«Today’s Lyrics Are Pathetically Bad» Rick Beato

poetry makes me mad. It is language that I find interesting, and language is there to convey meaning. Otherwise, why bother?

The problem is this : "meaning" is conveyed in language not on an uni-lateral way but in a multi-polar way ...Meaning exist not on one level but is articulated on many levels, from phonology to pragmatic levels...

Grounded in biology and in the body gestures rythms and vocal gestures rythms and tones are the poetical level of meaning...

Then there is a syntaxical level in speech which has nothing to do with the concept of syntax in the formal language, because human speech syntax is not a "formal" machine even if it can be analysed formally as Chomsky did. ( Gustave Guillaume goes deeper here)

At the top there is analogy which is irreducible to logic no more than metaphor... ( A.I. use statistical engines to decodes it not logic)

The scientific prosaic meaning is a mere half part of language meaning...The most efficient part but not the only and more important meaningfulness...( try to imagine a world of robot communication to understand my point , human social fabric is not a hive )

What is poetry ? Not non sense as superficial look can put it, but deep meaning : " a felt change of consciousness" caused by the way we use words said Owen Barfield in "poetic diction"..

Litterature is as powerful as equations.

Why did Grothendieck used the metaphor"dessins d’enfants" to describe the mathematical concept of some schemes ? Because it speak more directly about the meaning intended and it convey the way the mathematician mind felt the change from the top of the geometrical iceberg draught by a child to his inside hidden depth.

https://www.ams.org/notices/200307/what-is.pdf

The meaning of poetry even when i dont understand the Farsi language in a song for example is there anyway between sounds...I "understand" it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS065XPSCFc

My point was that poetry in popular music is as much important as music and part of it...

If the language degenerate in a culture the rest degenerate, even if we had A.I. and especially if we had A.I.

When we speak badly or partially staying on one level instead of using language multidimensionality we think badly...

There is a difference between a bad journaslist and a great poet or a great thinker, but a common point : linear annoying day to day prose.

«We never fall in love "in" prose»--Groucho Marx

They just don't write great songs like this any more:

Well I met him on a Sunday (oooooo)
& I missed him on Monday (oooooo)
Well I found him on a Tuesday (oooooo)
& I dated him a Wednesday (oooooo)
Well I kissed him on a Thursday (oooooo)
& he didn't come Friday (oooooo)
When he showed up Saturday (oooooo)
I said "Bye bye baby"

The lyrics of many of these songs, especially modern Hip Hop/R&B are absolutely horrible. They are venal, vulgar, misogynistic, and disgusting. Some are just banal but there is a pretty big subset of lyrics that were unimaginable 40 years ago. I drive along at 70 mph with my mouth agape hardly believing that I’m actually hearing what I’m hearing. I recommend that you break out of your bubble and listen to this stuff to get a sense of what young people are hearing.

"Sweet Little Sixteen" by Chuck Berry (1958)
Sweet Little Sixteen, she’s got the grown-up blues - tight dresses and lipstick, she sportin’ high heeled shoes. Oh, but tomorrow morning She’ll have to change her trend. And be sweet sixteen. And back in class again.’

Oh and Chuck wrote a plethora of pedo type rock songs. But hey, you’ve got to have somebody to blame, right?

"Run for Your Life" by the Beatles (1965)
’You better run for your life if you can, little girl. Hide your head in the sand, little girl catch you with another man, that’s the end, little girl.’

"Good Morning, Little School Girl" by the Grateful Dead (1967) ’Good morning little schoolgirl, can I come home with you? Tell your mama and your papa I’m a little schoolboy too - Come on now pretty baby I just can’t help myself. You’re so young and pretty I don’t need nobody else.’

"Young Girl" by Gary Puckett & the Union Gap (1968)
’With all the charms of a woman, you’ve kept the secret of your youth. You led me to believe you’re old enough To give me love.And now it hurts to know the truth. Young girl, get out of my mind - my love for you is way out of line.’

"Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones - Do I really need to post the lyrics here?

"Christine Sixteen" by Kiss (1977)
’I don’t usually say things like this to girls your age, but when I saw you coming out of the school that day. That day I knew, I knew, I’ve got to have you, I’ve got to have you.’

Oh and let’s not forget about Ted Nugent. A guy who by his own admission said in a 1977 High Times magazine article that he faked symptoms (being unhygienic to appear mentally unfit) and used meth before his military physical to get out of serving. And to this day is a ’highly regarded’ rock & roller in many other ahem, "circles" of high regard.

There’s a video of him and his daughters discussing his interactions with teen girls who were about the age of his girls when he was touring. And in a word Disgusting, indeed.

"Jailbait" by Ted Nugent (1981)
’Well, I don’t care if you’re just thirteen, you look too good to be true. I just know that you’re probably clean, there’s one little thing I got to do to (you) - Jailbait, you look so good to me. Jailbait, won’t you set me free.’

I’ve become (a little) crotchety in my old age too. I’m usually a very easy going and thankfulness kinda guy but when I see someone come after (the) younger folks in and of my community, well let me remind others of their community and what lyrics have also been written and listened too. And these songs were played on AM and FM radio stations as if nothing was wrong. Receipts - SiriusXM my a**.

Language exist in social context...

Muddy Waters wrote great lyrics we called blues classics ...

but the same thing today said by an another voice with the same words will be ridiculous.

Then what define good lyrics and bad one are not only the individual singer but the social context and specific era....And the microtonal accents of his vocal chords....The same text read by X will sound atrocious and read by Y marvellous...

Poetry lives also in time eras...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyjRslYlC3A

"Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones - Do I really need to post the lyrics here?

As an aside, back in nineteen eighty and something I read Up And Down With The Rolling Stones (because the review in Playboy seemed interesting) which was theoretically authored by an "insider" and I remember the author claimed that Brown Sugar was referring to unrefined heroin.