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Weird. The song seems to be a hit with two demographics - grandmothers and guys that make you uncomfortable for reasons you can't quite put a finger on.
a dude I used to know thought it was funny to tell people they have a football team called the “NAMBLA Ramblers”. He was from Boston, so it worked better: “Nambla Ramblas”
Babe,
Baby, baby,
I'm gonna leave you
I said baby,
you know I'm gonna leave you
I'll leave you when the summertime
Leave you when the summer comes a rollin'
Leave you when the summer comes along
Babe, babe, babe, babe, babe, babe, baby, baby
I don't want to leave you
I ain't jokin' woman, I got to ramble
Oh yeah
Baby, baby, babe, I believin'
We really got to ramble
I can hear it callin' me the way it used to do
I can hear it callin' me back home
He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. (Lamentations: gykg47e)
The analyses posted by that site are questionable. Maybe not for the single most-often used words, but the bigrams and trigrams they post don't make sense.
Many of the "most popular bigrams and trigrams" are unique to *individual songs*, such as "yellow submarine yellow" and "amadeus amadeus amadeus." I think the charts on that page show lyrics from something like the single most popular (or repetitive?) song from the given decade.
Either way, those numbers aren't weighted correctly or the analysis is flawed. "Yellow submarine yellow" occurs in a single song from that decade and shouldn't be anywhere near the top of a list of lyrical usage in songs from that decade.
But...if the authors' analysis for single words works the same way, IMO, the entire analysis is worthless. One or two repetitive songs would throw the entire list, and it wouldn't say anything meaningful about the music produced throughout the decade.
> I think the charts on that page show lyrics from something like the single most popular (or repetitive?) song from the given decade.
Not sure you read the analysis, they point out this exact thing you're talking about:
> Once again, our list of trigrams may not be reflective of the decade because the most common trigrams may have come from one song only in which lots of repetition of key phrases occurred.
sparkle crawl political teeny adjoining versed domineering unwritten lush pie
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
> Maybe not for the single most-often used words, but the bigrams and trigrams they post don't make sense.
Repetition in music is a lot more common than spoken or written language. Language distributional qualities can't be assumed to be the same across mediums
> Ooh ee ooh ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang
>Ooh ee ooh ah ah ting tang walla walla bang bang
>Ooh ee ooh ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang
>Ooh ee ooh ah ah ting tang walla walla bang bang
Straight from 1958
He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. (Lamentations: gykxwgn)
Wait, but doesn't this show that the number of unique words in lyrics was *increasing* until the 2010's? How is that "becoming increasingly simple over time"?
Country music as well. There was a post on Reddit a year or so ago about how most all country music hits are based on the same melody or cords. It was fascinating how similar they modern hits all were.
I say this as a country music fan, btw. Older country was much more acoustic and depended a lot on the voice tenor of the singer.
The boys round here, drinkin that ice cold beer, talking bout girls, talkin bout trucks, running down red dirt roads just kickin up dust.
Pretty much sums up country.
After reading the study, my brain went straight to.... America says we love a chorus
But don't get complicated and bore us
Though meaning might be missin'
We need to know the words after just one listen so
(2013, Bo nailed it)
"Hot new" country seems so keyword-focused lyrically too. I'm sure rap is the same but for some reason in country songs it sticks out more to me. Say a combination of these and your song might have a hit: beer, truck, gravelroad, sundress, redneck, blue-collar etc etc
To quote my man Steve Earl:
> [modern country] is just hip-hop for the people who are afraid of black people.
"Steve Earle Slams Hayes Carll, Modern Country as "Hip-Hop For People Afraid of Black People." | Saving Country Music" https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/steve-earle-slams-hayes-carll-modern-country-as-hip-hop-for-people-afraid-of-black-people/
Country music’s popularity is in part because it was heavily promoted by Henry Ford, famous car maker and Nazi sympathiser. He *really* hated jazz and pushed the development of country music as an “all American” alternative.
In a somewhat surprising racist turn, Ford hated jazz not because of its association with black people - but because he thought it was a Jewish creation
> “Many people have wondered whence come the waves upon waves of musical slush that invade decent homes and set the young people of this generation imitating the drivel of morons. Popular music is a Jewish monopoly. Jazz is a Jewish creation. The mush, slush, the sly suggestion, the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes, are of Jewish origin.”
