(the following essay contains no absolutes, but merely my opinion on a majority of music)
So I've been thinking alot lately about lyrical song content lately.
(some points)
-serious/tounge-in-cheek/joke
-fiction/non-fiction
-anger/happy/love/ whatever.
And I want you guy's long winded input on it. So some douche said "my band was a joke, and when was I going to write "serious music" and I know, that song meaning and humorous content (as long as it's not too overt) is totally irrelivant to whether music is a "joke" or not. You can have a well crafted song about sled dogs peeing in the snow (zappa?) and it's still a serious song. I could go into detail about why this person's opinions are null and void ( the dude is a good songwriter/musician, but has fired his band at least 3 times....in alabama....I don't think you're following me here, he's going to have to find another cellist that is down with his style WITHIN A 30 MILE RADIUS. AGAIN. in ALABAMA!!)
I've heard so many "angry" bands that are supposed to be serious as a heart attack, but they end up just conveying to me why they are a musician, and not in politics or socio-economics.
Listening/reading a few "serious" songs, I realize that (as best as I can tell) what works best/works is conveying is how you *feel* about something, as opposed to what your opinion is, or trying to convince someone of a fact. Sure, a song can influence someones opinion on a topic, because of the emotional lead. but outright trying to explain a viewpoint in songform tends to sound pretty goofy. (propagandi comes to mind....yuck.)
(best 6th grade conversation voice) I saw, on this show, one time, on the discovery channel? .....that memory and emotion go hand in hand; that memory have little root or meaning without emotional context. the same thing goes for emotion, kinda. A dis-attached feeling doesn't mean anything unless you can relate or apply it from/to an experience, or idea. (like haveing an awesome metal song and the only words being "KNIFE FIGHT!" and you can feel all excited like, "so I guess this is the kind of excitement a knife fight provides")
(words/emotions thing)...which is why you have to be on drugs to enjoy electronic music. (just fucking with you, not true...................................................mostly)
What I was really getting at, is that music with words, any words, are more memorable and enjoyable, and that as long as you can evoke a clear feeling/mood, then you've succeeded, reguardless of humor or relative "seriousness" of the lyrical content.
not to say that instrumental music is incapible of doing that, lord no. I'm just saying music with some words tend to do it better. Certain vocal harmonys make me cry....no joke. But they have to be singing something true or beautiful for me to love it, and it can be something as simple as "we're having a party and you're invited!" or "you don't have to go to college" and I weep like a little girl, on que.
well THAT was adhd enough?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?????? TELL ME DAMN IT!!!!
 decatur, Alabama, USA
About me
I am COUNT SPLACKULA!!!!
I make techno,house, breakcore, hardcore, partyhardcore. (sometimes I make other stuff as well) you can hear some of my stuff at link I have an free ep on memoryformat recs: link And my STORE link My Gear
ableton live w/lots of free plugins!
roland alpha juno broken rx11 record player +Most Recent Blogs
|
Electronic Music other: music theory: emotional, conceptual, lyrical
Store
Written May 03 2009 , Tags: music, theory, emotional, conceptual, lyrics
Comments
Page 1 | 2
i think outright explaining a viewpoint could be good, but people would have to aim for a voice more like thucydides and less like sylvia plath.
the problem with words in music is that it requires you write some poetry. sometimes i don't wanna write goddamn poetry. wordless music can expresses the inexpressible...and allows for you to fill in your own meaning/
sometimes with words, the meaning is forced upon you//and this might be disagreeable to you personally. i.e. - la dee da " you are a fuc*ing idiot", la da dee" -- awesome melody, but i can't ride with those sentiments! had a great post and fucked it up...
music is music its completely subjective and means totally different things to diff ppl. ive got an old vhs video of frank zappa-'does humor belong in music?'
my conclusion: yes it does In my opinion lyrics about emotions rarely work, and only in certain circumstances. Music seems to be much better at conveying emotion. Lyrics about how the songwriter is feeling seem to be self serving most of the time. Why would I care what the songwriter is feeling?
