What 80’s music means “to me!” Did the lyrical shift in music contribute to our postmodern mindset?

What 80’s music means ‘To me!’

Did the lyrical shift in music contribute to our postmodern mindset?

By: Tony Rose

 

Don’t get me wrong, I love 80’s music! In fact, I must confess, I once had to get rid of my Tivo because I kept filling up the hard drive with episodes of VH1’s “I Love The 80’s.”

 

Recently I had an email discussion with some Christian brothers, and they were amazed at my cunning ability to quote lines from popular 80’s songs to fit the current scenario or context (Ok, I’ll confess again, I amazed myself, they were mostly irritated). Anyway, the whole discussion caused me to think about that in contrast with our postmodern culture of “What does it mean ‘to me’?”

 

When I think of older popular music, I mostly recall songs that were story oriented. Anything from Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” (’57), to the Beach Boy’s “’Til her daddy takes the T-Bird away” (’64), all the way to country songs like Johnny Cash’s “Wreck of the Old ’97” (’24); they all had one thing in common: they told particular stories. 

 

Another thing these songs had in common is that the writers came from a generation where the popular world-view was that truth was absolute. Songwriters wrote songs, which often were stories, about what happened (although some where indeed fiction). Back then, if the lyrics didn’t apply to the listener, so what! The stories were neat and the music was enjoyable. The attitude of the writers was: If you don’t like it, don’t listen.

 

Then came the sexual revolution of the ‘60’s, the music of the ‘70’s, which both gave birth to the phenomenon we call “80’s Music!”

 

As a young musician in the 80’s, I was very interested in songwriting, and even at that age, I quickly became aware that successful songs, the ones that got air-play, were the ones that had common appeal, lyrically. I soon discovered that the best way to write yourself out of a good song was to make the lyric too specific, where listeners could not apply the lyrics to their own situations.

 

As an artist, “inspiration” meant that you wrote about things that were real, that happened, because it was “from the heart.” But the songs that were popular were the ones where the listener could apply the meaning “to their own hearts” (Notice the similarity in that statement, to the same difference between what is commonly known today as “Authorial Intent” vs. “Reader Response” in Scriptural authority and interpretation).

 

Now I know I am speaking in generalities here regarding a changing theme over the decades. So I don’t need endless rebuffs of examples of 80’s songs with stories, or 60’s songs with common appeal. I know they exist, and my point is not to argue for the exclusion of their existence. Instead, I am pondering whether 80’s music is a victim of, or contributory to, the postmodern mentality of “what it means ‘to me,’” and how that has affected Scriptural authority and interpretation in the church.

 

So what is the point to all of this rambling? Don’t read Scripture like you listen to lyrics! Don’t read the Bible as if to ask, “What does this verse mean ‘to me,’” but rather, read it as if to ask, “What does it mean?”

 

When Steve Perry laments “They say that the road ain’t no place to start a family,” then “to you,” that could mean:

 

(1) It’s hard to be a parent when you are traveling all the time, or
(2) The life of a musician is tough, or
(3) A matress would be softer… J

 

Mr. Perry doesn’t really care how you “interpret” his words, as long as you buy his album.

 

However, when Paul says, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30), it would behoove us to figure out what he … meant!