Is there any song subject matter that you find hard to listen to ?

Punk rock lyrics are objectionable and eat away at the moral backbone of society.

Green Day is probably the most well-known influential punk group of all time. Listen closely to the lyrics to their punk rock "hit" Good Riddance (Time of Your Life):



In it, lead punker Billy Joel says:
"Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth it was worth all the while"

Buried in stark images of tattoos and deadness, Joel not only describes the dissolving of a relationship but actually seems glad it's over. This level of nihilism and destructive energy in music just eats away at our society's infrastructure.
 
Avril Lavigne is another heathen punk rock superstar bent on corrupting the morals of today's youth. Nowhere is this more evident than in her paean to thoughtless destruction Sk8er Boi:



"Sorry girl, but you missed out
Well, tough luck that boy's mine now
We are more than just good friends
This is how the story ends"

Yes, in Avril Lavigne's world heartbreak and "tough luck" prevail..."We are more than just good friends", she sings, insinuating untold perversions. In her world only the strong survive, and the kindhearted are trampled mercilessly beneath Avril Lavigne's COMBAT BOOTS OF PUNKNESS.
 
Neon Thoughts said:
Not a homophobe but i dont really want to hear a man singing about his (sexual) love for another man.
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That's a pretty niche field. I'm struggling to think of any that would fit your remit to be honest. Boys of Melody by Hidden Cameras maybe, but looking at your other posts, I suspect it's probably not really a song that's on your gaydar anyway.

You'd have to go pretty far out of your way in order to find a man explicitly singing about sexual love for another man in the first place before you could make your decision to actively ignore it...

On the original point, I think cliched phrases or clumsy lyrics are far more likely to turn me off a song than subject matter. As soon as I hear sun/fun, phone/alone type stuff I'm already half way to being turned off a song. It's just lazy and I've heard it all far too many times already.

I also like some degree of ambiguity in lyrics, even if it doesn't ultimately make any sense, so anything overly literal is likely to turn me off. I don't need music to reveal any universal truths (mainly because I don't think it can) or bludgeon me over the head with the writer's (usually student politics-y) take on the world - I'd rather it amuses or engages me by some interesting imagery or unusual combinations of words or phrases.

If there's going to be an overarching message in the song, I'd rather it wasn't just presented to me to be read at face value. It's like do I want to eat an omelette or a plate with four raw eggs and a block of cheese on it?
 
Neon Thoughts said:
Not a homophobe but...
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Always a good start!

I'm having trouble thinking of any songs about dudes loving other dudes that aren't great: "London Leatherboys" "Don't stop me now" "Turbo lover"

I personally can't stand all the violence and misogyny songs by the Beatles. Hearing those thugs sing about murdering their girlfriends or burning their houses down just makes me really uncomfortable.
 
Believe it or not, politics, I don't care from which side of the aisle it comes from....but I have to say especially from militant leftist types, Rage Against the Machine comes to mind. The entire lot should be thrown to lash it out locked up in a cave somewhere, an throw away the key. :mad:

grimtraveller said:
It's just that the lyrics were generally not so "in your face". You could easilly put "Hey Joe", "Norwegian wood", "Triad" and a plethora of Stones songs in that category, not to mention loads of others.
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There's no fine line between singing about passing around hoes who are useless but for one thing and bad thoughts of dishing out (perceived) justice upon the woman what done you wrong. Lots of guys can to varying degrees relate to the latter, while the other caters to the psychotic/sociopathic tedencies of societal illness, deserves got nothing to do with it.

Indeed there are loads of and a long history of gonna kill that woman what done me wrong songs.

 
grimtraveller said:
Has Richard written any ?
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No! We have an agreement...:laughings:

grimtraveller said:
So true. That said, when Robert Plant's child died, he wrote "All my love" which stands for me as one of the saddest, most emotionally draining songs I've heard.
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See - my point exactly... I didn't know that and neither did you for 26 years, so he's written a song in which he's abstracted the subject matter to the degree that it's not discernible and you can map your own meaning to it... thumbs up for that Mr Plant. :thumbs up: I wish you hadn't told me... :laughings: I've always hated Tears From Heaven because everyone knows what it's about... and because I just don't really like it anyway, but you get the difference... :)

grimtraveller said:
Popular music has long been infested with that though. It's just that the lyrics were generally not so "in your face". You could easilly put "Hey Joe", "Norwegian wood", "Triad" and a plethora of Stones songs in that category, not to mention loads of others. There's not really a million miles between AC/DC's "She said she'd never been balled before/ And I think she'll ever ball no more ~ I fixed her good !" {Squealer}, Colour me bad's "I wanna sex you up" {"Don't be shy girl, rescue me/(I wanna sex you up)/ Open up your heart, and I'll set you free/Oh, I wanna touch you in all the right places, baby"} and the average "suck on my wood, ho" type lyrics that freely cropped up in hip hop of a certain period.
Not many women write or wrote those kind of songs !
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I dislike most of those songs.. because they're so clumsily done - but I was specifically referring to the "smack my bitch up" rap sort of stuff that's taken the "art form" to a new low... on the other hand, I can quite enjoy clever stuff, irrespective of the content... these guys are really good at that sort of stuff...

