Words Matter

Maybe this is all simply a result of me spending too much time thinking about music. I've been listening intently for two-thirds of my life, I've been writing about it for a decade, and I've always been a contemplative person. So as I am thinking about the various ways that we conect to music, and it impacts us as people, I find myself sometimes saying things that don't seem to mesh with the experiences that people of other dispositions. In some cases, I can easily see how they come to the conclusions they do, even if they are radically different than mine. For example, while I am not a fan in the least of music that is primarily rhythmic, I can understand that other people are wired in such a way that rhythm is their primary focus. No problem.

Then there are cases where, on a philosophical level, I simply don't see two sides of an argument. I have found myself in those situations before, especially when I pan certain records for what I say are  objectively bad vocals, because the delivery is so slurred the lyrics are indecipherable. That is also an issue that arises from the majority of harsh vocalists, as almost all the growlers and screamers I encounter are nearly impossible to understand.

This led me to asking a simple question. Or what I thought was a simple question: If the listener can't understand the lyrics, what's the point of them?

I am a writer, and a poet, and I have talked before about my affection for language. Whether it's expressing a deep truth about the human condition, or simply putting together a beautiful image, words are profoundly important to me. That can be hard to square with listening to hard rock and heavy metal, which are genres not known for their literary prowess, but that isn't the point at hand right now. I am having a schism in my mind trying to understand how bands can intentionally put out records where their lyrics are a mystery to the audience, unless they sit down with the booklet (provided they bother printing them) and read along.

There are two concerns; 1)Is a vocalist who doesn't convey the lyrics failing in his/her job? and 2)Why write lyrics if they are going to go unheard?

Let's tackle them in order.

I have said about a handful of singers, and will also say about most harsh vocalists, that they are objectively failures at their role as musicians if they sing in such a way that we can't understand the lyrics. I realize this is a *pun not intended* harsh assessment, but it's one I firmly believe. A song is not just a few instruments and a voice running through strings of notes. A good song has meaning, it has something to say about the author, about us, about the world. So if a song is trying to say something, and that something is lost because the lyrics can't be heard, the singer has done their own art a disservice.

This works across media. When the trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises" premiered, viewers immediately complained they couldn't hear a word that Bane was saying. The producers immediately went back and cleaned up the audio as best they could, because they knew the audience needs to know what is going on. They didn't fold their arms and tell us to get lost, because that was the 'art' the actor picked. They didn't tell us we could just read the script to get the point. No, they realized a mistake, corrected it, and the end result was better for it. Singers are not actors, but in a sense they serve the same purpose. Their voices are used to project the message of the author to the audience. Anything that stands in the way of that happening is reducing the effectiveness of the art.

Which leads me to the second concern. If we have this great number of vocalists who give us unintelligible lyrics, why do they bother writing them in the first place? I have heard many people tell me over the years that they don't care about lyrics, and the voice is merely another instrument, especially in extreme metal. Ok, if that's reality, there should be no need for those singers to spend the time writing lyrics at all. The very fact that the time is spent writing lyrics proves to me these artists think the words are important to their work. Otherwise, they are telling us they enjoy wasting their time, which I doubt.

But this brings us to the point that frustrates me the most. If the artists consider the lyrics important enough to write, and they still don't make sure they present them to us in a way we can hear them, what does that say about them? If I'm being honest, my initial reaction to that question is to say they are being lazy. Depending on your voice, and your delivery, it can take a lot of work to sing with proper diction. But something being hard is not an excuse for not doing it. Whatever kind of vocals we're talking about, they can be performed clearly. One of my favorite records is Dan Swano's "Moontower", where he growls 90% of the vocals, yet every word he delivers is perfectly intelligible. And it's the clarity of his delivery, and the contrast between the humanity of his words and the savagery of his delivery, that makes it heavier than any of the more guttural vocals that can't be understood.

I will concede that I am probably more anal about this than most will ever be. I understand that. Not everyone is going to come at things from the same perspective I do, with the mindset of a writer. That's fine. What I fail to understand, even as people try to explain their views to me, is why they allow artists to give them a product that is inferior to what it could be. Even if the words don't matter to you, personally, shouldn't it still matter that the bands you listen to aren't putting in the effort to make the best record they can? Myself, I find that attitude from them to be a bit insulting.

It was insulting when Baroness released both "Purple" and "Gold & Grey", two albums with audible clipping and distortion that no recording school would give a passing grade. It was insulting when Metallica told us that "Death Magnetic", which was similarly brick-walled to the point of clipping severely, actually sounded great. So it is also insulting when the artists themselves defend performances that aren't up to par. If they can't pull something off, that's fine. We all have our limitations. Just don't put it on a record if you can't do it. Re-write the song so you can perform it properly.

Really, this all boils down to one simple question that I can't answer. If an artist puts out a record that strikes me as them not caring about their own music, why should I care about it? Or them?