You already know the ultimate importance of lyrics. That is, if you want your listener to be emotionally connected to your music. If you want to tell everybody that you’re sexy and you know it – that’s totally “cool”, and may bring you lots of money and fame.. But you might as well turn out as a not so funny joke in a few years, when the DJ plays your old, dust covered “hit”.
So what does emotional connection to lyrics mean anyway? And more importantly, HOW can you write such lyrics? We all know that in all sorts of art, there is no proven “safe” way to do things, and you may never know how listeners will react to your music. My opinion on this is – if you have the awareness of the values that your music and lyrics should have in the first place, there is a bigger chance that listeners will connect to you and your music – than if you you don’t pay attention to these values. I can’t assure you that you’ll succeed as an artist (neither can all these marketing gurus that tell you how to market and promote yourself), but for sure – your artistic value will be higher if you do.
The first value worth looking at is: Thought provoking lyrics.
Why do we need thought provoking lyrics anyway? Well, the first reason is that an average song might be about 4 minutes in duration, but it is possible that the listener may still wonder or think about a certain idea even hours later. That is, if the lyrics make him think about the message or feeling you were trying to convey.
A listener will think about a message in a song, particularly if the message is about something he can relate to (this is another value for later), if the message conveys a unique point of view (something like “I have never thought about it this way”), or even a question that’s digging deep into the “where did we come from and where are we going” area.
Look at some songs you really love and you will quickly understand what I am talking about.
Let me give you one of my examples:
“do you see the way that tree bends?
does it inspire?
leaning out to catch the sun’s rays
a lesson to be applied”
(“Present Tense” by Pearl Jam)
This song have had a big influence on me as a listener, not once I have found myself thinking about it and playing it in my head for days. Yes, it is indeed a beautifully written and performed song, but it was only when I became familiar with the lyrics of this song that I felt completely connected to everything this song conveys.
I will take this simple excerpt and try to explain how it relates to our subject:
First of all – these lines do convey a unique point of view. I know about trees, I know how they grow and I’ve seen on BBC how they react and depend on the sun’s light. I kind of take it for granted, But I have never thought about it this way. Needless to say, this is a simple question, but it may have a much deeper meaning – depends on who’s asking it… It just makes you really think. Second, this question may relate to a lot of different situations, personal dilemmas or emotional states, which certainly may raise other questions as well – which in turn provoke their own related thoughts.
I can go on and on, but I think that the basic idea is understood. You’re more than welcome to ask questions about the subject or any subject that I’ve talked about until now. tell me about songs that have inspired and influenced you and why on the “comments” section below.
You may also send me some of your music to theshtikfactory@gmail.com, just make sure that the values I discussed here are realized in your music, and I might even talk about it here. I am desperately looking for NEW music and artists that convey these values.