“Suspicious Minds”, “With Or Without You”, “Good Vibrations”, “Go Your Own Way”, “I Heard it through the Grapevine”. All of these songs appear on a list of the 500 greatest songs of all time compiled by Rolling Stone Magazine in 2004. They all concern either love, life in a romantic relationship or a break-up from a romance. It is widely agreed that, lyrically, these are some of the best songs ever to be penned.
Now, I realise that love is the subject closest to the heart of every human being I have had the pleasure to meet. There is never going to be a year when songs are not going to be written about it. I accept this and don’t mind listening to a song, concerning the ultimate state, which is thought-through or thought-provoking. However recent chart releases such as “Teenage Dream”, “Sexy and I Know It” and “Dance With Me Tonight” are, lyrically, neither thought-through nor thought-provoking but are still extremely successful. Their success is due to the capitalistic machine that is today’s music industry. Many modern artists are forced to churn material in a ridiculously short space of time by rapacious record labels. Naturally, they are likely to write about the subject which is closest to their heart as that is by far the easiest subject to write about. It probably crosses their mind that there is nothing novel about their lyrics but to stay in the limelight, to become wealthier they have to keep churning out the same old s**t. Yet, that which concerns me more is songs such as these get anywhere between ten million and two-hundred million views on YouTube. Many of the viewers of these songs are young, impressionable teenagers. Having grown up with an exposure to lyrics which I believe have effectively been rendered meaningless through incessant repetition, I fear their lyrical horizons will be exceptionally narrow in adult life.
However, it needs to be said that there are some modern artists, in the popular sphere, who do not simply churn out love song after love song. For example, Tinie Tempah uses his lyrics to inspire society, by suggesting that young people can make a success of themselves if they keep at it. Unfortunately, this inspiration may have a detrimental effect lyrically as, once these young artists get their foot in the door; many will simply follow the examples set by the Rihanna’s and Bruno Mars’ of this world; churning out lyrics which treat the same old standard subject in a very similar way.
I love bands such as The Levellers, The Clash and The Sex Pistols, because from the outset they wrote considered lyrics about political issues. Yet, today, there are very few modern popular bands which seem to be tackling political issues. Rise Against, for example, still remain very much at the fringes of popularity. It is also clear, in the popular sphere, that we lack great lyricists who write about the pertinent issues in today’s world. Today’s Morrissey or Michael Stipe, in my mind, takes the form of the ever playing rockstar Alex Turner. Unfortunately, the Arctic Monkeys have somewhat faded from the limelight because, a few years ago, they made the ever-risky decision of attempting to re-invent their musical sound. This alienated some of their old fan-base therefore meaning fewer people today are listening to Alex Turner’s poetic brilliance.
It can also be recognised to an extent in the past that some lyricists, once the band they were in has broken up or they have acquired sufficient capital to buy a hundred acre estate in Surrey, decide to write lyrics concerning very different subjects. Sting is a very good example. After the successes of songs such as “Every Breath You Take” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” with The Police, he went to write the thought-provoking “Englishman in New York” and the overtly political “Russians”. Yet, some bands who should have sufficient capital and time to write songs which are lyrically innovative and thought-provoking, for example Train, despite having years to write come up with new material, release songs entitled “If It’s Love” and “Marry Me”. I’m sorry Pat Monahan but if you can pen a song which is as beautifully written as “Drops of Jupiter” in 2001 you can sure as hell release songs about more than love and marriage in 2009. Why can’t you follow the example of men like Sting? The band, U2, is even worse. Despite writing about pertinent societal issues and having thirty years of fame, Bono still insists on preaching endlessly about the ultimate state. Bono, if you have a villa in Nice and can afford to fly out a plane with the sole purpose of picking up the trademark sunglasses which you left behind you shouldn’t be singing The Beatles classic “All You Need is Love” to the crowd at Glastonbury. I know they will be wild and most likely drunk but I think they might just have heard it all before.
I want to leave you with a few key messages at the end of this blog. First of all, I want to stress again that I understand and accept that many songs will continue to be written about love. However, I think it would be preferable if many artists gave more thought to the lyrics they are disseminating to the world concerning the ultimate state. Also, it would be beneficial to the people of the world if a greater number of new artists, in the popular sphere, could follow the examples of Tinie Tempah and the Arctic Monkeys and write lyrics about more than just love. Yet, I realise, with today’s music industry, this is particularly difficult, especially for young artists. Secondly, I want to express my disappointment at bands which, despite achieving astounding success, still choose to preach love from the altars of the today’s increasingly secular western world. Surely, there are more pertinent issues they could tackle from their privileged position?
Nice article, although in terms of Hip Hop if you’re looking for lyrics to inspire, I think Tinie Tempah is definitely not the right example.
“I’ve been to Southampton but I’ve never been to Scunthorpe”
Come on! Tinie Tempah is a pop star like all the others. You might try listen to someone like Akala if you want an example of what lyricism should be in this day and age.