The relationship between poetry and music is that both represent two aesthetic mediums relative to each other. Throughout time words and music have been combined. Poets like Sir Thomas Wyatt collaborated with many prominent composers of the time like Thomas Tallis and united musical composition with lyrical verse. The two arts come together rather harmoniously because both are conjured by the same means, through creativity and inspiration. Music can convey a variety of human emotions simply by combining a variety of tones and rhythms, connecting us with our most basic and primordial feelings. Poetry does the same exact thing except with the use of words. Contemporary songs containing lyrics are just poetry set to fit a specific musical form and melody.
The actual song writing process, when compared to poetry, can be more anal-retentive. While poets in general don’t have to adhere to super strict rules and have more freedom, songwriters must condense broad ideas into a series of concise lines with syllables sculpted to fit a specific vocal melody. Additionally timing, attack and performance tend to be taken into account. However with lyrical songs, more prominently in pop music, the writing is deemed secondary and less important because half the time the listeners aren’t even focusing on the words of the music.
Music, unlike poetry, which in essence has been captured by the pseudo intellectual hep cats of high society, has been taken over by capitalist corporations. Because music has been so severely commoditized within society, the quality of songs siphoning through the mainstream has dwindled. The recording industry is responsible for the ever-present bastardization of lyrical content in contemporary music. Leading label executives have come to the conclusion that “Good” song writing, which can be expensive, is no longer needed to generate fast and easy hits. Pop lyrics were then downgraded to poorly crafted musical catch phrases. All music churned out became formulaic and mundane.
Despite the monotony in today’s music, songwriters are still regarded as the contemporary poets of our time. Like in any art there will be discrepancies. Certainly one could argue that the swill being played on the radio today is art and poetry because anything dealing in aesthetics can be validated somehow. Although I believe that a good poet and/or songwriter has the ability to create a consensus among the masses of critics because their work is that exceptional and profound. They manage to stitch their name within the unforgiving sands of time.
Poetry doesn’t need music and vice versa, however when both mediums are brought together they create something magical. I remember when I first heard the song “Wrapped Around Your Finger” by The Police, I was left spell bound because the music actually complimented the mood of the writing, which is rare. The lyrics are a literal take on a Faustian situation, describing a man’s apprenticeship with one of the demons in hell. Filled with echoing guitars mimicking Indian sitars and synthesizers that helped lay a psychedelic groove against the uber slick lyrics.
Song writing in this modern age has become the harder and more impressive art. Brian Eno, best known as the father of modern ambient music who has produced and written a number of songs for many famous artist like U2, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel and David Bowie Revealed in an interview with BBC radio that…
Songwriting is now actually the most difficult challenge in music... Lyrics are really the last very hard problem in music. Software and hardware have changed the rest of music dramatically in the last thirty or forty years. It's very easy to make pretty good music... Pretty good isn't very interesting, but pretty good is possible. But writing songs is pretty much in the same place as it was in the days of Chaucer. Apart from hip hop, hip hop is the only breakthrough in a way, rap, because it breaks away from the strict adherence to melody and beat structure and so on... I'd love to try doing this really hard thing [songwriting] and see if I can
Though the digital age has made music easier to be produced. Songwriting and poetry is still challenging as it was centuries before and that makes writing a little more precious then music. While musical production has new advances every day, there are never advances in the realm of writing. Writers rely on a definitive purity that is boundless.
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