Well, Country is the only genre generally devoid of words like “oh” or “yeah” repeated 20 times in a row. Sorry everyone else, but if you say it in the song, it’s counted as a “lyric.”
But it’s also about the syllables. Country music is full of words like Hallelujah, cigarettes, hillbilly, and tacklebox. Add to that long place names like Cincinnati, Louisville, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and Country has a serious advantage over the competition....
In 2007, Rock and R&B/Hip-Hop both plunged with the help of songs like “Buy U a Drank” by T-Pain (which just made it above a 1st grade reading level) and “I Don’t Wanna Stop” by Ozzy Osbourne (a more respectable 1.6 average grade level).
ADDED: Pride in long sentences is idiotic. From Paul Johnson's "Intellectuals":
But Hemingway had had the advantage of an excellent training on the Kansas City Star. Its successive editors had compiled a house-style book of 110 rules designed to force reporters to use plain, simple, direct and cliché-free English, and these rules were strictly enforced. Hemingway later called them ‘the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing.'...
On this journalistic basis, Hemingway built his own method, which was both theory and practice.... He once defined the art of fiction... as ‘find what gave you the emotion; what the action was that gave you the excitement. Then write it down making it clear so that the reader can see it too.’ All had to be done with brevity, economy, simplicity, strong verbs, short sentences, nothing superfluous or for effect. ‘Prose is architecture,’ he wrote, ‘not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over.
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The other day on the bluegrass channel I heard,
You even make my car look bad when you lean upon the fender,
I guess I just can't get away from your barbaric splendor.
Take that, Bob Dylan.
And having country come out on top and "R&B/hip-hop" on the bottom just seems racist.
Doesn't it seem equally bigoted to suggest that country can't be on top and R&B/hip-hop can't be on the bottom?
"Why...that...that just CAN'T be true!"
And having country come out on top and "R&B/hip-hop" on the bottom just seems racist.
If it's consistent with reality, it's Bad.
Speaking of words, Gokul Venkatachalam and Vanya Shivashankar tied for national spelling bee champs.
How come R&B/rap counts as one genre but pop and rock are 2 genres? Racism!
We watched the Spelling Bee at Meadhouse last night. Was there even one word you'd ever have a use for? Yes: bouillabaisse.
Yeah, racist. Nobody ever insults the intelligence of country music fans.
Gokul Venkatachalam and Vanya Shivashankar
Yeah, I wondered how they could keep track of those long confusing words, then I saw their last names and realized it was something they were probably used to.
"Ann Althouse said...
We watched the Spelling Bee at Meadhouse last night. Was there even one word you'd ever have a use for? Yes: bouillabaisse."
Tell the truth, you looked it up for your post.
"Tell the truth, you looked it up for your post."
For the annals of things not worth lying about.
You know this is stupid. Lyric writing is a complex process. You have to match words and music and rhyme all at the same time. It doesn't make the same kind of sense that prose does but it doesn't have to. And songwriting the words and music work together to convey the message. And prose, the entire message has to be carried by the words.
"I'm gonna C-I-L-L kill, my landlord!"
"I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, 'denigrate' means put down."
"Fight fiercely Harvard, fight, fight, fight! Impress them with our prowess, do..."
"Stay tuned for another fun-filled episode of Althouse Trolls Her Commentariat!"
YEEHAW, Country music tops the third grade reading level. Not really much to be proud about.
I use the MS WORD readability statistics and a recent document hit 15.3 on the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level statistic. I'll bet if you followed me around and recorded my everyday conversations they would be on the third grade level. Spoken word and music is very different than the written word and the metrics used for one is inadequate for measuring the other.
This grading of music lyrics seems like Andrew Powell-Morse letting us know that he is smarter than all the musicians he critiques. A little bit of "They are a musical people" is just an added bonus.
Remember this chart? http://img.labnol.org/di/music-makes-you-dumb.png
Well, I am off to listen to some Sufjan Stevens so I can feel better about myself.
Even Bob Dylan confused his transitive/intransitive verb pairs. Consistently.
FWIW, I've always found Eminem to be downright loquacious. Considering how he speaks in interviews, the breadth of his lyrical lexicon is startling.
Come to think of it, Snoop Dogg and Biggie also have/had some pretty impressive lyrics. Of course, like Eminem, they are really rappers is the classic tradition, and not singers rapping. I don't like most R&B, or country, but really well executed rap always impresses me.
"And having country come out on top and "R&B/hip-hop" on the bottom just seems racist. "
This has to be the dumbest thing Althouse ever wrote.
Better get some "new" facts - these ones be racist.
"I use the MS WORD readability statistics and a recent document hit 15.3 on the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level statistic."
Somebody needs to get his period.
And having country come out on top and "R&B/hip-hop" on the bottom just seems racist.
Feels, Professor, you mean it feels racist.
