Listening to music with vocals

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I seek out lyricists who can write poetry. It isn't enough for me that the music be sophisticated, though that, too, is a requirement - it needs to say something.

Its like the difference between layering random splashes of paint on a canvas and using a brush to create objects and people. Both may be "art" subjectively speaking, but one is just aesthetic decoration and the other speaks to me of human experience and emotion.

Then there's common Pop Music, which is the equivalent of stick figure cartoons. Occasionally amusing, but not to be taken seriously.

Yes, when I listen to songs I care much more about the melody than the lyrics. I usually don't care about the meaning behind the song at all.

IMHO most lyrics of most pops are little more than piffle at best.

by and large the words are just handy things to rhythmically enhance the melodies and hang the hooks on.

^ Well, then they might as well sing about how delicious the dinner was, how crowded the shopping centre is, how gross it is to accidentally step on a snail etc.

I usually just avoid music that has vocals altogether. I always feel that the vocals just get in the way, I often cant understand them anyway (too distorted, so it sounds like gibberish), and with the ones I CAN understand, the words REALLY get in the way.

This is basically what song writing is about. Lyrics don't necessarily have to make sense.

Take Yesterday, by the Beatles, it a classic example of the lyrics leading the melody.

Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin, it is just the voice but it could equally be done with a fiddle. They might up the tempo a smidgen.

I think there has to be progression in the song. That is the problem with some pop music, no progression, all the tricks with voice don't improve things if there is no tonal variation and progression through the song, and it is all auto-tuned.

Also there is cross over from pure poetry and musicality. For instance Bruce Springsteen. In folk they put more words in, there isn't a strict conformity to the melody, depending on the artist. So it kind of has both aspects, sometimes one more than the other.

For me, vocals in music can be appreciated in a variety of ways. There are many songs I like with lyrics that are powerful, inspiring, etc... Then there are those which are simply rhythmic or pleasant. I also like a lot of songs not in English and can get an emotional response despite that. Opera and Japanese pop are two examples. Words can be ideas conveyed clearly or simply sounds that resonate like an instrument.