4d ago

Bands whose sound you like but lyrics you hate

I have a relationship with Jedi Mind Tricks that makes me a little uncomfortable. They sound good. I really like their sound but when you listen to their lyrics it is really awful. Lots of anti-gay, hateful and other stuff that is really not what I am about. I have settled into just listening to the music because it sounds good and ignoring the lyrics but it gets hard. I don't worry that the music is going to sway me to that viewpoint... I am not that weak willed. Really I just wonder how others deal with music they enjoy the sound of but feel uncomfortable about the meaning behind.

37 comments

honestly, the world holds so many forms, genres, sounds of music. if a band is spreading a shitty message, there is another artist around the corner that can deliver a similar musical vibe without being caked in hateful bullshit. i personally don't get down with bands who have a garbage message for the same reason that i would tell a racist pos he was a racist pos if they used the n-word in front of me. if you truly don't like the message an artist produces, why expose yourself to the shittiness. /rant
- Yeah. I would love to find a band that sounded like Jedi Mind Tricks but had the directed anger of Rage Against the Machine (not that I don't like Rage.). I think the anger of Jedi is part of why it works but the anger is gross and misguided.

i think there’s an important distinction to make between thinking lyrics are poor quality and strongly disagreeing with the message in the lyrics.
i often ignore lyrics of poor quality because the music behind them is so good. luckily i don’t recall coming across messaging like you are struggling with, but i think it would anger me enough to lose any interest in the band. don’t support people like that.

I mean, I'm glad you can put aside the lyrics and listen to the music beneath. But I couldn't. Because I think about how those musicians are spreading the hate through the music also. Cause like, without them the singer wouldn't have any platform to spread the message.
So, in my mind, although the drummer isn't saying any words, theyre just as hateful for giving the words a good beat to sing to.
Not saying I judge you. Just saying I couldn't
- This is essentially why I made this post. It continuously bugs me. I would never go to a live show or otherwise support them financially. But sometimes their sound just hits right and I feel like listening to it. I know there are those out there that will take the lyrics to heart and that churns my stomach.

Limp Bizkit are a great band when you remove the vocals

Van Helen, Motley Crüe, The Scorpions, some Queenryce songs, however it's spelled. Mostly just a lot of really dumb teenage idiot style misogyny. At least with the scorpions they were only pretending to speak English, so a lot of it could aping lyrics from other English songs without really knowing what it means.

Most of the times Frank Zappa and Prince.
- Depends on the Zappa song, some are great while others make you wish he'd just shut up and play his guitar.
  Examples: Catholic Girls while great music the lyrics make one sick. Meanwhile Camarillo Brillo and Joe's Garage great (though the cover art for Joe's Garage, much less so (Frank really enjoyed being a shock jock and pushing at what could be said)).

I love blues and blues rock, but the lyrics are often full of misogyny, unfortunately. Same with rap. Some I can't listen to anymore because of that, but some I give the benefit of the doubt, if that makes sense. They feel like they are using a misogynistic language, but aren't actually saying anything misogynistic.
Oh and then there are these really sad and self depreciating songs I used to love, when I was more emo, like Creep. I still love the sound, but I can't connect with the lyrics anymore. I'm basically only listening to them, when I'm down and even then I'm basically ignoring the content and focus on the vibes.
- I love blues and blues rock, but the lyrics are often full of misogyny, unfortunately.
  Same with old school rock and metal. Cocaine and lolitas. Then once hair metal was over, the macho men came in and you've got Metallica going "don't tread on me" like racist rattlesnakes under a boot and Pantera with their secret white power bullshit.
  Honestly the only old school rocker I'm ever really in the mood to listen to these days is Alice Cooper. Don't think I've ever come across a track of his glorifying underage groupies or anything.
  And it's only really from nu metal onwards that I'm not listening with my guards completely up. The funny thing is, a lot of metalheads shit on nu metal and act like it's a dark period in history. But at least Jon Davis was vulnerable and real and didn't spend his time doing the helicopter and singing about how awesome it is to be popular with little girls.
  
  Almost fully agree with your comment. Nu metal though, including Korn, has lots of questionable lyrics. Jon Davis wrote some pretty gross stuff and Courtney Love called them (and Marilyn Manson) out early on for their activities with young female fans.
  
  Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Lots of rock songs, even from supposedly family friendly bands like The Beatles, I can't listen to anymore, because it's too creepy.

Five finger death punch.
Tbh not all of their lyrics read like a jr high aged edge lord, but a lot do.
Same with Texas Hippie Coalition, only add redneck to the descriptors.
But both of them have a great sound as bands. Crunchy as fuck.
- Unironically like 5FDP but yeah, their shit is CATNIP to right wing punisher skull dudebros. Find a live concert and count the 9 line shirts, I dare you.

Brian Jonestown Massacre. Great sound but Anton’s lyrics are just lazy.

