Sandtrap
03-10-2005, 07:08 PM
I dont know if any of you have noticed, although Im sure you have if you listen to more than one genre of music frequently, different music styles dont only have there own styles, guitar riffs, and actions/objects they stand for...but they also have much different style lyrics from the rest. I will explain:
The old time blues is an example or very simple lyrics, maybe as simple as they come, that almost always tell a story about the hardship the artist has gone threw in his life, or with his woman, or with the bottle or any other drugs. And it is true that the blues set the stage for Led Zepplin and other "Heavy" metal bands of the late 60s and early 70s maybe even into the 80s a little.
Ice Cream Man-Van Halen
Im your ice cream man, stop me when Im passin by
Oh my my, Im your ice cream man, stop me when Im passin by
See now all my flavors are guaranteed to satisfy
Van Halen isnt what I would call a blues band, but Ice Cream Man is deffinently a blues song. The tempo and guitar in this song toward the beginnig is very simple like all of the guitar in the blues. Some people dont like listening to the blues because they feel it sounds the same everytime. The same blues scales and the same lyrics about hardship...I dont think some of those people have heard Stevie Ray.
Go back to the Beatles were everything was simple. Hardly any metaphor appears in the Beatles lyrics and most of it is telling a story about a love or a girl. Which at the time, and still is today among some people, a very good way to go. Straight forward lyrics about a girl, and sometimes telling a story about a night out or how she made you feel(good or bad). A example:
Cant Buy Me Love-The Beatles
I'll buy you a diamond ring my friend if it makes you feel alright
I'll get you anything my friend if it makes you feel alright
'Cause I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love
I'll give you all I got to give if you say you love me too
I may not have a lot to give but what I got I'll give to you
I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love
Although not exactly telling a story, very simple and straight forward. And in a way very old fashion.
Next I examine the lyrics of Motley Crue, after the Bealtes with a slightly different approach. Turning the gain up a few notches and sometimes high pitch screams lead this band into the mainstream. Power rock, heavy metal, hard rock erupted with a new type of lyric:
Girls, Girls, Girls-Motley Crue
Friday night and I need a fight
My motorcycle and a switchblade knife
Handful of grease in my hair feels right
But what I need to get me tight are
Here are lyrics that are very simple and straight forward, but sometimes rhyme roughly and explain almost only feelings, not telling a story. Rebelious at times these lyrics show the complete difference between the "Good old Beatles" from the Crue.
Last lets look at the punk era. Lyrics consisting of amost nothing but metaphor and feeling. No stories being told, nothing really rebelious, just lyrics soaked with anything but straigh 'forwardness'. The subject in the song is hidden deep within dark and sometimes twisted seeming words.
Silver And Cold-AFI
Light, like the flutter of wings,
feel your hollow voice rushing
into me as you're longing to sing.
So I,I will paint you in silver.
I will wrap you in cold.
I will lift up your voice as I sink.
The lyrics of this AFI song just puzzle me completely. Im sure if I though about the lyrics and metaphor I could fingure out a situation were lyrics of this sort could be written, but the sceme is nothing like the earlier artists I posted.
Now to cut to the chase: The subject of creating this thread was to "educate" people who dont already know of the different types of lyrics in the major genres and see what they think about the creation of a new style of lyrics. I know I have left many genres out and if you would like to post a sample of a song from another genre explaining why its different that would be fine.
The old time blues is an example or very simple lyrics, maybe as simple as they come, that almost always tell a story about the hardship the artist has gone threw in his life, or with his woman, or with the bottle or any other drugs. And it is true that the blues set the stage for Led Zepplin and other "Heavy" metal bands of the late 60s and early 70s maybe even into the 80s a little.
Ice Cream Man-Van Halen
Im your ice cream man, stop me when Im passin by
Oh my my, Im your ice cream man, stop me when Im passin by
See now all my flavors are guaranteed to satisfy
Van Halen isnt what I would call a blues band, but Ice Cream Man is deffinently a blues song. The tempo and guitar in this song toward the beginnig is very simple like all of the guitar in the blues. Some people dont like listening to the blues because they feel it sounds the same everytime. The same blues scales and the same lyrics about hardship...I dont think some of those people have heard Stevie Ray.
Go back to the Beatles were everything was simple. Hardly any metaphor appears in the Beatles lyrics and most of it is telling a story about a love or a girl. Which at the time, and still is today among some people, a very good way to go. Straight forward lyrics about a girl, and sometimes telling a story about a night out or how she made you feel(good or bad). A example:
Cant Buy Me Love-The Beatles
I'll buy you a diamond ring my friend if it makes you feel alright
I'll get you anything my friend if it makes you feel alright
'Cause I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love
I'll give you all I got to give if you say you love me too
I may not have a lot to give but what I got I'll give to you
I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love
Although not exactly telling a story, very simple and straight forward. And in a way very old fashion.
Next I examine the lyrics of Motley Crue, after the Bealtes with a slightly different approach. Turning the gain up a few notches and sometimes high pitch screams lead this band into the mainstream. Power rock, heavy metal, hard rock erupted with a new type of lyric:
Girls, Girls, Girls-Motley Crue
Friday night and I need a fight
My motorcycle and a switchblade knife
Handful of grease in my hair feels right
But what I need to get me tight are
Here are lyrics that are very simple and straight forward, but sometimes rhyme roughly and explain almost only feelings, not telling a story. Rebelious at times these lyrics show the complete difference between the "Good old Beatles" from the Crue.
Last lets look at the punk era. Lyrics consisting of amost nothing but metaphor and feeling. No stories being told, nothing really rebelious, just lyrics soaked with anything but straigh 'forwardness'. The subject in the song is hidden deep within dark and sometimes twisted seeming words.
Silver And Cold-AFI
Light, like the flutter of wings,
feel your hollow voice rushing
into me as you're longing to sing.
So I,I will paint you in silver.
I will wrap you in cold.
I will lift up your voice as I sink.
The lyrics of this AFI song just puzzle me completely. Im sure if I though about the lyrics and metaphor I could fingure out a situation were lyrics of this sort could be written, but the sceme is nothing like the earlier artists I posted.
Now to cut to the chase: The subject of creating this thread was to "educate" people who dont already know of the different types of lyrics in the major genres and see what they think about the creation of a new style of lyrics. I know I have left many genres out and if you would like to post a sample of a song from another genre explaining why its different that would be fine.