Has anyone else become less lyrical over the years?

minervx

Member
I used to write pages of lyrics and try to cram as many words as possible into a song. But now, I sort of feel the opposite way. Oftentimes, I have a really good idea for a sound but don't feel compelled to write many lyrics for it. Not always out of choice; at times I want to say a lot, but just can't think of what I want to say.

Often, it's about getting the listener into a certain emotional state, and using words to guide them into it. Being too verbose and overly detailed in lyrics may come off as preachy. With "I'm Afraid of Americans" by David Bowie, for example, it's a song that he (and many critics) have said a lot of things about, yet the lyrics in the song itself are very basic.
 
How many years have you been writing? Preachy is neither being too wordy or detailed, it is coming off as a moralist. When writing think of what you like to listen to as a listener and go from there.

I haven't become less lyrical but I never force my lyricism.
 
Well I stopped rapping altogether, so definitely.. haha. But joking aside yeah, as you get more mature as a writer it becomes less about cramming as much words and techniques in there as you can... and more about maximum meaning with minimum words. Bowie is such a great example of that.. it's not complex music, but it has a lot of meaning. Making it complex would only get in the way of that.

I find that as an old dude I listen to different rappers in different ways. I enjoy the stuff I used to think was soft and the stuff that's trying so goddamn hard seems just pointless now.
Like 'yeah dude, impressive shit.. but what exactly are you trying to tell me beyond that?' I don't mean that in a 'gangsta rap sucks' kinda way... if that's what you know, write about it.. as long as you don't write about meaningless fake shit, because that will stand out. Or rather, people will recognize it when you're authentic and try to kick something that means something.
 
Most definitely not. I find myself working to improve my skills when I take the time to rap, and I've been at it for 15 years. If one is becoming less lyrical, then I guess they'd just have to not try very hard to progress in that particular area.
 
I wrote for probably a decade.

As far as rap goes, white people shouldn't pursue it unless they're really really good at it. It's hard to be bad at rock if you try enough. Beatles were 4 average kids who became really good at songwriting purely by practicing at clubs hundreds of times (not because of the pipes they were born with). I used to rap many years ago, but I became far more interested in singing and spoken word poetry. Before I tried to cram a lot of words in like Kool G Rap, but now I see the opposite as a virtue.
 
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