It is an obvious thing to say that if you want to stand out in a crowd, do what they are not doing (or do not do what they are doing), go where they will not go (or do not go where they go), invent something they could never create. In so doing, you will distinguish yourself from others. It may not get you 'noticed' by the greater masses, but among your peers and friends and neighbours, you will surely get their attention - hopefully in a good way!
When you listen to songs, paying attention to the lyrics, what do you hear?
I'll wager you are hearing pretty much a rehash of the same stories, told with similar words and in a similar way, even with some reasonable surety that the music isn't really all that different - even though one song may be Country and another may be Heavy Metal. That isn't necessarily a bad thing.
It has been attributed to Christopher Booker as the one who identified that there are only seven plot lines in story telling. These would be the following:
Now, within any given story, multiple elements may exist, some variant of one or more of the other six plot lines. As an example, if you've ever read the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer, all seven of these elements are woven within the fabric of the greater story arc. Odysseus is at Troy fighting as an ally of the Spartans, who are there fighting for the return of Helen, stolen from Sparta by Paris. Eventually, the Spartan army wins the battle and they begin the voyage home. And that is when we pick up on Odysseus' epic struggle to return home, fighting gods, man and beast.
Now, I prefer Robert Fagle's translation over others. The reason is that he is a scholar of ancient Greek, and more - he understands the writing style, the form of this epic poem, the way it must be told. And he employs every possible nuance and verb available - staying true to the style of the original prose, which is open verse. It may not be word for word accurate - a transliteration - in the telling, but the excitement he generates in the interpretation he presents is compelling. If you have any interest, give the story time to envelope you; treat it as a learning experience on expression of feelings, thoughts and also on how to paint a picture using words alone.
Who hasn't heard even just a snippet of Shakespeare? But have you ever sat down and read one of the plays or a sonnet or two? Here is a guy who knows how to turn a phrase! I have the complete works of Shakespeare; it was a gift from a friend and what a gift it was. The word play Shakespeare engages is nothing less than mesmerizing. Many modern stories, a number I'm sure you've seen - and liked - are based on his plays.
The writing style of Shakespeare is called iambic pentameter. Without getting into the meaning of it, just pick up one of the plays, hopefully not a 'modernized' rewrite, and prepare for an education on language usage. It is incredible.
It is important, too, to remember that while there may be a mere seven plot lines, that really doesn't matter. We still want to hear the stories, tell the tales, and perhaps push the limits of that possibility. And who knows, we may discover for the effort a new plot line, an new twist, a fresh story never told. Isn't that the reason we write? Isn't that reason enough to expand your vocabulary, to explore the depths of what your language has to offer?
Today, we do not have such applications of the language. People have fallen into using a very modest vocabulary and express themselves in simple terms. A person who actually employs a larger vocabulary is considered a snob, high brow, hoitie toitie, a person who looks down on the average person as dumb, ignorant and worse, stupid. This is a wrong perception. In fact, if one employs a large vocabulary - and does so correctly - it means they simply enjoy using words. And, one thing is for sure: you remember this person, whether negatively or positively - they made an impression that has stuck with you.
And that is kind of the point here, to demonstrate that people who are 'different', who speak differently, use words not common among your peers, tend to stand out. It isn't necessarily their intention, to stand out, but because they are using an expanded vocabulary beyond the average person's reach, they get noticed.
Now, because you are a budding song writer, or a song writer stuck for how to describe a situation, or maybe you're tired of using the same old phrases - but just unable to figure out how to break out of that mold, this is why I am writing this segment.
Some ground rules...
First, in order to get beyond your present place, you have to be willing to travel where you were previously unable or unwilling to go. It is the 'undiscovered country' (a Shakespeare phrase), the places most people do not venture, where the new things will be found (to do what others do not or will not do).
Second, this means you have to be ready to change your position on things, your view, even your beliefs. No one comes back from a journey of discovery unchanged. If they do, they did not go with a willingness to dispense with their prejudices and unscrutinized positions, they went with no real desire to discover anything, and so cheated themselves out of everything that could have been (i.e. go where they will not go).
Third, you may have to try things you previously never heard of, refused to try, believed impossible or more (basically, invent - after a fashion - something others could not or would not create). If you are unwilling to step out in faith, to venture without a clue into the unknown, you will never discover anything, invent anything, understand something new, experience the impossible.
It is our own prejudices that we must overcome.
