Poetry and Lyrics, Emotion and Impact

For a great deal of people music is incredibly important. It seems to be woven into almost every single culture that has ever existed. We are a musical species, more so than any of the others that display musical tendencies (think birds), and as music has developed through the ages and we have become more emotional unstable and whiny, lyrics have become increasingly important. Now, for the most part one can consider lyrics and poetry to be quite functionally similar, and anyone who doesn't agree needs to read some of ISIS' lyrics, which are rather brilliant, if not a little abstract.

However there are some important differences between lyrics and poetry and one of them I really want to highlight. Lyrics can really pack a punch, emotionally, in a way that poetry cannot. I do not mean to suggest that poetry is unemotional, I mean that lines that would seem cliche and silly in poetry can be pulled off lyrically, due to one important difference: lyrics are sung.

I imagine it has been suggested that poetry can change when it is read to an audience, which would hark back to the idea of art in performance, or the reason plays, and some band's live music, keep changing. The intonation of the voice, shouting or whispering, the tone one uses can all change the impact and power of words.

Take, for example, the climatic lines of The Nation Blue's song Blueprint for Heartache:

This summer's day,
Is just for you,
The sun burns the sky light blue,
I hope I die,
before you do,
Cause I can't live without you

Reading that, it sounds lame and whiny and cliche. But here, have a listen (I'm not gonna tell where these lines are located, because I do want you to hear the whole song).. Now, regardless of if you like The Nation Blue or not, I think you would have a hard time arguing that those lines work better written down than sung.

So what is it here that makes these lines work, have impact and affect people emotionally? Sincerity. When Tom Lyngcoln sings those lines, he might be being cliche, but he fucking means it. You can tell, he really does hope he dies before you, because he really does think he can't live without you.

This is the golden quality that poetry, when read in the mind's eye, can rarely convey. If you say or sing something cliche, but mean it, it has effect. If you write something cliche, well how the hell are you suppose to show that you mean it? The situation is a little more tricky, and perhaps that means affecting and moving poets are more talented than affecting and moving lyricists, but then again, no one ever taught you how to write lyrics at school.