Does it make sense to find meanings or enlightenment from pop music?

I always try to find some meaning, enlightenment, inspiration or comfort from the very few songs I like, such as Stop Crying Your Heart Out, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Good Charlotte's March on. Does it make sense? Do the singers who write these songs really think or do(the disposition) in the same way they say in their works? Do they really, in their daily lives, have the same emotions that they try to express in their songs?

Does it make sense to find meanings or enlightenment from pop music?
Noel Gallagher has said a lot of his songs are gibberish. And they are!! 'The sinks is full of fishes/She's got dirty dishes on her brain.' Case closed. Lol sorry.





I think song lyrics are meant to evoke a feeling in you rather than directly say something. Wonderwall is like Noel trying to say things he can't actually put into words. Maybe as a laddish kind of guy, he doesn't like to say things in direct words. But with this song, he can convey how he feels without saying it in as many words. I prefer songs that promote emotions and feelings in you, rather than hit you over the head with a story or an idea. Songs like that rarely occupy a place in people's hearts.





Some songs can have a theme, story or agenda to them. Isn't American Pie about the day Elvis died or something? Golden Brown by the Stranglers is about heroin. Ziggy Stardust is about Jimi Hendrix to some degree.





So there are some exceptions, but 99.9% of songs are meaningless. Across The Universe by The Beatles has a fantastic lyric, but does anyone actually think it means something. It doesn't matter, it means something to whoever's listening to it at the time.





A lot of bands write open-ended lyrics so as to let the listener interpret them their own ways. The 80s alt rock band Spacemen 3 wrote lyrics so blunt and steeped in songwriting shorthand deliberately, both to allow the listener to associate the song with whatever it meant to them when they listened to it, and to not distract from the music itself. Listen to it-it works wonders.





The band Sigur Ros made up syllables for their earlier albums, rather than using actual words in their songs. In the CD Booklet the left empty pages at the back for the listener to write down their own lyrics for the songs, or whatever they thought the singer was saying.





You can look for meaning in pop lyrics, but don't expect to find an answer everytime. If the song speaks directly to you, affects you in some way, triggers a memory or means something to you that's all that matters. As REM's Michael Stipe, a great lyricist, once said "They're song lyrics, not poetry".
Reply:Yes, I now think everyone should gimme more, gimme more, gimme gimme gimme more and I now have the inclination to lay here, just lay here, and just forget the world.





Pop music doesnt have deep lyrics.


check out nine inch nails "right where it belongs" instead.


the best lyrics i have ever heard in my life.
Reply:Personally I prefer to enjoy a good song rather than analyse it.However I do believe that most writers give a piece of themselves in their work.Not necessarily an auto biography but certain events in their lives can sometimes inspire a great song.
Reply:The songs you listed can be very meaningful. I think it's close to impossible for someone to write a song full of certain emotions if they themselves posses none of those emotions.
Reply:well it seems green day does at least. i mean they bash bush in music and in life. thank god for green day
Reply:People have always sought meaning from art. And I think meaning is often there. That's why it's so potent in our lives.