That's true. A lot of pop lyrics can actually be quite clever and fun in unexpected ways. Not all pop is fluff. Some of it can actually have quite a bit of depth and meaning behind it.
Prove me wrong musically
- Thread starter Romo Lampkin
- Start date
Over the past decade or so, because of the "remember the '80s" channels on cable, I've been re-evaluating music from my teenage years (of the 1980s). I now find that a lot of pop music from then that I originally took as pure fluff has much more depth than I realized at the time.
I don't know. I listen to a lot of music in languages I don't speak. Yet I can still "understand" or intupret the intent and the spirit without actually understanding the lyrics. You can get a lot just from the melody and temp.
It's like that time Richard Gere took Julia Roberts to the opera.
On the whole that's not true. Led Zeppelin have great music with absolutely woeful lyrics, Whole Lotta Love is one example, awesome riff, generic lyrics about sex, meh (kind of funny if you listen to them though, in terms of the un PCness of it all). But lyrics aren't 'music' for me, they're words to give the vocalist something to do, it sounds better than singing lalala for 4 minutes. Sometimes the lyrics are attention grabbing but there are very few artists capable of writing great lyrics. Joy Division wrote inferior music to Led Zep (it's still good music but nowhere on par with Zep or Queen and how could it be? They were punk musicians who could barely play so it was always going to be limited). However Ian Curtis did write great lyrics that were attention grabbing. Ditto for Reverend Bizarre, they have awesome lyrics, ironically vastly more sophisticated compared to most native English speaking bands as they're Finnish. Sometimes it's better not to hear the lyrics, they can be so inane or crude it can cause anger and bewilderment at how such artists are "popular". U
I find lyrics can be very important to the song. Not every lyric is going to be great poetry. But Rock music has been lyric driven from the start, even if its
Wop bop a loo bop a lop bom bom!
Tutti frutti, oh rutti
Tutti frutti, oh rutti
Tutti frutti, oh rutti
Tutti frutti, oh rutti
Tutti frutti, oh rutti
Wop bop a loo bop a lop ba ba!
Complaining about aa rock song with sexist lyrics is a bit lile complaining water is wet.
Wop bop a loo bop a lop bom bom!
Tutti frutti, oh rutti
Tutti frutti, oh rutti
Tutti frutti, oh rutti
Tutti frutti, oh rutti
Tutti frutti, oh rutti
Wop bop a loo bop a lop ba ba!
Complaining about aa rock song with sexist lyrics is a bit lile complaining water is wet.
I'm not complaining though, was saying that the lyrics are dumb and don't really matter much in a song like Whole Lotta Love, it's about the riff, the rhythm and the production in turning what essentially amounts to a three note riff into a monster epic. I think that some rock music is lyric driven but it's easily just as instrumentally/musically driven, particularly when you get into metal and 70s hard rock. I like the innuendo of 70s rock, it's hilarious, Love Gun is a particular example, I'm in a band called Megalithic where we strive to emulate that kind of idiocy, it's better in any case than hip hop songs where they just out and out say what they mean.
Ah, you guys appear to be engaged in the age old debate between "lyrisist" and "musician":
Lyrisist; "when's the last time an instrumental was number 1 on the charts?"
Musician: "Ever heard anyone humming a lyric?"
It's been going on for years, guys.
For me, lyrics only matter if they're really good or really bad. For the middle 80%, it's more about the charisma and emotional expression of the delivery than the lyrics themselves.
Bands with really great lyrics that enhance the song for me:
Simon and Garfunkel
Bob Dylan
Neil Young
Townes Van Zandt
Public Enemy
Gil Scot-Heron
Bands with really terrible lyrics that make me dislike songs even when they have decent melodies:
Staind
Kanye West
Rap acts that focus mostly on the subject of how they have lots of guns, money and women and that this fact makes them super-awesome
I also listen to some french rock like Serge Gainsbourg who I am told have excellent lyrics, but I enjoy them without understanding the lyrics.
Bands with really great lyrics that enhance the song for me:
Simon and Garfunkel
Bob Dylan
Neil Young
Townes Van Zandt
Public Enemy
Gil Scot-Heron
Bands with really terrible lyrics that make me dislike songs even when they have decent melodies:
Staind
Kanye West
Rap acts that focus mostly on the subject of how they have lots of guns, money and women and that this fact makes them super-awesome
I also listen to some french rock like Serge Gainsbourg who I am told have excellent lyrics, but I enjoy them without understanding the lyrics.
Ironically Ice T started that trend off in rap yet is/was in my opinion an excellent lyricist, his political/socially conscious raps in particular, hard hitting yet incredibly eloquent/insightful. Kanye West personifies all that is wrong in music today, weirdly, as if I migrated into a parallel universe where everything is assways, people regard him as a "genius." I've heard his stuff, it's not genius at all. It's very far from that description.
