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Yousra and Leslie are back and today they talk about the importance of lyrics in music.
It's one thing to succeed in the music industry with nonsensical words in your songs. We've all heard Hanson's Mm bop. But it's a whole other form of respect, when you are a powerful lyricist.
Comment below with your favourite song lyric!
#Music #Lyrics #MusicandLyrics #Poetry
See more at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Yousra and Leslie are back and today they talk about the importance of lyrics in music.
It's one thing to succeed in the music industry with nonsensical words in your songs. We've all heard Hanson's Mm bop. But it's a whole other form of respect, when you are a powerful lyricist.
Comment below with your favourite song lyric!
#Music #Lyrics #MusicandLyrics #Poetry
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hi everybody, welcome to another episode of rap rock and all that jazz.
00:10My name is Yusra.
00:12And I'm Leslie Wilson.
00:13Now, we work together and we talk together.
00:15Yeah, the show only ladies and gentlemen on the show, we don't talk outside the show and
00:20talk at all.
00:21So let's, what are we going to talk about today, Yusra, what's in the can?
00:25Well, I think you had sort of a topic that you wanted to talk about and I had one that
00:29I wanted to talk about.
00:30So we're going to marry both.
00:31And it's basically the importance of like lyrics in song, and also a little bit of like
00:37sweetness of lyrics.
00:40I don't know, they can really make or break a song.
00:43So I feel like there's sort of an indescribable feeling that comes when you're like desperately
00:48in love with a song.
00:49And I feel like I can only really, really love a song if it's got like meaning, if there
00:54are, if the lyrics are good, if the song actually and the voice, so it's a lot of combination
00:59of things.
01:00But like lyrics, I think, to me, are the most important.
01:02Yes.
01:03Yeah, we're talking about songs you listen to, not dance to, I mean, dance songs are
01:06completely different.
01:07They're meaningless.
01:08Sometimes it's just got the rhythm.
01:10Yeah, we're talking about songs that touch your heart, songs that are meant to touch
01:14your heart, written to touch your heart.
01:16And it doesn't have to be love songs.
01:18Doesn't have to be.
01:19In fact, the song that I'm going to be talking about later isn't a love song at all.
01:23Hang on for that, but more of that later.
01:26So I believe that music is something that needs to be more than just pleasing to the
01:31ears.
01:32It's something that has to really touch your mind and your heart.
01:35And I feel like it's a platform for many artists to kind of be creative and be sort of poets
01:41in a way.
01:42Yeah, and I like it when it makes me think.
01:44I mean, when I listen to a song, listen to a lyric, I think about it.
01:47I think about what the writer, what's trying to tell us, what is he going to portray?
01:53Sometimes songs have so much imagery that it's amazing.
01:57You could do a case study on certain songs.
01:58Again, more of that later.
02:00So let's get into it slowly, tread into it nice and slow.
02:03Yes.
02:04So I think it would be fun, before we got into what the deep, good lyrics are, is to
02:08look at some really successful songs that actually had no meaning at all.
02:13And one of the ones that came up while I was researching is that Hansen song, Mbop, Mbop.
02:19That's right.
02:20Okay.
02:21It's a kid band, right?
02:22Yes.
02:23It's an American kid band.
02:24The Three Brothers.
02:26It basically, apparently, just didn't really mean anything, but people really loved it.
02:30It was like number one in 1997.
02:33Additionally, a really good one was Work by Rihanna and Drake.
02:38All right.
02:39I don't know if you've heard it.
02:40I have heard of these, but they didn't do much to me.
02:42No, because she basically says the same thing over and over again.
02:45And if you really listen to her, first of all, I didn't understand it.
02:49It sounded very, like, I don't know, just weird English that didn't make much sense
02:56to me.
02:57But if you actually read the lyrics, it does not mean anything, really.
03:00So we're here to talk about lyrics that really meant something.
03:03So where do we go?
03:04I mean, what's your choice of songs?
03:06What are the songs that really woke you up yesterday?
03:10Well, for me, I'd have to say one of my, like, I thought, maybe it's not my favorite song,
03:16but I would say it's a song that I was like, that's really good lyric writing, is Don't
03:20Look Back in Anger by Oasis.
03:21All right.
03:22Doesn't that start really nice?
03:23That's a good song, yeah.
03:24Because, like, it's not about, like, love, and it's not about the usual stuff you hear
03:27about.
03:28It's, I don't even know what it's about.
03:30But it's like, Sally, who's Sally, you know?
03:33Yeah, of course.
03:34Yeah.
03:35I mean, we've got to call up the Gallagher brothers to ask them what they were thinking
03:38about when they wrote this song.
03:39Yeah.
03:40But that's what I like about this show.
03:41What Yusra's been talking about is very relevant music.
03:46It's more current.
03:47Mine is pretty ancient, because I am a strong believer that the best lyrics, the best imagery,
03:52the most sweet songs were written maybe 50 years ago.
03:57Really?
03:58I disagree.
03:5950 years ago.
04:00And I'm going to read off some songs.
04:01You guys, some of you may know them, some of you don't.
04:04But the great American folk duo Simon and Garfunkel, they probably penned some of the
04:09most iconic songs ever written.
04:11It seemed like they were both sitting on a cloud somewhere in heaven writing these
04:15songs.
04:16Scarborough Fair.
04:17Yeah.
04:18Bridge Over Troubled Waters.
04:19And then the iconic, iconic Sounds of Silence.
04:21Yes.
04:22That's a really great song.
04:23Which is a song that has so many meanings.
04:25We'll talk about it a little later as we go on.
04:27But it's a song that has so many meanings.
04:29It has so many references.
04:31People do case studies in this song.
04:32College students study this song.
04:34Oh, really?
04:35It's such a deep song.
04:36It is a great song.
04:37Because it's not about love.
04:38It's about communication.
04:39Do we want to talk about this right now?
04:40I mean, yeah, go for it.
04:41Let's talk more about it.
04:42Yeah.
04:43So basically, I mean, if you listen to the song, and besides it's brilliant, the chords
04:49that go into it, the words absolutely blow your mind.
04:52Yes.
04:53So it starts with Hello, darkness, my old friend.
04:54My old friend.
04:55OK.
04:56So it's basically, I'm going to, I made some notes so, you know, I can be absolutely correct
05:00about what I'm going to say.
05:01The song uses the imagery of light and darkness.
05:04So that's why this Hello, darkness, my old friend, it's half of that to play.
05:08And it talks about communication.
05:09If we don't communicate properly, you're going to be in the dark.
05:12Oh, I never knew that's what it meant.
05:13So it's nothing to do with love.
05:16It's basically about human communication.
05:18OK.
05:19And there's some lovely lyrics, you know, like people talking without speaking, hearing
05:24without listening.
05:25That's amazing.
05:26That's like the human race, right?
05:29Absolutely.
05:30Yeah.
05:31We're all just like focusing on our own self.
05:33We don't want to hear what other people are saying.
05:34But yeah, keep going.
05:35I know.
05:36I mean, I've been, I've heard this song probably a million times.
05:38I mean, that's because I'm a million years old.
05:41I listened to it as a kid and I liked it for what it was.
05:45And then as I grew a little more mature, I understand that a song would have so much
05:48meaning and figured it out.
05:50And it still tugs at my heartstrings.
05:52I do love this song so much.
05:53In a strange way, it's not about love.
05:54It's about the brilliance of, you know, of a songwriter.
05:58And it's a little bit eerie as well, don't you think?
06:00It's creepy, yeah.
06:01It's creepy.
06:02Like I'm thinking about like when he's saying like the stuff that's written on the subway
06:06walls.
06:07Like why?
06:08Why are we even looking there?
06:09It's dirty.
06:10Yeah, exactly.
06:11I wrote about lyrics like that.
06:14My words like silent raindrops fell with the walls of silence.
06:17Yeah.
06:18Look at the imagery over there.
06:19That's brilliant.
06:20Brilliant.
06:21Such a good song.
06:22But I talk too much.
06:23And you tell me what you like about songs that, you know.
06:29So I think that anybody from Beyonce to Taylor Swift to Simon and Garfunkel can have these
06:37songs that, you know, have a lot of meaning.
06:39Like everyone really connects to that one song that Beyonce did, Halo.
06:44That's like, you know, like I get it.
06:47You don't have to be 50 million years old to be relevant and for people to connect.
06:53Like I know there was this woman who was running the New York Marathon or something.
06:59I think it was Alanis Morissette.
07:01And she said Halo's, Beyonce's song Halo is what got her through the last couple of
07:06miles because it's a song that can really push you.
07:09Yeah.
07:10And I think that one has meaning.
07:12You know, I don't know if she's singing it about Jay-Z or not, but we never really know
07:16what goes on in their, you know, house.
07:20But like, for example, so she's one of them, like, and I'm not a huge fan.
07:26I'm just coming back from the UK and there's another song that Rihanna wrote that everybody
07:30in the UK was connecting with, Umbrella, because it was raining so much.
07:35And you saw broilies, as they call them over there, at the doors of every supermarket.
07:39And I landed up buying myself one.
07:41Thanks to Riri, I guess.
07:42I bought a pink one.
07:44That's nice.
07:45That's OK, dude.
07:46You can do whatever you want.
07:47I know guys who like wearing pink ties and all that.
07:48But I bought this pink umbrella because I'm a forward thinking man.
07:52Because I knew when I come back to Dubai, I could either give it to my wife or somebody
07:55else.
07:56Or just keep it, because it doesn't matter.
07:58I've been owning an umbrella for a long time.
07:59So it was an investment, a pink umbrella, by the way.
08:02Lovely.
08:03So Rihanna affected you there, I guess.
08:06So like and then another example for me would also be like Radiohead.
08:12So they have this song called Creep.
08:14And I really love that song.
08:15Like everyone covers it.
08:16Like everyone knows that from the album OK Computer.
08:18Yes.
08:19And you know what?
08:20Like, yeah.
08:21Like, I'm not going to pretend to be one of these people who, like, knows all the songs
08:25that nobody knows and only talks about them.
08:28Creep is pretty mainstream.
08:30But it's such a good song because I feel like a lot of people connect to it because, you
08:34know, like, I'm a creep.
08:35I'm a weirdo.
08:36What am I doing here?
08:38And I think, you know, lyrically, it may not be my favorite song.
08:43But when I hear it, it speaks to me.
08:46But if I had to choose one of the songs that I think is like, like, like, I think, OK,
08:54people are going to laugh at me.
08:55But I think that nobody's going to laugh at me and they'll make fun of me because everyone
09:00loves to hate Drake.
09:02You know, Drake is the guy who sings about his emotions and doesn't mind sharing, you
09:08know, like all of these like deep, like female feelings, which is, I think, you know, stupid
09:15because everyone should share their feelings.
09:18So one of my favorite songs was from his not his maybe third, third album.
09:24I can't remember what it's called, but it's the blue one where it's his head.
09:29It's called In Time.
09:30And he collaborates with this Canadian artist.
09:32No, she's not Canadian.
09:33Maybe she's from L.A.
09:34Anyways, her name is Jenny Aiko.
09:37And it's just like a really nice song where it's like he talks about, like, hanging out
09:43with his parents again and how they talk about his past relationships.
09:47And like his mom tells him, like, nobody wants to be 70 and alone and like you have to start
09:52maybe finding somebody.
09:54And then he in his song reflects back about, you know, how he's sitting with his dad and
09:59talking about the girl who's in the song, you know, so it's just like a really nice
10:02song for me.
10:03It's a beautiful song.
10:04Yes.
10:05I mean, and as much as I believe Simon and Garfunkel, that is a great song, too.
10:10When you listen to Drake's music, you feel like he is telling a story.
10:15And that's why I chose In Time.
10:17So I'm going to link that one so everyone will be able to listen to it.
10:20So that's what's so beautiful about you sitting in the studio in Gulf News in Dubai.
10:24You've got Yusra who's very much into the millennial music, guys like Drake and all
10:29that, who I'm still trying to play catch up with.
10:31You know me, I'm from the 60s and all that.
10:33So I'm going to battle with her to prove that the best songs did come back from the past
10:38and perhaps probably the most iconic song ever written, ever, ever, ever written would
10:44have to be Imagined by John Lennon.
10:47That's a beautiful song.
10:48That's a sweet song that's got relevance.
10:52Imagine a world without.
10:53Yes, I agree.
