Indie Music

MrsPeabody

I had a high school poetry teacher who proclaimed that song lyrics were not poetry and therefore, were not acceptable submissions for her class. What do you think? Can lyrics also be poetry? Can poetry also be song lyrics?

astcyr

JeraldHenry · Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:38 am Post subject:

Why yes, the can. It happens all the time. My favorite who does this is a Christian guitarist named Phil Keaggy.

Greg · Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 1:49 pm Post subject:

I thought they could be one in the same, but just expressed differently.

I hear a lot of poets playing with the Jazz music running behind them. Then I listen to Tom Waits, and wonder what the difference really is.

artpaul · Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:20 pm Post subject:

Prose also can be lyrics and with spoken word you could just be talking and that could be lyrics.

A sound bite repeated over and over could be lyrics but it all depends on your audiance.

Reconsiderate

MrsPeabody · Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:28 pm Post subject:

wow, I wasn't expecting this much a response so quickly.

Yes, I agree that some of my favorite songs have "lyrics" gently spoken over dope music and I certainly consider those songs. (like some of the stuff we hear from our very own Reconsiderate).

On the flip side, you get the poetry snobs that won't allow musical accompaniment at their poetry venues. Of course, the internal rhymes of some poems indicate the rhythmic quality of the words inherently.

Tom Waits gets a whole class of his own. There are certainly times when he is singing and also when he is just speaking. But when you have a voice like his it gets hard to tell...

What about Rap? Is rap poetry? Is someone who writes raps a songwriter?

My fear is that sometime poetry is used over music by a would-be singer/songwriter as compensation for an inability to sing. Who knows...

What do you all think?

Confused

Thanks for listening.

artpaul · Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 5:29 pm Post subject:

I would agree that singing is not rapping so rap music is not exactly the singing kind so maybe spoken word is music without singing but where is a rule that says poetry can not be sung ?

Also where is a rule that lyrics have to be sung to be lyrics ?

I guess it's really up to the author to decide whether he/she is writing poetry or lyrics.

BluesBro · Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 12:59 am Post subject: Can lyrics be poems etc

I've written song lyrics and poetry, sometimes there is little difference except that there is music with prosody that makes it something much more than it was.

I have just written a new song called One more time around the block and it starts off very much like a poem imho

It thundered down the road like a young boy racers dream
The Rockford Fosgate sub beat like a life suppor machine.............

jwb · Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 6:48 am Post subject:

Call it freeform and anything goes Wink

terrychilders

SWEETIE2099 · Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 11:04 am Post subject: POETRY VS. LYRICS

MOS DEF POETRY CAN BE LYRICS! IF YOU THINK ABOUT A SONG, IT IS A POEM. POEMS ARE FULL OF EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS THAT TOUCH THE SOUL. LYRICS ARE THE SAME THING. IM OUT... Wink

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Reconsiderate · Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 4:10 pm Post subject: the late great al

djsmooth4lyfe · Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:12 pm Post subject:

anything can be lyrics as long as it expresses how u feel

KAMEL · Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2006 9:32 pm Post subject:

Well it is what it is ! Poetry is in every form lyrics,lyrics are poetry! It doesn't matter what type of music your into, if that artist is singing, rapping, talking or whatever, if it ryhmes than it is what it is,poetry and lyrics in motion!!!!!!!!!

http:www.musicforte.com/member/kamel