English Major Monday: In Praise of SongWRITERS

Both the Old English word "scop" and its Old Norse counterpart "skald" refer to the bard-like minstrels who entertained the thanes and liege lords in the mead halls of old. These guys were the rock stars of their day. They sang poems of battles and made immortals of heroes with their songs. While the existence of the scop is held in question, the skald was a very real historical figure, the Beowulf poet was very likely one of these rock stars. 

So, if we pore over the likes of Beowulf, and the sagas of Grettir and Njal, why do we not take the tales of our contemporary scops so seriously? Contemporary pop music gets absolutely no respect for its literary merit no matter how well written a song may be. This is a great disservice to all the incredibly talented lyricists in the music industry and the literary canon. What is pop music if not lyrical oral poetry?

Consider the following lyrics from Duran Duran’s recent release Paper Gods:

"Hey, you're gonna want it all" the talking man declares

Go running to be first in line for what, nobody cares

The next thing you must have

Find peace with matching bag

It's nothing to be glad about or sad when you forget about it

Lebon is making a comment on the emptiness of the modern consumer culture with these lyrics. You cannot buy "peace with matching bag." What an absurd notion, but it is just this level of absurdity that Lebon is trying to show us. Deep and heady stuff, no? If it were in a poem, everyone would stand up and pay attention. Papers would be written. Talks would be given. But since this is a song, the lyric is thrown away.

Why? Songwriters have been making commentary on contemporary issues since time immemorial. What do you think the Beowulf poet was doing? He wasn't writing a tome for us to pore over with the intent of being impressive for posterity. He was commenting on the issues that were effecting his society in that moment. He was culturally relevant. He was writing pop music.

The Beowulf Poet was an Original Gangster.

So why does pop music get such a bad reputation? Is it because it is manufactured for mass consumption? I would argue that there is nothing wrong with that. The more people who can relate to a literary work, the better. I can tell you this - more people have listened to Lady Gaga than have read Cormac McCarthy. This is a fact. Who, therefore has more cultural influence? Who is able to create greater cultural change? Go on, I'll wait.

I believe that rock stars, specifically pop lyricists deserve a place in the literary canon. They are writing works that are being consumed by the public. They are creating ideas. They are changing the world. Maybe print is dead. That's to say nothing of lyrical poetry. The masses aren't reading poetry. The don't seem to be reading much at all, if polls tell us anything. But they are buying and listening to music, so why not include song lyrics and their writers as a part of "literature"? It can only serve to deepen and enrich the discussion. What have we got to lose?