Comments on: Amusica

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 18:38:04 +0000

Yes, writing about music is hard, and you don’t realise that until you try. Especially if you want to avoid phrases like “The bridge resolves the rising chromatic pattern”.

By: Serdar Yegulalp

Serdar Yegulalp — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 15:41:08 +0000

I have a strong attachment to certain songs lyrically, but I’m not automatically interested in a song just because of the lyrics (unless it’s something really personal).

I also suspect one of the reasons music journos revere Dylan & the like is because it’s far easier to write about someone else’s lyrics than it is to write about their *music*.

By: ard sloc

ard sloc — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 11:28:55 +0000

Is music so very different from other arts and our sensitivity to them? We like different things. “I think that I shall never see/a poem lovely as a tree”, said the unintellectual (?) nature lover. But then we can learn more. There’s a controversy going on about creative writing courses. They’re all rubbish; you’ve either got it or you haven’t (or words to that effect), says one professor of creative writing. But surely a deeper appreciation of how to listen to/look at/read any form of art can be learned, informally or maybe in such courses. Not replacing my early love of traditional jazz and brass bands, I have learned to appreciate “classical” orchestral music. But much of the visual arts remain a closed book, most probably because I have not bothered to learn enough about it.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 10:57:17 +0000

I’ve always thought that was the case, and explains why (for example) Bob Dylan is so highly revered.

I remember glowing reviews of The Arctic Monkeys’ first album that talked entirely about the social observation in Alex Turner’s lyrics without mentioning the music at all. At least one was brave enough to say “If you tune out the lyrics, all the songs might as well be the same song”.

By: PaulE

PaulE — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 20:44:07 +0000

For me it seems like the music has a direct connection to my emotions whereas the lyrics need to be understood and interpreted first. I can love the music after one or two listens- long before I have a clue about the meaning of the song. That isn’t to say that the lyrics mean nothing, but that it takes much longer to get there. Sometimes only after reading the lyrics printed in the CD booklet.
I have always suspected that music journalists natural affinity with words makes them more likely to be people who are into the lyrics first.