Vocal Pop Music -- Do you listen to lyrics?

"Vocal pop music" in the broadest sense--anything that qualifies as a song, with sung/spoken lyrics.

I myself find that I pay almost no attention to lyrics whatsoever in almost any form of vocal pop. And even when I've apparently heard the lyrics well enough that I can/do sing along, I can't say I've often been compelled to think much about what they might mean. In most vocal formats, the lyrics are either so inane or trite (which isn't to say "untrue') that there's really more "meaning" to be gleamed from the vocalising/expression/melody than can be sussed from some sort of literary elucidation of the verbage. Even the "poets" to whom I was drawn as a wee "rockist"--say, Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello--or non-melodic vocal forms (like hip-hop) I listened to prevelantly impressed me more in their faculty for word play and "naturally" working in metrical forms than for any "content"--so even then, I think I was listening for cadence and rhythm, the musical qualities of the sounds of the words.

I'm dating a young woman at present who is virtually the opposite of me--she is a poet and hence listens to primarily vocal pop music, and primarily to the words, I assume for explicit or poetic content. I'll regularly become a bit fogged on walks together, because I become entranced by the sounds of the traffic across the bridges or noise of construction. Which further suggests that for me, music is almost entirely about the sounds, the texture, the atmosphere, the beats.

One of the few songs I can think of at the moment that have struck me and stuck with me over many years due in substantial part to the content of the lyrics is "I Want You" by Elvis Costello. And even this song relies on a repeated, simple phrase ("I want you") that takes on different emotional connotations via lyrical and musica context. On paper, it would hardly read as "poetry".

shudder said:

I'm getting the sense (although I've always had it) that this board is particularly music (i.e. not lyric) centric. This really shouldn't be much of a surprise, given that dance musics seem to be pretty much the common denominator here. Anyone know any boards on the other side of the divide? I don't think music-centrism is quite particular to music geekery, since you can definitely find those who want to analyse the fuck out of Dylan or whoever...

(Sort of related to the topic at hand, the last track on the latest Sonic Youth LP, Or, ends with the question:


Also I think that's sort of asked by a fan boy to the object of his fandom. I.e., it's the perennial questions ppl ask of songwriters, which is kinda the other side of our question.)

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This is going to sound elitist, but honestly I don't mean for it to be, because I myself still love quite a lot of the music that I loved when I was a young lyric-ist (wink term). But I have found that most deeply obsessed/addicted/advanced/pathetic music geeks are a bit more music-centric, rather than interested in elucidating "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". The only people I know with a life-long, abiding passion for lyrics tend to be musicians who're deeply rooted in singer-songwriter traditions; and maybe a few people who maintain focused obsession with pre-war American folk musics.

I attribute this tendency (for which I only have experiential/anecdotal evidence) to the probability that ultimately, if one wants to listen to all that much music, one is eventually going to enter the worlds of instrumental music (Jazz, classical, modern compositional, field recordings, and for all intents and purposes, electronic dance music and music with lyrics in languages one does not speak). This is related to my sense that eventually, most music geeks move from the sort of fanaticism that allows one to focus myopically on one artist or genre; to the sort of voracious appetite to appreciate as much of the range of human expression as possible. Secondly, I tend to think those who really get into music for the lyrics--via the "poets" of lyricism, like Dylan--will probably eventually move on/return to non-musical poetry, because lyrics in pop music probably couldn't remain that satisfying (in most cases) beyond a certain threshold, because they do tend to be a bit "daft" or simplistic. This will sound almost uselessly obvious--but it's the sound that is music's unique offering, and the only real reason to choose it over poetry or any other related artform. Tihs even seems true in hip-hop/grime, even of the most "conscious" bent, because the "content" is often as formulaic as in love song singer-songwriter croons or hippie protest songs--it's the flow that is appealing, the cleverness of the verbal combinations in their metrical presentation. In fact, the worst hip-hop is often the "message" tracks.


Other lyricists to whom I find myself giving some attention to content: Kraftwerk, pre-war/acoustic blues, the Carter Family, Bjork, Tom Waits, This Heat, Erykah Badu, Stevie Wonder, Sam Phillips, Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Donna Summer, Marvin Gaye, The Zombies, Last Poets. . . but even in all of those cases, I realise I pay more attention to the expressiveness of the voices and the sounds of the words to a much greater degree than the "story". I will admit to having found Modest Mouse to be one of the few redeemable unequivocally "indie rock" acts, largely on the strength of the songwriters "trucker poet" lyrics--they capture a certain feeling of America's geographic wide-openness.

Shudder--sometimes the reason I wish I did listen to lyrics more is because I realise if I make a mix for some people, they probably are going to pay a lot of attention to the lyrics--and either look for subtext (that is, something I'm trying to tell them) or they're going to be dissappointed with the relative inanity of the lyrics. So I'll sometimes preface mixes with the admission that I don't pay attention to lyrics, that I just wanted to share some sounds.

mistersloane said:

Poetry kinda focuses on that too.

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Of course. But it tends to be secondary to "meaning" (and metrical qualities tend to be pretty tertiary in non-formal poetry). I just meant that even when I am drawn to vocals in music, it's still primarily for their musical qualities.

shudder said:

was just listening to your excellent blogariddims mix, soundslike, and when Frankie Teardrop came up it struck me as a pretty obvious example of a "song" where lyrics are key. It also scared the fuck out of me, as usual. Thanks a lot. (thank god there's that soothing balm of the Cage afterward)

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Yeah, I would definitely cite that one as a song where I pay attention very much to the "story"--though its effectiveness is still probably 90% musical (and, erm, screamical?). (Then again, the vocals still cut across and it's still scary even with the noisy remix of Specials AKA added in). I used to play that one for my unsuspecting friends when we were in our late teens--I'd make them sit in the dark so they'd have no distraction-escape. Always scary as fuck : )