Lyrical Content

[ERinger]

So, I'm sitting at the hair dresser reading a book, and I hear this horrible Pretty Ricky song on 106 & Bullshit, right. The lyrics were just plain horrible, unintelligible. Just some stuff I could have made up myself in middle school.

So as I sit here an listen to some real music, my thoughts are on why people just don't put effort into writing really good songs anymore. All I hear are grammatically incorrect songs that are blatant in sexual nature or are just plain simple.

Folks used to write songs that were subtle and complex in lyrics about love and relationships. Folks used to write songs that left interpretation up to the listener. Compare the Isley's "Between the Sheets" to Tyrese's "Straight Fuckin." See the difference. Songs were about romantic love, private acts between adults. They were songs that made you reminisce about past experiences with fondness and private sessions where sex was between the sheets. Now songs make you cringe with the harshness of the tone and lyrics. I don't want to hear you yell "Let's Fuck" in my ear. I'd prefer "Is it Good to You" on some Whispers kind of level. "I Want You" by Marvin Gaye appeals to me more than "Some Cut" by Trillville.

Don't get me started on the the fact that it is apparent that lots of these artists weren't at the tops of their classes. Case and point "You must not know bout me." I don't know who said this was correct. My eleventh grade English teacher would be rich because the number of grammatic errors in this song would surely warrant a few trips to put money in the bad grammar jar. I mean, you really have folks spouting this like nothing's wrong with it. Every time I hear this song, I'm amazed.

Take me back to a time when the music was what mattered. People took pride in being creative with their lyrics; When not saying everything was the point of the song; When leaving something to the imagination and not having to sensor every song in front of children was the norm.

It's amazing that more folks haven't been turned on the goldmine that is classic r&b.

I know there were songs that didn't fit this mold back in the day. My grandma used to listen to "Strokin" all the time, lol. But Clarence Carter wasn't on every song like now.

Forgive Me. I'm on a musical tangent today, but I know some folks out there feel me.

[HulaSista]

Don't get me started on the the fact that it is apparent that lots of these artists weren't at the tops of their classes. Case and point "You must not know bout me." I don't know who said this was correct. My eleventh grade English teacher would be rich because the number of grammatic errors in this song would surely warrant a few trips to put money in the bad grammar jar. I mean, you really have folks spouting this like nothing's wrong with it. Every time I hear this song, I'm amazed.

though the play on words were clever relative to the melody - only - i must admit that i had to see the lyrics on the tv screen and read them to make sure that Beyonce was truly saying this phrase! lol... i don't know why i was surpise that she would say that, but, i just was.

here is the flip side of my thoughts on this. whereas i agree with you, if this was straight non-musical poetry, how much reading would the writer get out of his audience?

i'm plenty okay with songs that do not use curse words or writers who cleverly veil sexual undertones by wordsmithing. but if this was poetry, would we applaue it? would it be acceptable?

have anyone had to take college courses disecting hip hop lyrics comparing/contrasting it as poetry? i'm curious as to what linguist and teachers of literature (poetic literature at that) feels about the wayward stand of music.

wasn't shakespeare considered 'off the hook' in his era?

(i think i left college just when english was starting to get fun :rolleyes )

and uh... in light of the subject matter: pardon my own grammatical mistakes in this post!!!!!!:wolf

[davinci]

i was just telling someone that beyonce still feels the needs to use slang for street cred...and i'm sure that it's a marketing thing to keep the younlings boppin' to it. hey, she's still a kitten.

tony braxton's "i love me some him" was one song...but even then, i think it was to show strong emotion - not to be hip...but the rest of her portfolio was strong, well written songs.

like hula, i'm not sure how much of it is us looking at them like "you young whipper snappers!"

it's big money for the one at the top of the record pyramid to have as many idiots...i mean artists...slanging/selling albums as possible.

i would love, and i don't think it's improbable, for hip hop and r&b labels to pledge - for a one quarter to a year - to put out "good" music. simmons, s., puff, dre, j.d. could make it happen. granted not all "artists" would do it, but some would.

as a true hip hop fan (not just talking "rap"), it hurts to see what's out there now

[Andre98]

I would have thought by now that the mp3 would have made it possible to bypass "the machine" - the mafia of moguls that control the deals to mass produce and distribute an "artist"'s song. I guess there is still the dilemma of how they would get paid.