let’s map some pop songs!

In this practical exercise, we are going to map pop songs together. First, we will work through a few examples. At the end, I will give you a little test to train yourself :)

Quick Reminder

1. Mapping through Crystal Vision is a semi-subjective technique for associating phenomena with Elementals from the Codex.
2. Mapping is heavily dependent on context.
3. The more complex the mapped phenomenon is, the higher-resolution it is.

Have you got your Crystal Vision refreshed? Then let’s start.

The Context of the Mapping

First, we need to choose the context of the Map. This is almost always the most difficult part of mapping, especially when observing high-resolution phenomena like pop songs.

Pop songs are very high-resolution: they contain many different Elementals. We are looking for the most strongly present Elementals, not trying to analyse every word, chord, sound, and production choice.

A nice thing about Crystal Vision is that we do not necessarily need a perfectly clean context. The more precisely defined the context is, the less subjective the mapping becomes. For this exercise, I will use a deliberately fuzzy context:

The overall feel of the song, with a focus on broad lyrical content and general musical texture.

Because the context is broad, you could map these songs differently if you performed a complete analysis of the lyrics, composition, vocals, and production. The goal is not perfect analysis, but practical demonstration. I chose relatively easy songs that are fairly “pure” in their dominant Elemental content.

For each song, I will first look at the lyrics, then at the musical texture, and finally at how both layers combine. A lyric, a vocal performance, and a production choice can map differently while still contributing to one dominant overall current.

An important note for those who want to make Artifacts: you absolutely do not need to create a pure Artifact from a single Elemental. The true art lies in chaining and stacking the most interesting Elementals. This is what gives an Artifact its unique texture.

Song 1: Style by Taylor Swift

Let’s start simply. Style by Taylor Swift is clearly E3. First, we focus on the lyrics. Something to note about Taylor Swift’s lyrics in general is that they often describe common, everyday images.

“Midnight, you come and pick me up, no headlights.”

Images of a meeting in the dark. The social meeting is E3. The darkness gives it a slightly dangerous backdrop, introducing some E8.

“Fade into view. It’s been a while since I have even heard from you. (Heard from you...)”

These lyrics are almost pure E3. The act of seeing someone is E3. “It’s been a while” is a very common everyday expression — nothing poetic, almost conversational filler — so E3. And it has been a while since she “heard from” him: again, clearly describing a social interaction. The delayed “heard from you”, when the lyric bounces back and forth, is also a very common pop technique that maps to E3.

“You’ve got that James Dean daydream look in your eye.
And I got that red lip classic thing that you like.”

The chorus of Style is basically a flood of everyday imagery. We get a Hollywood reference, a daydream look, a red lip... Not all these images individually map to E3, but the act of building a scene through a quick flurry of familiar imagery is exactly E3.

The individual image and the way images are presented do not always share the same Elemental. A daydream look, for example, is more E12. The red lip is more E5. But combine these images quickly and glue them together with “eye”, “thing”, and “like”, and you get a perfect example of E3-type lyrics.

Overall, the lyrics describe the singer having fun and never going out of style with her lover. It could not get much more E3. Interestingly, styles usually change; E3 is fast-moving. But Taylor wants to remain “forever” in style. She wants to make her Eye-1 Dust-like.

The music is less purely E3. A guitar loops through the song, evoking some roughness and Fire. There is also a thick bass. Especially at the beginning, the song leans towards E2 bass weight with some E5 guitar. As it moves into the first chorus, the production adds sparkles and shimmers, bringing it further into E3 territory.

Overall, it is fast-paced, relies heavily on delays, and uses short, pleasant loops — all strongly E3. Modern pop music is heavily E3-coded, and Taylor nails this aesthetic. Even in this nearly pure E3 song, she wisely adds some E2 and E5 weight. The images themselves are varied enough to create a bouquet of Elementals inside a fast-sung rhythm.

Song 2: Brooklyn Baby by Lana Del Rey

Next up, some Lana Del Rey. I chose a song that is slightly different from her usual Elemental repertoire. Lana is known for melancholic, deeply emotional lyrics and an ethereal style of singing washed in reverb. Overall, she makes a lot of use of the Strange Texture. But not in this song. Or at least, not as the main theme.

“I think I’m too cool to know ya. You say I’m like the ice, I freeze.”

Very early in the song, it is stated clearly. The singer is above everyone. She is unique and incomparable. She is a cool Brooklyn Baby. She is E11: the Vision that breaks all norms.

