soundslike1981
Well-known member
"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".
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".
Last edited: