I was just at the grocery store and they were playing Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” over the speakers. It was a chain store, and they followed it up with a country song. I’m not sure how to feel about this and I didn’t know where else to post.
I feel this
Supermarkets are like that here in Japan sometimes. Dragonforce followed by a rap artist saying any number of words that wouldn’t fly in the English-speaking world at such a venue, followed by a Muzak-esque cover over some Disney song. I’ve definitely heard The Cure and Joy Division.
That’s pretty cool, here in the US they don’t play music from other countries unless you’re in an Indian or Asian-focused market.
Was it pop country? Who am I kidding, they wouldn’t play outlaw country. Some Merle Haggard would be welcome.
Not sure what kind of country it was. It was kind of pop-y, maybe it wasn’t even country. Def. wasn’t post-punk-related.
LOL I wish ours were that daring. But I guess you have to at least give them this. Tonally at least with how often country songs tended to be about loss. At least that might match up a bit.
However they do regularly play The Rolling Stones Give me shelter. But they always give me odd looks when we get to the chorus and I’m singing along rape murder it’s just a shot away it’s just a shot away. And they’re asking why are you singing rape and murder. It’s not appropriate here I said literally it’s the lyrics to the song. Most people have no idea what songs are about. To them love will tear us apart is a bright and cheery song. It’s definitely one of those those who know things.
Case in point, the very existence of the band by the name of train. Try to figure out what any of their songs are about or anything they’re singing about. And good luck with that. It’s just gibberish that sounds good. And that isn’t an exaggeration. But people still love songs like Drops of Jupiter Etc. And do their best to try to sing along with it even though they have no idea what the lyrics are.
country songs tended to be about loss.
Sometimes they play country at the gym I go to. One song I heard, the singer was going “I treated her wrong and now she’s gone” and I was like: THANK YOU! So many times a song’s about someone leaving and the singer’s clueless as to why. This song at least was saying if you treat her wrong, she’s out of there!
Most people have no idea what songs are about.
I’m a native English speaker, but when I was a kid a Latin American relative asked me what Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” was about and I was like… I dunno… something about a kid?
gibberish that sounds good.
Yeah, Sigur Ros does that too. I think Cocteau Twins did too for a while, right?
It’s called glossolalia. Lisa Gerrard does the same thing.
I don’t know about the cocteau twins. The whole shoegaze genre generally has lyrics with meaning. But it’s sort of the style that it’s Lo-Fi and smeared together to where it’s hard to make anything out. So I could be wrong. But I can definitely think of a number of songs where the lyrics are basically unintelligible. Sort of like Vestron vulture. Good luck making out any of the lyrics. They are there lol. But good luck. Now I’m going to have to check this later lol. I just always kind of assumed it was shoegaze.
The Swans Michael Gira tends to sing some odd lyrics.
I’m not sure if I have heard them. The cranes I know but not the swans. At least not off the top of my head. We’ll have to dig up some to listen to here in a bit and see if it Sparks any memories.
Here’s one of my favorite Swans song.
[Verse 1]
I am the hanging man
I hang, I never land
I steal the space between
The filthy and the clean
Healer, come here soon
Come to fill my spoon
Healer, heal my wound
I am a dog: I eat the moon
Healer, heal my lust
Fill my mouth with rust
Healer, hold my hand
Fill my mouth with sand
[Chorus]
Healer, kill this lamb!
I am the hanging man
I am the hanging man
I am, I am, I am, I am
I am, I am, I am, I am
I am, I am, I am, I am, vr… vr… vr… vr… not!
I am NOT! I am NOT!
I am NOT! I am NOT!
I am NOT!
[Verse 2]
Here I lie, abject
Healer, teeth are red
Force my legs apart:
Healer, hold my heart
Healer, cut my spine
Healer, eat my mind
Write it on the sky:
These stars reveal the lie
Hold the glowing sphere
There is no there or here
[Chorus]
Healer, hold my hand!
