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Originally Posted by Toilet & Bowels
because music can mean things without literally meaning things. everyone here is discussing lyrics, does that mean that lyrics mean something but the actual music doesn't? nobody ever asks what the meaning of a particular bass line is or whatever, i find it irritating that people's whole interpretation of music hinges upon the lyrics, are the whole band thinking about the same thing as the lyricist when they play that song? i doubt it. and if lyrics are the be all and end all why bother with music at all, why not just read/write poetry. music isn't literal or logical, it's spiritual and emotional.
i agree pretty much whole heartedly with what truncated said (unless she's going to tell me i've missed the point) and find interpretations of anything presumptuous and hot airish.
although, having said that, when i was in my first year at art school i did a project where i lent my camera to friends from outside school and asked them to take photos for a day of whatever they wanted, and then asked people in my class to look at the photos and try to imagine and describe what the person who took that particular set of photos was like. anyway, most people couldn't have been more wrong with what they presumed about the person, but there 2 people in my class (out of about the 20 i asked) who every time i showed them a set of photos they described the person who took them very accurately. i had 10 different friends taking pictures for me, and each of them was described well, but only by these 2 same people. none of the people from school knew any of my friends who took the photos. it was very interesting.
so what i'm saying is is that i think a few people have an inate ability to decipher information from art, but that information isn't really always a particular message or meaning. and i think to assume that a piece art/music is created as a vehicle for a message is akin to misunderstanding that entire medium.
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Well said.
The issue is definitely not limited merely to lyrics. It applies to any interpretation people feel at liberty to make regarding any facet of any piece of any art.
Nor do I think that an "outsider's" perspective is by default flawed. There are definitely some people who are more perceptive than others, who have the ability to consider more of the pertinent factors when trying to derive an objective (insofar as it can be) impression of something.