The Strange Death Of The British Pop Lyric

Travis et al probably think they're being aphoristic. The intense need for world-beating success has infected everything, to the point where everyone's desperately trying to get that short simple anthemic phrase that will translate to Pepsi commercials all over the world, be played at World Cup matches, etc. Lyrics that take more than one reading (or stand up to more than one 'reading') impede universal acceptance, in the same way that dialogue-heavy films are passed over for universal distribution in favour of monosyllabic action films.

("Evil twin" answer - metastasis of politics-of-intense-envy class- war-fuelled defensive superiority complex results in vilification of 'literacy' [like 'instrumental ability' before it] as province of people-with-more-money, i.e. Americans. impotent raging at Brit socio- economic entropy = lyrics not aphoristic, but aphasic)

is the explanation not "costello"? that dad-rock/Q/mojo-ism so pigged out on Justification-of-Art thru grownupness of word- craftage that the argt just withered and failed? (ie it began to fail to appeal outside its constituency, and started doing the opposite)

(it's also a Legacy of Punk thing, tho: craft = reactionary)

I cannot answer the question as I never listen to music

There's something in what mark s. says, although I'm not sure whether dad-rock mags have THAT much influence.

More important is that now people have easy access to a number of ways to make and record sounds (samplers, decks, studios, pro tools, good cheap synths), most of which are best applied to forms other than 'songs'. When Tilbrook, Costello, Lowe et al were getting started, the easiest thing to do was pick up an acoustic guitar or sit down at the family's piano.

Maybe there's something about the fragmentation of society in this - people don't communicate with their neighbours, families are spread the length and breadth of the country - maybe somehow music has become more inward looking too. Rather than tell stories, share experiences - we make music that reflects this isolation, lack of VARIED human contact. How much do we know about people who live in different circumstances from ourselves?

This is (obviously) not thought thru, but might spark someone else.

It's interesting that the young Declan was brought up around jazz and popular song (Porter, Berlin, etc etc) 'cos of Ross. But in the sixties weren't they as old hat as singer-songwriters seem today?

The reason you won't find memorable lines is because the gurus who write songs for people like Five realise that a quickly catchy bunch of lines are way easier to sell, perhaps their long lasting appeal is questionable. This in turn has changed the markers for everyone and you've to look beyond pop for some meaningful lyrics.

old-hatness was always part of costello's subversive fascination (if punk = anti-rock, then cole porter = punk):

when the beatles came along they v.deliberately used the (alleged) bland emptiness of "pop" lyrics to be much more effective and powerful (cf she loves you year yeah yeah: superficially no smarter than [insert boyband lyric which applies, if any actually do]

idea that 5ive's lyrics are self-evidently dumber than eg the Cure's seems to me an argt which wd require A GOOD DEAL MORE EVIDENCE than is generally adduced...)

Taking sides: wit vs being funny

The lack of memorableness in Five's stuff is maybe a bit exaggerated above to draw a broad argument which I think holds i.e. Five are not trying to write "Union Of The Snake"; Travis are unlikely to try "Up The Junction". But 'unmemorable' can be deceptive of course for the reason Mark hints at - in such a backdrop the key sentiment/line can leap out better. And it also means the lyrics can't be memorably crap, either.

Actually in "Let's Dance" the line about "the beat of the drum in your heart" stands out for me because it reminds me of XTC.

the 'my life is music cause music is my life" bit is pinched from Maddkatt Courtship i think. perhaps Martian could confirm?

I can confirm it is yeah. A dead cheesy sample alright. It's at the start of Jon Carters Live 7 Mix.

I thought witty/penetrating lyrics had simply gone out of fashion, in the usual way -- i.e., it's not that no one can do it, just that no one cares to. As of the mid-nineties, it seemed like an intense amount of attention was paid to Brit indie/rock bands' lyrical presentation (possibly because of the omnipresent Smiths influence, possibly because the music was so interchangeable) ... much close scrutiny of folks like Martin Rossiter, who you must admit was at least trying to pack something insightful into his lyrics; much press about bands like Sleeper or Echobelly revolving around their lyrical thrusts (women/sex and women/race, respectively); endless peering into whatever Suede were on about, no matter how silly. I always thought it just started to seem a bit lame to write grand witty Smiths- tradition lyrics -- started to seem a bit self-important or over- reaching or putting-forth-an-embarrassing-amount-of-effort ... and so folks just stopped and started babbling about things being yellow.

Actually, that seems like the new function, not just for England but UK pop bands in general: pick a phrase that doesn't say much at all, but sing it like it's really, really important. It's gotten Travis and Coldplay some action over in the US, anyway.

Tom said, "NB I am focussing on UK pop for a hopefully obvious reason."

Sorry, it's a superb question but this particular point isn't obvious enough for the likes of me. Is it because UK pop lyrics have traditionally been cleverer than American pop lyrics? Because American lyrics are better--or worse? Because there's been a more noticeable decline in UK lyrics than American? Because Americans don't care?

My short answer, for both sides of the Atlantic is: because young songwriters don't read enough. Not just listen enough to the "classics," but read enough "classics" (a term I hate, but I'll use now just to differentiate older things which have lasted from contemporary ones that probably won't). If literacy is truly on the decline--something which the Internet may disprove, but then again accelerate--how can we expect musicians to be good readers, and hence good lyricists? Probably a lot of ILM posters would disagree, but I think Black Box Recorder is a good example of a group which gives us concise, provocative lyrics without "dumbing down" too much for the masses.

Oddly I have been thinking the reverse recently. A number of songs have made me stop whatever else I was doing to hear every word - and it's been ages since I've done that. But looking at whose words have made me listen (Eminem, Magnetic Fields, Will Oldham, Marilyn Mansun), none of them are English. But then I don't really care for any English bands especially right now, so the shortage of lyrics that I find interesting can't really be separated from the shortage of likeable music coming from here.

Of course what makes a great lyric is highly contentious - punk and new wave bands were in the Coward tradition of witty storytelling (as were Blur in their Britpop period). But to be honest I find Bolan's stream of teen consciousness lyrics more affecting.

Agreed about the 80s. I used to argue then that lyrics were over-emphasised - not because I didn't care for words - but because British bands that emphasised their verbal prowess tended to be musically reactionary and their fans were even more so (Costello and Smiths fans particularly). Rap aside, 'progressive forms' - Disco, Hi-energy, house music - were of course not really lyric forms, though. Divine, The Pet Shop Boys, New Order were notable exceptions.

Um, I thought the focus on Britain was due to hip hop/r&b, which tend to have no problems in the words department.

Do times change?

Mclusky were from England...not singer/songwritery pop or anything, but I think they had fantastic lyrics....