I've told a couple of you this already, but thought I'd put it in print.
First of all, despite what I'm going to say, I don't believe in listening to music that has bad lyrics just because it has good music, at least not often. Lyrics - message - what the song is communicating is still 'el mas importante' (the most important in Spanish. For some reason I really like saying "the most important" in Spanish. It seems more emphatic somehow...)
That aside, very little modern Christian music interprets the lyrics of the song well. A good song should be like a movie soundtrack, musically interpreting the lyrics ("plot") and moving the song ("story") along. Normally, I would not pay attention to this, but choreographing dances has increased my awareness. When choreographing songs, the idea is to use the musical interludes to interpret the message, or at least the mood, of the song. Problem is, few songs even match the mood of their lyrics - which causes complications to say the least in choreography. What do I mean by this? Well, examples of mood matching might be a driving beat on a song emphasizing decision (a la "I have decided to follow Jesus), or a subdued, sweet melody on a song of love for God (or meditation on Him, such as "Be still and know" by Stephen Curtis Chapman), or a peppy dance rhythm in a song about joy (or country ...ish... "Praise You with the dance" by Casting Crowns). Better yet, if you have heard "Beautiful" by Bethany Dillon, "O Praise Him" by David Crowder Band, or "See the Glory" by Stephen Curtis Chapman, the beginning of the first two and after the bridge of the latter (where the classical music overwhelms the Gameboy noises) are excellent examples of not only mood matching, but also the music conveying the message. Problem is, even in these songs, the music inevitably returns to the guitar + synthesizer + drums that *every* song seems to have. /sigh/ :-)
2 comments:
Agreed. Besides, it is much more enjoyable to listen to music with quality lyrics rather than without...in some cases, it even improves the music itself if the lyrics are good. ^_^
I do like how the songs you mentioned have fitting music for the lyrics. Let me see...some more songs whose music complements the lyrics might be: "In Christ Alone" by Keith and Kristyn Getty; "Revelation" by David Phelps; "Stand" by Denver and the Mile High Orchestra; "Passion for Your Embrace by D℧ A Part: Foreverandever etc. by David Crowder Band; Awake and Alive by Skillet....and some more, but those should get you started if you have not heard them already. ^_^ Not all of these are limited to guitar/synthesizer/drums...you may or may not like them, though(they vary in style, from CCM to jazzy to hard rock to orchestrated...).
Maybe you should write your own music/song? Then the lyrics will perfectly fit the song, right? ^_^
--Josiah C.
I would, only I can't for the life of me write a decent song... lyrics aren't hard (I have tons that I wrote when I was younger), but I can't get the tune to display itself on any sort of an instrument, no less more than one! ;-)
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