The creative process cannot be directed or guided onto a path we would have it travel. I've tried it and failed. In my attempt to direct my creative efforts, the exact opposite happened. I lost my ability to create anything at all. Talk about a depressing episode! Once I discovered the problem and began allowing my creativity its free reign in going where it wished, my writing returned, and even grew, all because of the new freedom to run rampant in whatever direction it wanted to travel. I began to write in styles of music I never considered before. As a result, I began to appreciate those styles all the more...even pop tunes!
As an integral component of the writing process, unless you write instrumentals, is the presence of the lyric. As mentioned before, if you do not understand the real purpose and possibilities of language, how to communicate a thought, an idea, a belief, tell a story, the whole bloody gamut of emotional and experiential expression, you will be limited by your own short comings, your ignorance (lack of knowledge) of what is out there, what can be said, and how it can be said in ways you may have never considered.
Lyric writers need to become wordsmiths. A wordsmith is simply someone who knows how to use words. If you write lyrics, you are not automatically a wordsmith. A true wordsmith loves their native language - in my case, English. They love to read - an important part of learning anything, including how to speak well, write well, and articulate ideas. And knowing five different ways to say something becomes a kind of liberating freedom because you aren't stuck with the typical choice of words most people use.
A true wordsmith is drunk with language, the love of phrases, colloquialisms, slang and more. They relish the idea of finding new words - or old words nobody uses anymore - in their quest for the novel, but not novelty, the interesting and the newness of the inclusion of a new word or whatever gem they've found in pursuit of expanding their understanding of their language.
Now, a word of caution. You cannot simply throw these words around. It doesn't work that way. And this is probably the most important part of being a wordsmith - knowing not just the meaning of a word, but its best and most appropriate application...and the timing of such usage. It can be easy to alienate yourself from the folks around you if you constantly used words they didn't understand. I mean, whatever is the point of using words and having people get that quizzical look on their faces that says, "Are you from another planet? What are you saying...I don't understand!"
So a good wordsmith will bring these archaic and seldom used words into play in a way that suggests their meaning. In other words, using 'big' words doesn't do any good if people aren't going to grasp the idea of what they mean based on the context in which they're being used. And there is a way to do this that will 'help' people understand the meaning without making them feel stupid or asking you to define the word you just threw out there.
Which brings us to a very important part of this: you better know what the words you throw out there mean. If you cannot define a word, better to set it aside until you are well able to do so. It is embarassing to be asked what a word means and not be able to say, even if you used it in the right way. So basically, if people can't understand you, using these words is pointless. And it contributes to what I mentioned earlier about people viewing those who use their large vocabulary in public as being high brow and all that negative stuff.
Judicious use of vocabulary in song is important. Personally, I don't generally use too many 'odd' words in a given song. I intentionally limit their use, making sure the basic meaning is understood, that the context will 'suggest' what the word means, if only in a vague or general way. People will notice the 'new' word, and they'll get the gist of the meaning and move on. But they will remember the odd element, trust me. And that can be a very good thing.
People do not read much today, and this has contributed to the limited vocabulary we hear in our conversations, on TV, on the radio, in movies. And this is really such a shame. The English language - and by extension, all language - is so rich with variety and potential for expression. If only people learned more about this wonderful means of communication, the spoken and written word (or, in music, the melodic expression of words).
When we decided to 'dumb down' our citizenry, we made a conscious decision to also throw away well over half our language skills in the process. For a writer, whether of song, story or news - whatever written and oral traditions may exist - this is nothing less than a tragedy of epic proportions, but one that will not find voice.
I guess you could call that an irony, that with the deconstruction of the spoken word, regardless of language, we become even less able to talk about it and so less able to understand why we allowed it to happen.
I leave you with one chilling thought. Ray Bradbury wrote a story titled, "Farenheit 451". The title comes from the temperature at which paper burns. It is the telling of a story about a time in the not too distant future where the written word is forbidden, considered a source of radical, and so undesireable, thoughts and ideas that will destroy society. Books are burned because they contain radical and destructive ideas - according to the leaders of society.
In the video production of this story, filmed in the late 1960s, we see people "reading" newspapers that are basically comic strips with word bubbles coming out from people's mouths, but without any words in them. The words are illegal to write down. All communication is oral.
With no way to catalogue, to archive knowledge, all knowledge is in jepoardy. And when we dispense with knowing our language, the rich and inviting possibilities it offers, we risk losing our ability to communicate everything in meaningful ways that will convey precisely our thoughts, our ideas and so, as a consequence, destroy society and eventually our future.
Just as manufacturing capacity dictates the health of a nation, so the richness of our language - or lack thereof - is a testament to the health of our knowledge.