Owl City: Deer in the Headlights Meaning

Song Released: 2011

Deer in the Headlights Lyrics

Met a girl in the parking lot,
And all I did was say hello.
Her pepper spray made it rather hard
For me to walk her home,
But I guess that's the way it goes.

Tell me again was it love at first sight
When I walked by and you caught my...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Dec 6th 2011 !⃝

   Adam said in an interview that this song was about people who wanted to be in love for the sake of being in love. He talks about someone who is slightly desperate for a relationship but keeps getting rejected (pepper spray/ black eye and bloody nose). Ind the end, he says that eventually he'll be the "headlights" (dazzling boy) and the other girls will be the frozen deer.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jul 28th 2011 !⃝

   'Deer in the headlights' refers to the tendency of deer to remain completely still, stunned by the sudden brightness of the oncoming car.
   
   Basically, Adam recounts how he fell in love with a girl, and how she seems to reject him (with pepper spray). He apparently 'got the sense [he] was not her type.' He then begs the girl to give some sort of 'sign' whether she likes him or not.
   
   Throughout the chorus and in the end,
   "Didn't you know love could shine this bright?"
   "If love was a beam, you'd be blind in both eyes."
   "Put your sunglasses on 'cause you're a deer in the headlights."
   
   Light equals love. He tells his plan of stunning the girl with an onslaught of love, whether she accepted it or not, and that she better be prepared.

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jun 19th 2011 !⃝

   I think it's about a guy who is very lonely and trying to find a girlfriend, but they all keep rejecting him. He gets frustrated, and says basically this: Love at first sight was so strong when I saw you. I was a "deer in the headlights". How could you not see that? I'll come back and ask you out again later, and this time YOU'LL be the "deer in the headlights".
4. josephandhaley

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 1st 2013 !⃝

   okay clearly this song is about a boy who meets a girl for the first he just says hellow (but its clear he likes her) and she starts pulling out mace and panics...she panics because she gets beates on so when he says your the deer in the headlights she doesnt know what love is becase shes used to getting beat on....

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jul 18th 2012 !⃝

   The song is clearly about love at first sight. He talks about how he saw that beautiful girl, and he was lovestruck. He found himself very smittten, and fighting to please her.
   
   Just my opinion.
6. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 8th 2012 !⃝

   He said in an interview this words: "there's a song called 'deer in the headlights' that is a very tongue-in-cheek commentary about the fact that a lot of people want to be in love for the sake of being in love, because you're lonely otherwise, or so it can be thought of that way, and it's kind of a sassy song about how - at least in my opinion - that isn't the case, and I think there are certain seasons in everybody's life where you're supposed to go through doors alone, and some doors you just go with..." Adam Young
7. thenoone

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 28th 2012 !⃝

   You want to know what this song really means to me? Well it means that I was with someone and I gave them all I can possibly give. Everything that was special to me. A week later, she just said, "I think it's better off we're just friends." This is what it means to me. You sometimes think they like you back, but then, they just do it so they won't hurt your feelings.
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Oct 4th 2011 !⃝

   This thought just now hit me, but could this song be about Lights? I mean she was in the video...either way I think the real meaning of this song is about someone trying to find love by giving all their love rather the person wants it or not, and the other person is shocked by his persistence...maybe.
9. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Aug 23rd 2011 !⃝

   I think it means he's stunned by how bright the lights of love are [like a deer in the headlights would be stunned of the light in your headlights] and he finds love.
   But the love rejects him, so eventually they'll be the deer in the headlights because they'll realize it was love at first sight, but he'll already be gone.
10. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jul 24th 2011 !⃝

    I think that Adam wrote this song for all the guys that have bad luck with women, therefore people can relate to it. I know I can!
11. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jul 16th 2011 !⃝

    Adam young went to walmart at 2 in the morning and a very attractive female squirted him in the eyes with pepper spray. He said that, that's what this song was about.
12. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jul 9th 2011 !⃝

    I think it's about a guy who runs into a girl and he is stunned frozen by the brightness of love at first sight, like a deer in the headlights.
13. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jun 27th 2011 !⃝

    Adam said in a video that this song is about someone who's in love merely for the sake of being in love.
14. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jun 26th 2011 !⃝

    Adam is a shy type person so when he met that girl, he was so shy to say something or drive the girl home. And he feels that he is not her type. But he accepted it.

Latest Articles

• 
  A new era for Millennial favorite, Linkin Park
• 
  Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable
• 
  Dolly, we need you
• 
  The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media
• 
  The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s
• 
  Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)