Abstract
Songs that combine happy music and sad, violent, or morally disturbing lyrics raise questions about the relationship between music and lyrics in song, including the question of how such songs affect the listener, and of the ethical implications of listening – and perhaps singing along with – such songs. To explore those perplexing cases in which the affective impact of music and lyrics seem entirely incompatible, we first examine how song music – and the sympathetic musical affects it elicits – can influence listener attention to lyrics. We propose that ‘happy’ music and mood in particular may discourage close attention to the semantic contents of lyrics in some cases, and impart a ‘positive glow’ to them in others. We also mine the kinds of moral questions to which emotional and imaginative immersion in fiction can give rise for their potential applicability to songs with disturbing narratives. We then explore how performance and performer may influence the understanding and interpretations of lyrics. This investigation of the complexities of such songs will use Tom Jones’ murder ballad “Delilah” as a template, taking into account both its impact and its presentation.
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Notes
‘Delilah’ and some of the other songs we discuss can be thought of as a subset of the ‘murder ballad’ genre – where the familiar lyrical themes are often set to incongruously upbeat music. We thank Ella LaRose for pointing this out.
This point can be seen as a companion to Davies’ claim that when it comes to song composition, “…the most successful general strategy of song composition accords the music rather than the words the guiding role.” (ibid., p.15).
Based on the copyrighted sheet music by Les Reed and Barry Mason, 1967.
For views in psychology that music can induce affects see, for example, Sloboda and Juslin (2001). For arguments against the claim that music can induce emotions see, for example, Konečni (2008). As Konečni and others have pointed out, definitions of emotion differ across this literature, complicating the debate. Konečni allows that music may be able to directly give rise to noncognitive moods and what he terms ‘pseudoemotional responses.’ In this paper we focus on moods and affects generally, not necessarily emotions, and so sidestep those debates.
For an embodied appraisal theorist such as Prinz (2004), affects are embodied appraisals.
The labels ‘casual’ and ‘attentive’ should be read as roughly characterizing ends on a spectrum of listener engagement. A casual listener is not fully attending to the song, is perhaps listening to music to help them stay awake while driving, or while dancing or doing other things. They are engaging with the song without focusing on the elements and interplay of music and lyrics. More attentive listeners are those who are engaging with all the different elements of the song, who hear and understand the lyrics and music. Even here there are variations in depths of engagement, from simply listening for the lyrics to seeking out sheet music to follow along. Our arguments don’t depend on making sharp distinctions between these attentive practices, though we do characterize general differences in the experiences of casual versus attentive listeners.
One possible exception is Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day,” but we think this song can further prove our point, as listeners tend hear it as ironic or sending mixed messages. See Moore's (2023) “Irony in Song” for a discussion of this.
While the empirical results are mixed on this point, we note that if it turns out that careful attention to lyrics tends to be a greater influence on subsequent cognitions and attitudes than music, this actually deepens the mystery about cases where listeners don’t seem to be influenced by the lyrics much at all.
Wanamaker and Reznikoff were not looking at the interplay of music and lyrics during the experience of the song. They were testing whether ‘aggressive’ song lyrics affected listener attitudes, specifically hostility. They did not find any such effect - probably, they determined (and consistent with our point), because most subjects did not attend to the song lyrics. A later study by Pieschl and Fegers (2016) did find some small, short-term effects of violent versus pro-social lyrics after listening, suggesting that lyrics were heard. The empirical data on this is mixed and, while suggestive, does not directly address our question here about whether and how listeners process music vs lyrics while listening to a song.
Demonstrations of the phenomenon are at https://deutsch.ucsd.edu/psychology/pages.php?i=212.
The phenomenon of the ‘sad banger’ – a song that combines sad lyrics with upbeat, energetic dance music – is another illustration. The combination of happy music with sad (as opposed to menacing or disturbing) lyrics can be experienced as overall pleasant (Mori and Iwanaga, 2014), perhaps even cathartic.
Songfacts.com. https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-beatles/run-for-your-life. Quote from John Lennon originally from a 1970 Rolling Stones interview.
If we once again consider ‘Delilah’ in the context of the ‘murder ballad’ genre of song, which Kristine Potter characterizes as “…part of a larger tradition of celebrating and commodifying violence against women,” then surely the pairing of the lyrics with upbeat music further encourages interpretations that frame the events as not so bad or, to echo Tom Jones’ words, as just “…something that happens in life.” Potter quoted in Renkle, 2023.
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Sizer, L., Dadlez, E.M. Why, Delilah? When music and lyrics move us in different directions. Philos Stud (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-023-02074-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-023-02074-7