I discover much joy in pop music that doesn't fill every second of every track with as much compressed noise as possible. Music that displays instrumental prowess (or not), music that contains empty space, these are songs that get played more frequently on my stereo.
Bill Weir concurs:
While wordless pop has disappeared from commercial radio, pop music has become ever more long-winded. The year-end top 10 songs from 1960 to 1969 have an average word count of 176. For the 1970s, the figure jumps to 244. In 2007, the average climbed to 436. The top 10 for the week of Feb. 2, 2008, features six songs over the 500-word mark. Chris Brown and T-Pain use 742 words in their "Kiss Kiss." While music can express what words cannot, music rarely gets a chance in contemporary pop, and certainly not in "Kiss Kiss." Except for the first two seconds, vocals fill the song's every moment. Entirely absent are instrumental phrasings that allow a song (and singers) to breathe. Guys, take a break.
[Click to read more, including examples Are excessive lyrics ruining pop music? - By William Weir - Slate Magazine]
In contrast, the Great American Songbook is a bible of pithiness. "Blue Moon," "Over the Rainbow," and "Embraceable You" all make their cases in fewer than 100 words. Will Smith, Kenny Chesney, Bon Jovi, and Beyoncé all have songs called "Summertime" yielding word counts three to five times as high as Gershwin's tune of the same name. They all have a similar message: "The livin' is easy." But with only 92 words, Gershwin says it best by letting the melody become part of the story. Done well, the song sounds like a hazy, slow summer day
And this word count probably doesn't even include the faux word ululations aka Permanent Orgasms of R&B warblers like Whitney Houston and her ilk. Bob Dylan might be partially to blame for the exploding word count, but he gets a pass for at least usually writing clever lyrics.
