Lyrics - What's the point?
- Thread starter sufi
- Start date
yeah no point. sometimes i just like the sound of the voice but i don't care what they're saying as long as it's not upsetting (ie super violent rap etc I don't wanna hear unless it's funny)
i could never understand smiths fans going on about how great the lyrics were when the music was so boring, if I want good words I read a book.
but today skepta made me laugh out loud on the tube when i heard this on my walkman:
"i know you seen me on the DVD, I got big lips like angelina jolie".
everyone looked at me funny.
oh yeah there's another thread for grime lyrics......
i could never understand smiths fans going on about how great the lyrics were when the music was so boring, if I want good words I read a book.
but today skepta made me laugh out loud on the tube when i heard this on my walkman:
"i know you seen me on the DVD, I got big lips like angelina jolie".
everyone looked at me funny.
oh yeah there's another thread for grime lyrics......
Hmmm ... What's the point of lyrics ?
Well, if you write'em and get the song out - you get half the publishing (split 50/50 words/music)
and someone's got to write songs with lyrics so those who do not can sample them,
I mean where would Carl Cox's "Tonight" (F.A.C.T.1)
or Junior Cartier ('Women Beat Their Men') be if there had been no lyrics to "Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight" ?
Well, if you write'em and get the song out - you get half the publishing (split 50/50 words/music)
and someone's got to write songs with lyrics so those who do not can sample them,
I mean where would Carl Cox's "Tonight" (F.A.C.T.1)
or Junior Cartier ('Women Beat Their Men') be if there had been no lyrics to "Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight" ?
Ness Rowlah
Norwegian Wood
When someone has a (bizarre) story to tell
- ie like Nick Lowe's "Marie Prevost", Stan Ridgeway's "Roadblock",
Nick Cave, or typical English acts like Ian Dury and *cough* the Arctic Monkeys
it's worth paying attention to.
Trobadour and/or Country seems to have some of the best writers
(easier to let the lyrics come across over quiet type music - although
that doesn't help someone like James Blunt).
I am not talking "Stand by your man" etc, but acts&tracks like
Gillian Welch's "Revelator" (trust/love), Townes Van Zandt
("Kathleen"/suicide - I know Tindersticks had a hit (?) with this - but I've never heard it), Lyle Lovett (something like his murder lyrics on LA County) etc.
- ie like Nick Lowe's "Marie Prevost", Stan Ridgeway's "Roadblock",
Nick Cave, or typical English acts like Ian Dury and *cough* the Arctic Monkeys
it's worth paying attention to.
Trobadour and/or Country seems to have some of the best writers
(easier to let the lyrics come across over quiet type music - although
that doesn't help someone like James Blunt).
I am not talking "Stand by your man" etc, but acts&tracks like
Gillian Welch's "Revelator" (trust/love), Townes Van Zandt
("Kathleen"/suicide - I know Tindersticks had a hit (?) with this - but I've never heard it), Lyle Lovett (something like his murder lyrics on LA County) etc.
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bassnation
the abyss
people love to sing along to tunes - especially women, and drunken ones at that. i think its great personally but i don't suppose we want to discuss what ordinairy people might get out of music do we?
lyrics add an enormous amount of value to music whether its textural or if the words actually mean something. it can give a social context to music, it can make songs into a rallying point for a generation or protest movement. lyrics can provoke, frustrate or touch you deeply especially when they concern the big things that affect all of us at some point or another - e.g. lost or unrequited love.
you aren't going to get these things from german bloody microhouse are you?
i'm suprised that these things need to be pointed out, just shows how cossetted this place is from reality sometimes.
lyrics add an enormous amount of value to music whether its textural or if the words actually mean something. it can give a social context to music, it can make songs into a rallying point for a generation or protest movement. lyrics can provoke, frustrate or touch you deeply especially when they concern the big things that affect all of us at some point or another - e.g. lost or unrequited love.
you aren't going to get these things from german bloody microhouse are you?
i'm suprised that these things need to be pointed out, just shows how cossetted this place is from reality sometimes.
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i like them some of the time but then when you remember not everyone is a poet, and that fitting rhyming words into bars and phrases is not the optimum place for prose esp when it has to adhere to genre conventions as well, which are often silly themselves, then you kinda forgive the fact that 90% are laughable - even if sometimes they do mean something for a while.
and everythng that bassnation said
and everythng that bassnation said
hear hear bassnation. from a board that waffles on about grime as much as this one does, this has to be about the daftest question i've ever heard. words add texture, tell stories, put messages across, document peoples lives and help to set music in a historical context. think about grime a second. what makes it so of its time and place, so absolutely contemporary and real. is it the music? no. so i'd say there's plenty of point if only for these reasons. however, less of the highfalutin stuff, they just sound good and give people a way of interacting with music i.e. singing along as marc mentioned. personally i don't like much stuff *without* lyrics, and, yes, i do listen to them, like about 95 per cent of the rest of people. seriously, i'm totally dumbfounded by some of the responses here, because they make me think people are missing about 75 per cent of the point of what they're listening to.
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bruno
est malade
nice question, sufi
even if you're not paying attention to lyrics the voice usually gives away what is going on. even a monotone voice. you can describe a story with ups, downs and sometimes a conclusion without saying anything intelligible (though the music itself can help emphasize meaning).
and so billions of people all over the world just melt away to lyrics without understanding a word of what's being said.
even if you're not paying attention to lyrics the voice usually gives away what is going on. even a monotone voice. you can describe a story with ups, downs and sometimes a conclusion without saying anything intelligible (though the music itself can help emphasize meaning).
and so billions of people all over the world just melt away to lyrics without understanding a word of what's being said.