Dream Theater 100%
Ridiculous musical talent and then the lead singer...ugh
- to be fair their singer doesn’t write most of the lyrics.
- So very true.

I had the same feelings on Jedi Mind Tricks, but decided to keep listening based on this justification.
my morals will never perfectly align with any band. It's obvious when the lyrics are awful & hate filled, but it's impossible to know what every band was thinking when creating any music.
I don't believe in heroes. I respect a good piece of music as is. It's creators should not get a pass in any way because of that.
music or a message. Creative processes differ, some artists use their music as a vehicle to promote their beliefs, while others focus on making a sound first. It's not always easy to know which came first.
It's all subjective to me, some albums get deleted, others stay on probation, pending annual review

I mean, foster the people.
I'm hoping that's the obvious one for everybody.
But also for me, Jamiroquai. Dropping some line about how it's not nature's way for a mother to be able to choose the color of her child randomly in the middle of a song about how the world is changing so quick, and nobody can keep up with it.
At the same time, though, I'm nitpicking. It's just that one line in otherwise a cool song.
Flipside, I do not enjoy ICP, but my friends started playing the Shangri-La album, and I didn't know it was ICP, and I was like, man, this is actually pretty good, and then they were like, yeah, it's ICP, don't you like it? And I was like, well shit, they got like, one kind of decent album, fuck.

Donna Summer. I love most of her music, and many of her lyrics... until you get to the religious intonations of he later work. She was on track to be one of the biggest stars of her lifetime, but she ended up being a horrible homophobic piece of trash. Blaming her drugs and partying on others. She is thankfully dead now, so I can listen in peace and tune out how hateful she became. ♫ Once upon a time... There was, a girl... Who lived in a land... Of make believe... ♫
- That snippet of lyrics was sampled in some triphop thing I was listening to a while back and googling them turned up way too many songs that I didn't have patience to sift through. It's nice to have this little mystery solved!

There 's a Dutch band called Son Mieux that I cannot stand. They sing in English. The music is.... fine. It's well produced mass market pop music. I understand people like it. But their lyrics are so atrociously bad it ruins everything for me. It's like a middle school kid with a poor understanding of English lifted parts of well known phrases and put them together based on sound alone, like a bad Christmas gift poem. It's entirely vapid and meaningless, even compared to other pop music. And a lot of Dutch people love it because they don't listen to the lyrics anyway. I cringe every time it's on the radio.

Dance Gavin Dance. Oddly enough I don't mind the lyrics by Jon Mess, but a lot of the lyrics sung by Tillian and Jonny are tough to listen to.

Combichrist. They're obnoxious misogynistic wankers with fucked up lyrics, but they had some really fun songs to dance to.
Meshuggah. I don't like that style of vocals and don't know what they're even singing, but I really like the rest of their sound.
Some hymns are absolute bangers but fuck that whole christian god thing. This drunk guy was singing Glory Glory Hallelujah while walking down my street last night and it's a really catchy and sounded fun to sing.
- Combichrist
  I assume they're basically going for shock value. Like the lyrics to "God Bless" are God bless and then a list of serial killers.
  Glory Glory Hallelujah
  John brown's body and blood on the risers use the same tune, if you prefer.
  Actually I just googled it and John brown's body came first.
  
  Yeah, the serial killer song was extra lame, ngl. Their albums Everybody Hates You and Get Your Body Beat were 00's goth club classics though and I have fond memories of doing fuck loads of speed and dancing all night to songs off them.
  I would not have though to look the hymn up! Thank you for sharing that with me. Folk songs are fascinating and I love learning about them, but I'm not American and it feels just as wrong for me to be singing American army folk songs as it does for me to be singing Christian hymns, if you get what I mean.
  Gotta admit though, Blood On The Risers has some lyrics, "Gory, Gory What a Helluva Way to Die" is a great hook and much funnier than I was expecting.

GUNSHIP.
I'm so glad they release instrumental versions of their albums. Their singing grates on me.
- I have this with The Midnight too. I have respect for Tyler as a songwriter, but the lyrics often veer way to far into saccharine popsong territory for me.
- It's interesting, Alex sings like he's afraid of singing. It's this weird, uncertain tone as if there there's no breath support behind it. In every song with a feature the guest-vocalist blows him out of the water.

Reel Big Fish, but that's also kind of the point.

I used to really like the sound of the 70's band America, but their lyrics were so butt stupid, and pretentiously stupid that I can't bear to hear them.

I wouldn't say I hate their lyrics, but Hollywood Undead is a weird one for me. Some of... Most of their songs are "BOOZE BOOZE FUCKING CHICKS BOOZE" and it's like OK this is some frat boy shit. But then they have songs like Lion and (chorus of) Black Dahlia that are just soul rending. It's an insane juxtaposition but maybe that's part of the appeal.
Also they're a boy band and you can't convince me otherwise.

37 comments