I think Kanye West has a couple really good songs, he's good at the old cut/pasting and production polish.
But his lyrics are universally on the subject of the greatness of Kanye West.
He gets boosted because a few critics at places like Pitchfork have a sexual obsession with him.
But his lyrics are universally on the subject of the greatness of Kanye West.
He gets boosted because a few critics at places like Pitchfork have a sexual obsession with him.
Yeah, and I think it's an easy mistake to make, because when we live through something, we don't always appreciate what we have, but looking back, it can be easier to pick up on things we missed the first time around. It's a bit like a kid missing a lot of subtle jokes in a Pixar movie. We experience growth that can give new context on things.
Some of the best songs do borrow, but I think it's more out of inspiration than for a lack of creativity. They want to in some way, express their inspirations and pay tribute to them.
Currently, I feel Steven Page (formerly of the Barenaked Ladies) has written some of the best pop songs for his solo career. This particular song from his first solo album from after his departure shows a lot of his inspiration from the Beatles.
Another vote for Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson. I'd also suggest Spock's Beard and The Flower Kings if you like proggy.
If you want something loud and Metallica jamming with Kraftwerk sounds intriguing :
https://m.youtube.com/?gl=GB#/watch?v=liM_ExB21e8
If you want something loud and Metallica jamming with Kraftwerk sounds intriguing :
https://m.youtube.com/?gl=GB#/watch?v=liM_ExB21e8
Exactly.
Then there's the whole "if I knew then what I know now" trip, but that's a different story.
Sorry, I'm not hearing anything new here, it's basically garage rock and Maroon Five esque music, I can't get into it, totally subjective but I have to say it, because I'm still searching the internet for rock music that's bucking the trend, that isn't market oriented or overly polished/proffesional, that's daring and unique, a statement, a provocation, individual, auteur, and I can't find any. The only artist that's got me excited is Lazerhawk and he's not even rock!
You're right in that it's totally subjective. Saying "Of Monsters an Men" sounds like garage rock and Maroon 5 seems rather silly to me, though. They gave us this which I found pretty creative:
But then again it's hard to say what "bucking the trend" really means to you anyway. There aren't any big trends anymore in music if you ask me. Most genres, rock included, have diversified and split up into so many different styles.
If you're waiting for somebody to "re-invent the rock genre", you're out of luck because the whole genre is way too diversified to be re-invented.
I mean, these are all rock music and are very different from each other.
Indie rock is alive and well
Then there's the whole post-rock genre:
There's always mainstream rock
https://youtu.be/ev-bR9ii7Gs
What's rock anyway?
Right now there are so many singer-songwriters using traditional instruments telling their stories. Is that not rock music, too? In that it certainly isn't pop? Rock music is about intent and attitude, too.
My point is rock music can be many things. It's not going anywhere and it's doing just fine. There's plenty of rock music I can't stand and there are plenty of gems. In fact right now is a good time to enjoy good rock music because it's not all about the stupid TOP 10 Charts anymore.
I'd say it's an attitude problem, too. Starting a thread with a "Prove to me that rock isn't dead" attitude that implies that you're already convinced rock music is boring is unlikely to be particularly productive.
I'm already convinced that R&B is a stupid genre that's dominated only by shallow tits&ass&money music so you're not going to convince me that R&B can be relevant to me.
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You're absolutely right. In fact, you only have to look back to when Rock was in its heyday to see how it all came about as a result of an attitude change and of wanting to buck the trend. Folk music, folk-rock, ie, they seem to be the thing right now, and I think it's one of the bigger current trends in music. Like Emelia mentioned, it's diversified so much as to be impossible to pigeon-hole.
Thee Duhks are one of my favourite examples. Making rock music using trad instruments and beats from their many backgrounds. In fact they just recently released a new album.
Beyond the Blue from their latest
And Mighty Storm from their previous albums, which was actually quite avantgarde at the time as not as many fans embraced it due to a change in their sound. This is also actually a trad song.
Yes, I missed them, I was referring to the first couple of vids and the last one. They're even worse, mobile phone ad music. There are only a few rock artists I can think of that are doing anything remotely interesting as in bucking the trend, going against the kind of overly polished, anthemic crowd pleasing music you have on the one hand and the back to basics, meat and potato rock you have on the other. Singer songwriters do not produce rock, they write easy listening music at worst, or folk music when it's good. And if we're talking about metal so much of it is sterile, over produced/polished and for want of a better word, corporate, in being aimed at such a specific market demographic that it loses all originality and spark, simply being formulaic. However metal as a whole suffers less from this than other genres of rock. Still a lot of metal bands are incredibly dull/conservative in their approach. If I were already convinced I wouldn't have started a thread looking for options.
