«Today’s Lyrics Are Pathetically Bad» Rick Beato

@immatthewj

I appreciate your thoughtful reflections.

FYI, I was pointing out a potential "blind spot" regarding how we assess lyrics, not asserting you or anyone else necessarily falls prey to it. I can’t know that, obviously! I do notice it in myself.

You bring up many interesting and complex points that could be delved into at great depth.

Songs can and do operate at many different levels. Each of us may have our preferences regarding which levels we find most engaging. You bring up imagery. Images can indeed be very powerful; without referring to specific details they can nevertheless invoke/evoke complex responses/reactions. The image "carries us" deep into ourselves and we "fill in the picture" based upon our own experiences and imagination. Its non-specificity is what leaves room for us to interact with it.

On the other hand, there is writing that satisfies/engages through its specificity. It paints a vivid picture and we take it in as if we are a blank canvas that "soaks up" all the finely delineated detail.

Dylan has written tunes across a very broad stylistic spectrum, from "journalistic" to cryptic and many points between. I find it very difficult to generalize about his work.

 I would agree with probably everything you typed in that post. However, I would point out that you should have addressed that post/reply to @ezwind instead of me. Not that I took offense or anything, just that the post that you were responding to was made by @ezwind .

Doh!  Sorry about that. This can happen with long threads, involving many participants! 

@bdp24 Spiritual yes, thumper no. Unlikely you would ever hear T Bone Burnett describe himself as “contemporary….”

Beato also opines that there is no actual artistic engagement in mainstream pop/rock/country. It's formulaic and worse closed to "outsiders".  In that light i think he's right.

Take "Rich Men North Of Richmond" for example. 100% off the reservation, no producer, no label, no major national "drop" and it slipped through- and was wildly successful. Arguably the lyrics are simple yet clever, and the performance is authentic. It was refreshing. 

I blame the conglomerate music industry for the crap being produced and aired today.  For sure there are excellent musicians and brilliant lyrics being made today- but they are not easily accessible. 

You are exactly right in my opinion...

i also liked the song you mentioned for his sincere engagement and clever words...

A song can have meaningful words without the poetry of a Nobel prize winner and touch us...It was the case with "Rich man" ... It was not a "manufactured product for a "manufactured"  Zombies public...

Thanks...

Beato also opines that there is no actual artistic engagement in mainstream pop/rock/country. It’s formulaic and worse closed to "outsiders". In that light i think he’s right.

Take "Rich Men North Of Richmond" for example. 100% off the reservation, no producer, no label, no major national "drop" and it slipped through- and was wildly successful. Arguably the lyrics are simple yet clever, and the performance is authentic. It was refreshing.

I blame the conglomerate music industry for the crap being produced and aired today. For sure there are excellent musicians and brilliant lyrics being made today- but they are not easily accessible.

Beato also opines that there is no actual artistic engagement in mainstream pop/rock/country.

For my birthday in October, my wife gifted me Post Malone's F-1 Trillion album. After listening for a day, I immediately traded/sold it. All the hooks were eerily similar to other country songs of old and felt that I had heard that song before when Pro-Tools/Autotune was not a thing. I guess the days of suing others for song writing is a thing of the past, but putting lipstick on a pig is a viable option in the music industry today. Ala movies, the industry has little to work with except sequels. 

I think Beato is right, but it really does stick out in the country music genre nowadays.

I find a few newer rock songs to be really refreshing, however. "Cage the Elephant" song "Neon Pill" sticks out. This song would have been a major hit in the 1980's and, somehow, contains new catchy hooks that I cannot associate with that era- or this era- for that matter.

Rock still has some room for improvement, IMHO. Country has far less to work with and pop is truly produced by a conglomerate of record executives and producers who are propped up by the industries that have invested in them.

"Cage the Elephant" has been supported by that music conglomerate for 17+ years, including Grammy nominations (see conglomerate). I find the majority (I really only like one song out of their ten albums) of their tracks impossible to enjoy. 

Oliver of "Rich men..." fame had over 17 million streams in one week and he garnered more than 2 million for his one song, subsequently turning down record label offers of up to 8 million. Cage the Elephant, on the other hand, has sold about 3 million albums to collect far less, considering the music industry took a large part of that pie.

Hollywood is taking a beating nowadays and may be on life support. I believe that the music industry may be in the same boat...a sinking one!