Lyrics Are Just Words

When I was at work, a few weeks ago, a fellow worker showed up with his laptop. During the downtimes, when there was nothing to do, he played several comedy clips. One of them mentioned the disconnect between the lyrics of a song and people’s reaction to it.

This mention stuck with me, as it was something I have thought about before. There have been several songs that I found myself liking without qu-ite being able to hear the lyrics, only to find out some time later that the lyrics were about something I did NOT like at all. Usually drugs. (I’m a fairly big fan of trance, techno, and electronica; I feel it’s really a shame so much of what I can find in those categories ends up relating to drugs. But that’s a post for another day.)

At the time, I nodded mentally. “Yeah! How DARE those lyrics! They and their tricksy, tricksy ways!”

But today, I had a different thought. Lyrics, you see, are just words. Words are just fronts for constructs and concepts; how often have you heard the phrase “I can’t put words to it” or some variant? Without their attached constructs and concepts, words are just sounds.

And if you look at it that way, music (and other forms of speech) lose their ability to be offensive.

Is that a good thing? No, sometimes we need offense. If we’re never offended, our ideas are never challenged. I’m not saying we should take offense at everything either, of course. I could be offended by the fact that the paint in my room is not blue. But you know? That would be rather silly.

So what am I saying? Ah, yes, the topic. An important thing, I should get back to it.

If you must be offended by music, be offended by the whole thing. A good piece of music conveys a complete story in both instrumentals and lyrics. Trite, yet true. Don’t pick on the lyrics alone; give the whole song credit for your offense.

~ by Danielle on February 7, 2009.