Thank You for the Music ( but not the lyrics )

Jarvis Cocker

There has been a recent surge in music, where the tradition of interesting and original narrative seems to have been lost. The current fashion of UK pop stars appropriating mockney culture has lead to lyricism awash with such banalities as having a fag, or going down the pub while in America the idolisation of “gangster” lifestyle stirs little in the imagination beyond ‘guns and bitches’. Which ever way you look at it, in every form of music from hip-hop to rock there seems to be little lyrical content to get the tongue wagging (excuse the pun) in the current pop charts.

There was a day, for instance, when Hip-hop was a consciousness and not just an attitude; it reflected society- after all music is generally born out of culture and politics (take the sexual revolution and the rise of rock n roll).
Hip Hop groups like Public Enemy, who would go on to inspire The Beastie Boys and Tribe called Quest,  chronicled political sentiments with lyrics denigrating the police force, the government and any form of racism including the misuse of the word “Nigga”.
Their music was a potent mix of “Black Power” consciousness and unique beats and samples, leading the way to a rise of Afro-centrism in Hip Hop during the 90’s.
 
Similarly Hip-Hop giant KRS One wrote the raps like “sound of da police” in the early 90’s, which despite the gangster references, is a powerful socio-political comment on the struggles of black Americans, post emancipation.
It deals with the segregation in America represented by the white policeman and the black community and draws comparisons with the white plantation master or “overseer”.

KRS One had a provocative lyrical sensibility shown in lyrics like
“Take the word "overseer," like a sample. Repeat it very quickly in a crew for example. Overseer. Overseer. Overseer. Overseer. Officer, Officer, Officer, Officer! Yeah, officer from overseer. You need a little clarity? Check the similarity!” 

Today’s charts, however, are rife with rappers painting the picture of Bling, Bitches and Bravado.  P Diddy, I imagine might find it hard to write a rap without his fundamentally poignant message of “uh-yeah- uh huh” in every chorus and I doubt 50 Cent would care to expand his lyrical focus to the effects of global warming or the plight of medical insurance in America.
That just ain’t raw.
 
Just as there is little political comment in rap music (something that used to be so synonymous with one another) similarly there is little lyrical narrative in other genres of music. 

Even music such as folk and easy listening that once held narrative in as high regard as the music itself has been thinned with laboriously dull lyrics by the likes of James Blunt. 
His song You’re Beautiful does little more then reiterate seeing a very pretty (beautiful even) girl, and the imaginatively titled Goodbye My Lover recounts, well, saying goodbye to a lover (presumably after first saying “hello” and then “how are you”).

It seems that pop songs in the charts at the moment seem to completely gloss over the need for narrative and instead draw inspiration from a short-sighted view of what is immediately in front of them.
So when what is in front of them is, say, a mirror for instance, you get a painfully detailed description, freckle for freckle, of the face looking back at you – something Kate Nash was bored enough to write about in her song Mouthwash before gleefully and profoundly mentioning that she also has good oral hygiene and occasionally likes a cup of tea!

No doubt Ian Curtis and Nick Drake are turning in their graves.
 
While Lily Allen’s description of London (or LDN) might be seen as representing the urbanity of the depths of London (something tells me she probably didn’t ride her bike much past the leafy suburbs of Islington), it pales into insignificance when compared to the evocative poetry of Nick Drake’s  At the chime of a city clock  with lyrics like "For a stone in a tin can, Is wealth to the city man, Who leaves his armour down.”

You might be forgiven for believing that this lyricism is just a result of the times and growing up in the 70’s, but even in the 80’s and 90’s there were sing-songwriters like Morrissey and Ian Curtis, and even (if you like the dry tone of it) Jarvis Cocker who approached topics such as immigrants in England and class tourism, with a stark and provocative lyrical narrative.
 
These artists are not necessarily to blame however; they are merely a production of the age we live in- one which is about accessing and receiving information as quickly and easily as possible- so why make lyrics meaningful?

We barely have time to read a newspaper front to back let alone the inlay of a CD with the lyrics and with the advent of downloadable music there aren’t even inlays to read anymore!

At this rate- where does it end? Newspapers with no news? Books with no stories?

It makes no sense to have music without narratives-after all ancient traditions all over the world created music as a means of passing on stories.
Surely then this is a tradition we should preserve and pass on, just as it was meant to be.

Lee Bohne
 
 

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