Friday, August 17, 2007

Lyrics

We are moved in different ways by different mediums. Movies are the only art that have ever made me cry. Books suck me in like nothing else. I get incredibly involved in whatever world I am reading about and it is terribly exciting. I feel a part of it. Poetry can be fun and inspiring in a way I don't find as easily in other places. Yet, the medium I get the most obsessed with is music. Music takes me to emotional places I didn't know existed. It's is also the medium that I participate most heavily in. I am a writer and I write music. The others are side pursuits that I enjoy, but don't focus on. I wonder why that is?
I think part of the reason is the freedom I feel in music and lyric writing. There are definite structures in novel writing and film-making that are necessary and good. There are also structures in music that are generally followed, but there is so much freedom to experiment that those structures don't feel limiting at all. Poetry also has forms that are ignored and boundaries that are pushed, but often times I am left feeling jaded with the experimental poetry I come across. It feels strange for no other sake than to be strange. Somewhat pretentious I guess. With music I tend to feel like I'm free to work the lyrics in whatever way I want and can still have the music carry the piece. When I have solidified what I want a song to do musically, then I can toss words around wherever I want. If it isn't working then I can try them somewhere else. Then, the words will reshape the music. They feed off of each other in the most splendid ways.
Anyway, I was just thinking about that today.
Here is a clip of an experimental band whose works I cherish:
Radiohead - "Idioteque"

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