# Artists whos music does not match their image or lyrics



## violadude (May 2, 2011)

"Image" is kind of a thing in non-classical music. So are lyrics. So who are some bands/musicians who have images or lyrics that you feel don't really match with their music. 

For me an obvious one is Lady Gaga. She markets herself as a super "weird" and "unique" artist and tries really hard to be that artist that is different from the rest, but her actual music is as bland and unoriginal as anything out there pretty much. 

I feel this way about a lot of 80s-ish metal bands too. Two that come to mind are Iron Maiden and Megadeth. I'm not saying these bands music is bad, but I don't feel like their musical content really match their lyrical themes most of the time. For example, I was listening to "Number of the Beast" a couple days ago and it seemed as though every single song they did sounds like they are going on an adventure or something like that, no matter what they were singing about. This was especially striking on "Run for the Hills" where they are talking about such gruesome topics as rape and murder but the music just sounds...energetic and, not happy per se....but certainly not as terror induced as I would think given the topic at hand. 

Same with Megadeth, they constantly theme their music around things like death and extinction and other subjects like that. However, their music sounds more like they are getting pumped up for a sporting event or something...much too energetic and gung ho to be music about death or extinction. When the music doesn't match the lyrics, exactly what they are trying to express is a little confusing. To me, it sounds sort of like they don't care about what they are singing about, they just wanted to write energetic music and slapped on some lyrics about death because they think it's cool. 

Umm I can't think of any more at the moment, so what are some of yours?


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

violadude said:


> Same with Megadeth, they constantly theme their music around things like death and extinction and other subjects like that. However, their music sounds more like they are getting pumped up for a sporting event or something...much too energetic and gung ho to be music about death or extinction. When the music doesn't match the lyrics, exactly what they are trying to express is a little confusing. To me, it sounds sort of like they don't care about what they are singing about, they just wanted to write energetic music and slapped on some lyrics about death because they think it's cool.


Can't say I agree with you about Megadeth. For one thing they have changed their sound a lot over the years. They don't have just one sound. They range from thrash metal, to like a prog influenced classic metal, to classic rock, and even pop. Their songs cover a lot of different topics, not just death and extinction. Can you give a specific example of a song (or songs) you had in mind when you were thinking they just wrote about death to sound cool and point out where specifically in the lyrics it seems that they were just slapped together?


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

I've recently discovered in a album of Meredith D'ambrosio a song called How is your wife, composed by Deborah Hanson Conant. There's a lot of understatement and it's absolutely elegant, subtle and harmonically sophisticated. Something that the best Joni Mitchell could only dream to have composed. The lyrics too are delicate and the song is beautiful, a precious little known gem.
So I was a lot surprised to discover that her stage persona is so incredibly different, flamboyant and excessive. 
This is the song:





and this is her:








I mean, wtf? She even plays with Steve Vai! :lol:


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

violadude said:


> Same with Megadeth, they constantly theme their music around things like death and extinction and other subjects like that. However, their music sounds more like they are getting pumped up for a sporting event or something...much too energetic and gung ho to be music about death or extinction. When the music doesn't match the lyrics, exactly what they are trying to express is a little confusing. To me, it sounds sort of like they don't care about what they are singing about, they just wanted to write energetic music and slapped on some lyrics about death because they think it's cool.


I know what you mean altough I love pieces like Holy Wars or Tornado of souls. Metallica have sometimes the same problem. Take One for instance, a song about a man blind, deaf, without legs and arms and paralyzed in a bed and then there's the solo of Hammett that it's all pyrotechnics. It would be a good solo (probably one of his best ever) but I feel that it's totally out of place in the context of a song with such a theme. The guitarist who shows his virtuosity over a man who can't move...


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Lyrics are not always biographical, or representative of an artist's views, personality, etc... A good example is Richard Thompson, who writes grim character portraits, but the music can be upbeat. You can find this kind of thing in a lot of folk music. Lyrics about murder accompanied by a jolly melody.

And then there's satirical lyricists like Frank Zappa, Randy Newman, and Mose Allison who wrote upbeat melodies to accompany put down lyrics. 

There are albums like Byrne and Eno's My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts where none of the lyrical content was written by the artists, but inserted from other unrelated recordings. Of course this is commonplace today with sampling technology, but it didn't exist in 1980. And to go back much further, Zappa did this type of thing on Lumpy Gravy in 1967, but he got people off the street to put their heads under a grand piano dampened with blankets, recorded their conversations, then spliced and edited unrelated dialogue together for the final take.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

I never thought Bob Mould looked the part (on the right, below). But Husker Du was from a time where alternative bands were consciously trying to avoid "rocker" looks, a bit of a reaction against Glam Rock.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

The great deception of ''modern'' listeners and musical industry is that ''watching'' the music is the bigger part of the whole impression and enjoyment than listening...From that mistake in foundation everything starts...
All modern rappers, one direction, ''bieber'' and that stuff have nothing with term music as such...


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

> Same with Megadeth, they constantly theme their music around things like death and extinction and other subjects like that. However, their music sounds more like they are getting pumped up for a sporting event or something...much too energetic and gung ho to be music about death or extinction. When the music doesn't match the lyrics, exactly what they are trying to express is a little confusing. To me, it sounds sort of like they don't care about what they are singing about, they just wanted to write energetic music and slapped on some lyrics about death because they think it's cool.


What do you know, did you see Dave Mustaine in _Some King of Monster_ documentary, he's suffering so deeply.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

How can any of ''death metal'' or any other brutal and bizarre genres be anywhere close to subjects they sing about like, murders, butchering, satanism...Its not all in image but in image*ination*


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

Flamme said:


> How can any of ''death metal'' or any other brutal and bizarre genres be anywhere close to subjects they sing about like, murders, butchering, satanism...Its not all in image but in image*ination*


Yeh... I think there is a lot of self-parody going on with some of the more "brutal" metal bands. But having said that, some "death metal" musicians are unfortunately all too familiar with murdering and butchering.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

I think you mean some members of nordic black metal scene like Varg Vikernes who actually burned couple of churches and killed his rival from another BM band...


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

As for self parody








:devil:


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

Haha yes! In both cases, that's exactly the sort of thing I had in mind.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Many nordic BM bands are related to Nazi idealism...


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

They're more common in Eastern Europe. Hard to toss a stone in Ukraine without hitting a nazi black metal band.

I guess I'd say Radiohead. I don't know what their lyrics are about, but they're probably not about snipping bonsai trees and crying alone in gay bars, which is what the music sounds like.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

Flamme said:


> Many nordic BM bands are related to Nazi idealism...


So what?

.........................


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

Aramis said:


> What do you know, did you see Dave Mustaine in _Some King of Monster_ documentary, he's suffering so deeply.


Everyone would if they would have lost all that $$$ what he would have made on Metallica.


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

BurningDesire said:


> So what?
> 
> .........................


Did you know that Swedish national radio said that thse pasties what have been baked for a long time should be bannd because they remind the nazi symbol.


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## Schubussy (Nov 2, 2012)

My rule is I'll listen to black metal bands with nazi/racist band members (Burzum/Drudkh etc) as long as it doesn't show in the lyrics. Noktornal Mortum is the exception, but as far as I know they dropped the racist lyrics... it's all in Ukranian anyway.






\,,/ shame their views are so daft.


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