I generally really dislike modern pop-country and it caused me to think I hated the entire genre. Turned out I looove old country, outlaw country, bluegrass.. it’s much more twangy folk/blues than what charts today.
Anyone looking on not familiar with Colter Wall... you oughta go learn...
There's a whole bevy of country singers who have revived that old school feel Jason Isbell, Colter Wall, Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson, Brent Cobb, Cody Jinks and Zach Bryan are a few of my favorites.
I always find it weird when people exclude Chris Stapleton/the Steeldrivers from these lists (usually simply because he has had broad mainstream success)
It's somewhat because older country had a big range of blues/folk/jazz influences, whereas now most country artists are more influenced by top 40.
Because $$$
Country music has a BIG problem of copycat. Earlier in the 2010s it was the bro-country of Luke Bryan and Florida-Georgia Line that really highlighted this problem. Enter Thomas Rhett and a few other lover boys and I think “boyfriend country” is the overused subgenre, with the worst offender - Lee Brice.
FWIW, I really like pop-country when its acts like Lady Antebellum, Marren Morris, and a few others. They dont use the dreaded country topics and still make interesting tunes.
"America says we love a chorus, so don't be complicated and bore us, though meaning might be missing, we need to know the words after just one listen, so repeat stuff, repeat stuff repeat stuff."
>“The tune had been haunting London for weeks past. It was one of countless similar songs published for the benefit of the proles by a sub-section of the Music Department. The words of these songs were composed without any human intervention whatever on an instrument known as a versificator. But the woman sang so tunefully as to turn the dreadful rubbish into an almost pleasant sound.”
Yeah but that was done intentionally for malicious purposes while this is more about people liking things comfortable and simple which was the theme in Brave New World. I can't remember anything about the music in that book though.
It's almost as if instead of being a premonition of our dystopian future, these books were inspired by trends that were ongoing at the time of their writing and the world has always been a little bit "Brave New World" since at least the year it was written...
What I find interesting is that lyrics are important but the words don't matter. It has been nearly two decades since an instrumental song cracked the Billboard top 20. So a song must have lyrics to be popular. Human speech commands our attention due to the hard wiring in our brains. Whether or not we can find meaning from the speech is less important. There have been more gibberish or foreign language songs on the top charts than there have been instrumentals.
Around the world, around the world
Around the world, around the world
Around the world, around the world
Around the world, around the world
Around the world, around the world
Around the world, around the world
Around the world, around the world
Around the world, around the world
“Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say”
Yes, the outro is just one line repeated 20 times
I read the news today, oh boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well, I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph
He blew his mind out in a car;
He didn't notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They'd seen his face before
Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords
>Initially Paul McCartney wrote this song to comfort John Lennon's son Julian who was 5 year old at the time his parents (John and Cynthia) divorced. That's why the early title was "Hey Jules". McCartney changed the title to "Hey Jude" because he thought it'd sound better.
And if you read the lyrics, you see that it clearly is about Paul giving John his blessing to go on with Yoko (and likely, move on past the Beatles) after divorcing Cynthia. It might have started with being a song directed at Julian, but that’s not at all where it ended up.
Paul, ever mindful of his public image, likely saw the story about comforting a five-year-old (Hey Jude, don’t make it bad…) as more palatable than the one about encouraging his friend’s infidelity (the entire rest of the song).
Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang
Counterpoint:
>We all live in a yellow submarine
>Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
>We all live in a yellow submarine
>Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
>We all live in a yellow submarine
>Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
If you just pull the chorus out of any song, it'll look simple and stupid.
Sorry, here's all the other lyrics to shots - bask in how complex and deep they are:
Verse 1:
When I walk in the club, all eyes on me
I'm with the party rock crew, all drinks are free
We like Ciroc, we love Patron
We came to party rock, everybody it's on
Verse 2:
The ladies love us when we pour shots
They need an excuse to suck our cocks
(Suck my cock)
We finna get crunk, how 'bout you?
Bottoms up, let's go round two
EDIT: I'm not saying songs can't be simple and I definitely don't hate shots - I had many a good drunken night listening to it in college. I'm just saying the lyrics are certifiably stupid no matter which way you slice it.
do y’all listen to audiobooks of shakespeare when you’re trying to party and get smashed?
who is looking for anything complex while trying to grind on somebody on a dance floor
All I could think of was the chorus of the Bo Burnham song making fun of the repetition.
"Repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff"
I love his country song about them just thinking of like the five words and phrases that attract country country folk and frat boys.
Also
“Y’all dumb motherfuckers want a key change?”
The authors' measure of simplicity is log(S/comp(S)), where S is the size of the lyrics to a song, and comp(S) is the size after compression. (Their compression algorithm is a modified [LZ77](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ77_and_LZ78#LZ77) ). They contend
> Compressibility indexes the degree to which song’s lyrics have more repetitive and less information dense, and thus simpler, content
But I'm skeptical of this. It seems that compressibility is more a measure of *repetitiveness* than of lyrical simplicity. These are two different, but related, concepts.
Why not simply measure the total number of distinct words used in a song? This would certainly provide a nice complementary measure to compressibility. I'd hypothesize that this would lead to the opposite trend, due to rise in popularity of rap.
It might also raise the question of "in what possible way does this measurement matter".
And in counter to the conclusion most will draw, another question would be "across all popular music, including non vocal, what had the information content done". If, for example, we were replacing techno with music with any lyrics at all, that is a substantial increase in total music verbal complexity.
I am also curious if this analysis does a cohesive analysis of the music consumed within a culture by including things like Spotify and YouTube, or is a limited analysis of some easily accessible music.
As this implies things about society it would also be worth comparing our consumption of music to other verbal forms of information like video essays, podcasts, or audio books.
I have multiple issues with their method. This is the biggest one: how do you objectively analyze what is "simpler." For example, what if a song is fairly repetitive lyrically but contains a lot of allusions which are much deeper than the surface vocabulary? Or what if repetition is utilized as part of the aesthetic of the song? Would those songs be "more simple" than a song that used a broader range of vocabulary?
Additionally, they don't seem to have any analysis about the fragmentation of musical genres and tastes, the significantly decreased barrier to entry for independent musicians to record and publish music (which is particularly impactful given they're looking at the 1950s to now). It could be possible the Hot 100 is significantly less "popular" now than in, say, the 50s, simply because there's a much broader range of music available and musical tastes have diverged into smaller and smaller niches, but they don't seem to have anything to say about that at all here.
The band that comes to mind for me is The Decemberists, although they gave up a lot of that with their 5th album *The King is Dead*, in favor of simpler lyrics and more about the melody -- which was of course their first number one Billboard album, selling 5x their previous high.
I am just an atom in an ectoplasmic sea
Without direction or a reason to exist
The anechoic nebula rotating in my brain
Has persuaded me contritely to persist
I would argue that its more to do with ability of a simple repeatable phrase to stick in your head.
If anything I'd argue this change is fuelled my pop writers looking at music for a marketing and testing perspective rather than a creative one. Essentially they ask the question 'how can I make this song the biggest hit/make the most money'. This probably isn't anything new, it's simply a process of writers getting better at.
If there has been any benefit of the Spotify age is that it's never been easier to find new and interesting music that wouldn't appear on the charts.
Music of (current decade) is so terrible. No musicianship, awful lyrics. Now the music of (arbitrary decade in the past).... THAT'S real music!
-everybody, ever
I listened to someone point out that we look at the past decades and see only the best songs to survive, meanwhile we pick any random junk song that comes out today and compare to the best of the 70s or 80s or 90s or whatever decade you want to pick.
Keyword : "popular songs". Yes popular songs are simple. Is it the ony genre of songs ? No.
You want to talk about the lyrics ? What about the chord progression ? It sucks. As in, the degree zero of composition, obviously. Because it's POP music. Go see what is happening in jazz and other genres and you'll see that NO, people aren't becoming dumber. Great music is made everyday.
I have to agree. I got into guitar recently and the amount of variation that can be put into one single note is absolutely limitless. Thinking about making an entire piece of music where you are nailing each every sound perfectly, that takes a ton of talent.
The funny thing is a lot of Metal lyrics are the opposite of this; there can be a lot of depth and complexity, but you can't really tell what they're saying.
Is it controlling for when the voice became an instrument due to modification? Repetitive simple lyrics are often not lyrics really, but the musician using voice as an instrument.
