Sign of the Times

Styles recently said in an interview that the lyrics are spoken from the perspective of a mother who has just given birth and told her baby will be fine, but she only has five minutes to live to due to complications from the pregnancy. Very sad lyrics :(

This is such a heartbreakingly beautiful piece. I think just like any song, the meaning behind it's words really speak differently to different individuals. However, I shall give my own take.

To me, 'Sign of the Times' alternates between a narrator speaking to themself and then to another. It's primarily about coming to accept the end of something or someone you love. Learning to move on from it, and realizing that It is What it is despite how difficult it is to contine on.

"Just stop your crying It's a sign of the times."

I believe this repeats as words the narrator tells him/herself, as well as words the narrator speaks to another. Its the frustration of trying to move on even though you can't. It's telling yourself, "Suck it up and move on, this is how it has to be and you can't change it," but still feeling grief.

"You can't bribe the door on your way to the sky You look pretty good down here But you ain't really good."

Fairly straight forward. You can't keep putting off the inevitable; things may look fine, but they really aren't.

"We never learn, we've been here before Why are we always stuck and running from The bullets, the bullets?"

We've overcome things before, we can push through it. Why are we so afraid of it, and why do we keep trying to escape it?

"Just stop your crying Have the time of your life Breaking through the atmosphere Things look pretty good from here."

Here the narrator is trying to remind themselves to look at the good things in life. If you instead focused on living your life, you'd realize things aren't as bad as they appear.

"Remember, everything will be alright We can meet again somewhere Somewhere far away from here."

This may be the end for now, but maybe someday, somehow, somewhere, we can find eachother again, and be happy together.

"We don't talk enough We should open up Before it's all too much."

Once again, pretty straight forward I'd say. Too many words left unsaid.

Some might think this song primarily is about a romantic relationship, but I don't believe this is necessarily the case. I see it as more of just an end to any kind of love. Personally, I think of my mother, who is very sickly. It's taken us both many years to realize there are certain things we cannot change. We need to live our lives and be happy, before its too late.

This is a long one, I apologize. Just my thoughts.

T. x

I know this is a little morbid but I think this song is about death or something ending. I think in the song he's saying to the person dying stop crying we can me again somewhere (heaven) and not to worry about dying just enjoy what time you have left. I think this song could also go away for any other situations in life too where things are going bad and he's singing that you should focus on what is happening now and enjoy it even though you may cry, overcome it, just have the time of your life.

This could mean the return of our savior, Jerusalem Christmas. As the song states "You can't bribe the door on your way to the sky You look pretty good down here But you ain't really good" This means that the ones who chose not to believe in God but love darkness ( the rich,secret soviet organizations, members of top secret organizations unrelated to helping us from wars,ect) will not enter the gates to heaven because they have not taken the time to pray for forgiveness. So god see's Them as strangers (which is sad).

Why are we always stuck and running from The bullets, the bullets? This states every one of our questions," why does he allow pain?, why does God allow the devil to hurt us? Inherit us to do such bad things?" As harry styles refers the "bullet" as pain,sorrow, death and the works of evil.

"Stop your crying, baby It's a sign of the times We gotta get away We got to get away We got to get away We got to get away We got to get away We got to—we got to—away We got to—we got to—away We got to—we got to—away" This is a message all of us should know! What harry styles is saying is that even though we are sinners, done the works of evil, we must turn to God, it is NEVER too late to ask for forgiveness. When the times are really hard, we must turn towards God before we come to the point of suicide. As the bible says "who is brought from the dust,shall return to the dust". We must learn to turn towards God and live a more meaningful life, before it's too late. That basically wraps up my predictional meaning of this song.

disclaimer as a Christian, I respect all religions that everyone believes, so this shall not be taken as a violation or disrespect of any religious views, this is only for purpose of entertainment and shall not be taken as a violation of anyone's views towards God. We all have different perspectives on God but we are all human, nobody's perfect. Enjoy and thank you for taking the time to read this, God bless

I've heard that this is about the Third World War... that makes sense. Personally, I think it's a sign of the times, the arse end of the way things are, ready for a whole new wardrobe. I mean, we have Trump, we have Europe falling apart, we have mass chaos.... the Third World War?

I think he's saying not to worry about the past. He's saying focus on the present and future. No matter how hard the past may have been

I was wondering what he meant with the line:

Why are we always stuck and running from The bullets, the bullets?

I hadn't even thought of the Orlando Night Club shooting. Wow, that totally took the wind out of my sails.

The piano and the beat really give it that somber feel I would think he's going for.

I do like when he says:

We don't talk enough We should open up

It's easy to blame the guns or certain groups of people, and we're quick to just sweep stuff under the rug and not talk about things. It won't solve all the problems, but we really should address some of the underlying issues that cause someone to take such terrible actions.

Also the bullets isn't actual bullets its a metaphor of thing that come in your life that you cannot stop from happening. that's my take on it.

I think this song it's abou Matt Irwin, he's friend who committed suicide. Especially when he says "you can't bribe the door on your way to the sky"

Just heard this song for the first time today and I can relate to it due to what I am going through at the moment. For me, it's a song about pulling yourself together when a romantic relationship ends, and even there is a serious issue that caused the relationship to end, it was difficult to put a stop to it and to move on.

"Just stop your crying It's a sign of the times Welcome to the final show Hope you're wearing your best clothes"

Stop crying because it will do no good, and the situation can't be helped. This is the end, and I hope you're doing your best to accept it and keep moving.

"You can't bribe the door on your way to the sky You look pretty good down here But you ain't really good"

There's nothing you can do to change the situation. When you love someone, everything about them looks good. You see the best in them. But the reality is, they really weren't good at all.

"We never learn, we've been here before Why are we always stuck and running from The bullets, the bullets?"

We've been through this before, but we never learn our lesson. We never let go when we should've, and instead, for whatever reason, remain stuck trying to avoid the reality and pretend everything is okay. "Bullets" here means the issues that trouble the relationship, and how you try to avoid them and pretend they're not there.

"Just stop your crying It's a sign of the times We gotta get away from here We gotta get away from here"

The relationship must end.

"Just stop your crying It'll be alright They told me that the end is near We gotta get away from here"

Stop crying because you will overcome this. "They told me the end is near." They may refer to friends/family and people outside of the relationship who can see that the relationship is no good, even though you can't see it yourself.

"Just stop your crying Have the time of your life Breaking through the atmosphere And things are pretty good from here"

Enjoy your life. Don't let this hinder you. Once you overcome it, you'll become stronger and everything will be just fine.

"Remember, everything will be alright We can meet again somewhere Somewhere far away from here"

Everything will be fine, and maybe someday we can meet again, whether as lovers or as just friends. "Somewhere far from here" I believe means the issues will hopefully be resolved in the future. Things will improve.

"We don't talk enough We should open up Before it's all too much"

We keep our feelings bottled in and in doing so, we drive ourselves crazy. It's good to share what your feeling in order to heal.

"Will we ever learn? We've been here before It's just what we know"

We've repeated the same mistakes, we never learn. It's like we don't know any better.

Overall, an amazing song, that is bother bittersweet and hopeful. Even though getting over a romantic relationship is painful and difficult, no matter what, you can pull through it and mend your heart. Better things will come.