Different Ways Artists Can Use Lyrics

Often times music lyrics are simply used to create catchy words that people hear. These words are designed to appeal and convince people to buy CDs and attend concerts of a certain artist. There are other reasons, however, that artists choose their lyrics as they do. Lyrics are heard by all of an artist’s audience and can occasionally be beneficial to a cause or an idea. This article will explore the different reasons artists create lyrics in the way that they do.
A common usage of lyrics in this day and age is to critique the current state, or even form, of government in a country. It is quite common for folk of any nationality to be unhappy with their governing powers for one reason or another. In the United States there is much concern over the way President Bush has handled the issues of terrorism, oil, and even immigration in recent days. Rather than coming out publicly with speeches, many artists hide messages of their disgust into their lyrics. Often times people will hear their message more often and more clearly through music than in a boring speech in which people can simply change the channel. A musical group who created these type of lyrics often was Rage Against the Machine, although they have been broken up for quite some time now.
Lyrics can also be used to reminisce about good times or bad times had as a child or teenager. Often times these years are the ones that shape a person and who he or she is going to be when they grow up. So it makes sense that as an adult, many artists feel the need to pay homage to this crucial part of their life. Many of these song’s lyrics focus in on past relationships long forgotten, good times had with best friends, and even sometimes traumatic experiences with abusive or uncaring parents or relatives. Whatever the topic is, being able to sing about their past memories allows artists to release whatever emotion they are feeling.
Of course it would be a mistake to claim all lyrics are meaningful and are made with some ulterior message underneath. Often times artists are simply looking for songs to make them more money and just garble together some nonsense about dancing and making money into a song. While these lyrics certainly do not have any real positive message, most of the time, they are still among the most popular of the youth today. There is no real problem with this, however, as kids shouldn’t be worried about deep meanings at every point of their life. They should be able to feel good about themselves and have fun for no reason when they are young!
Song lyrics are something that almost every genre of music has, and it is important to realize that some songs are made with interior meanings. Without recognizing that a song may mean more than simply the words it displays from the exterior, it is easy to overlook an artist’s true creation and art and to give them less credit than they deserve.