CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
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Foreign Music: Not as Good as I'd Hoped

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

this entry brought to you by the editors, "fingers in the factories"


I have a friend who, for about the past year or so, whenever she and I end up talking about music, mentions these foreign bands that don't sing in English. Years ago, I used to think that I didn't have that prejudice against music not in English. Just because I didn't understand the lyrics didn't mean I couldn't enjoy it. In fact, I knew of several bands, such as Stereolab and Cornershop, the first who occasionally sings songs in French, the second who occasionally sings songs in Punjabi, that I enjoyed a lot, so I assumed I would be fine with bands that sung exclusively in another language. But when it comes right down to it, when I have nothing to attach myself to in terms of lyrics, I can barely keep my attention through a whole album. I didn't want to be this way, and I especially feel that as I've gotten older, my attention to lyrics has gotten less and less important. When I was a teenager, especially when I was writing lots and lots of poetry, I wouldn't listen to bands that I felt had unimportant lyrics. Now that I'm older, yes, I still enjoy good lyrics, and I'd still say my favorite bands are the ones with really deep lyrics, and I would say downright bad lyrics will be a deal closer. But I find myself caring much more about music than I do about lyrics. So when my friend started recommending bands in other languages, I didn't feel like this would be a big deal. Yet, when listening to them, I very rarely find myself caring whatsoever.

While I'm on the subject of lyrics, I've also spent some time listening to Coheed and Cambria, as well as The Mars Volta, both who have impenetrably complex lyrics. While I ultimately like The Mars Volta and disliked Coheed, both bands brought up a similar thought. Both bands have lyrics so incomprehensible that even reading them on paper won't reveal any sense whatsoever. And I can't help but think, sure, not having sing-along choruses isn't the worst thing in the world, and I understand the shunning of the pop sentiments of clap-along, shallow lyrics. But on the opposite end, if your lyrics are so dense that there's no way your audience can possibly find any meaning, if your lyrics don't connect with your audience in any way-- why bother with lyrics at all? It's as if spending years dedicated to an instrument that is so buried in the mix you can't hear it.
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yesterday, last year after reading this, essentially everyone i knew disagreed with it. but i still stand by my original sentiment: rhythm guitarists are fucking useless.

on this day last year DAVE BARRY! JACK HANDEY! THE VILLAGE! ABORTION BANS! on last year's POLARITY!
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with love from CRS @ 9:29 AM 

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