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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Mark London <mrl@psfc.mit.edu> |
| Subject | Song lyrics |
| Date | Tue, 4 Nov 2003 13:14:23 -0500 |
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Usually, when people are asked which is more important in a song, the
vocals, the instrumentation, or the lyrics, the lyrics is often
picked last. For years I probably would have agreed with this.
However, the older I've gotten, and then more music I've listened to,
the more I find myself bored with most new music, since I've
basically "heard it all". Fresh and totally new sounding vocalists
or instrumentation simply doesn't exist. However, the one thing that
can be made different, and can be easily done so, is the lyrics. I'm
not talking about making meaningful lyrics, or even ones that
necessarily make any sense, just ones that are interesting to listen
to, If one has a creative mind, one can create phrases and sentences
that are uncommon or never heard before, which makes the song more
interesting. A simple song like "Dear Prudence", is interesting
because of the unusual name Prudence. And surprisingly, if you
listen to that song, the chorus is constantly repeated, with few
other lyrics. If it was "Dear Mary" or "Dear Jane", it wouldn't be
the same, and would be a forgettable song, if not for that one word.
And I believe that this is the reason why rock has faded while music
like rap has taken it's place. Rap's strength is the lyrics, and the
fact that the the lyrics are song relatively quickly compared to the
rock. If there is a stupid line in a rap song, it goes by quickly,
so it's not as annoying as it might be in a rock song. And if
nothing else, you can listen to the cool rhymes.
So it frustrates me when I sample a new rock or power pop band, and
first hear the instrumentation, which sounds good, and then the
vocalist starts singing, and that's ok, but then I quickly get turned
off by the generic lyrics, made up of uninspired normal conversation
phrases. To me, that is the real reason for the downfall of good
music these days.
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