Greetings! Today, I ask the question: Why can't I get into poetry? The answer might surprise you! Or maybe it won't. It depends on how perceptive you are, I guess.
Hot take: Take any poem, add in music, and you have a song. Take any song, remove the music, and you have a poem. Music is the main way most people in the modern day consume poetry.
I'd argue that's somewhat reductive to the craft of both song lyrics and poems, and does both of them a disservice. There's a reason "poets" and "songwriters" are separate demographics- what works as the lyrics for a really catchy hit song may not work so well without music to back it up (like "Coconut" by Harry Nilsson) while many poems would be difficult to assign workable music to ("Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came" probably couldn't work as a song). While there are many songs which could work as poems, and vice versa, and a lot of overlap between poetry and songwriting (in Bob Dylan's discography, for instance) there are also many examples of poems that would not work as songs, and vice versa. If anything, in the modern day, music and poetry have become more separated- pop music continues becoming less cerebral and more simplistic, while poetry gets ever more pretentious and inaccessible for those who want to consume it.
@@NicolasSequeira You are right that there is some loss. Transferring music to poetry does cause you to lose some of the feeling contained in the music, and transferring a poem to music does cause the audience to not have the same perspective as in a poem, and they would not be able to take as much time to digest what they are hearing. I never said it would be exactly the same. It is just music lyrics and poetry do utilize a lot of the same tools, (rhymes, rhythm, etc) to the point where there are a lot of songs would still work as poems, and a lot of poems that would still work as songs. Many of the outliers that don't work can also be reworked into a poem/song to say something similar to the original. Remove repetition and add more meat to "Coconut", and maybe it can be an interesting poem. "To The Dark Tower Came" would be a difficult one to do in comparison, but it likely can be executed well if split into parts, and given some changes in diction to provide a better flow for the right melody. Although they are still different mediums, I do think music is the way most people in the modern day consume poetry, mainly due to the fact it is so niche most people don't pay attention to poetry outside of their high school English class. Even though pop is repetitive, a lot of older music stays pretty popular, standing the test of time.
@@berrydraws0 Like I say in the video, I'm not sure how exactly poetry is consumed on a national scale- but here in Denver, there is a small group of people who take poetry extremely seriously and belittle music. I imagine it's a very specific niche, but as a musician I actually feel ostracized by the poets
@@NicolasSequeira Yeah, that situation does sound like it sucks. I have not really found my niche, or people yet either. So far, I decided to focus more on designing and writing lore for creatures, and put my animations on hiatus. My general artstyle is weird in comparison to what other people do, and I do not know how to actually collaborate with other people. Ironically, if someone were to genuinely insult my stuff, I would probably become more motivated to prove them wrong, when compared to vague positive affirmations, and lack of feedback I usually get. When it comes to nation-wide poetry consumption, according to the source I found, in the US, poetry consumption appears to be around 12%, taking a slightly upward trajectory. The odd bump upwards at the end might be due to a change in curriculum, or pandemic (the data collection ended at 2022), but who is really to say? On top of that, it could be that the poetry readers are dispersed in such a weird way, most of them are in Denver. wordsrated.com/poetry-book-sales-statistics/
Hot take: Take any poem, add in music, and you have a song. Take any song, remove the music, and you have a poem. Music is the main way most people in the modern day consume poetry.
I'd argue that's somewhat reductive to the craft of both song lyrics and poems, and does both of them a disservice. There's a reason "poets" and "songwriters" are separate demographics- what works as the lyrics for a really catchy hit song may not work so well without music to back it up (like "Coconut" by Harry Nilsson) while many poems would be difficult to assign workable music to ("Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came" probably couldn't work as a song). While there are many songs which could work as poems, and vice versa, and a lot of overlap between poetry and songwriting (in Bob Dylan's discography, for instance) there are also many examples of poems that would not work as songs, and vice versa. If anything, in the modern day, music and poetry have become more separated- pop music continues becoming less cerebral and more simplistic, while poetry gets ever more pretentious and inaccessible for those who want to consume it.
@@NicolasSequeira You are right that there is some loss. Transferring music to poetry does cause you to lose some of the feeling contained in the music, and transferring a poem to music does cause the audience to not have the same perspective as in a poem, and they would not be able to take as much time to digest what they are hearing. I never said it would be exactly the same. It is just music lyrics and poetry do utilize a lot of the same tools, (rhymes, rhythm, etc) to the point where there are a lot of songs would still work as poems, and a lot of poems that would still work as songs. Many of the outliers that don't work can also be reworked into a poem/song to say something similar to the original. Remove repetition and add more meat to "Coconut", and maybe it can be an interesting poem. "To The Dark Tower Came" would be a difficult one to do in comparison, but it likely can be executed well if split into parts, and given some changes in diction to provide a better flow for the right melody. Although they are still different mediums, I do think music is the way most people in the modern day consume poetry, mainly due to the fact it is so niche most people don't pay attention to poetry outside of their high school English class. Even though pop is repetitive, a lot of older music stays pretty popular, standing the test of time.
@@berrydraws0 Like I say in the video, I'm not sure how exactly poetry is consumed on a national scale- but here in Denver, there is a small group of people who take poetry extremely seriously and belittle music. I imagine it's a very specific niche, but as a musician I actually feel ostracized by the poets
@@NicolasSequeira Yeah, that situation does sound like it sucks. I have not really found my niche, or people yet either. So far, I decided to focus more on designing and writing lore for creatures, and put my animations on hiatus. My general artstyle is weird in comparison to what other people do, and I do not know how to actually collaborate with other people. Ironically, if someone were to genuinely insult my stuff, I would probably become more motivated to prove them wrong, when compared to vague positive affirmations, and lack of feedback I usually get. When it comes to nation-wide poetry consumption, according to the source I found, in the US, poetry consumption appears to be around 12%, taking a slightly upward trajectory. The odd bump upwards at the end might be due to a change in curriculum, or pandemic (the data collection ended at 2022), but who is really to say? On top of that, it could be that the poetry readers are dispersed in such a weird way, most of them are in Denver. wordsrated.com/poetry-book-sales-statistics/