Radio Music and Broadway Songs

Sometimes, I listen to song lyrics and can’t help but wonder what the songwriter was thinking when he or she was writing. Half the songs on the radio sound the same and are either about falling in love or heartbreak. That’s why I listen to movie soundtracks when I write, though those can get boring if I’m not trying to concentrate, so while I do turn on the radio occasionally, I’d rather listen to Broadway musical soundtracks. I think I like Broadway songs because they tell a story. It can be a love story, just like those songs on the radio, but the music is so much fuller, and the singers are actors or actresses, so they have so much emotion in their voices.

Some of the wittiest lyrics I’ve ever heard come from the musical Spamalot; some of the best musical accompaniment I’ve heard comes from Next to Normal. The worst lyric’s simile that I’ve heard comes from Katie Perry’s Fireworks. Her opening line is “Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind,” and makes me wince every time I hear it. She’s probably asking if someone has ever felt ever felt as if they had nothing holding them down, but it sounds an awful lot like she’s asking if anyone has ever felt like a piece of garbage.