Popular Subjects for Lyrics Other Than Love

[Mykesbass]

So @eloisa has shown what a bunch of romantics we all are 🤔 but what are the other popular subjects for lyrics?

 

Cities and US states get a good look in - I Love Paris, April in Paris, London Calling, A Foggy Day In London Town, Georgia on my Mind, Rainy Night in Georgia, New York New York and many, many more. 

 

What other subjects provide greatest inspiration to lyricists?

[odysseus]

Angst seems to be a recurrent favourite.

[Lozz196]

Political views - at least in the punk scene anyway.
 

Not so often linked to parties but more views of how poor things are and how they could be made better.

[Eldon Tyrell]

Body parts

 

 

 

 

[EssentialTension]

 

[pst62]

 

[EssentialTension]

 

[Mykesbass]

12 minutes ago, EssentialTension said:

 

Used to be an FA cup song on a very regular basis. Had some fun working on the 1991 Spurs one with Chas & Dave.

[SumOne]

There's a lot of different lyrical themes, love and heartbreak are what trend to sell pop records though.

 

Reggae: Being a rasta, fighting injustice, weed. 

 

Hip Hop: Making money, being the greatest. 

 

Punk: Fighting the government/system. 

 

Stoner/Doom: Weed, evil/menacing stuff ending the world. 

 

Death metal: Horror. 

 

Funk: Getting on up/down. 

 

[neepheid]

Country: being left by your partner, your pickup truck being stolen/broken down...

[Mykesbass]

15 minutes ago, SumOne said:

Funk: Getting on up/down. 

 

Along with Disco and songs about dancing.

[Mykesbass]

3 minutes ago, neepheid said:

Country: being left by your partner, your pickup truck being stolen/broken down...

Songs to play backwards for a happy ending 😎

[Guest]

About war, manipulators, warmongers and the hope for peace.

[neepheid]

1 minute ago, eloisa said:

About war, manipulators, warmongers and the hope for peace.

 

Every other Iron Maiden song, then?

[NancyJohnson]

I did about 20 songs for a project slightly before the pandemic.  Subject matter?

 

Russian nukes

Surveillance

Telephone surveillance

Living in an iron lung

The Spookwaffe (a group of black escort fighters during Ww2)

A heavily edited version of the Kings 'we are at war' speech

The third shock army snipers

Oppenheimer

Drowning in a submarine

Being in the belly of a tank

Borodino

Sleeper agents

Drinking vodka from the sandals of heathens

The Heavens Gate cult

The Jonestown suicide event

American marine peacekeepers in Afghanistan

 

Cheery, eh?  We had a few more things in process before the project folded and moved on to something else.

 

We just used to get a little obsessed with old photographs; for instance one of the group of people that assassinated Lincoln and how one guy had the looks of a current day male model. We did a rough demo of a track called Behind Confederate Eyes on that one.

 

 

[neepheid]

I wrote a song when my elderly grandpa's declining mental faculties (specifically his short term memory) were swirling around in my head at the same time as the general financial pressures of a economic downturn.  They somehow got merged into one song.  Odd.

[Baloney Balderdash]

Death :

 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Mykesbass]

19 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Death :

 

 

And murder:

 

 

[tauzero]

Motorcycles. Bat out of Hell, Leader of the pack, Motorbikin', Bad motor scooter, Midnight rider, Wanted dead or alive, Ride the wind, Born free, Ballad of the Easy Rider, 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, to name but a few.

[asingardenof]

I'm the case of certain genres of American music, rampant jingoism.

[upside downer]

The ingestion and subsequent description of the effects of mind-altering pharmaceuticals has had a pretty good run at various points along the lyrical landscape. For more information, listen to jazz, psychedelia, acid house and most of Hawkwind's output.

[Mykesbass]

1 hour ago, tauzero said:

Motorcycles. Bat out of Hell, Leader of the pack, Motorbikin', Bad motor scooter, Midnight rider, Wanted dead or alive, Ride the wind, Born free, Ballad of the Easy Rider, 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, to name but a few.

Good call.

[Barking Spiders]

mammals found in north America

 

Ay ay ay ay moosey -Modern Romance

Beaver patrol - Pop Will East Itself (though somehow I don't think they had these furry critters in mind!)

Hungry like the wolf -Duran Duran

Buffalo stance - Neneh Cherry

Cougar -2 Live Crew (not sure these were actually rapping about mountain lions either)

err..that's about it 

[BigRedX]

12 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

Beaver patrol - Pop Will East Itself (though somehow I don't think they had these furry critters in mind!)

 

Which is a cover - the original is by 60s garage band The Wilde Knights.

[Beedster]

19 hours ago, neepheid said:

Country: being left by your partner, your pickup truck being stolen/broken down...

Your girlfriend sleeping with your Dad (who’s also your Uncle)….

…..although that might be Bluegrass? 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Beedster