Stars by fun.

Lyrics

Analysis
This song deals with the misconceptions that most people have about celebrity life. Nate Ruess delves into his personal dissatisfaction with fame, something that he thought would save him.  The stars are a huge symbol in this song. He uses the term as a double entendre: one meaning being the literal stars in the sky, and the other being the stars of entertainment.

The intro to the song is a clip of Some Nights (one of fun.'s most popular songs) being played live, accompanied by wild cheering. This introduces the theme of the song well.

First, Nate addresses a friend who also romanticized fame. Together, they had planned to become famous, wishing on stars and relying on them to decide the future. Nate contrasts this starry-eyed expectation with the harsh reality of his now acquired fame: he misses his past. Specifically, his mom. He feels as if he doesn't have any true friends; people are either mere fans or fellow celebrities who don't really care. His friend who he had dreamed with seems to have abandoned him.

This friend is obsessed with fame. He says, "You're always holding on to stars." He says that though celebrities seem to have it all together, they don't - "I think they're better from afar." In reality, they are just as messed up as everyone else. They can't save Nate or his friend. Nate himself is now a star, and to him, that means nothing. He feels worse off than he was before his fame. This friend now expects Nate to help her, to save her, to be something that he's not. All of the dreams Nate had about his future never came true.

If you have listened to fun. extensively, you know that Nate Ruess does not often auto-tune his songs. In most of his corresponding original and acoustic versions, his voice sounds the same. Understanding this, the over-the-top editing of his voice in this song contributes to his commentary on modern entertainers. This is intentional. The progressive altering of his voice makes the point that artists often edit their voices just to please the crowd, sometimes even changing who they are for the sake of fame. By the end of Stars, the garbled singing can barely be understood. The words are meaningless; the sound is atrocious.

Altogether, this song shows that the belief that celebrities have better lives than "regular" people is a complete delusion. Nothing that Nate dreamed of satisfied his soul and saved him from all of the troubles of his youth.

Keep listening. Keep thinking.