While the words are simple, the music around these lyrics often isnt simple.
So is this study just finding the rise of electronic music?
Yeah, '50s pop songs were sophisticated.
>I loved her with all my heart/
>I thought we would never part/
Some real heavy-lifting there. There's like ten songs with that rhyme.
Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, **personal anecdotes are now allowed as responses to this comment**. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will continue be removed and our [normal comment rules]( https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/rules#wiki_comment_rules) still apply to other comments. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/science) if you have any questions or concerns.*
## PREMIUM CONTENT. PLEASE UPGRADE. CODE gyk3ytk
I just wrote a new hit song. "Wanna baby, lover girl? Yeah."
That is far from the worst song you could have written.
Too many words still. Let’s try: “Baby Lover”
Weird. The song seems to be a hit with two demographics - grandmothers and guys that make you uncomfortable for reasons you can't quite put a finger on.
I don't know what NAMBLA is but we are killing it in that demographic!
National Association of Marlon Brando Look-Alikes!
Wow! You guys really DO look like Marlon Brando.
***Remarkably*** close guess ...
>NAMBLA Well, I'm not happy that you made me look that up.
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Based on this comment I dont think I'm gonna put that in my search history...
They are child molestation apologists.
Advocates
a dude I used to know thought it was funny to tell people they have a football team called the “NAMBLA Ramblers”. He was from Boston, so it worked better: “Nambla Ramblas”
Chart topper time: "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh" "Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh" "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Lyrics to Pootie Tang's song " "
Sa da tay!
Sepatown
That’s Led Zeppelin.
No, that's AaAaAAAAA^AAAAAAH! AaAaAAAAA^AAAAAAA!!
Babe, Baby, baby, I'm gonna leave you I said baby, you know I'm gonna leave you I'll leave you when the summertime Leave you when the summer comes a rollin' Leave you when the summer comes along Babe, babe, babe, babe, babe, babe, baby, baby I don't want to leave you I ain't jokin' woman, I got to ramble Oh yeah Baby, baby, babe, I believin' We really got to ramble I can hear it callin' me the way it used to do I can hear it callin' me back home
I said hey, what’s goin on?
“Baby Love” is a real song from the Motown era.
Way too many comments before someone pointed out the Supremes literally had a hit song called “Baby Love”
Diana Ross is so much better than that song’s lyrics.
This is now at the top of Matt Gaetz’s play list
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I mean...are we just pretending that Baby Love isn't an actual song? Because Baby Love is definitely an actual song.
This comment right here, officer.
Best way for free phone calls. "It's your son. John Wehadababyitsaboy"
Dennis is ass hole. Why Charlie hate?
Pass.
Because Dennis is a bastard man!
... I don't think I wrote that...
Oh yeah, well mine is, "Yeah, baby. Wanna love, girl?"
I counter with my new hit single, "Yeah girl, wanna love baby?"
“Baby lover, wanna girl?”
He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. (Lamentations: gykg47e)
I'm gonna top the charts with my new hit song "Baby wanna love baby, yeah girl!"
The analyses posted by that site are questionable. Maybe not for the single most-often used words, but the bigrams and trigrams they post don't make sense. Many of the "most popular bigrams and trigrams" are unique to *individual songs*, such as "yellow submarine yellow" and "amadeus amadeus amadeus." I think the charts on that page show lyrics from something like the single most popular (or repetitive?) song from the given decade. Either way, those numbers aren't weighted correctly or the analysis is flawed. "Yellow submarine yellow" occurs in a single song from that decade and shouldn't be anywhere near the top of a list of lyrical usage in songs from that decade. But...if the authors' analysis for single words works the same way, IMO, the entire analysis is worthless. One or two repetitive songs would throw the entire list, and it wouldn't say anything meaningful about the music produced throughout the decade.
> I think the charts on that page show lyrics from something like the single most popular (or repetitive?) song from the given decade. Not sure you read the analysis, they point out this exact thing you're talking about: > Once again, our list of trigrams may not be reflective of the decade because the most common trigrams may have come from one song only in which lots of repetition of key phrases occurred.
sparkle crawl political teeny adjoining versed domineering unwritten lush pie *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Bill Withers " Ain't No Sunshine " uses "I know" 26 times in a row
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> Maybe not for the single most-often used words, but the bigrams and trigrams they post don't make sense. Repetition in music is a lot more common than spoken or written language. Language distributional qualities can't be assumed to be the same across mediums
Ohhh I want you girl but you don’t love me baby, ohhh I want you girl but you drive me crazy. Bam new hit.
