What Do You Think Makes Rock Lyrics Poetic?

Lyrics to rock songs are anything but the stiff writings in a text book. They sit between confessions and poems. They don’t need to be perfect but they do hit you and make you think a bit more about them later.

It’s Not About Being Pretty, It’s About Being Real

Rock music isn’t always about being pretty it’s about honesty and that can sometimes be a little uncomfortable. They are not written to impression, but instead because they HAD to be written. Heartbreak, anger, often the catalyst behind the best songs. You don’t just hear these lines you feel them.

Pearl Jam – Black (All Rights Are Retained By Pearl Jam)

Simple Words, Big Meaning

Rock songs in general don’t tend to be complicated, but that is why they work so effectively. A line that is repeated at the exact right time often carries more meaning that an entire verse. Somehow the simpler it is the more room there is for people to interpret it in their own way and assign meaning to it.

The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army (All Rights Are Retained By The White Stripes)

The Sound Of The Words Matters Just As Much

Just like poems, rock isn’t just written its performed. The way it is phrases, timing and the line is stretched out or shouted. While the lyric might look ordinary but delivered in the right way it becomes something entirely. The voice becomes part of that poem.

Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (All Rights Are Retained By Queen)

Images You Don’t Even Realise You’re Seeing

Even when rock lyrics feel direct they are often full of imagery, it is not always obvious. But it flashes a line here and a phase there, painting a picture without overexplaining it. This subtlety is rocks staying power.

Radiohead – Paranoid Android (All Rights Are Retained By Radiohead)

When It Feels Bigger Than The Song

The most poetic lyrics don’t colour inside the lines, they follow you long after the song has ended. They become inplanted and your thought at 2am or somehow makes perfect sense 10 years down the line. That’s when you know it’s worked when it stops being a song but instead it is part of you.

Foo Fighters – Everlong (All Rights Are Retained By Foo Fighters)
All rights to the songs used in this post are retained by the relevant artists. This site claims no rights over them.

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2 responses to “What Do You Think Makes Rock Lyrics Poetic?”

  1. Peter avatar

    Ive always loved songs that are very meaningful! I’ve been paying attention to lyrics more too, songwriting and reasons why they’re written are so interesting to me lately.

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  2. missparker0106 avatar

    You’ve nailed it again. When I read the title to this article the first thing that jumped into my mind was the visual imagery that solid lyrics evoke. Every song paints a picture, just like good prose and poetry do for the reader. What makes songs so special is that not only do we have music to set the mood, it adds to/supports the imagery that the lyrics project. Thanks for covering this!

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