NTJ lyrics
NTJ lyrics are likely to involve a single protagonist and discuss that protagonist’s agency, whether using it or wishing they could have it. And there is a conceptual reason for wanting it. Having discussed NFJs’ lyrics – using Fe to gather people to an Ni vision for the world and the Fe is gathering people to the vision – the NTJs’ Te looks at that and says, “why gather people when you can just go do stuff?” So there might be themes of individual empowerment, or there might be themes of the individual already being empowered.
NTJ music
Ideally, Ni music is leading to something, while Te is taking a direct path to it. With low Fe, it’s not like NTJ music has to be something that falls into a normal category; it just needs to stay true to its vision, of which directness is part of staying true (staying on topic). My INTJ wife likes a lot of folk singer/songwriters, but she also likes some outmoded/bizarre stuff, like Deee-Lite’s “Groove Is in the Heart” or some late ‘70s/early ‘80s ballads. The trick is that those songs are whatever they are.
Some ENTJ songs
“Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” by Daft Punk (Lyric typing)
The lyrics have a bit of motivational poster to them, just delivered in an unusual package. All the comparative adjectives in the title (which comprise the bulk of the lyrics) have that future push to them. It’s not about doing one’s duty – what you might expect from an ESTJ version of this. It’s about improvement.
“Mind of a Machine” by Carl Craig (Music typing [it’s an instrumental])
I love me some Detroit techno/electro, with its futuristic technological vision and its pristine, ordered production. It’s my go-to when I want to feel productive, because it structures my brain enough to get things done. It makes sense – and I hadn’t put this together before writing this book – that my get-things-done side goes into my ENTJ shadow and pulls music with ENTJ values to drive home the message.
This is an instrumental, but it’s no less evocative for lacking lyrics, as it’s perfectly titled. It kicks off with rhythm – no point in building up to it; let’s just get there – and pulls no punches of frills, excess, or flights of fancy. This is just a sentient robot doing the robot thing.
“Running” by the Stereo MC’s (Lyric typing)
I originally had this as an ESTJ song because of the concern at the end of the first verse that “I can’t maintain” – taking “maintain” to mean Si. But I was wrong; this is a more developed “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” in terms of its message. A handful of its lyrics:
The less I have, the less I need
The more I see, the less I believe
The more I touch, the more I clutch
The more I own, the less I have
The more I frame, I can’t maintain
I gotta break through gutters, I gotta break through floors
I gotta break through walls in people’s heads
60 days and I’m running (I’ll outlive ya)
60 years and I’m running (I’ll outbreathe ya)
That is a lot of propulsive conceptual material. If an ENTJ is into British funky raps, then they just might like this.
Some INTJ songs
“I Know” by Dionne Farris (Lyric and music typing)
I’d like a few more lyrics to firm up the impression here – especially evidence of Te – but what lyrics we do have are skilled Ni and Fi use. It’s loads of things Dionne knows about a former lover, but it’s not Si data; it’s mostly that she knows why this person’s doing whatever they’re doing. “And it’s not gonna work this time,” because “I can recognize the symptoms.”
In other words, most of the song is laying out her expert pattern recognition. It’s backed by dashes of Fi, such as “I don’t think it’s fair” and “I can never sing in that key” to refer to living a particular life.
One could argue that a greater Ni user wouldn’t have messed with this person to begin with – “it’s not gonna work ever,” perhaps – but I think that assumes a long relationship, and we don’t have that information. It was long enough to involve forgiveness and blame, but that only needs a few weeks to provide an accurate pattern.
Musically, there is a fair bit of individuality, but it gets in and out pretty quickly for its tempo, and it sticks to the vocal rhythms it establishes. Put another way, it cares a lot about defining itself and then it sticks with it. And to good effect; it got a Grammy nomination.
“No Government” by Nicolette (Lyric typing [INTJs, tell me if this music is also INTJ])
Most of this song is a confident if-then: what the world will be like if it had no government. It takes dominant Ni backed by Te for these lyrics to be so sure of the outcome. And the picture of self-sufficiency and what I’ll call beneficial anarchy – which Nicolette embraces – is a vision that seems like it is to the benefit of an INTJ. Put another way, a world without government would be great if anything, because that world works for the INTJ.
No government is a way of life
No government means to trust your friends
I know who I am and you know who are
And later:
No government is an easy time
No government is an exciting life
We’d work for ourselves, and we’d love for ourselves
There are a fair number of Se assumptions that seem higher up the stack than an INTJ would actively care about, although it’s not as clear as the quoted lyrics that those bits interest Nicolette; they might just be factual descriptions of that future hypothetical world. What excites her is the self-sufficiency and that she’s ready for it:
My choices, believe me, are infinite easy
Exciting and mystical choices before me
They tell me my life is a journey in no government
Have you ever seen an INTJ act like the future choices are boring or “infinite hard”? Have you ever known an INTJ whose life is a journey in loads of governing and being governed? Have you ever known an INTJ who couldn’t generate an opinion about a future with no government? I have not met these INTJs.
(Views expressed in this song might not be the INTJ’s actual view of a life with no government. It’s not my wife’s, for instance.)
“The Heart Remains a Child” by Everything but the Girl (Lyric and music typing)
When the title refers to an Fi child, I’m going to see whether it lines up with an Fi-child personality type. I think it does enough to count it here – certainly more than the ISTJ as the other Fi child.
I dreamed about you again last night – any time there is a mention of dreams (or sky), my radar for intuitive concepts goes off, even if this is a sleep dream rather than a for-the-future dream.
You never have the same face twice
But I always know it’s you, and you’re always looking better than you really do – This reads a bit like the see-through-people thing that INTJs are known for.
Towards the end, we get the emotional payoff:
And years may go by, but I think the heart remains a child
And the mind may grow wise, but the heart just sulks and it whines and remains a child
Why don’t you love me?
Whether an NT is wrestling with a child/inferior Fi or an Fi that’s barely there at all, I think that’s a familiar issue phrased well. I know my own Si child thrashes around all the time, and an Fi child presumably would express its thrashing as something like this. It’s convenient that the song title pointed it out to everybody.
Next part: ENTP and INTP
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