I agree that "reading level" whatever it's actually measuring probably isn't a good proxy for intelligence and shouldn't be used that way. Understanding that, it can't seem like the fact that a genre of music more associated with one racial group did better (or worse) than a genre of music more associated with a different racial group is racist--if the measure is meaningless or nearly so then how could the fact that one group "did worse" by that measure be racist? It can't, but anything that even slightly implies that a specific group is in any way less good than another specific group feels racist.
Given the prevalence of R&B/hip-hop in popular culture, though, I don't think the racial angle is all that interesting. What are the demographics of the two genre's listeners by age? Does country skew older to a significant degree? If that explains the difference, does the result still seems racist to you, Prof?
Somebody needs to get his period.
Ouch. May I request transgender comment trigger warnings?
It started out as just a stupid exercise, but it ended up giving us the insight that the reading-level calculator is racist.
holdfast said...Come to think of it, Snoop Dogg and Biggie also have/had some pretty impressive lyrics.
I'd bet WuTang and Outkast both do better than Snoop Dogg in terms of reading level and inventiveness. Reading level might be a poor judge of rap for the same reason it'd be a bad metric for poetry vs. prose, though. Does a poet use more "difficult" words, or do they use simple words in different, more creative ways? I guess it depends on the poet.
If rap is more poetry-like and country is more prose-like, and that explains the difference, would it still seem like a racist result? (R&B could be the confounding variable here, though, from what I've heard it's lyrically very simple, although maybe R Kelly's stories skew the data the other way.)
Have you ever seen a sentence from Kant? Oy! Half a page, at least....
Ever since I hit menopause...
As a former heavy metal fan, I can assure you that that genre hurt Rocks overall rating. Oh, and the band America.
Ha! Love the Paul Johnson quote. I'm listening to Intellectuals as an Audible.com audio book. The reader is an acid-sounding British male who sounds like he's sneering -- perfect for Johnson's collection of nasty take-downs of 19th and 20th century intellectuals. (I'm only up to Hemingway though. Maybe there's an intellectual he actually respects later in the book.)
I'm writing my first novel for the new adult fiction market. I'm writing for 8th grade reading comprehension. Maybe that's too high a bar?
The reading level of most classical music is about grade zero, as (other than opera and sacred music) most of it has no words.
In any case, surely it makes sense that popular music would be written to be easily understood, so as to aim for the broadest possible audience?
Can I just say that I loathe books that are bogged down in long sentences? They are unpleasant to read.
Another thing that bugs me (I've a list) is adding words to make you sound smart. I've noticed 'plethora' twice in the past month in places where it just screamed out "I am so er-you-dight!!" (Say that as John Cleese might).
What I listen to most in the radio? Hip-hop. But I'd call it sanitized hip-hop.
‘Prose is architecture,’ he wrote, ‘not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over.
Should song lyrics be considered prose? If not what does one inapt comparison prove about another?
Should have thrown classical and jazz into the mix. Miles Davis Kind of Blue - reading level 0.0.
Missed Peter @ 8:56 am.
"He once defined the art of fiction... as ‘find what gave you the emotion; what the action was that gave you the excitement. Then write it down making it clear so that the reader can see it too.’ All had to be done with brevity, economy, simplicity, strong verbs, short sentences, nothing superfluous or for effect"
"Find what gave you the emotion/excitement" and "nothing for effect"?
"All had to be done with brevity, economy, simplicity": lacks economy, action, and excitement.
"short sentences, nothing superfluous": confuses different points. Brief BS is still BS, well-crafted long sentences contain "nothing superfluous."
Unless you're writing a highly technical document, you should NEVER hit a reading level above 8th grade.
Long sentences and esoteric vocabularies are signs that you don't actually understand the topic.
Scott M @ 7:12
You win. Nothing more needs to be said.
The advantage country music has on the others is that it's about adults. Not teenagers.
Dylan misuses "whom" in "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" ("Searching for the very souls/ Whom already had been sold)," but it's very possible he did it to goof on reviewers who'd criticized his grammar in other songs.
"And having country come out on top and "R&B/hip-hop" on the bottom just seems racist." Hopefully, this is joking. Is it?
If this had come out reversed, it would have been picked up for the front page of WaPo and NYT.
Oh, man, when it comes to high-falutin lyrics, you just can't beat sacred/gospel music! For example, take a gander at this hymn "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" (also known as Coronation):
All hail the pow’r of Jesus’ Name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all!
Ye chosen seed of Israel’s race,
Ye ransomed from the fall,
Hail Him Who saves you by His grace,
And crown Him Lord of all!
Let every kindred, every tribe,
On this terrestrial ball,
To Him all majesty ascribe,
And crown Him Lord of all!
Oh, that with yonder sacred throng
We at His feet may fall!
We’ll join the everlasting song,
And crown Him Lord of all!
How often do you think anyone use the word "diadem" in daily speech
"And having country come out on top and "R&B/hip-hop" on the bottom just seems racist."