10:55But don't you find it like I feel like if I'm going to give somebody, I mean, not to
11:00hate on Lennon.
11:01He's amazing.
11:02Yeah.
11:03May he rest in peace.
11:05I just feel like it's simple.
11:07It's simple.
11:08Simple is good.
11:09Sometimes simple speaks the loudest.
11:10But I feel like I need more complexity like J. Cole or people who really Eminem even Eminem
11:16when he doesn't produce mainstream music because, you know, when he collaborates with other
11:21like celebs, it's usually never like deep.
11:24But when he's writing on his own, I feel like, wow, this guy really like puts in a lot of
11:28effort.
11:29He's a poet.
11:30And John Lennon was a great musician.
11:32But I feel like it's a very simple song.
11:35It's too simple for me to say it's OK.
11:39That's the generation gap over there, very well portrayed by Yusra over there.
11:44And I'm going to throw another great song at her by a band called the Moody Blues, Nights
11:49in White Satin.
11:50Oh, I don't know.
11:51That's an absolutely you guys join Yusra, go to Spotify, hunt down this song.
11:57I think our producer, Logan Uziel, is smiling at us and he definitely knows the song.
12:01It's a brilliant song, Nights in White Satin.
12:04I mean, the word satin, I mean, is the texture of the song.
12:07You couldn't you couldn't have chosen a better word for that.
12:10Nights in White Satin, something by George Harrison.
12:14That's such a beautiful song.
12:15Something in the way it's again, it could classify as a love song, which we will be
12:19doing in our subsequent episodes, where we definitely something that would qualify over
12:25there.
12:26But there's so many songs, there's so many beautiful songs from my time, from my generation.
12:32All of me.
12:33John Legend.
12:34Yeah.
12:35That's more right up your street, isn't that?
12:36Yes.
12:38It is.
12:39See, I feel like our generation is when they find that one off amazing song.
12:45I will say that our songs these days, the good ones are less frequent than they were
12:50before.
12:51Yeah.
12:52So this song has been so freaking overplayed.
12:55I can't even listen to it anymore because we pick that like talent.
12:59He's talented.
13:00He has a great voice.
13:01And he wrote some really great lyrics.
13:02And he wrote that song for his wife, Chrissy Teigen, who's in the video.
13:06It's so beautiful.
13:08I'm so over it.
13:09Like, I can't even begin to appreciate it now because of how often it's played.
13:14But I do agree.
13:15It is.
13:16It is great.
13:17But now I'm just like, whatever.
13:18Yeah.
13:19And like I just said, I've just been in the UK on work.
13:20And I saw there's another song that's been hammered to death.
13:24It's Despositos.
13:25It's got nothing to do with our show.
13:27But everybody, every busker on the road is playing variations of it.
13:31Guys with a ukulele, guys with a saxophone.
13:33So basically, it's the airplay that songs get.
13:37I mean, they're a victim of their success very often.
13:40That is very true.
13:41And then it just ruins it.
13:42It ruins a good thing.
13:43But you know, Yusra, I was really lucky a couple of years ago at the Jazz Festival with
13:48John Lennon.
13:49Legend.
13:50Legend was the headline act.
13:51He sang All of Me in an Arabic version.
13:54It was astounding.
13:55It was absolutely astounding.
13:57So it brought a lot of freshness, a lot of, you know, newness, a lot of variety.
14:02It was great.
14:03It's with a bazooka.
14:04What do you call those instruments?
14:06And you know, the Arabian harp and the wood, everything.
14:09It was mesmerizing.
14:10What's the bazooka?
14:11I want to know.
14:13OK, no, that's true.
14:16Yes, I do think some people can be a victim of their own success.
14:20And I guess if you change it a bit, it's nice.
14:22Like Despositos, just going back to that fun fact.
14:26That song caused a 55% rise in tourism in Puerto Rico, which was awesome for the country
14:33because they were struggling massively.
14:35And everybody was like, this is how we do it down in Puerto Rico.
14:39Let's say we do an episode about songs that broke the Internet.
14:43We could do that one.
14:44Songs that went viral.
14:45That could happen.
14:46Let's put that in a shortlist.
