6th February 2010

Text with 2 notes

Blah blah blah

So much of the time when people talk about “songwriting,” they actually mean “lyric-writing.”  It seems like the song itself is ignored almost completely, given the most boring, simple treatment possible.  It’s offensive to music, it’s lazy, and I think it’s a cowardly evasion of something nobody really understands, a question which has so much importance: what is it about a specific piece of music that has an effect on you that you simply can’t stop? It’s something intrinsic in the sound, and, oftentimes the words have nothing to do with it.

Lyrics are of secondary interest to music.  In a perfect composition, the words will be intelligently or cleverly written, and perhaps would work well on their own, but it is the music itself which makes it something without which you could not live.  When lyrics are what you focus on first, before sound, you are a literary critic, not a music appreciator.  You’re missing the point.

Tagged: fuck you