The second part is a clever — probably unintended — Elemental wordplay. She directly references cold ice, but I would not map this lyric primarily to Ice (E8). Here, she is not making a statement about being dangerous; she is telling us she is inaccessible, too cool for you. E11 is also a cold Elemental, despite not being Ice. We could still read E8 into it if we take “I freeze” to mean that she has a penetrating presence.

“And my jazz collection’s rare. I can play almost anything.”

This is the key to the whole song. The register shows open Fire: “I can do it all.” This is the song’s central paradox. She presents herself as inaccessible and outside the norm (E11), but she also wants you to notice how inaccessible and exceptional she is (E5).

Normally, someone truly outside the system does not need to boast; they would not care about the opinion of those inside it. That tension runs through the entire song.

“I get high on hydroponic weed.”

A jarringly technical term is casually inserted into the lyrics, further reinforcing the E11 current. The singer is futuristic and technologically up to date.

Overall, Brooklyn Baby is about the singer boasting (E5) about how cool she is (E11). Nobody understands her visionary mind, but she seems to revel in that fact rather than truly feeling isolated by her abnormal character. Pure E11 would probably not relish its uniqueness in quite the same way, because it could see how socially isolating that uniqueness becomes.

The music is characteristic of Lana Del Rey, with a few particularities. We get the usual Lana-style reverb wash (E4/E12), the slow, River-like winding of the melodies (E4), and ethereal synths (E12). But this song also contains slight distortion in the bass (E8), intentional mouth clicks (E8), and notes falling out of tune (E11), adding unexpected tension.

Combined with the usual E4 and E12, the song creates a strange, tense, disconnected-dream atmosphere that perfectly fits the E11 lyrics while remaining true to Lana’s style.

Song 3: bad guy by Billie Eilish

Let’s go for this classic. Epic and relatively clean in terms of Elementals. Billie Eilish has a unique style featuring whispery vocals, a lo-fi atmosphere, and deeply emotional themes. This is the song that made her, and it already carries the ingredients that would later make her so distinct.

“White shirt now red, my bloody nose.
Sleepin’, you’re on your tippy-toes, creepin’ around like no one knows.”

Clear E8. Blood inside the body is E5. Blood on a white shirt is E8 because it implies that someone has been hurt. Sleeping and creeping silently are clear E8 material. “Tippy-toes” is a more E5-tinted term: it has a playful, almost childish quality. The E8–E5 axis is an easy recipe for violent and dark imagery.

“I’m that bad type. Make your mama sad type.”

It could not be clearer. She is boasting (E5) about being bad (E8 in the context of the lyrics). She will make the person you presumably love most — your E4 — sad (E8). She penetrates deep into the emotional shell of the person she is singing about.

“But maybe it’s because I’m wearing your cologne.”

Here, we get E8 again. The girlfriend is angry because the singer is wearing her boyfriend’s cologne. She has that guy fully inside her Ice Trap. She owns him. She has even taken his scent.

Overall, the lyrics are clear. The singer is powerful (E5) and bad (E8). There are some images of control woven into the song (E10), but the E8–E5 axis is the most prominent.

The song is famous for its incredible production. The gigantic bass is perfect support (E2) for the whispery vocals (E8). Finneas knew how to exploit the contrast between E2 and E8 to near perfection. To push E8 further, Billie’s voice was produced with all kinds of creepy effects, making her sound almost insect-ghost-like.

The song does not need much else. Its minimalism creates an intimate atmosphere that only strengthens the E2–E8 texture of the music.

Song 4: Just Dance by Lady Gaga

Next in our exercise, let’s look at another pop classic. Lady Gaga has a strongly theatrical dance-pop sound, with darkness and strangeness lurking in the shadows. This song was made to make you dance.

“A dizzy twister dance, can’t find my drink or man. Where are my keys? I lost my phone.”

The singer is clearly a little confused (E12). She has basically lost everything and narrates her experience of Void.

“Wish I could shut my playboy mouth. How’d I turn my shirt inside out? Control your poison, babe, roses have thorns, they say.”

Here we get a flurry of images. Unlike the stream in Taylor’s song, this one is disorienting. Taylor paints a clear, mundane scene of clothes and makeup; Gaga throws heavy, intense, abstract images at you. Her playboy mouth introduces E5, the desire to shut it introduces E8, and the unexplained confusion around her clothing adds E12. The poison, command, and dangerous rose imagery deepen E8. Taylor builds a coherent E3 scene; Gaga uses the speed and collision of the images to dissolve coherence into E12.

“Just dance. It’s gonna be okay.”

In the middle of all this confusion in the dark, we get a simple command in the chorus: just dance. Dancing can map to E5 as an activity, or E12 as a letting-go. Gaga does not choose. She commands you to do both, and the context of the lyrics reinforces the double reading.