14:47And that's going to be, hopefully, get a lot of attention, I mean, not just from your parents
14:51and my parents, but from the kids out there.
14:54So we're going to have a lot of fun with that episode of songs that went viral.
14:58And we've got to please everybody, don't we?
15:01We pleased the editor a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully the bonus is on the way.
15:08So basically, we've established that one can have success without lyrical genius, as we've
15:14seen everywhere.
15:17But then to really, really speak to people, to really be one of the songs, I think, that
15:20can stand the test of time.
15:23The lyrics are key, and they're super important.
15:26And I mean, I, as a journalist, appreciate words very much.
15:30I think musicians also approach music different ways.
15:33Some of them approach music where they just want to write a good song.
15:35They're not worried whether it hits the billboard charts or what.
15:39But then you've got the producer behind you, trying to put in a hook over there that will
15:44get people's attention and make its way into the top 20.
15:47So you've got strokes, different strokes for different folks.
15:50Bands like even U2, they were forced to make a couple of commercial albums because they
15:56really wanted to capture world attention and they wanted to conquer the world.
15:59So they made a lot of albums which had heavy commercial songs in there.
16:03So like we're talking about beautiful songs, we're also talking songs which have a very
16:08commercial ideology, you could say.
16:11It's sad that commercial sometimes means like cash, but also less creative.
16:20You know that?
16:21Yeah.
16:22I don't know.
16:23There's a cleverness in it.
16:24You know, it's not easy to write a song that can become a chart topper.
16:28There's a lot of savagery in the way they think about it.
16:31So I think it's easier said than done.
16:33I mean, come on, go ahead and write a hook song, a song with a great hook out there that
16:37has everybody listening to it, humming it, you know, bank managers sing it on the way
16:42to the office.
16:43Do you know what I'm thinking about?
16:46I'm thinking about Ariana Grande and how she was, I don't know, when she started out, weird
16:52pop princess, didn't really give lyrics too much focus.
16:55She even has that one song, One Last Time, that doesn't really make sense.
17:00She admits that lyric didn't make sense, but it just rhymed.
17:03But then when she wrote Thank You, Next, I don't know if you know that song, Thank You
17:07Next, but basically all her relationships were in the limelight.
17:11So she wrote a song in which she talked about every single one of her exes in the song.
17:16And OK, like it's not lyrical genius, like we said, but it is very good.
17:21Like you want to listen and you want to know what happened to Sean and Malcolm and Pete,
17:26all her exes.
17:27So I'm certainly not going to do that because I need about five songs to tell my story.
17:30No, I'm just joking, just joking.
17:34Anyway, this is a family show.
17:38Yeah.
17:39So, I mean, I just kind of wanted to close up with with Ariana.
17:43She's, yeah, like pop princess, but managed, I think I managed it with that song like a
17:49lot of people loved it.
17:51Yeah.
17:52Lovely.
17:53Yeah.
17:54Lovely.
17:55It's a lovely exchange of views and contrasting as they may seem.
17:56And I'm going to give you three songs to go out and listen to.
18:00OK.
18:01You probably have heard them.
18:02All right.
18:03One would be Tracey Chapman's Baby Can I Hold You?
18:05No, I don't know it.
18:06OK.
18:07Another would be, of course, James Blunt's You're Beautiful, which he wrote on the underground
18:11in the UK.
18:13These are beautiful songs.
18:14So you guys also out there, if you want to listen to Elton John's Your Song, that's a
18:19brilliant, brilliant song as well.
18:20That is beautiful.
18:21So they even took it in Moulin Rouge from her.
18:23Yeah.
18:24OK.
18:25So, you know, my meaning of beautiful songs and Yusra's are quite different, but they
18:28at the end of the day, they all have the same context.
18:31Yes.
18:32Music is beautiful, isn't it, guys?
18:33Great lyrics as well.
18:34Very important.
18:35But that's it.
18:36So that's it for now.
18:37And look forward to meeting you guys again next week for our next show.
18:42And we're going to go back and talk about the things we talked about here and see how
18:45we can refine them and come back with a nice show.
18:48Yeah.
18:49Great.
18:50Thank you, everybody.
18:51See you next time.
18:52Thank you, guys.
18:53And thanks, Yusra.
18:54Thanks, Vasu.