 
I can't stand listening to pop style religious music... but then I love some of the really old time religious music. I guess I find the first annoyingly cheesy
 
jimistone said:
I find the peace and love stuff very offensive
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I like the earnest quality of some of it and find that I can't help but focus on the unreality of much of it. Many of it's exponents really did believe......but at the same time were cheating on their partners and not bringing up their children.
Made for some great music though.

RokZtaR said:
I can't stand listening to pop style religious music... but then I love some of the really old time religious music. I guess I find the first annoyingly cheesy
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When you say pop style religious music, which sort of era are you talking about ? It's funny, much of the 1968~1980 Jesus rock was awful lyrically and bland musically. But there were a lot of good exceptions. Nowadays the actual musical quality can be a lot better but those that identify themselves in that light still come up with awful lyrics.
It's a two fold problem in my view. On the one hand, worship songs are, by their very nature going to major on the lyrical side of things. And as pop has shown us, there's actually not really many ways you can tell someone how great they are or how much you love them, so lyrically only a small number can identify. And because there's this thing of "not detracting from the message", the actual musical content is often pants. It is so sublimated to the message, it may as well not be there.
Then there's the other side of the problem in not writing songs that reflect what one sees by the light that is claimed to be illuminating that life. This, to me, is where those of a religious or spiritual or Godly persuasion could and should really excel. Some have, to be fair. Some artists in pop, rock, reggae and soul have done great songs that entertained on all kinds of levels that appealed even to those that were atheist or agnostic.
But not enough.
 
grimtraveller said:
I like the earnest quality of some of it and find that I can't help but focus on the unreality of much of it. Many of it's exponents really did believe......but at the same time were cheating on their partners and not bringing up their children.
Made for some great music though.

When you say pop style religious music, which sort of era are you talking about ? It's funny, much of the 1968~1980 Jesus rock was awful lyrically and bland musically. But there were a lot of good exceptions. Nowadays the actual musical quality can be a lot better but those that identify themselves in that light still come up with awful lyrics.
It's a two fold problem in my view. On the one hand, worship songs are, by their very nature going to major on the lyrical side of things. And as pop has shown us, there's actually not really many ways you can tell someone how great they are or how much you love them, so lyrically only a small number can identify. And because there's this thing of "not detracting from the message", the actual musical content is often pants. It is so sublimated to the message, it may as well not be there.
Then there's the other side of the problem in not writing songs that reflect what one sees by the light that is claimed to be illuminating that life. This, to me, is where those of a religious or spiritual or Godly persuasion could and should really excel. Some have, to be fair. Some artists in pop, rock, reggae and soul have done great songs that entertained on all kinds of levels that appealed even to those that were atheist or agnostic.
But not enough.
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First off, "offensive" in terms of the hippie peace love music isn't really accurate. It doesn't really offend me... I just don't care for it that much.

On the pop Christian music ...it's a lot like secular pop music...
I like some of it and dislike some of it.
I really can't stand the modern vocal style.
The first time I heard this style was the vocal group Boyz to Men. Good god how I disliked that nasally vocal scatting type sound. Everyone else seemed to think they were the best thing since sliced bread.
Anyway modern pop and soul vocal have morphed into a hybrid of that mixed with a kind of college radio (for lack of a better term) style. It's a style I really don't care for at all.

A lot of the modern gospel is in that style.

But, it's different stokes man.

Who can say that God only likes traditional country with no guitar solos?
I'm working in some original gospel and it's in a southern rock style. I'm going to have rocking grooves, guitar solos, lead guitar harmonies, cooking slide guitar rides...the whole 9 yards.

If other Christians find it offensive that's ok, because it music to be presented to God for His glory with the talent He bestowed upon me. It's also for my own enjoyment and worship. If others enjoy the music that's great too!
I said all that to say this. A style of Christian music that one person finds offensive will be listened to by another person who wouldn't give a more traditional song the time of day
 
Greg_L said:
I only find christian music offensive because it's never, ever any fucking good.
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Check out the band "disciple".
They have a song "3,2,1" that's really cool.
It would shock me if you didn't think their music was any good.
Its alot more hard edged than any other Christian rock I've ever heard.
They are balls to the wall hard rock
 
jimistone said:
Check out the band "disciple".
They have a song "3,2,1" that's really cool.
It would shock me if you didn't think their music was any good.
Its alot more hard edged than any other Christian rock I've ever heard.
They are balls to the wall hard rock
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Prepare to be shocked because I think that shit is horrible. It's just typical slick-production modern radio rock with Jesus lyrics screamed in the stereotypical generic modern rock way. That mess could be Godsmack, Alterbridge, Five Finger Dick Punch, or any other commercial corncheese post-grunge radio rock. It sounds like everything else. I'm kind of insulted that you think I would like that garbage. :(
 
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