Wednesday, 5 September 2012  Super-Obvious Observations About
Pop Music #1  I have been moved more by pop songs with mediocre
lyrics than by some of the finest lyric poetry ever written.
But, of course: pop songs have music. The lyrics of songs have
to work less hard to move us, because they stand on the
shoulders of the music. Like, durr.  Except, except: the music
works its affective magic in simple, broad-stroke ways; where a
perfectly judged lyric by Yeats or Keats or the Beats can
achieve finer, more specific, more spine-chilly effects. 
Indeed, I wonder if pop lyrics that are over complicated can
undermine their own impact?  Is 'Almost Blue' a more effecting
song than 'Shipbuilding', and is it so because it's simpler?  1
comment:  AyenbiteOfInwyt said...  "A line will take us hours
maybe; Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought, Our stitching
and unstitching has been naught"  I think some pop lyricists
have taken this notion of sprezzatura to the extreme. Des'ree
managed to hide all art behind these