It amazes me how sometimes I feel a certain way & then I come into contact with a song & think “OMG, THIS! TOTALLY!” Meaning I realize someone else has already felt what I feel & expressed it using music. Maybe it’s an assumption (or a fantasy? Even wishful thinking) on my behalf that the artist in question has experienced the exact same thing. But it’s a really strong one. Some lyrics just put things into words so, so perfectly. It blows my mind. That’s one of the reasons I love music so much.
A few musicians I know have scoffed & said that lyrics are not important or that THEY never pay attention to the words, which made me feel kind of stupid : ) I’m not a musician so to them I must be like Muggles (non magic ppl) are to the wizards & witches in Harry Potter. An outsider. A silly girl who listens to the words. My cousin, who is a musician, gave a less black-or-white perspective. He said something like “Lyrics are only a (small) part of the whole”. Fair enough.
Just to clear things up: it’s not that lyrics are the 1st thing I notice. Of course not! Sometimes you can’t even understand them! I don’t think anyone pays attention to the lyrics 1st of all. I mean...say you happen to hear a song & like it...while driving in the car, dancing in the club, or sitting in a friend’s living room. A song either catches your attention or it doesn’t. & I think this happens primarily on a sonorous level. The beat, the rhythm, whatever (no idea if I’m using the correct terms). My point is: I doubt people think “WAIT, STOP, LET ME LISTEN 2 THE WORDS & THEN I’LL KNOW IF I LIKE OR NOT”.
Honestly I’m not so sure how it works. But I do know that SOMETIMES
* Certain lines -meaningful or not- get stuck in my head. & sooner or later I google the lyrics for songs I like. Sometimes, they make no sense (at all or 2 me). Also...this is probably obvious, but it’s exceptional 2 come across a song you relate to 100%! For me it’s usually fragments, paragraphs, lines. Sometimes the rest is irrelevant. Another obvious point I will nevertheless mention is free interpretation. Isn’t it (always? Almost always?) possible to hear what you want? I think in most songs you can find something relatable if you try. Although the point is not to try...it’s fun when it happens automatically : )
* I’m loving a song, it’s in my head, I’m listening 2 it constantly & then one day I stop & pay attention to the lyrics & they are TOTALLY relevant to & descriptive of my life @ the moment (feelings, situations, events). I find this ~MAGICAL~. It’s like a part of you knew what the song was about...you liked it so much for a reason! You were connecting to it on a level that goes beyond consciousness.
* Certain lines get to me not because of the content (words), but because of the form. It’s not what the person is singing, it’s HOW they’re singing it. The way their voice sounds, what it’s conveying. Often this makes me FEEL things too.
* A track can get to me without even having lyrics. There are a few in particular...I will post a list some day. But there are some instrumental songs that TOTALLY describe how I feel : ) I guess I relate to what the music conveys. Or what I THINK it conveys. As I said before...there’s the free interpretation factor.
Well, this may be the longest post in my blog, & I try to keep them short, so I’ll cut it off here.
BUT I’d love to know what the musical experience is like for other people. So if you wanna share what you think & feel, I’d be stoked : )
A few musicians I know have scoffed & said that lyrics are not important or that THEY never pay attention to the words, which made me feel kind of stupid : ) I’m not a musician so to them I must be like Muggles (non magic ppl) are to the wizards & witches in Harry Potter. An outsider. A silly girl who listens to the words. My cousin, who is a musician, gave a less black-or-white perspective. He said something like “Lyrics are only a (small) part of the whole”. Fair enough.
Just to clear things up: it’s not that lyrics are the 1st thing I notice. Of course not! Sometimes you can’t even understand them! I don’t think anyone pays attention to the lyrics 1st of all. I mean...say you happen to hear a song & like it...while driving in the car, dancing in the club, or sitting in a friend’s living room. A song either catches your attention or it doesn’t. & I think this happens primarily on a sonorous level. The beat, the rhythm, whatever (no idea if I’m using the correct terms). My point is: I doubt people think “WAIT, STOP, LET ME LISTEN 2 THE WORDS & THEN I’LL KNOW IF I LIKE OR NOT”.
Honestly I’m not so sure how it works. But I do know that SOMETIMES
* Certain lines -meaningful or not- get stuck in my head. & sooner or later I google the lyrics for songs I like. Sometimes, they make no sense (at all or 2 me). Also...this is probably obvious, but it’s exceptional 2 come across a song you relate to 100%! For me it’s usually fragments, paragraphs, lines. Sometimes the rest is irrelevant. Another obvious point I will nevertheless mention is free interpretation. Isn’t it (always? Almost always?) possible to hear what you want? I think in most songs you can find something relatable if you try. Although the point is not to try...it’s fun when it happens automatically : )
* I’m loving a song, it’s in my head, I’m listening 2 it constantly & then one day I stop & pay attention to the lyrics & they are TOTALLY relevant to & descriptive of my life @ the moment (feelings, situations, events). I find this ~MAGICAL~. It’s like a part of you knew what the song was about...you liked it so much for a reason! You were connecting to it on a level that goes beyond consciousness.
* Certain lines get to me not because of the content (words), but because of the form. It’s not what the person is singing, it’s HOW they’re singing it. The way their voice sounds, what it’s conveying. Often this makes me FEEL things too.
* A track can get to me without even having lyrics. There are a few in particular...I will post a list some day. But there are some instrumental songs that TOTALLY describe how I feel : ) I guess I relate to what the music conveys. Or what I THINK it conveys. As I said before...there’s the free interpretation factor.
Well, this may be the longest post in my blog, & I try to keep them short, so I’ll cut it off here.
BUT I’d love to know what the musical experience is like for other people. So if you wanna share what you think & feel, I’d be stoked : )
Totally!!!!! It happens to me too all the time that I connect with a song in a way I didn´t pay attention to ´till the moment I get sick of hearing it in my head and start googling it, and I find out it has everything to do with what I´m feeling. Even songs I maybe heard twice! So I usually use these subconscious-shaped lyrics as a way of getting in touch with my own feelings and denials, cause sometimes I hide what I feel so well that thank God! some lyric comes to help me figure out my mind blizzards.
ReplyDeleteEsta buenisimo saber q a otros les pasa igual. Merci bcp por comentar linda, I appreciate it :D
ReplyDeleteDe nada, me gusta mucho tu blog Chrissy :)
ReplyDelete