06.26.09
The Importance of Song Lyrics… or Lack Thereof
With all the news surrounding Michael Jackson’s death, I came across somebody discussing Smooth Criminal, what a weird plot it was and what a cool video it was. I’d never listened to the lyrics, and I’d never seen the video. Did both. It is a cool looking video, but I spent the whole time wondering what dancing at a speakeasy had to do with a song about somebody breaking into a girl’s house and killing (and maybe also raping) her. The lyrics to the song are seriously disturbing, and it was really popular.
I wonder sometimes about how we really don’t listen to the words of our songs. When The Killers’ first album was released, I intro’d a poetry unit in my English class by having the class analyze “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine“, which was all over the radio at the time. About half the kids in my class hadn’t realized it was about a murder, and none of them had realized it was the testimony of the murderer as he was questioned by the police. (“I know my rights; I’ve been here all day and it’s time for me to go” “She couldn’t scream as I held her close. I swore I’d never let her go.”)
When I bring this up, ’cause I really have to know the words to the songs I like, and every now and then they bother me enough to not listen to the song any more, but a lot of people say something like, “it’s MUSIC it’s not about the words” or “it just has to have a good beat; I don’t really listen to the words.” But if words are so useless, why is music with lyrics overwhelmingly more popular than music without? Is it comforting to sing the same five words from the chorus every time they come up? (people do at least register the words in the chorus; several kids told me that The Killers song was, in fact, about a guy with a friend named Jenny) Or do we just like being able to sing along, even if our brain is so disconnected from meaning that we don’t actually know what we’re saying? And is that kinda sad that we don’t even know what we’re condoning and advertising by proclaiming it in song?
In the car the other day, Laura plays LadyGaga’s Just Dance for me and says something to the effect of, “I love it. I was listening and listening to it, because I love to dance. And then I realized that I think it’s actually about a girl who got so stoned at a club that she’s afraid to leave, so she’s just dancing. Which, I guess is a better moral lesson than getting stoned at a club and driving home with a stranger. Eh, I still like the song.”
I’ve since downloaded it. I like the song, too. Not as much as I like Poker Face (off the same album), which I think, maybe, could possibly be about a girl who’s trying to hook a boy by sleeping with him before she tells him she loves him (genius plan, honey). But I’m not really sure, I just like the beat. And singing ‘Ma-ma-ma Poker Face!”
GG said,
July 7, 2009 at 9:11 am
Billy loves the Toadies, and a lot of their popular songs have really disturbing lyrics. Like from the perspective of a serial killer talking to his victim. He’s well aware of the lyrics, but still loves the band. I think it’s the darkness that attracts him. Eek!