grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
Do you consciously try to make your lyrics rhyme ? And do you find lyrics that don't rhyme to be untidy ?
'Twixt the fox's lair....See what I did there ?
'Twixt the fox's lair....
It's not just Americans. It's a very English thing too. Britpop and rock has long been obsessed with rhyming which has had the result in many instances of many lyrically lame songs {though the overall songs may be fantastic} and I think that makes it harder sometimes for listeners to accept non rhymes. It just feels strange.Interestingly, I recently attended a meeting of a local songwriter group and one of the attendees (his first time there) was a guy from Japan - who spoke English - but not well.
He was very surprised that Americans place so much focus on rhyming. He indicated that in Japan, the lyrics tell a story regardless of rhyme - as long as the rhythm of the melody follows the harmony progression.
It can often draw things into lyric that wouldn't have been there if one was just communicating straight feeling. That can of course be to a song's detriment, but it can also be truly funny or dramatic.I do find rhyming to be a good discipline though.
I sorta feel that way about poetry.I'm a rhyme snob which is why rap makes little or no sense to me.
Do you consciously try to make your lyrics rhyme ? And do you find lyrics that don't rhyme to be untidy ?
I'm not averse to half-rhymes though. For example, I would he happy rhyming 'blade' with 'day' if the song needed it.
Human Cockroach
Verse 1
Nothing but a parasite - Leaching off the earth
Feeding off each other - intellectual dearth
Over population - Destroyer of all life
Disease left in it's wake - Infestation runs rife
Chorus
Crawling like a fucking worm - Squirming though your fucking brain
Humanity's lost it's mind - Hellish joke like paradigm
Poisonous contamination - Polluting it's mothers womb
Biting off it's mothers tit - Until life becomes unfit
Verse 2
Preying on the weak - Scrounging off the poor
Mating with children - Killing their unborn
Psycho sociopaths -Murder just for fun
Brainwashed by religion - Blind eyed fucking scum
Bridge
Slaughtering the innocent until life becomes dissonant
Dehumanized, sensationalized, but not to my surprise
Your coward leaders sold your soul for pennies on a rice bowl
And you let them because you are all fucking sheep
With no brains to think for yourself
Verse 3
Rotating through the universe - On a giant ball of dirt
Lives the human roach - With extinction it flirts
Enjoying the pain of others - Brothers killing brothers
Turing the other cheek - Is only for the weak
My writing is for musical theater to, yes, it always rhymes and I abhor near-rhymes. I also try for internal rhymes, i.e. rhymes in the middle of one line that pair with its partner line, in addition to having the final word rhyme. I also keep my rhyme scheme consistent within the matching sections of song. One of the reasons I despise rap and hip-hop (and there are many other reasons) is the poor rhyming and boring rhyme schemes. I'm more tolerant non-rhymed or near-rhymed lyrics in rock and folk, which I think of as analogous to free-verse. In musical theater lyric writing and composition, Stephen Sondheim is God (not "a" god, but God). When in peak form, he can write lyrics so dense with rhyme, but perfectly fitted to story and music, it can make you dizzy. If you're interested, take a look at the lyrics for "A Little Priest" from Sweeney Todd.