I like lyrics that express things the music can't. Putting music in context by lyrically telling a story or describing a time or place seems to be effective. This is why political, psychological or social lyrics can be effective at times, provided the music provides a good compliment (or even better - an appropriate contrast). Also, lyrics that are very visually oriented seem to be a really good idea. Like a video with just words. I'm not an expert by any means, but I think if I was writing a lot of lyrics I'd be concentrating on these techniques, while also paying close attention to the rhythmic and timbral qualities of the words used; I'd be using Wikipedia and a good online thesaurus copiously. vocal sounds add so much human feeling to music- actual words/meaning is something different
If you enjoy your music, then FTW.
i guess songwriting and lyricism is kind of a vast confusion until it just makes sense.
what I mean is, lyrics can be any intention, the music can illustrate a complimentary or contradictory intention. but aiming for something specific usually happens by accident at first and then eventually becomes a goal. I dunno... Sometimes whole songs come out of me at once, words and all, and other times, it is like climbing Mt McKinley on a high wind day. ultimately if you are patient and you only commit to what you feel is truthful (whether it is laxidasical and jokey or serious and devastating or beautiful and insightful or a fiction) you justify the effort because you are exercising a type of discretion that becomes a piece of art. It doesn't have to have words, unless you wake up one day and decide on words that enrich the experience and justify the music. I dunno... Im doing alot of songwriting right now. but not because I feel like I have to put words in the space that the music is creating. Im doing it because I have to write some songs and they are coming out. lyrics are great!
Even if they don't make sense. "If you plan to make yourr living providing musical entertainment in the United States, you had better find a way to do something with a human voice plopped on top of it." -- Frank Zappa
Zappa was pretty up-front about the lyrics in his songs being there only because he needed to support himself and his family, and the record industry demanded lyrics. Particularly in the USA, songs have to have lyrics, or sampled human voice, or highly pitch-corrected vocoder-sounding voice, or something human-sounding, in order for consumers to "relate" to them. I don't know why. Something about the folk-music heritage here. Elsewhere (Europe), people can appreciate instrumental music more, maybe because of different level of musical education for the general public, or cultural reasons, I dunno. I recently met a guy who made a living in Europe running sound for experimental electronic music performances by serious (academic) composers. He could actually afford rent and food and transportation by doing that! I can't imagine such a thing happening in the USA. Another approach to take is the approach many new-wave and post-punk pop bands did in the 80's, the Michael Stipe pre-1990 approach: just mumble sounds and vowels that sound good to you, it doesn't have to mean anything. Eliabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins is another example. I have come to realize that if I am ever to be able to make more than my current $20/month making music, I'm going to have to sing, which means I'm going to have to write lyrics. I am not happy about this. I think lyrics work best when they are musical-- the melody and the sound of the words work musically and convey the emotion of the song, even if you don't understand the language. It's an added bonus if they have poetic goodness and evocative imagery too-- Thom Yorke does a great job of combining both, for example--, but to me that's secondary. If you're not concerned about money, then do what you feel. If you feel like singing, then sing. If you feel like making nonsense noises, make nonsense noises. If you feel like being funny, then what the fuck, just go for it and be funny. If you feel like pig squealing, then pig squeal. It's your music. i think "appeal of the human voice" is alot more visereal and instinctual, I mean, it's what our ears are mostly tuned for....recognizing and understanding vocals.
I always figured it was as simple as "If you don't have a message, then stfu", or at least make yourself no more than another part of the melody. Me personally, the human voice is just another monophonic instrument, so only singers with great voices get my attention. If I'm singing along to some catchy tune, chances are it's no different than air guitar/keys.
If I hear Terry Reid sing the blues, or Liz Fraser coo in delicate tones, or Andy Bell harmonizing with lovely synthys, it's all just part of the music. If the singer actually has a message I can relate to, it usually comes through, but I don't appreciate the piece as much.
Recent blogs: Re-amping Mic, How do you do it?
i like this blog!
Next up: the emotional content of the hiphop artists hand waving and gesturing
Page 1 | 2
Signup to comment
|