Song lyrics have become simpler and more repetitive over the last five decades

Lounge
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Interesting!

Studie:
s41598-024-55742-x.pdf (1.7 MB)

I preferred the lyrics of the non-mainstream songs in the 80s though!

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I tend to agree… BUT (dat bass is delicious),

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Yeah -wow! Totally like!!!
In fact one of the best songs I have heared here on BassBuzz!
Hunting for the tabs as we speak :slight_smile:

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There is literally one line of lyrics for the entire song. It works brilliantly though.

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Yeah, well - I listened to 90% techno & electro since the early 90s until I started my bass adventure. Not many lyrics there :slight_smile:

But still it’s true that the lyrics in the 80s were “richer” than the marketing driven Tiktok lyrics of most contemporary music.

By the way: the only think I don’t like about that song ist the saxophone. I wish Moises could remove that!

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That bass though, it’s pure groove. I have a hard time not shaking my tail feathers while I’m sitting here in a meeting.

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A very good example is Lloyd Cole (and the Commotions). Every song is a story.
I have stopped listening to the radio many years ago, cause of everything being said in that sudy!

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I would offer up “How Much is that Doggy in the Window” as an example of old school simple stuff. We tend to remember the better songs, which are more complex, but forget the 95% of them were quite ordinary. Confirmation bias in other words. I mean, do we really miss Muskrat Love?

Also the Minimalist school of music simply didn’t exist - Baba O’Reilly being an excellent example of minimalist art in rock.

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Now I have an earworm, d@mn!

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Bass tab:
DoggieInTheWindow.pdf (167.0 KB)

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Well this!

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Didn’t watch the video yet - but from the YouTube Thumbnail I guess: porn???! :slight_smile:

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Old Boomer or Young Edgelord makes video about how today’s kids suck at music, film at 11.

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The kids are alright… For folks our age, we got spoiled by having new music put right in front of us all the time, where now it seems like you have to go hunting for the good stuff. What’s hilarious about that is that we were all so twisted up in something being punk enough, or goth enough, or whether they were sellouts or not vs just are they good?

Example, I spent a lot of years hating NIN because Trent was a sellout and stole Down in it (Stairs and flowers), to the point that I never gave Downward Spiral a chance to be the amazing album that it is. I’m so glad that I outgrew all of that.

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Stairs and Flowers always cracked me up as it is definitely out of place for Skinny Puppy too :rofl:

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Oh come on…. I remember my father telling me ‘modern’ music sucked, back in the 80s. “Back in my day, people knew how to write songs, how to play their instruments!” I’m sure I read somewhere that we tend to get stuck with the music we were listening to up to our early 20s, then life moves on, musical scenes move on, but we have ossified. This certainly happens to my father. It happened to me.

Now, I’m an ‘older’ father. Musically, I grew up in the early to mid 80s, yet I have a 9 year old (Daddy, I’m nearly 10) daughter. She treats our ears to all sorts of stuff in the car (Siri, play … how amazing is modern technology that one can access pretty much any piece of music while driving the car, providing the freakin’ phone service hasn’t dropped out, or degraded to 3G!).

Anyway, I digress. Some of the current stuff she asks for sucks, musically or lyrically, but some of it is great! Take Taylor Swift, I can absolutely see why she is the mega-star she is, and I certainly would not have been listening to Taylor Swift unless my daughter had asked for it!

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Rick Beato has done a few videos about that.

Any period/genre is either the worst or the best depending on what you like. Pop music is usually simple because it’s more about the melody than the lyrics… it’s the kind of music you put on in the background when you’re working or exercising.

Look at Barbara Ann by the beach boys, not exactly complex lyrics. :laughing:

I started listening to country music in the late 90s because it had some of the best lyrics and story telling of the popular genres. Everyone makes fun of country being about your truck breaking down, your wife leaving you and the dog running away but most songs are about fun things, family and love.

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Now I want to listen to that song!

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“Just Another Country Song”
Ty Christian Wilson & Jimmy’s Goodeye

Verse
Sittin’ in my truck at the end of your drive
Your dad doesn’t like me cause my future ain’t so bright
So I weep all day
Cry all night
It’s just another country song
It’s just another country song

Chorus
My truck broke down and my dog just died
My wife ran away, with some other guy
Willie and Waylon and Johnny won’t lie
It’s just another country song

Verse
Sittin’ here I’m thinkin’, I’m drinkin’ of you
Wishin you’d call or maybe come back soon
I think you’re the reason that the sky is so blue
It’s just another country song
You know It’s just another country song

Chorus
My truck broke down and my dog just died
My wife ran away, with some other guy
Willie and Waylon and Johnny won’t lie
It’s just another country song
It’s just another country song

Verse
I been there before I been down and blue
And I hate this song just as much as you
But country can stay, even though it’s true
It’s just another country song
(Spoken) Ah hell, It’s just another country song

Chorus
Because my wife broke down and my dog just died
My truck ran away, with some other guy
Willie and Waylon and Johnny won’t lie
It’s just another country song

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