How many times can you listen to the same love song over and over again? It seems as though every modern love song is derived from a mathematical formula that determines where to insert the “you don’t understand me” line or the “I”m over you” line and so on.
But it’s not just the romantic ones. How many times can you listen to some arrogant rich guy or girl talk about how confident and sexy they are or how expensive their champagne is? Apparently a lot according to the iTunes top ten, which consists of the likes of LMFAO, Kelly Clarkson, Rihanna, Coldplay and Adele.
I had this terrible realization recently, when a friend of mine commented on how nobody cares about lyrics anymore. They just exist to move the song along, he told me. Nobody cares if they have any meaning.
After I was done weeping, I took the time to reflect on some recent hits, and found that it really has become horribly dehumanized. As per usual, every voice and melody sounds the same to me. This was nothing new, but something different struck me this time around. Almost every one of these top ten songs are about nothing.
Seriously. Nothing at all.
Take Kelly Clarkson’s “Mr. Know it All” for example, in which Ms. Clarkson declares that some former love interest of hers thinks he is all-knowing about her feelings. She then takes the time to say he doesnít and that she is leaving him.
The End.
Ms. Clarkson takes a total of three minutes and fifty-two seconds, to express one sentiment. Sure it may not take the crown of meaninglessness from the esteemed Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling,” but it’s still pretty impressive.
Is it so pretentious or snobby of me to expect something more from a song that is supposedly so emotional? Itís not like I expect it from an LMFAO song, but thatís just dance music, it doesnít exactly have to be poetic. It doesnít even have to be an emotional song, just give me something to sink my teeth into. What does it even mean to have “Moves Like Jagger?” I bet that half the audience of Maroon 5 has never listened to a Rolling Stones song.
Popular music wasnít always like this. Remember “Feel Good Inc.” by the Gorillaz back in 2004? Itís a great song and itís got the lyrical content to back it up. A lot of people donít know it, but that song is part of an over-arcing storyline about someone whoís trapped in a town so obsessed with feeling good, that they have completely numbed themselves to any other emotions. Itís a satisfying song in every aspect: lyrics, music, catchiness, etc., and it has sold millions of copies.
It wasnít very long ago that popular songs still managed to be stimulating past just the music. They didn’t sound like they came out of a computer, they sounded human.
