Understanding song

[Pocket86]

Does anyone else have trouble understanding the meaning in songs and poetry? I can solve a complex math problem in minutes but cannot understand the meaning behind popular songs. It drives me crazy and I'm always too embarrassed to ask others.

 

[King_Oni]

Some songs are way to ambigious to understand. Not to mention some are deeply personal.

I've written lyrics as I was a vocalist (or singer if you will) in a few local (metal)bands, so I'm well aware of the entire notion of "the meaning of a song". Some lyrics I've written were quite obvious... if you knew what I was screaming about (regardless on if those lyrics were intelligible), while others were filled with all kinds of metaphors and ambiguity.

As for popular songs; I feel that some of the more contemporary chart stuff (if that's what you mean with popular songs) falls under the category; just write some words and make them rhyme. Substance often lacks there. I'll just look at those 13 a dozen lovesongs for example.

 

[The Penguin]

Most poetry I don't understand well at all. But I think it might be a bigger issue for me than most people since I have a language based learning disability.

 

[JuniperBug]

This website will help you a lot!
Song Lyrics, Song Meanings & More at SongMeanings

I love indie songs with interesting lyrics but I don't always understand them on my own. Usually, the members on that sitewill break the songs down by verse or line and explain logically why the song means XYZ. It helps a lot to look up the song and read how people interpret it and why then decide which interpretations you agree with.

 

[Progster]

Yes, I find it hard to understand the meaning behind poetry and I tend to misinterpret a lot. At school I made the mistake of taking English Literature A level. As part of the examination we had to interpret and write about a poem we hadn't seen before, so I couldn't just memorise my notes as I did for the other novels and texts. I was hopeless at it! I got a poor grade in this exam and regret taking the course, it was a complete waste of time.

 

[HiImBob]

the language of poetry and song lyrics is often symbolic, metaphorical, allegorical. songs especially may contain references to other literary or artistic works. for example, a line about falling down a rabbit hole is probably a reference to Alice in Wonderland, to invoke a feeling of the surreal. As you go through life and pick up more cultural references, this kind of stuff should hopefully get easier to understand.

and it's ok to like songs just because of the sound and the melody and generally ignoring the words.