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I actually think that the Black Eyed Peas make great music! In terms of lyrical content no but there is a lot more to music than just the lyrics and this is eve

I actually think that the Black Eyed Peas make great music! In terms of lyrical content no but there is a lot more to music than just the lyrics and this is even more true in the case of the Black Eyed Peas. I get the impression that for the group the sound and production take center stage and the lyrics are just an after thought but I think it's a worthy trade off because the musical arrangements themselves tend to be very creative and the novelty of the sound intrigues as the brain tries to make sense of something quite unlike anything it's heard before.

mechanical_fish 16y ago
the lyrics are just an after thought Your observation reminded me of this quote, from a pretty good book about a pop-music group: Steered by their instant harmonizing, the duo's way of composing produced unusual moves that released a flood of catchy melody to which they sang dummy words or pure nonsense. Only later, generally speaking, did they fill in their lyrics - and then mainly phrasally, only bothering about overall concepts in formula terms (e.g. using the second or third person, aiming towards a sort of punch-line, and so on). Rather than tell a story in traditional Tin Pan Alley style, [they] wrote their lyrics to create a mood or a tone, so as not to get in the way of the effect created by the music and the sound. This bred a casual attitude to normal sense which later turned explicitly free-associational. There was always just enough sense in a lyric for the listener to get the general idea. The rest came from the sum of the parts of the record as a whole. [They] rarely thought long about their lyrics. This is, of course, about John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the 1960s. (Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles Records and the Sixties) This is how pop music has worked for nigh-on fifty years.

mechanical_fish 16y ago

the lyrics are just an after thought Your observation reminded me of this quote, from a pretty good book about a pop-music group: Steered by their instant harmonizing, the duo's way of composing produced unusual moves that released a flood of catchy melody to which they sang dummy words or pure nonsense. Only later, generally speaking, did they fill in their lyrics - and then mainly phrasally, only bothering about overall concepts in formula terms (e.g. using the second or third person, aiming towards a sort of punch-line, and so on). Rather than tell a story in traditional Tin Pan Alley style, [they] wrote their lyrics to create a mood or a tone, so as not to get in the way of the effect created by the music and the sound. This bred a casual attitude to normal sense which later turned explicitly free-associational. There was always just enough sense in a lyric for the listener to get the general idea. The rest came from the sum of the parts of the record as a whole. [They] rarely thought long about their lyrics. This is, of course, about John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the 1960s. (Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles Records and the Sixties) This is how pop music has worked for nigh-on fifty years.