How do people find meanings in songs?

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Whenever I listen to a song I can never find the meaning of it, to me it just sounds like words that have randomly been thrown together. I tend to have this problem when I listen to rap music.... Maybe it's the word play and the metaphors that go over my head?

It's probably because rap music is basically word s just thrown together. And I'm not anti-rap by any means, though I'm not into it either. But they select their wording more based on the sounds of the words and how they go together and flow as opposed to what they actually mean. It's not at all uncommon for words to be conjugated incorrectly or used in an awkward context. So finding a meaning can be tricky there. Plus, from most of what I've heard over the years, especially newer stuff, there's little, if any meaning to be found. It's really all about personal conflicts with various other groups, acquiring material possessions, and flaunting said possessions.

As far as how meaning is found, I think there's so many different styles of lyrics that it's hard to pin down to one exact way. Some lyricists tend to be very cryptic and it's hard to find the meaning. It's almost written as a riddle for people to solve. At least that's how I've always seen it with those types.

Often, if a song actually has a chorus or any refrain, that's the best place to start when searching for the meaning. It's usually like a summary statement of sorts.

But most people in any form of even remotely popular music, at least that I've been exposed to, put very little effort into lyrics. Most of the time it's just something to scream or sing so the music has a voice in it. Most are actually very straightforward and express very unoriginal feelings, ideas or perspectives.

I know I've gotten to a point where I scarcely even bother finding out the lyrics. Occasionally a song or two comes around that is something really good in that way, but usually it's all the same stuff based on genre.

Metal= hatred for God or songs about rejection. Violence. Anger.
Rap= hatred for police, authority and love of possessions. Pride
Country= Good times, pickup trucks and loving the good ol' USA.
Pop= Lust, love and heartbreak. Frivolity.

When in doubt, that's most likely what a song means...

You missed a decade with many songs filled with deep meaning. That was the sixties. The heyday of Bob Dylan, among others. One from the Beatles I identified with was Fool On The Hill. There was Ohio by Neil Young. So many. Most songs don't have much meaning unless it's to the songwriter. Many songs are about love.

I find for a lot of pop songs it's difficult to know what the song's actually about...it just seems like a lot of ideas thrown together with no real connection between them. But that's not always a bad thing. I like my songs/poems a little cryptic...I find it makes the song/poem better.

How most people seem to find meanings in songs is to think of violent, sinful, anti-social activities, and then look for words or phrases in a popular song that they think are somehow "evil" ...

Picture you upon my knee
Just tea for two
And two for tea
Just me for you
And you for me alone
Nobody near us to see us or hear us Mm, mm, mm,
No friends or relations Mm, mm, mm,
On weekend vacations Mm, mm, mm.
We won't have it known, dear,
That we own a telephone, dear...

Obviously, this song is about two people smoking marijuana and having their own private orgies when they should be attending church services instead.

...

THAT is how a religious fundamentalist might find meaning in the song "Tea For Two".

Not all songs have meaning. For example, I'm pretty sure most Yes songs are just word association nonsense. (Doesn't mean I don't enjoy them, though.)

But something like Evanescence's Lithium has a pretty obvious meaning. It's about the mixed feelings of starting treatment for bipolar disorder. That's made clear not only by the title (Lithium is a commonly used bipolar medication), but also the lyrics:

lithium,
don't want to lock me up inside lithium,
don't wanna forget how it feels without lithium,
I wanna stay in love with my sorrow,
oh, but god, I wanna let it go

So basically, she's talking about a bipolar person wanting to stop suffering but being afraid that treating her bipolar disorder will change her identity. Plus feeling like her life might lose meaning without the suffering. At least that's how I see it. (Note - the singer is not actually bipolar, as far as I can tell. She's singing about a fictional character who's bipolar.)

Speaking of deconstructing meanings: what does the name "destined to be a potato" mean? Lol!

I love the name. But how did you come up with it?

"I looked to the sky
Where an elephant's eye
Was looking at me
From a bubblegum tree
And all that I knew
The hole in my shoe
Was letting in water (letting in water)

I walked through a field
That just wasn't real
Where 100 tin soldiers
Would shoot at my shoulder
And all that I knew
The hole in my shoe
Was letting in water (letting in water)

(I climbed on the back of a giant albatross
Which flew through a crack in the cloud
To a place where happiness reigned all year round
Where music played ever so loudly)

I started to fall
And suddenly woke
And the dew on the grass
It stuck to my coat
And all that I knew
The hole in my shoe
Was letting in water (letting in water)"

This song means that all the writer knows is that he really needs a new pair of shoes.

^^Or maybe his understanding of his current predicament hasn't reached that far yet. ^^

Who knows?

One of my favorite bands (has been for decades) is headed by a man with what I consider a very creative mind. To this day, some of his lyrics baffle me, and I suppose they always will. When I was about 16 or so, I told a friend how disgruntled I was with my inability to make sense of so many of them--I was getting As in English Lit, after all. My friend suggested that a great deal of his lyrics were likely written about drug trips, or at least inspired by them.

I wasn't so naïve that it hadn't occurred to me, but was caught off guard by the realization that this guy was either in a wonderland much of the time, was a prolific writer, or both! I've learned since then that he is, indeed, a workaholic when the muse strikes him, and when I've seen him in concert in recent years, he doesn't come across as a burn-out at all, so I assume that he's not tripping as much as he used to.

Whenever I find a song I like that I want to learn more about, I'll look it up on songmeanings.com or genius.com, or I'll look up the artist and read whatever Wikipedia articles or interviews I can find on them. I spend a lot of time researching and learning about my favorite bands and artists. Admittedly, unless the meaning is upfront or I know the artist really well, usually a song's meaning won't be obvious to me off the bat. It helps a lot when I can actually make out what the vocalist is actually singing. I listen to a lot of metal, so this isn't often the case.