‘TOO MUCH’ OR ‘JUST ENOUGH’ A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EMOTIONAL EXCESS IN BERNADYA’S KATA MEREKA INI BERLEBIHAN AND TAYLOR SWIFT’S AUGUST

Abstract

This article presents a cross-cultural examination of how emotional excess is constructed, mediated, and valued in contemporary popular music through a comparative analysis of Bernadya’s Kata Mereka Ini Berlebihan ("They Say This Is Too Much," 2024) and Taylor Swift’s august (2020). While both songs center on themes of unrequited love and emotional intensity, they manifest strikingly different cultural attitudes toward vulnerability. Bernadya’s lyrics directly challenge Indonesian societal norms that police women’s emotions as "berlebihan" (excessive), framing her defiance through collective pronouns ("mereka"/"they") that highlight the tension between personal authenticity and social expectations. In contrast, Swift’s august aestheticizes heartbreak through nostalgic individualism, where melancholy becomes a private, poetic experience rather than a social transgression. Employing methodologies from Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, alongside Linda Hutcheon’s theory of adaptation as "palimpsestic" rewriting, this study reveals how both songs engage in transnational dialogue about gendered emotional expression while being reinterpreted through local cultural codes. The analysis demonstrates how Bernadya’s work adapts Swift’s themes of longing to an Indonesian context, transforming the "sad girl" trope into a collective critique of emotional censorship. The study contributes to three key scholarly conversations: 1) the globalization of emotional aesthetics in pop music, 2) the gendered double standards of artistic vulnerability across cultures, and 3) adaptation theory’s utility in analyzing transnational musical dialogues. Ultimately, it argues that judgments of "too much" or "just enough" emotion are never neutral—they reflect entrenched power structures governing gender, culture, and artistic legitimacy.