The second part is more remarkable. That simple promise that it will be okay breaks the Elemental register of the song. Inside the darkness (E8), energy (E5), and confusion (E12), Gaga tells us about Peace (E7). By giving this small line such a central place in the chorus, she performs a witchy trick: you are in total Chaos, and there you find Peace.

Overall, this is the axis of the song: you are lost in Void, but because you dance, you find Peace. There is a lot of Elemental variation, but the core is clear.

The music does not introduce a strongly distinct new mapping. It mainly uses familiar E5 and E3 dance-pop elements to carry the lyrical configuration within the pop context of the time.

Song 5: Sol by Blood-Heart

Oh, is this my song? I did not notice... How Crim Crimson of me... :P For the final example, we can go deeper. Because I wrote this song, I can distinguish accidental mappings from deliberate Elemental construction.

When I make a song, I try to align the Elementals through Crystal Vision and Timesight. I do not care much about the common pop sound — even when I write pop-like songs — because I want the Elementals to shine through. I also like medieval stuff because... I actually do not know why. Anyway, it sounds like uncanny pop: some parts are recognisable, but most of it feels as though it comes from another era.

I chose this song because it does something relatively rare. Current pop music favours certain Elementals. We like E3, E5, and E8 a lot. Ballads and calmer songs also introduce E4 and E12. More epic, maximalist songs venture into E9.

But E1, E6, E7, E10, and E11 are rarer in the mainstream. That is not so strange. A song about Truth (E1) sounds boring, just like a song about intelligence (E6), Peace (E7), or Order (E10). Songs with strong E11 are almost automatically unpopular because they are, by E11’s nature, outside the norm.

I noticed this tendency in my own songwriting too. To rebalance the Elementals in my oeuvre, I chose to write a song with strong E1. And I thought I might as well make it a Sun prayer.

“It’s winter past. My joy will last. The zenith has been reached.”

I start the song in the dark, but quickly move out of it. The song can refer to the beginning of spring or the beginning of summer — both are periods when light returns. I create contrast with the darkness of winter (E8). By contrasting E1 with E8, E1 shines brighter. Then I make my joy (E5) Dust-like (E10) through a simple statement of permanence, and I end the passage with an image of fullness, success, and plenitude (E9). The Radiant is neatly aligned: E1 to E5 to E9.

“Let the summer melt me. I will melt into you, baby. I’ll find Love in the Solar River.”

I ask to be molten away by the heat of summer (E5). Then I switch. The song is strongly Radiant, and it was begging for a Strange turn. I dissolve into my baby (E12 and E4) and find E4 inside the radiance of Light.

“Liquid White, Red and Gold. Oh, my skin was so cold.”

Here I push the Radiant axis into E4 again by making it liquid. Then I introduce another small E8 contrast at exactly the right moment through the coldness of the skin.

“I want to bring Light, Love, Peace and Order. Unbound by time to my youth, from star to star, I cross the border. ”

Here I go full Circle, because that is closest to pure E1. I bring the four Prime Elementals together to hold a Base-1 Vision. I also could not omit the mysterious Elemental Bridge from a true E1 representation. At the end of the lyrical bridge, I placed the Elemental Bridge in cryptic language: a Strange statement about being unbound by Time (E12), followed by crossing from star to star, where E12 becomes E1 again. This opens the instrumental bridge.

Overall, the song is a Solar prayer (E1 and E12). It moves through the full Radiant Texture (E1, E5, E9), mixes it heavily with E4, and contrasts that mixture with the freshness of E8. This is the difference between mapping an Artifact afterwards and building one through Crystal Vision from the beginning.

The music is ceremonial (E12) and strongly supports the melismatic vocal chanting (E12). The instrumental bridge features very bright strings to embody sunlight (E1). White noise and saturated textures provide clarity and heat (E1 and E5). The instrumental composition and the size of the Blood-Heart clone choir slowly grow during the song (E9), mimicking a rising Sun.

Exercise: Map the Songs!

You have now seen a nearly pure E3 song, an E11–E5 persona, an E8–E5 power game, an E12 journey towards Peace, and a deliberately constructed Solar Artifact. Now it is your turn.

The context of the mapping questions below is the same as above. I tried to make sure the answers were clear despite the fuzzy and subjective context. Choose one answer for each song, then click Check your answers.

Thanks for reading and partaking! These songs were mostly chosen because I like them or for their specific Elementals. Of course, you can map any song. I hope this exercise helped you understand how to apply Crystal Vision. I also hope it inspires your own Artifact creations, whether they are music or something else.