I am the hanging man
I am the hanging man
I am, I am, I am, I am
I am, I am, I am, I am
I am, I am, I am, I am
Vr… vrr… vrr… vrr… vrr, I am not
I am not what I just thought
I am not what I just thought
I am not, I am NOT!
I am NOT!
We are NOT! We are NOT!
NOT! NOT! NOT!
[Outro]
Who is the watcher who’s watching this thought
Whose thought is a thought that is not what he thought
NOT! SHOT! KNOT!
Interesting, Yeah the more I think about it maybe I was just up in my own head. Former pixie and her sister known as the Breeders, I loved their debut album and there’s no denying that Cannonball is all over the place.
Ironically Veruca Salt’s Seether seems that way but it actually has meaning ironically.
I’m not really that familiar with Cocteau Twins, I just had a friend who was kind of into some of their early stuff and would play it a lot. Looks like some of it was foreign words unintelligible to them that they just picked out of books bc they sounded nice: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/nonsense-lyrics-cocteau-twins-best-song/
Interesting. Yeah shoegaze never really clicked with me much. Most of what I know of it comes from DJing and taking requests. Not typically something I would play a lot on my own. There are some in the genre who didn’t smear the lyrics. Slowdive comes to mind. But I’m not sure whether they are an exception or rule LOL
Oddly enough, I saw Train IN Minneapolis when I lived up north. They actually put on a great show. It was a free concert, and I don’t like their music.
I don’t doubt. I think it has a lot to do with lyrics for me. Maybe it’s something autistic I don’t know. But if you’re going to have lyrics generally they should mean something. Even scat has intent. Just the whole gibberish thing rubs me the wrong way. Comes off as lazy. I don’t care if his song has lyrics or not. I love dance with the dead and most of their stuff has zero lyrics. Hell even Prisencolinensinainciusol which is not in any language, and is strictly gibberish. Is fun and okay just due to the intent behind it. At least to me. LOL I don’t know maybe I’m just too in my own head.
I am not as much into the lyrics as I am the music. I don’t like rap and hip hop, for the most part, because of this. Have you heard of the cut up process?
Not at the moment. Though I did have to remind myself of who Peter Gabriel was a bit ago. I could never really forget him but it was just one of those things the name refused to come to me LOL.
When it comes to rap. I definitely like Sugarhill gang, Grandmaster Flash, salt and pepper, kid’n play and a lot of the acts from back then. I definitely did not like the whole gangster rap b******* that superseded it. Ironically play of Kid and Play had far more street cred than most of NWA. That despite being the very thing many of them wrapped about and pretended to be he gets no respect.
I like House of Pain, Cypress Hill, the Cotton Mouth Kings, and La Coka Nostra. That’s about it. I also used to strictly listen to ambient music for awhile.
I think everyone at least knows one house of pain or Cypress Hill track. Which if I’m not mistaken Cypress Hill discovered House of Pain. Can’t say I know a lot or was a really big fan outside of those two I’m afraid. By that part of the '90s I was deep in it with industrial, acid house / jazz, psytrance, Goa, gabba , or just about anything related to the Detroit scene. Lords of acid, praga kahn, early Moby, ken ishii, Juno reactor, Charlie era Prodigy and all that came immediately after
As a mid-20 something with disposable income I spent more than I care to admit importing or special ordering CDs LOL
I’ve posted trash theories content several times to Lemmy in general even to the postpunk community. I really like his video essay style. And he does a real good job with covering things generally. His video on the Justified ancients of Mu Mu. Aka the KLF was really good as well.
I think it was his video essay on Peter Gabriel’s brief foray into Post Punk that I posted to that community. Along with a couple others
He did awesomely on this video. I need to hear this.
His video he did on the origin of Nine Inch Nails and Industrial as a genre, which he recently updated expanded and redid. Is always something I recommend people who want to know more.
