Originally posted by pupik
It depends on how simplistic the minds of the listeners are. Record companies will market trite lyrical content to teenagers, because that's what they want. Teens want a simple rallying cry, not deep thought. Deep thought is for the college-aged masses.
Then the college students graduate, and exposed are to the barking of one million words per day, with relatively few having any substance. Most of what they hear is contradictory, meaningless, or loaded. So the listener pines for simplicity yet again.
Mainstream music tends to deal with love and relationships 90% of the time (okay, not a real statistic...but it seems like it); because human nature wants to take abstract concepts like love and unity and clothe it in the most bastardized form of communication, speaking! These beautiful concepts that cannot possibly be imitated by words are accepted because we are told it's "popular", or "hot", or "new".
We respond to these words because we are longing for acceptance; thus, these love songs and methods become more messages than music, even though the true message has left long ago.
We are generally left with "entertainers" and "artists" whom are selected and/or paid by corporations; usually they stifle the creativity because Madison Avenue has told them what's hip. It's not even the fault of the corporation, they just don't have a clue about content, they want profits and brand recognition.
Eh, sorry for rambling.
I listen to music for the music. Only later do I begin to notice what the words are, and what they can mean. Luckily, my musical standards filter out crappy lyrics in most cases but occasionally I'll hear some words that just make me feel embarassed for liking the song.
Pupik is right. Lyrics that have real content and poetic meaning, are clever or original are, to the suits who have the last say, inaccesible. Of course this is not always the case, and the occasional real thought makes it to the masses via popular music, but it is rare.
What is even more sad is the contradiction the music industry is. It is one of the few "creative" media where the measure of success is the opportunity to sell out. Because of this, many musical performers simply start off by writing what they think the masses want to hear, or can comprehend.
As far as love/relationship songs go...
I have never been able to understand performers who sing almost exclusively love songs. I mean, how could you write that many? Have that many relationships? Write songs about the same person over and over? It's such an exquisite subject and any song about it should really try to capture the feeling, the artist's feeling (wich must be meant to express that archetypical feeling of "love"), instead of regurgitating the same cliches that at one time probably were an artist's feelings, but have been so heavily derived and watered down that a statement like "I love you" is almost laughable.
There are some great love songs. Most of wich are written by older musicians who have been with the same partner for a long time. It takes that long to even scratch the surface of expressing love. First, one must have lived it. And if your idea of love is groupies, there is as much feeling in that as there is in "a crab's eye at the end of a stalk."
I think people look for what they are familiar with and what makes them feel comfortable in music lyrics. That said, what is popular is very sad.
