Popular Song Lyrics

Poetry has its origin in performed song, but there is a profound difference between a poem written to be read and lyrics written to be sung. This is due to the power of music: it acts upon the feelings without articulating anything, and harnessed to lyrics music may seem to lend emotive force to whatever (if anything) is endorsed in the text. As a result, writing lyrics to a contemporary pop song entails a fairly simple formula: all that is required are lyrics obey a law of vagueness, such that anyone can identify with it. The listener can imagine almost anything that matches his or her sense of what the tune "means." As far as the major record labels are concerned, a song only needs to be a sufficient advertisement for itself -- a "radio-friendly unit-shifter," to borrow a phrase from Kurt Cobain, where "radio-friendly" indicates a...
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