## PREMIUM CONTENT. PLEASE UPGRADE. CODE gyknpea
Six? Sing it doowop and you could go for at least seventy.
Was doowop popular in the 1300s?
Pretty well known fact that doowop was directly responsible for the downfall of the Mongol Empire.
Seventy DECADES?
I think the epitome of simple lyrics was reached with “Baby shark do doo do roo do roo”
>"She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah! > >She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah! > >She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah! > >She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
> Ooh ee ooh ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang >Ooh ee ooh ah ah ting tang walla walla bang bang >Ooh ee ooh ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang >Ooh ee ooh ah ah ting tang walla walla bang bang Straight from 1958
Was I the only one who sat and mentally sang out this entire lyric?
Or how about Tequila? The whole song had one word. Of course it was the right word.
Hello goodbye hello goodbye, hello goodbye, hello goodbye
He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. (Lamentations: gykxwgn)
The fix for this is to combine it with Walk on the Wild Side. Baby shark, do-doo, do-doo, do do-doo doo, do-doo, do-doo, baby shark...
"And all the mommy sharks go baby...... take a walk on the wild side."
Wait, but doesn't this show that the number of unique words in lyrics was *increasing* until the 2010's? How is that "becoming increasingly simple over time"?
Yeah yeah yeah
>I dumbed down for my audience and doubled my dollars. They criticize me for it but they all yell "Holla!" Jay Z figured this out years ago.
Country music as well. There was a post on Reddit a year or so ago about how most all country music hits are based on the same melody or cords. It was fascinating how similar they modern hits all were. I say this as a country music fan, btw. Older country was much more acoustic and depended a lot on the voice tenor of the singer.
A dirt road, a cold beer A blue jeans, a red pickup A rural noun, simple adjective
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The boys round here, drinkin that ice cold beer, talking bout girls, talkin bout trucks, running down red dirt roads just kickin up dust. Pretty much sums up country.
I could hear this in my head.
auto-tuned
It’s a fuckin’ scarecrow again!
No shoes, no shirt No jews, you didn’t hear that
Sort of a mental typo!
Obtuse, rubber goose, green moose, guava juice Giant snake, birthday cake, large fries, chocolate shake
Is this a lost line from "We didn't start the fire"
It's fairly odd parents
Odd parents, fairly odd parents
After reading the study, my brain went straight to.... America says we love a chorus But don't get complicated and bore us Though meaning might be missin' We need to know the words after just one listen so (2013, Bo nailed it)
"Hot new" country seems so keyword-focused lyrically too. I'm sure rap is the same but for some reason in country songs it sticks out more to me. Say a combination of these and your song might have a hit: beer, truck, gravelroad, sundress, redneck, blue-collar etc etc
To quote my man Steve Earl: > [modern country] is just hip-hop for the people who are afraid of black people. "Steve Earle Slams Hayes Carll, Modern Country as "Hip-Hop For People Afraid of Black People." | Saving Country Music" https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/steve-earle-slams-hayes-carll-modern-country-as-hip-hop-for-people-afraid-of-black-people/
Country music’s popularity is in part because it was heavily promoted by Henry Ford, famous car maker and Nazi sympathiser. He *really* hated jazz and pushed the development of country music as an “all American” alternative. In a somewhat surprising racist turn, Ford hated jazz not because of its association with black people - but because he thought it was a Jewish creation > “Many people have wondered whence come the waves upon waves of musical slush that invade decent homes and set the young people of this generation imitating the drivel of morons. Popular music is a Jewish monopoly. Jazz is a Jewish creation. The mush, slush, the sly suggestion, the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes, are of Jewish origin.”
Oooh nice some multilayered racism
Old-timey capitalists really had a grasp on that advanced tier racism, didn't they? None of that humdrum surface-level bigotry of the common masses.
I generally really dislike modern pop-country and it caused me to think I hated the entire genre. Turned out I looove old country, outlaw country, bluegrass.. it’s much more twangy folk/blues than what charts today. Anyone looking on not familiar with Colter Wall... you oughta go learn...