Perhaps so. But it is completely uncontroversial that the American black population has a mean IQ one standard deviation below the white population. The only thing that is seriously disputed is the cause. And even then, it is widely accepted that it is some mix of heredity and environment.
I'm Shockley shocked, shocked! by J Farmer's comment!
"Ha! Love the Paul Johnson quote. I'm listening to Intellectuals as an Audible.com audio book. The reader is an acid-sounding British male who sounds like he's sneering -- perfect for Johnson's collection of nasty take-downs of 19th and 20th century intellectuals. (I'm only up to Hemingway though. Maybe there's an intellectual he actually respects later in the book.)"
That reader has done a lot of audiobooks. I buy a lot of audiobooks and often choose them based on whether it's a reader who works for me. I'm audio-reading all of Robert A. Caro's LBJ books because they're read by the same guy who read "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." There's a subtle edge of contempt and outrage and dark humor... just the right amount. But it's a slightly harsh voice, so I never use it to fall asleep to.
I had 2 diseases at the same time and thought I was going to diadem.
"Unless you're writing a highly technical document, you should NEVER hit a reading level above 8th grade. Long sentences and esoteric vocabularies are signs that you don't actually understand the topic."
I think it can also mean: 1. You wrote quickly to get your ideas on the page and you didn't take the time to edit, 2. Your ideas, put clearly, are boring or obvious or wrong and you don't want it to show, 3. You lack self confidence and you think you have to look smart, 4. You think your readers are dumb and will take these long sentences as an indication that you are smart, 5. Some combination of these things (possibly all of them).
@chickelit:
"I'm Shockley shocked, shocked! by J Farmer's comment!"
Spend 10 minutes inside the school psychology program of any halfway decent university, and you will see this is considered absolutely basic knowledge. The heredity part less so. For that, you have to walk over to the cognitive psychology department.
Ann Althouse said...I think it can also mean:
Well for me it's usually 1. but with a sprinkling of 6. It can be fun to use unusual or infrequently-encountered words, to unwind a thought across an expansive stretch of (grammatically-correct) sentence, or to mimic a monolog or lecture one might give as an answer. Maybe some of us are too lazy to cure our longwinded ways and have grown to like padding things out a bit.
Diadem
Harry Potter.......
Diagon Alley is the Harry Potter thing, I believe. Rowling is quite clever.
Ann, your 12:19 joke was pretty good. Def good enough to whip out amongst my more literate friends.
Spend 10 minutes inside the school psychology program of any halfway decent university, and you will see this is considered absolutely basic knowledge.
One of my sisters was a psychology major. She learned about this and immediately decided it meant that the practice of psychology was racist.
Now she works at a convenience store. After a few years there and dealing with the public, she knows it to be absolutely true, and hates herself for knowing it.
Liberals. Can't live with 'em . . . and can't kill them fast enough to get every last one before going to jail, making it thereby not worth it.
Country music is clearly the smartest of the song writing styles. doesnt mean I like it most.
Rap is clearly the dumbest in terms of lyrical quality. Which is understandable considering how many rappers probably can't read. Then again, I don't speak Ebonics that well.
And there are individual rappers that do rise above the dross.
"Thinking of a master plan
Cause there's nothing but sweat inside my hand..."
Nice opening about a song about a guy trying to find ways to come up,with cash.
But that's the exception to the rule. Most rap is DUMMMMMMMBBB.
Michael Brown, the guy kiilled by officer Wilson was a budding rapper. And when listening to it you recognize that he was one step,above illiterate. I'd be surprised if he could spell all,the words he used in his song.
The other thing to note, is that his raps aren't that much worse than your average rap except in terms of production quality.
If you think rap or C&W have dumb lyrics, try listening to grand opera. The plots for most of Mozart's opera aren't worthy of an I Love Lucy episode. Whenever I look up the lyrics that accompany a beautiful operatic melody, I am disappointed. Can anyone name a phrase that has escaped from opera and entered common parlance?......Of all the composers, I think Kurt Weill had the best luck with his lyricists. Jerome Kern had the worst. The wittiest and most literate lyrics undoubtedly belong to the musical comedy genre.
William said...Can anyone name a phrase that has escaped from opera and entered common parlance?
I like "what joy it is to breathe free air." But I can't think of any others, no.
Can anyone name a phrase that has escaped from opera and entered common parlance?
Weiß ist schön! Ich muß sie küssen.
"White is beautiful! I must kiss [her]."
Monostatos' aria from Mozart's Magic Flute, in one of the few uncensored performances I could find on youtube.
@William,
Can anyone name a phrase that has escaped from opera and entered common parlance?
This may have more to do with the geist of the Anglophone world more than the quality of the material. The poetry of the Elizabethan lute-song composers (Campion, Dowland, Morley, etc) is among the best lyric poetry in the English language, and none of it ever became "proverbial".
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