

The lyrics are simpler than IIHY, the beat throbbing and relentless. In our everyday life, our bodies are disconnected from our hearts and minds. Adam says we can leave all the explanations behind and speak and experiment with our bodies alone (werk werk werk), expressing the unexpressed.

Tonight we burn it all
Get hot get tall yeah we’re lighter than air
You got the key to your release
So pop that lock until you’re lighter than air

Here Adam invites us to surrender to a space beyond the mind. In the course of the evening we can release our joys, hurts, and fears. This lyric explicitly takes a look at the past, which can include nostalgia or regret, and suggests we no longer need it. We can be free of the tension of living up to our past or the pain it may hold for us.

It all boils down to loving yourself enough to care for yourself – that is, to put yourself back together as a whole person. You have everything you need already -- the lock and the key. But as is his way, Adam acknowledges that the way forward isn't an easy one:

If you wanna be it
You’ve got to dream
If you got the key then baby pop that lock
If you wanna free it you have got to scream
If you got the key then baby pop that lock



Adam tells us that we have a choice. Do we really want to reclaim our bodies and our dreams? Are we willing to scream if that is what it takes? Is it a scream of pain or a scream of joy or does it matter? In either case how can we be so totally vulnerable in front of the other dancers?

Banjee Boys and Dancey Girls
Get down, down down!

Ringmaster Adam throws open the door to a world where no one really cares if you do something crazy. Some dance with their eyes closed, others lock in sensual embrace. Is it any accident that in concert, the dance is performed not only by Adam but by his backup singers, both ladies of size, and that they take the dance into the audience?

What does it mean to be beautiful? Adam cries out the same exhortation to us all no matter how we choose to present ourselves. If your true nature is love and compassion, then everyone is beautiful. The boundaries between us are dissolved – all of us whirling, twirling, dancing to our own intrinsic rhythms, and smiling. Ever notice how all Adam's dancers are all different, how his choreography is without precision. It's about the uniqueness of what each of us has to share and express.



Werk bitch you don’t gotta stress this
Got ‘em feeling restless show ‘em how it’s done alright
Secret don’t care if you don’t keep it don’t care if you leak it
Show ‘em how it’s done alright

Here Adam returns to the idea of our defense mechanisms. Is our sweaty, frenetic physicality just another way to keep our partners at a distance? Are we just strutting and performing rather than letting it all go? Adam invites us to take a journey inside ourselves and by doing so gain a beautiful reward.

Adam has recently said that he is learning to take control by surrendering more often. In Pop That Lock we get a glimpse of what it might look like to kick off our chains and find the ecstasy of liberation – deep inner peace set to a driving beat.