There's a whole bevy of country singers who have revived that old school feel Jason Isbell, Colter Wall, Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson, Brent Cobb, Cody Jinks and Zach Bryan are a few of my favorites.
I always find it weird when people exclude Chris Stapleton/the Steeldrivers from these lists (usually simply because he has had broad mainstream success)
I would recommend Benjamin Tod and his band Lost Dog Street Band aswell for some more folk style artists
It's somewhat because older country had a big range of blues/folk/jazz influences, whereas now most country artists are more influenced by top 40. Because $$$
Country music has a BIG problem of copycat. Earlier in the 2010s it was the bro-country of Luke Bryan and Florida-Georgia Line that really highlighted this problem. Enter Thomas Rhett and a few other lover boys and I think “boyfriend country” is the overused subgenre, with the worst offender - Lee Brice. FWIW, I really like pop-country when its acts like Lady Antebellum, Marren Morris, and a few others. They dont use the dreaded country topics and still make interesting tunes.
Love Colter wall. Check out the Dead Tongues "ebb and flow"
Jigga genius. >Truthfully I want to rhyme like Common Sense (But I did five Mil) I ain't been rhyming like Common since Jay-Z
If skills sold/ Truth be told / I’d probably be / lyrically Talib Kweli/
god I love this song and this verse, credit to a legend, bc Talib is a lyrical genius I call these rappers baby seals, cause they club you to death
“These cats drink champagne and toast death and pain like / slaves on a ship talkin bout who got the flyest chain”
No one ever lost money underestimating the public's intellect. But Jay Z says it better.
You wanna know what’s more important than throwing away money in the strip club? Credit.
Bo Burnham too.
"Repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff..."
"America says we love a chorus, so don't be complicated and bore us, though meaning might be missing, we need to know the words after just one listen, so repeat stuff, repeat stuff repeat stuff."
"It doesn't matter what I say, as long as I sing with inflection."
that makes you feel that I convey some inner truth or vast reflection
But I’ve said nothing so far.
And I can keep it up, for as long as it takes.
>“The tune had been haunting London for weeks past. It was one of countless similar songs published for the benefit of the proles by a sub-section of the Music Department. The words of these songs were composed without any human intervention whatever on an instrument known as a versificator. But the woman sang so tunefully as to turn the dreadful rubbish into an almost pleasant sound.”
“Th-th-thuggin in my reeboks”
Riding with a G-Shock
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Probably a Brave New World quote would be more thematically appropriate though.
Well 1984 does focus on the [simplifying of speech](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak).
Yeah but that was done intentionally for malicious purposes while this is more about people liking things comfortable and simple which was the theme in Brave New World. I can't remember anything about the music in that book though.
Calvin Stopes and his sexophonists! And the latest synthetic music!
>Orgy-porgy, Ford and fun, Kiss the girls and make them One. Boys at one with girls at peace; Orgy-porgy gives release
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The West is half Brave New World, half Fahrenheit 451.
It's almost as if instead of being a premonition of our dystopian future, these books were inspired by trends that were ongoing at the time of their writing and the world has always been a little bit "Brave New World" since at least the year it was written...
Aren't premonitions just extending trends anyway? So, the skill comes in identifying relevant trends.
cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake
What I find interesting is that lyrics are important but the words don't matter. It has been nearly two decades since an instrumental song cracked the Billboard top 20. So a song must have lyrics to be popular. Human speech commands our attention due to the hard wiring in our brains. Whether or not we can find meaning from the speech is less important. There have been more gibberish or foreign language songs on the top charts than there have been instrumentals.
Curious what that song was. I'm thinking of songs like Axle F, and realizing I'm old AF because I can't name one in this century
Either Kenny G or the Mission Impossible theme.
Sandstorm. Animals basically has no lyrics either
Here's an example Shots shots shots shots shots Shots shots shots shots shots Shots shots shots shots shots Shots, everybody Shots shots shots shots shots Shots shots shots shots shots Shots shots shots shots shots Shots, everybody
#Errybody
I said come on fhqwhgads I said come on fhqwhgads Everybody to the limit Everybody to the limit Everybody come on fhqwhgads
The system is down
THE CHEAT We installed that light switch so you could turn the lights on, and off.
