“Fabricated commercial artists are like happy meals really. Most of what we are exposed to in the supermarket is regurgitated commercialism with very little substance. Those lyrics are delivered by actors - people who aren’t even real,” accomplished New Zealand musician Dudley Benson says in an interview.
“There is a huge amount of empty-shadow delivery of lyrics. But I think (thank goodness) there is also an enormous amount of work that is a genuine expression of whatever that writer has gone through or wants to express.”
“So come on come on do the loco-motion with me!” is not a personal invitation from Kylie Minogue but “come hither” from song-writers Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Even if singers in the pop world are just a “sell point” their power can never be underestimated. Well written and well timed lyrics can influence behavior. “I think songs have changed,” muses Dudley. “They’re now so attached to movements of social change.”
A voice for people
Hip hop and ‘gangsta’ rap is closely integrated with life on the streets and their rhymes are the voice in a political wilderness. Agents of unification lyrics have often embodied a consciousness. During the miscarriages of justice during the 60’s Bob Dylan’s “Blow’ in the Wind” verbalized what many could only think:
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail