Intelligence in Music

When you listen to music, how often do you stop and think about what the lyrics mean? How often do you think about the structure of the song? With popular music today it seems to me that most of the songs are about love, sex, and even drugs. When heavy metal was at its prime in the late 1980’s, lyrical content of songs ranged from the above topics to social commentary, politics, religion, and war. Mainstream music has always had simple beats with catchy hooks. I intend to prove to you, the reader, that music that is referred to as underground is actually more intelligent. It may not have sold as many records but it makes better lyrical content and better and more original song structure then music of today.

Popular music throughout the world is the most commercially successful. It sells more records as a genre than any other genre of music. When you take a closer look at pop music what exactly is there? Why is it so popular? In my opinion it is not what is there but rather what is not there. Popular music is broken down into a single riff, or loop, basically rhythm and not too complicated, which repeats through most of the song. That one loop makes up the intro to the song and the verse. The song then has a chorus. The chorus will have a different loop then that of the verse. The two are then connected with the bridge, which is also a breakdown of the other loops. This basic song structure has been selling records for years.

Well with the music and structure being as simple and basic as it is surely the lyrics must be meaningful right? If you were to ask me, I would tell you no. However meaningful lyrics can be anything. People interpret lyrics of songs to how they interpret anything, whatever will make them feel better, and help them through a rough time. I think I noticed a trend to the music and vocal styles that is considered popular today, hip hop. It seems to me artist of hip hop make a really catchy chorus with a great melody and that’s how they sell their records and make their millions. The song I noticed this on is titled Ridin’ by Chamillionaire. The overall meaning behind this popular song is racial profiling by police. The song has a very catchy chorus and a very nice flow to how Chamillionaire says what he has to say. However if you actually listen to the lyrics of the song he gives reasons as to why he is being pulled over. In the second verse of the song he says:
“Doin' a hundred while I come from the block
And rollin another one up;
We livin' like we ain't givin' a f@#$
I got a revolver in my right hand;
40 oz on my lap, freezing my balls
Roll a n#$&* tree, green leaves and all.”
Now to me I think driving 100 miles an hour gives the police the right to pull you over. Within his own song he contradicts himself because yes, maybe the police do racially profile, but if they do pull him over there going to find beer, marijuana, and even a gun.

Not all popular music is like hip hop though. There is music from artist like Britney Spears. Britney made a name for herself with catchy songs and music videos. She sold millions of records and was considered to be nonthreatening. Her songs where all about broken hearts, love, sex and any other issue any teenage girl would go through. A genius way to sell records I think. Her music however has the same pop music breakdown that is both still seen today, and was all through pop music before.

Heavy Metal first came onto the scene in 1970 with the Black Sabbath self titled debut. Even that first album had a song on it that protested war. The song was entitled Wicked World and its lyrics ask why with all the disease in the world, why are we sending people to the moon? Now if you skip ahead to when metal was at its most popular, the late 1980’s. I am referring to one album in particular from 1986; Megadeth’s Peace Sells…But Whose Buying? The title track delivers a great social commentary from the day. The song is broken into two verses which all ask rhetorical questions that are answered in the next line. All the questions in the verses are questions directed to the metal youth at the time, such as religion- “What do you mean I don’t believe in God? I talk to him every day,” politics- “What do you mean I don’t support your system? I go to court when I have to,” and the struggle of fitting in “What do you mean I’m not kind? Just not your kind.” Many other bands have made statements through their music, for example Nuclear Assault has a song entitled Brainwashed which is about the media corrupting the minds of youth to think how the government wants them to think even recently with System of a Down’s Toxicity album that makes statements about the overcrowding in prisons, the dependency on drugs and weapons.

Not only have metal lyrics been more impacted by social developments and political struggles but I feel that there song structure has been more intelligent. If you look at the song …And Justice for All by Metallica which has 9 different riffs, two guitar solos and is almost 10 minutes long I think you would agree. But it’s not just that one song many songs have more complicated song structure then pop music. Metal music also has a lot of instrumentals. Many songs that don’t even have lyrics just fancy fretwork (guitars) and blast beats with double bass (drums).

In the end whose to say what music is more intelligent. Of course anyone person would have a biased view based on the music of their choice. In the end I think that both musicians from pop and underground metal are stereotyped as hip hop gangsters, pop divas, or long haired Satanists. I think it is actually up to the fans to decide who is more intelligent. In my eyes they are equal because pop music manages to make millions upon millions of dollars with simple basic song structure and lyrics so they must be doing something right. As for metal, well even though the fan base is much smaller, I find the fans to be a lot more loyal to those bands they truly love.