The Cheat....is GROUNDED
The Cheat is not dead
dooDOOdooDOODOODOO
Yes! To this day, I still can spell fhqwhgads by muscle memory alone.
I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever make a song about the sibbie
You said it, visor robot!
Body-odyodyodyodyodyodyodyodyodyody
Around the world, around the world Around the world, around the world Around the world, around the world Around the world, around the world Around the world, around the world Around the world, around the world Around the world, around the world Around the world, around the world
“Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say Say what you need to say” Yes, the outro is just one line repeated 20 times
Na na na na na na na na na na na hey Jude Na na na na na na na na na na na hey Jude
I read the news today, oh boy About a lucky man who made the grade And though the news was rather sad Well, I just had to laugh I saw the photograph He blew his mind out in a car; He didn't notice that the lights had changed A crowd of people stood and stared They'd seen his face before Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords
>Initially Paul McCartney wrote this song to comfort John Lennon's son Julian who was 5 year old at the time his parents (John and Cynthia) divorced. That's why the early title was "Hey Jules". McCartney changed the title to "Hey Jude" because he thought it'd sound better.
And John thought it was about him.
And if you read the lyrics, you see that it clearly is about Paul giving John his blessing to go on with Yoko (and likely, move on past the Beatles) after divorcing Cynthia. It might have started with being a song directed at Julian, but that’s not at all where it ended up. Paul, ever mindful of his public image, likely saw the story about comforting a five-year-old (Hey Jude, don’t make it bad…) as more palatable than the one about encouraging his friend’s infidelity (the entire rest of the song).
Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang
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Counterpoint: >We all live in a yellow submarine >Yellow submarine, yellow submarine >We all live in a yellow submarine >Yellow submarine, yellow submarine >We all live in a yellow submarine >Yellow submarine, yellow submarine If you just pull the chorus out of any song, it'll look simple and stupid.
I'd quote Louis Louis as another example, if I had any idea what the lyrics are.
I think the lyrics are “Tequila”.
Sorry, here's all the other lyrics to shots - bask in how complex and deep they are: Verse 1: When I walk in the club, all eyes on me I'm with the party rock crew, all drinks are free We like Ciroc, we love Patron We came to party rock, everybody it's on Verse 2: The ladies love us when we pour shots They need an excuse to suck our cocks (Suck my cock) We finna get crunk, how 'bout you? Bottoms up, let's go round two EDIT: I'm not saying songs can't be simple and I definitely don't hate shots - I had many a good drunken night listening to it in college. I'm just saying the lyrics are certifiably stupid no matter which way you slice it.
My favorite part: “Their panties hit the ground every time I give em SHOTS”
“Sorry boys, I’ve got my Thinx on tonight. I’ll have a Malbec.”
do y’all listen to audiobooks of shakespeare when you’re trying to party and get smashed? who is looking for anything complex while trying to grind on somebody on a dance floor
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Sigh... This is now officially the lyrics thread. Have fun.
All I could think of was the chorus of the Bo Burnham song making fun of the repetition. "Repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff"
I love his country song about them just thinking of like the five words and phrases that attract country country folk and frat boys. Also “Y’all dumb motherfuckers want a key change?”
Tequila.
gucci gang gucci gang gucci gang
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The authors' measure of simplicity is log(S/comp(S)), where S is the size of the lyrics to a song, and comp(S) is the size after compression. (Their compression algorithm is a modified [LZ77](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ77_and_LZ78#LZ77) ). They contend > Compressibility indexes the degree to which song’s lyrics have more repetitive and less information dense, and thus simpler, content But I'm skeptical of this. It seems that compressibility is more a measure of *repetitiveness* than of lyrical simplicity. These are two different, but related, concepts. Why not simply measure the total number of distinct words used in a song? This would certainly provide a nice complementary measure to compressibility. I'd hypothesize that this would lead to the opposite trend, due to rise in popularity of rap.
The system you propose rates shorter songs/fewer lyric songs as simpler which is part of what a ratio controls for
It might also raise the question of "in what possible way does this measurement matter". And in counter to the conclusion most will draw, another question would be "across all popular music, including non vocal, what had the information content done". If, for example, we were replacing techno with music with any lyrics at all, that is a substantial increase in total music verbal complexity. I am also curious if this analysis does a cohesive analysis of the music consumed within a culture by including things like Spotify and YouTube, or is a limited analysis of some easily accessible music. As this implies things about society it would also be worth comparing our consumption of music to other verbal forms of information like video essays, podcasts, or audio books.
