# Do People Care About Hearing Lyrics Anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 21, 2016, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315 "2016-12-21T18:44:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/21 "2016-12-22T01:01:29Z")
Dadburn it, ah couldn’t figger out _Mairsy Doats and Dosey Doats_ and then this _Louie, Louie_ song confounded me and my pals. Then Pearl Jam came along and ah jes’ gave up. So, yeah, it’s been a problem for a few decades… ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/22 "2016-12-22T01:14:05Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > “Kick the gong around” was 1930s (I think) slang for “smoke opium.” Gee, and here I thought it meant taking oxycodone until you went deaf. Are you _sure_ one of those nice, clean jazz musicians would sing about so base a subject? Do you think they could possibly be as dark in their lyricism as modern rap musicians? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/23 "2016-12-22T01:35:31Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > In reality, more often than not, learning the words usually ruins a song for me. Because they are usually stupid. Very few lyrics enhance the song for me. The voice is just another instrument. I don’t care about the dumb stories they are trying to tell me. That’s like saying that listening to the dialogue ruins a movie. Okay, not really. But there are plenty of us who care about the lyrics to the songs we listen to; and if they’re stupid or turn us off in some way, that tends to make it Not A Good Song. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/24 "2016-12-22T01:56:03Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Anymore? I never did. > > In reality, more often than not, learning the words usually ruins a song for me. Because they are usually stupid. Very few lyrics enhance the song for me. The voice is just another instrument. I don’t care about the dumb stories they are trying to tell me. This is so totally opposite of my view that I can hardly comprehend it. Not to say it’s _wrong_ by any means, just really alien to me. [QUOTE=eburacum45] A lot of vocabulary in Hip Hop songs, it appears; [http://lab.musixmatch.com/vocabulary\_genres/](http://lab.musixmatch.com/vocabulary_genres/) followed by Heavy Metal, of all things. Both genres seem to require a lot of words to describe their respective areas of interest, even if those areas do not appeal to everyone. [/QUOTE] This also confuses me. It would seem “vocabulary” is being used to mean "the most words crammed into a song. Just because there’s more of 'em doesn’t mean they carry any more weight. For me personally, the cadence of the admittedly small sample of rap I’ve heard is one of the main reasons I don’t care for it. To my ears it sounds like someone rambling really fast over a beat that doesn’t match, ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/25 "2016-12-22T02:25:42Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > That’s why I’m so surprised at the overwhelming popularity of _Hamilton_. I’ve tried several times to listen to it and I can only sporadically make out the words. Not always a huge deal on the dance floor but when the whole narrative lies in the lyrics it would be helpful to understand what they are. I’ve had no trouble understanding most of the lyrics just from hearing the album. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/26 "2016-12-22T03:17:58Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Dadburn it, ah couldn’t figger out _Mairsy Doats and Dosey Doats_ and then this _Louie, Louie_ song confounded me and my pals. Then Pearl Jam came along and ah jes’ gave up. Except for “Yellow Ledbetter” I don’t find Pearl Jam hard to understand. (That said, I tend to be more from the “don’t care so much about lyrics” side of the fence, but it really depends on the music I’m listening to.) ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/27 "2016-12-22T04:46:24Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > There has never been a time, ever, when most popular music had particularly original or interesting lyrics. Interesting lyrics has always been the exception. Most of the music of your youth was insipid garbage. No, you’re wrong. There’s an era of popular music that falls within the late 60’s thru mid 70’s that many call the “Singer-Songwriter” era. Many extremely talented artists who wrote songs that relied as much on the lyrics of their songs as well as the music. Excellent songs that sold millions of records and are still remembered today. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/28 "2016-12-22T06:15:29Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > No, you’re wrong. There’s an era of popular music that falls within the late 60’s thru mid 70’s that many call the “Singer-Songwriter” era. Many extremely talented artists who wrote songs that relied as much on the lyrics of their songs as well as the music. > > Excellent songs that sold millions of records and are still remembered today. True, but some of the most interesting and influential singer-songwriter stuff had lyrics that veered between inanity and insanity. Bob Dylan wrote some very relevant, lucid lyrics, but he also wrote nonsense like “Quinn the Eskimo”, Paul Simon wrote some of the most adolescent lyrics imaginable, and Jim Morrison’s best-known lyrics are a case study in strange psychosexual screaming. Being a singer-songwriter is a mark of a certain kind of authenticity, but it’s no guarantee of quality, or actual emotional depth, or political acuity. I like this stuff. I do. I also like the follow-on genres, prog rock (following psychedelia into wonderlands of jazz/classical/rock fusion) and punk rock (following rock and roll back to its roots while keeping the folk-rock DIY philosophy alive), and what has flowed, in turn, from them. But I don’t lionize it and I don’t pretend it’s more authentic than other kinds of music, both older and newer, which employed songwriters to write the songs the singers sang. The singer-songwriter concept is one specific kind of authenticity, not one for all times or all places or all people. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/29 "2016-12-22T10:02:17Z")
