Music and Popular Culture: Assignment on Lyrics and Their Significance

This assignment focuses on the analysis of song lyrics within the context of music and popular culture. The student emphasizes the importance of paying close attention to song lyrics, highlighting their significance over the rhythm or beat of a song. The student explains that they listen to lyrics to understand the song's meaning and avoid supporting songs with unclear messages. The assignment discusses the impact of lyricism and delivery, particularly in songs that tell real-life stories, which offer inspiration and a sense of focus. The student provides references to support their views on the importance of lyrics and their role in conveying powerful messages and creating emotional connections. This assignment is a reflection on how song lyrics are interpreted and their effect on the listener.

Running head: MUSIC & POPULAR CULTURE 1
Music & Popular Culture
Student Name
Professor
Institution Name

MUSIC & POPULAR CULTURE 2
Song lyrics
Lyrics in music mean the words of a song. They consist of verses and choruses and the
writer of lyrics is called lyrist (Eckstein, 2010). The meaning of the song lyrics can either be
explicit or implicit. This assignment will be about how much attention is payed to song lyrics
and the reason to pay attention to lyrics.
When listening to a song, I pay a very close attention to the lyrics and not the rhythm or
the beat. When I hear a song for the first time, I listen to the lyrics well because I always want to
relate to the song (Greitemeyer, 2015).
What makes me pay close attention to the song lyrics is because they are important and
powerful. I always want to know what the song means because I would not like to support a song
that I do not understand its meaning (Lennings, 2011). If a song has a deep meaning and I do not
clearly understand the meaning, I will always listen to it more than once and try to figure out
what the singer is saying. This is because lyricism and delivery is the most thing important in
music.
Some lyrics are memorable to me especially if the song is about a real story of a person
going through something in life. This is because lyrics affects a person’s brain and pass a
powerful message. I like a real story song because it reminds people to be focused in life and not
to pay attention to what they are going through in life (Mori, 2014). People find hope in different
issues of life through the song lyrics.
In conclusion, it is important to listen closely to song lyrics because some are inspiring
especially if they tell a real story or if they make sense. They display a story from the singer’s
point of view.

MUSIC & POPULAR CULTURE 3
References
Eckstein, L. (2010). Reading song lyrics. Boston, CA: Brill Rodopi.
Greitemeyer, T.,Hollingdale,J.,&Traut-Mattausch,E. (2015). Changing the track in music and
misogyny:Listening to music with pro-equality lyrics improves attitudes and behavior
toward women. Psychology of Popular Media Culture,4(1), 56.
Lennings, H.I.B & Warburton,W.A. (2011). The effect of auditory vesus visual violent media
exposure on aggressive behaviour:The role of song lyrics,video cllips and musical tone.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 47(4), 794-799.
Mori, K., & Iwanaga,M. (2014). Pleasure generated by sadness:Effect of sad lyrics on the
emotions induced by happy music. Psychology of Music,42(5), 643-652.