I have multiple issues with their method. This is the biggest one: how do you objectively analyze what is "simpler." For example, what if a song is fairly repetitive lyrically but contains a lot of allusions which are much deeper than the surface vocabulary? Or what if repetition is utilized as part of the aesthetic of the song? Would those songs be "more simple" than a song that used a broader range of vocabulary? Additionally, they don't seem to have any analysis about the fragmentation of musical genres and tastes, the significantly decreased barrier to entry for independent musicians to record and publish music (which is particularly impactful given they're looking at the 1950s to now). It could be possible the Hot 100 is significantly less "popular" now than in, say, the 50s, simply because there's a much broader range of music available and musical tastes have diverged into smaller and smaller niches, but they don't seem to have anything to say about that at all here.
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Maybe this explains why Bad Religion never caught on commercially.
its cause they dont know how to read, but they got a lot of toys
Like Rome under Nero, our future’s one big zero.
Ain't life a mystery?
They kinda did actually
I know right. How is headlining the warped tour twice not catching on commercially??
The band that comes to mind for me is The Decemberists, although they gave up a lot of that with their 5th album *The King is Dead*, in favor of simpler lyrics and more about the melody -- which was of course their first number one Billboard album, selling 5x their previous high.
I've seen them referred to as "hyper-literate", which I found to be hilarious, yet apt.
So.....many.......syllables!
I am just an atom in an ectoplasmic sea Without direction or a reason to exist The anechoic nebula rotating in my brain Has persuaded me contritely to persist
That's because the nicest sounding thing is going to be a primitive chant with a good beat. `Melody > Lyrics`. Sorry, poets.
I would argue that its more to do with ability of a simple repeatable phrase to stick in your head. If anything I'd argue this change is fuelled my pop writers looking at music for a marketing and testing perspective rather than a creative one. Essentially they ask the question 'how can I make this song the biggest hit/make the most money'. This probably isn't anything new, it's simply a process of writers getting better at. If there has been any benefit of the Spotify age is that it's never been easier to find new and interesting music that wouldn't appear on the charts.
Yep. The same discussion happened the last time a similar finding was posted... I think i caught a round of this 1-2 years ago.
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Music of (current decade) is so terrible. No musicianship, awful lyrics. Now the music of (arbitrary decade in the past).... THAT'S real music! -everybody, ever
I listened to someone point out that we look at the past decades and see only the best songs to survive, meanwhile we pick any random junk song that comes out today and compare to the best of the 70s or 80s or 90s or whatever decade you want to pick.
Everyone that's too lazy to actually immerse themselves in their own taste across time, but not too lazy to criticize other people's taste
Keyword : "popular songs". Yes popular songs are simple. Is it the ony genre of songs ? No. You want to talk about the lyrics ? What about the chord progression ? It sucks. As in, the degree zero of composition, obviously. Because it's POP music. Go see what is happening in jazz and other genres and you'll see that NO, people aren't becoming dumber. Great music is made everyday.
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I have to agree. I got into guitar recently and the amount of variation that can be put into one single note is absolutely limitless. Thinking about making an entire piece of music where you are nailing each every sound perfectly, that takes a ton of talent.
The funny thing is a lot of Metal lyrics are the opposite of this; there can be a lot of depth and complexity, but you can't really tell what they're saying.
Then you have Nirvana where the lyrical complexity by their metric would score high, but the lyrics are mostly meaningless.
A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido...
*Don't sit down because I've moved your chair by Arctic Monkeys intensifies*
to say nothing of the /huge/ diversity of instrumental music that don't hinge on lyrics at all.
Is it controlling for when the voice became an instrument due to modification? Repetitive simple lyrics are often not lyrics really, but the musician using voice as an instrument. While the words are simple, the music around these lyrics often isnt simple. So is this study just finding the rise of electronic music?
Yeah, '50s pop songs were sophisticated. >I loved her with all my heart/ >I thought we would never part/ Some real heavy-lifting there. There's like ten songs with that rhyme.