I agree that 99% of popular (in a broad sense) lyrics have always been trite and silly. However, I have noticed a recentish trend in some genre to mumble. Of course, there have always been singers who didn’t care for enunciating but what I hear a lot nowadays is people sounding like they just woke up or are drugged out of their minds: dropped consonants, slurred vowels and such. I guess the idea is to sound cool and mellow but to me it just sounds flaccid and dim-witted. Go back to bed, baby : you need some sleep. In the grand scheme of things, it’s no skin off my back and if people enjoy it, good for them. Personally I think it sounds ridiculous but that trend will be gone and forgotten in a few years anyway. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/30 "2016-12-22T10:21:46Z")
Yeah, opera sucks. Or am I the only one unable to make out the words there? ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/31 "2016-12-22T11:22:58Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Yeah, opera sucks. Or am I the only one unable to make out the words there? Good point but it’s not exactly comparable. Opera singers are difficult to understand because their priority is to be heard above a very loud orchestra, while singing highly challenging vocal lines. In the opera world, enunciating is very important in fact but not as much as singing in tune and actually being audible. That’s why the technique, which I admit sounds artificial and takes time getting used to, was developed in the first place. So, there’s a valid and practical reason for sounding like this. But what I think is being described here is people deliberately choosing to mumble and/or use a limited vocabulary or even prelinguistic onomatopoeia. There’s no valid justification for that: it’s either laziness or affectation and both are grating. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/32 "2016-12-22T12:29:55Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Tom Waits. > Kathleen Brennan. > John Prine. > Kris Kristofferson. > Randy Newman. > > Which leads you to: > Guy Clark. > Shel Silverstein. > Johnny Cash. > > Which pretty much gets you away from wailing clotheshorses with too much makeup and too big an entourage, whose lyrics are as deep as… Foreigner’s. On a good day. Cold as ice, you are. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/33 "2016-12-22T12:45:16Z")
Pop music has always had a big slice of silliness and simplicity in its lyrics. So? There have always been thoughtful-lyric alternatives, some of which, sometimes, get popular. Again, so? This feels very Get Off My Lawn. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/34 "2016-12-22T12:55:13Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > As has been said, as much today as they ever did, and the lyrics are just as unintelligible as back in the day. That’s why I’m so surprised at the overwhelming popularity of _Hamilton_. I’ve tried several times to listen to it and I can only sporadically make out the words. Not always a huge deal on the dance floor but when the whole narrative lies in the lyrics it would be helpful to understand what they are. Huh. Maybe I’m not as old as I thought I was, because the first time I listened to Hamilton I have few problems making out the words. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/35 "2016-12-22T13:10:02Z")
“My momma don’t like you and she likes everyone” says volumes to me. I have no problem with the lyrics of todays music. Maybe I just speak the language. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/36 "2016-12-22T13:30:18Z")
My main playlist doesn’t have a single song on it that is sung in English. If I can understand the lyrics, they are a distraction. In Pandora, I immediately hit next when an song in English plays. https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLA34046A4B9425E66&wmode=transparent&rel=0&autohide=1&showinfo=1&enablejsapi=1 ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/37 "2016-12-22T14:00:40Z")
As my says rap music is just rhyming to rhythmic noise. ---
**Author:** ![edwards\_beard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@edwards\_beard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwards_beard)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/38 "2016-12-22T15:05:48Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > This is so totally opposite of my view that I can hardly comprehend it. Not to say it’s _wrong_ by any means, just really alien to me. Hey…isn’t your screen name a lyric??? (Oh, and you never listened to those songs) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/39 "2016-12-22T16:52:51Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > I agree that 99% of popular (in a broad sense) lyrics have always been trite and silly. However, I have noticed a recentish trend in some genre to mumble. Of course, there have always been singers who didn’t care for enunciating but what I hear a lot nowadays is people sounding like they just woke up or are drugged out of their minds: dropped consonants, slurred vowels and such. I guess the idea is to sound cool and mellow but to me it just sounds flaccid and dim-witted. Go back to bed, baby : you need some sleep. I remember someone, [maybe Chuck Klosterman](https://books.google.com/books?id=8bvFIHE0u4kC&pg=PA183&lpg=PA183&dq=eminem+enunciates&source=bl&ots=KPyYgaUi-I&sig=irNlAqcGOE3CpOkCou0_GSCcaTo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjS99jzoIjRAhVBOyYKHb-mCS4Q6AEISjAJ#v=onepage&q=eminem%20enunciates&f=false), attributing much of Eminem’s success to how well he enunciates. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315/40 "2016-12-22T17:38:13Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > As my says rap music is just rhyming to rhythmic noise. Singing, in other words. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-care-about-hearing-lyrics-anymore/775315.md?page=3)