Public doesn’t seem to care about lyrics

Friday, November 13, 1998

Public doesn’t seem to care about lyrics

APATHY: No one knows the words to today’s rock, but no one seems
to care

So I was driving my car through Westwood … no, wait. No one
drives in Los Angeles ­ there’s a lot of swearing and stopping
and cutting off involved, but not driving.

I was at a standstill in my car in Westwood, and in my boredom,
I switched on ol’ faithful: the radio. All of a sudden, the gentle,
soothing sounds of Nirvana filled my automobile, almost
overpowering the L.A. smog. And as I got into the song, hearing the
hard drumming and feeling Kurt Cobain’s anger, I began to get angry
too!

I got so angry in fact, that I began pounding my fists on the
steering wheel and tapping my (left) foot to the beat. After all, I
was running low on gas, and the 50-year-old guy next to me was
smiling in my direction (sans teeth, mind you) while belting out
show tunes. I was fuming in my own personal hell, and the music
really began to get inside of me. I was relating. I was
empathizing. And then, I was singing?

"Widda lightsow, izless dangerous, here we are now entertain us;
amullado, un awana, a muskeet ya, yada yada …. " As I continued
mercilessly through the song, making that toothless freak next to
me sound like Sinatra, I realized that I had officially become just
one more young person condemned to tacitly accept not knowing the
lyrics to some of today’s (and yesterday’s) most popular
alternative rock songs.

In our parents’ day, music and lyrics were different. For one,
they were intelligible. The Beatles, for instance, offered
user-friendly songs like "Let It Be" ­ where the title was
pretty much the song. Albeit the lines were tiresome and whiny, but
they got their point across. Now I’m certainly not advocating we
all go out and burn our Pearl Jam CDs in favor of the godforsaken
Beatles Anthology. Personally, I think the style of the ’90s far
surpasses that of decades ago, but I still quizzically ponder how I
and others have so blindly allowed ourselves to be taken in by the
’90s trend in alternative rock, where it’s cool to be
unintelligible.

Whether this is the singers’ or songwriters’ intent, I don’t
know. But I can say this: if these lyrics were to be translated,
decoded or interpreted from their original, almost-hieroglyphic
form, it stands to reason that we wouldn’t understand most of it
anyway. When I finally do find out the words to some song that’s
been bugging the heck out of me for days, I often conclude that the
guy might as well have been wailing in Portuguese.

Aside from the infamously unintelligible Nirvana, consider some
of the other successful groups many of us may listen to. For
instance, 311 offers new and innovative sounds at the price of
lyrics that run together and on top of each other. Rage Against the
Machine has routinely presented its core rebellious audience with a
slew of fast-paced, mangled words that rage against something,
we’re just not sure quite what. Or consider the Dave Matthews Band,
whose mile-a-minute, convoluted lyrics confound and confuse in
songs like "Too Much" and "So Much To Say". Evidently, Matthews has
so much to say that he just can’t get it out audibly.

And yet, all of these bands and so many more remain successful
despite the fact that some of their most ardent followers may not
understand what they’re saying. Why do we, the listeners and
consumers, put the food on the table for these stars (and fifty of
their closest friends) by buying their tapes and CDs, attending
their concerts and buying their band paraphernalia?

I believe that these behaviors reflect not just a shift in
attitudes toward what is now considered important about music, but
the widespread (yet legitimate) apathy of today’s younger
generation.

What has become meaningful in music now is the sound ­ the
beat, the range of instruments, the exploration of melodies and
harmonies, and the expression of voice.

We seem to be more interested in feeling the song than in
listening to it. Maybe this is because we want it, or maybe this is
because it is all we are given to work with. Regardless of intent,
though, the feeling has become key. After all, if listening to
music is an auditory process, we may be keyed into those aspects of
instrumentation and melody that hit us first, only later processing
the verbal components.

Another consideration is we often make up our minds about songs
within the first 30 seconds of hearing them, and when we do form an
opinion, you will rarely hear: "You know, the singer just didn’t
speak to me, man. I didn’t get what he was saying." What you will
hear, however, is "The sound is cool" and "I like the way it
sounds." We are, in fact, products of the television, where we zip
through ten stations in the blink of an eye. The same goes for
radio, where our impatience and desire to find something we like
give artists only half a minute to persuade us to stay.

Another thought is that if today’s music (still recovering from
and reinventing alternative styles as it is) reflects its audience,
then we may still be in the rebellious stage where angrily shouted
utterances and expletives aren’t meant to be understood by (or
repeated to) our parents.

Another one of the awesome powers of music is the identity
factor it carries, namely that many songs have the ability to speak
to a generation and make the people relate to the song. Today, the
sound of a tune is about all we can attest to. At least beatniks
knew more than just the beat of their songs.

Generations ago, music was an art form ever-reflective of the
politics, social action and overall climate of the times. It spoke
out on issues and voiced concerns. Many music listeners of today’s
college generation have proven themselves to be less
politically-minded and more individually focused.

Keep in mind, however, that I am not just throwing another stone
at Generation X or Y, or whatever the media is calling us now. I
see this societal apathy and personal focus as arguably warranted,
due to an academic system that fosters increasing competition,
imposing strains on our time and our sanity.

Perhaps reflective of this, modern day songs have found their
target audience.

Luckily for us, some people are actually taking action to inform
the masses as to what these singers are getting millions to write.
For instance, MTV has created a new program where lyrics are put on
the screen while the videos of artists play.

Also, more and more CDs are beginning to include their
songsheets on the inserts.

In addition, throngs of new bands and styles like swing are
emerging, offering us plenty of alternatives where we might
actually learn most of the lyrics.

But for those groups who continue to propagate sound without
understandable words, it remains on the part of the listener to
determine whether such tunes are music or mayhem.

Until this changes, we all remain victims, vulnerable to
understanding the songs we love, only so much as the singers will
sing clearly … even though we’ll love them anyway.

Lisa Silver

Silver is a second-year communication studies student, who loves
nothing more than imposing her views on others. She can be reached
(if you dare) at [email protected].

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