Generally, I'm not that fussed about lyrics; in that, they're about the fifth thing I'll notice about a song. Unless it's hip hop, in which case it's maybe second or third.
That said, I was in Dixon's earlier, and they had "Toxic" on the stereo. The Britney Spears one. Whereupon I discovered I know all the words, and was quite happily singing along. Out loud. It was great.
Sorry, this contribution adds absolutely nothing to the thread. I just felt like a bit of a confessional
That said, I was in Dixon's earlier, and they had "Toxic" on the stereo. The Britney Spears one. Whereupon I discovered I know all the words, and was quite happily singing along. Out loud. It was great.
Sorry, this contribution adds absolutely nothing to the thread. I just felt like a bit of a confessional
sufi
lala
i remember reading where you said something like that, matt, about grime, i was kinda surprised.WOEBOT said:
cos when you hear words on top of atune, even if it's just some obscure sample it flavours the tune & fixes it in the memory sometimes in an almost subliminal way, no?
but i also do appreciate that wry arch humor of grime lyric - and hiphop also, and the upliftment of reggae...
& hiphop lyric also appeals to me in some kind of a sociological way - interesting in terms of access to quite a far culture - 'sociological' meaning in this case i think, as it often does, a cover for some sort of voyeurism that i'm maybe not altogether comfortable with
Why songs?
I admit, often lyrics are one of the last things I pay attention to.
However, knowing them (even a translation of them) doubles my enjoyment of the music every time.
The first bunch of times you listen to the sound, the musical structure, all of that. Then you hear how it all relates to the words, the story, and it becomes twice the experience. Why listen in one dimension?
I admit, often lyrics are one of the last things I pay attention to.
However, knowing them (even a translation of them) doubles my enjoyment of the music every time.
The first bunch of times you listen to the sound, the musical structure, all of that. Then you hear how it all relates to the words, the story, and it becomes twice the experience. Why listen in one dimension?
jenks
thread death
matt b said:
I really agree with this.
In the nineties i pretty much gave up on lyric-led music. I think this had as much to do with the lack of anyone saying anything of interest/wit as anything else but i noticed that after a while i hankered after the word.
i think it led to my embracing of alt.country like the ahndsome family, lambchop, gillian welch and others. artists who invest some degree of time and thought into what they say, as much as how they say it.
I may well draw the rage of a large anti-smiths movement out there but growing up hearing someone so distinctive saying all manner of stuff in a totally individual fashion made lyrics essential. in thrall to the word.
I'm not so sure there are so many lyricists around at present who may well offer that degree of devotion but listening to the dancehall/reggae mixtapes recently posted by droid/matt b/xicquet/john eden here show how lyrics really do matter in terms of narrative and texture.
do the lyrics add the essentially human (just an idea, not thought through)
Hmm I'm a bit put out by Bassnation's response cos it sounds a bit angry when people are only giving their personal feelings.
What's wrong with me liking instrumental music more than vocals, or enjoying vocals more for texture than the actual content/meaning of the words? What gives you the right to speak for "ordinary people" and say that me and others on this board are not? I think the world is full of people with different opinions and tastes and it's a bit of a sneaky attack to say "ordinary people" think like this and therefore imply anyone who says different is a snob. I feel pretty ordinary, i take the rubbish out go shopping at asda and listen to music and piss and shit etc etc.
"lyrics add an enormous amount of value to music whether its textural or if the words actually mean something."
etc.
that's a totally valid opinion but it's just your opinion, not that of all the ordinary people in the world you claim to speak for. maybe the opinion of the majority, and i agree about the textural bit, but it doesn't mean everyone who prefers piano music or techno is a freak.
"just shows how cossetted this place is from reality sometimes."
because some of us don't listen to the words as much as you we are out of touch with reality? the vocal on a record is more real than the drums or the guitar or the keyboards?
with no rancour or disrespect, you're tripping mate!
for example i love kraftwerk which isn't very controversial and I found out about them when they were on top of the pops with their number one single "the model" which a lot of normal people must've bought to get it there. i like listening to ralf hutter's funny weak voice but are you gonna tell me the lyrics are deep and i am missing out on the true meaning?
all this rant is meant in the spirit of friendly discussion, not personal attacking!
What's wrong with me liking instrumental music more than vocals, or enjoying vocals more for texture than the actual content/meaning of the words? What gives you the right to speak for "ordinary people" and say that me and others on this board are not? I think the world is full of people with different opinions and tastes and it's a bit of a sneaky attack to say "ordinary people" think like this and therefore imply anyone who says different is a snob. I feel pretty ordinary, i take the rubbish out go shopping at asda and listen to music and piss and shit etc etc.
"lyrics add an enormous amount of value to music whether its textural or if the words actually mean something."
etc.
that's a totally valid opinion but it's just your opinion, not that of all the ordinary people in the world you claim to speak for. maybe the opinion of the majority, and i agree about the textural bit, but it doesn't mean everyone who prefers piano music or techno is a freak.
"just shows how cossetted this place is from reality sometimes."
because some of us don't listen to the words as much as you we are out of touch with reality? the vocal on a record is more real than the drums or the guitar or the keyboards?
with no rancour or disrespect, you're tripping mate!
for example i love kraftwerk which isn't very controversial and I found out about them when they were on top of the pops with their number one single "the model" which a lot of normal people must've bought to get it there. i like listening to ralf hutter's funny weak voice but are you gonna tell me the lyrics are deep and i am missing out on the true meaning?
all this rant is meant in the spirit of friendly discussion, not personal attacking!