My demands as one who listens to music!
When I turn on the radio I’m often completely embarrassed on behalf of society for allowing so many people make money off of songs that can only be described as tacky crappy pap! My demands as a listener aren’t that hard to meet, or at least I thought so until I went and looked at Irelands top 40 records… Here are my demands:
1) Lyrics should make sense.
I don’t think it’s too much to ask that lyrics follow a sense of logic and maintain some decent level of grammar. While I appreciate that colloquialisms are cool and all that, I truly believe that if you want to get your point across and be taken in some way seriously, then you need to show that you have a certain level of command over the English language (or whatever language you’re singing in). To me, not using proper English basically makes you look like an idiot. So when I see someone saying, “I’mma” instead of “I’m going to” I really can’t take them seriously. Even considering poetic license, it should never get to a point where you’re literally abbreviating 4 words together just to have them fit in a 2 syllable space. What’s next? Entire sentences shortened to a single burst of consonants? I can see it now, the latest hit “chgnjmlptn”, which is short for, “I’m not that fond of you especially after you cheated on me and so I’m dumping you and going to a pub to have a few drinks and celebrate my freedom!”
It’s also reasonable to ask that the lyrics follow a sense of logic. Whatever the song is about should be discussed within to a certain level of detail. Simply having a song where the total number of lyrics comprises of “I’mma fuck you up bitch!” then you can’t claim the song is about a particular event, all you can claim is that the song is about threatening some girl with violence.
2) The music should provide something original.
The problem that we are facing is one of the most basic things that humans suffer from, which is a fear of what is different. We as people don’t like the idea of new music; we like to be bombarded with the same stuff repeatedly. We as listeners are creatures of habit and enjoy music that involves a certain formula. The more familiar the better! If you want examples, then have a look at these two videos proving just how easily we latch on to the familiar rather than the different:
I know I’m not alone on this point, and as such I don’t like to listen to the same style of music over and over. I try to avoid the formula as much as I can by jumping from decade to decade, style to style etc. Why should musicians be forced to adhere to a formula in order to make any decent money? Surely the whole point of calling them “Artists” is that they are providing something new to the musical melting pot.
3) The subject of songs should be different.
I’m almost certain that I’m not the only person who has noticed a trend with certain styles of music and the fact that the subject matter of the songs seem to remain the same. The most famous style of music for having stagnant subject matters is Emo. In this genre you are guaranteed a musical moan about how life isn’t fair over and over. This level of banality is spread across EVERY genre. If someone sings about something other than the “normal” subjects, then they are labelled as “Whacky!” which I think is a load of crap! Frank Zappa was hailed as being eccentric, but the guy simply wrote songs about stuff no one else was and wasn’t afraid to be himself! Why should he be stigmatised purely because he did something different? I think we need a lot more artists like him!
Well there you go, I don’t think I’m asking for too much by mentioning these things, do you? What are your opinions on this matter? What are your demands as a listener?
Felix
PS. Be sure to follow me on twitter (@Felix_Barry)
