Posted on 06/15/2015 7:35:27 AM PDT by don-o
(ANTIMEDIA) A recent study served to confirm the patently obvious: song lyrics for the most popular genres of music are ridiculously obtuse — and getting worse over time. Though this might not be a revelation, the figures are distressing indicators of both an intellectually vapid societal and cultural future as well as its apparent inevitability.
If you’ve already moved away from Billboard music, congratulations, you refuse to be insulted. But if you haven’t, or if you’re concerned about pop culture trends acting as portents of systemic dysfunction, you should probably pay attention. Andrew Powell-Morse of SeatSmart studied the “Lyric Intelligence” of 225 Billboard songs in the Pop, Country, Hip-hop, and Rock genres that spent three or more weeks parked at the top of the charts to analyze any changes over the course of ten years. And change there was.
Ten years ago, the most popular songs read between a third and fourth grade level, but the inanity only increased with time, and after a five-year downward tumble ending in 2014 (the last year of the study), chart-topping hits had a reading level equivalent to second or third grade. Broken into genres, the levels measured just 2.6 for Hip-hop/R&B, a tie of 2.9 for Rock and Pop, and faring best was Country at 3.3 —
(Excerpt) Read more at theantimedia.org ...
“Lonely is the night
When you find yourself alone . . .”
It was what the media conglomerates who own the record companies and the radio stations want people to hear. Next issue: why?
Most lyrics don’t even bother with punctuation, it’s usually only stuff that was originally written as a poem that somebody set to music that gets punctuation. So then what is a sentence if there’s no punctuation? I suppose you could argue the whole verse is a sentence.
The only thing that makes that not grade school level today is the use of words that have mostly evaporated from the language. Nobody does much “thus” and “hath” anymore. But at the time those words were common they weren’t advanced language. It’s gained grade levels with age.
Great lyrics don’t have to include fancy words. Great sentences don’t have to include fancy. Lyricism in language usually revolves around nice clean beats, clean beats are generally found in smaller words. Try working “prestidigitation” into some iambic pentameter... heck try working “iambic pentameter” into iambic pentameter. “Magic” works way better, two syllables, easy accent. “Veni, vidi, vici”, so simply a first semester Latin student can translate it, and yet one of the greatest sentences ever, even in English it’s got a great ring.
Oh, come on. It’s a 15.1 Flesh-Kincaid grade level sentence, with or without the archaic language. That sentence reflexes so often it hiccoughed and kicked itself in the ear.
I've heard stories of a good band being signed to a contract only to be left languishing because the company had too much invested in a similar sounding group.
As for what the companies are pushing, for some reason, it is the more profitable genre. Don't know why.
Try this one...
I’m a Ding Dong Daddy-Johnny Johnson and his Orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouhjFf0jliQ
Like this?
"Eight sided whisperin' hallelujah hatrack.
Seven-faced marble-eyed transitory dream doll.
Six proud walkers on a jingle-bell rainbow.
Five men writing with fingers of gold.
Four girls waiting in a foreign dominion.
Riding in a whale belly.
Fade away in moonlight.
Sink beneath the water to the coral sands below!"
"Oh what time to tell how, it is the season of what.
It is the time for returning your thought jewels polished and gleaming.
It is the time past believing the child has relinquished the reign.
Now is the test of the boomerang.
And lost in the night of redeeming."
They don’t write ‘em like they used to.....
The Yaller Rose of Texas, You All - Homer & Jethro
The yaller rose of Texas, the cutest on this earth
Her right eye looks at Dallas, her left one at Fort Worth
Her ponytail’s a dandy, that hairdo is a prize
Bet it comes in handy when she’s a-switchin’ flies
Her skin is red and fuzzy, it looks just like a peach
I looked her over from head to toe, and she had one of each
Her face has fallen arches, it hangs just like a sack
She’d like to have it lifted but she doesn’t have the jack
The yaller rose of Texas, she looks just like a weed
That one big upper tooth of hers looks like a punkin seed
When she opens up her mouth it looks just like a rake
Her lips are just like petals, I mean pedals on a brake
I was a-workin’ in the garden when I discovered her
I reached for an ol’ tomater and darlin’ there you were
You can take your nasty-sturtiums and take your violets too
And while your at it take the yaller rose of Texas too
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