Your unpopular pop opinions

Mvnl

Mvnl

Staff member
Yeah I'm actually the opposite I think. Not that lyrics need to be extremely clever or deep for me (I definitely prefer certain themes to others though and if I can't relate at all it can play a part in me not fully connecting to a song) but if I don't hear what's being sung a song rarely will click with me.
Also when lyrics really hit me in dutch they hit me harder than any english song could (but it's rare cause somehow everything just sounds worse in my own language because the lyrics are so... audible?)
Oddly one of my first albums was a Laura Pausini one where I still hardly know what she sung about though.
 
soratami

soratami

Mvnl said:
(but it's rare cause somehow everything just sounds worse in my own language because the lyrics are so... audible?)
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A big reason why I rarely listen to any Portuguese artists, I don't like the lyrics being that in your face, and it makes any bad lyric that would easily be overlooked in a different language sound ten times worse. Oddly enough it doesn't bother me nearly as much when it's Brazilian Portuguese or Angolan Portuguese etc
 
Mvnl

Mvnl

Staff member
soratami said:
A big reason why I rarely listen to any Portuguese artists, I don't like the lyrics being that in your face, and it makes any bad lyric that would easily be overlooked in a different language sound ten times worse. Oddly enough it doesn't bother me nearly as much when it's Brazilian Portuguese or Angolan Portuguese etc
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I always wonder if to people whose first language is English all songs sound that… bad?
Cause even though I have no trouble understanding English it’s definitely easier to not think too much about what’s being sung or feel a certain distance that makes things just sound less shoddy?
I think realistically some of the shoddy Dutch pop groups we’ve had didn’t sing anything worse or cheesier than any uk counterparts but it.. just does not work at all?
 
soratami

soratami

Mvnl said:
I always wonder if to people whose first language is English all songs sound that… bad?
Cause even though I have no trouble understanding English it’s definitely easier to not think too much about what’s being sung or feel a certain distance that makes things just sound less shoddy?
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I wonder the same thing myself actually. There are plenty of pop classics, even by PJ-favourite artists, with lyrics that are, well, pretty nothingy at best. I wonder how I'd feel about those songs and if I'd like them as much as I do if English was my first language. Then again most native English speakers grow up listening almost exclusively to English music, so they probably have a different perception of these things than people who grow up listening to music in different languages.
 
Ana Raquel

Ana Raquel

she/her
Isobel said:
All this talk about lyrics makes me want to pop in and admit I barely even register them until about my fifth play* of a song. I'm all about the soundscape and the melodies, and how the voice is being used as an instrument. (And is that an unpopular opinion, or at least a minority one?)

Maybe this is why I'm so into music in languages I don't understand?

*Unless they're really, really stupid. Like Taylor's Vigilante Shit.
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Same here, which is probably why I struggle so much to remember lyrics even after listening to them for five years. ddd

Also I listen to a lot of instrumental music (ranging from video game soundtracks to electronic stuff without vocals) which of course influenced a lot.

I only (try to) pay attention to lyrics when it's a song in a language I am learning (e.g. Japanese) to improve my listening and vocabulary.

Also that is why no matter how well-written an album is or how talented a songwriter is, if I don't like the melody, the voice, or the genre of the song, that is pretty irrelevant to me? I guess that's why I hate folklore. ffff
 
Sam

Sam

he/they
Stradiwhovius said:
Not sure how unpopular this is because neither of their threads are exactly thriving here but that horrible Boy's A Liar song keeps playing at my gym and I am baffled about how that disgusting Knuckles Chaotix chiptune melody is supposed to be appealing. It sounded horrible in 1995 and it sounds horrible now.
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The “rap” verse brings me out in hives
 
Raichu

Raichu

I guess why it's hard to ignore bad lyrics is that I hate a lot of the ideas being pushed in pop songs and it's almost as if I'm listening to somebody talk absolute nonsense about life (but since it's being sung, it draws my attention even more). Whereas a song can grow on me sonically even if I thought it didn't sound good at first. I also like music that sounds a bit rough whereas I can't bring myself to like lyrical stupidity.
 
Jonathan27

Jonathan27

Sam said:
Ultraviolence is mid at best
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I am standing in solidarity with this even though I love the album as I think it's highly overrated within her discography. As much as the atmosphere works most of the time for me too many songs fall back on just chanting the title as the chorus. She's gotten so much better at songwriting that this seems particularly glaring these days.
 
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Sam

Sam

he/they
Jonathan27 said:
I am standing in solidarity with this even though I love the album as I think it's highly overrated within her discography. As much as the atmosphere works most of the time for me too many songs fall back on just chanting the title as the chorus. She's gotten so much better at songwriting that this seems particularly glaring these days.
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So true! Cruel World is the worst one out of the lot of them
 
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