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Issue Date: February 26, 2006
It's a music revolution
Artists as different as Mariah Carey and Gretchen Wilson know words have never been more important to a song's success.
Exclusively for USA WEEKEND, the experts at America's No. 1 music industry magazine explore the force behind the new power of lyrics.
By Barry A. Jeckell and Tamara Conniff, "Billboard" editors
America: VOTE FOR
TODAY'S BEST LYRICS!
Vote online at usaweekend.com or billboard.com for your No. 1 favorite lyrics out of Billboard's top 10. Ten lucky readers will win a Creative Zen MicroPhoto MP3 player, pre-loaded with all 10 songs!
Deadline: April 1, 2006
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Musical trends come and go -- think disco in the 1970s and grunge in the '90s. Revolutions like jazz and swing, the Motown era and even the hard rock of Led Zeppelin have had lasting impressions. But as the people who watch the charts week in and week out, as we have for decades, we can tell you: Not since the dawn of rock 'n' roll has there been as huge a phenomenon in popular music as hip-hop.
A style can be defined by its sound. Rock changed music forever because it brought the guitar, whether in searing wails or harmonic strums, to the forefront. But only the lyrics can turn a musical style into a movement. In the '60s, the heartfelt verses of protest songs spread social consciousness among the country's youth. Today, we see hip-hop and rap forging a new revolution, bringing the harsh realities of poverty and racism into cleverly spun verses. And by creating a genre dominated by words that now tops the charts, hip-hop lyricists have raised the bar for storytelling across all styles.
"Lyrics these days are more a reflection of what is really going on," says songwriter/producer Sean Garrett, who has worked with recent Billboard chart-toppers Mary J. Blige and Jamie Foxx. "The blend of hip-hop and pop has done that for mainstream music." While the biggest hits of the '90s, by rockers from Nirvana to Live to Stone Temple Pilots, were about partying hard and fighting personal demons, many of today's tunes at least touch on broader, street-level issues. "Songs and lyrics stir up things and take the monotony away," Garrett says.
A genre that places a premium on delivery, hip-hop has influenced more than song content. Its mark, in clever phrasings and twisty rhymes, can be heard in new verses by artists as disparate as Stevie Wonder, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and country's Gretchen Wilson. Take Montgomery Gentry's recent hit, "She Don't Tell Me To:" "Every now an' then, on my way home/I stop at a spot where the wild flowers grow, an' I pick a few/'Cause she don't tell me to/I go out with my boys all right/But most of the time I call it a night before they do/'Cause she don't tell me to."
Bob Di Piero, who co-wrote that song, believes hip-hop has upped the importance of "flow," which is to rhyme in the same rhythm as the music. "The way the words roll out -- they tumble into each other," he says. "The inner rhyme and aggressive cadence of a lot of modern lyrics are born out of the hip-hop/rap school of wordplay."
Superstar recording artist and songwriter Alicia Keys, who is one of the judges of this year's "Billboard"-sponsored USA WEEKEND Songwriting Contest for Teens, sees hip-hop's influence at the most basic songwriting level.
"It has made lyric-writing much less poetic," says Keys, who credits rap's The Notorious B.I.G. for influencing her own catalog. "It has become much simpler, which is not a bad thing, as long as there's still creativity." You just have to look back at hip-hop's early days, when sampled beats were coupled with straightforward raps (remember "Rapper's Delight?"), to understand its flair for boiled-down messages.
Hip-hop and rap also have made personal revelations standard radio fare. "In the last five years, lyrics have resembled diaries of those who write them," says songwriter/producer Jermaine Dupri, who has generated hit singles for such artists as Mariah Carey and Bow Wow. "I think the fans like the records that seem closer to life."
Carey's "We Belong Together" stayed at No. 1 for weeks with a gut-wrenching, stream-of-consciousness ramble about lost love: "I can't sleep at night/When you are on my mind/Bobby Womack's on the radio/Singing to me: 'If you think you're lonely now'/Wait a minute, this is too deep/I gotta change the station."
Rodney Jerkins, a songwriter/producer who has worked with Destiny's Child and Jennifer Lopez, points to the success of that song and others as proof that "the world is hungry for 'real' again" -- and craves for someone to tell it like it is.
Who would have thought a style with such a silly-sounding name would come to be taken so seriously.
Barry A. Jeckell is editor of billboard.com. Tamara Conniff is executive editor and associate publisher of Billboard magazine. Clover Hope, Gail Mitchell and Phyllis Stark also contributed to this report.
Go to top
Alicia Keys, a teen lyric-writing contest judge, hits all the right notes
By Clover Hope
"Right now, I deserve a little calmness," says Alicia Keys in her familiar raspy voice. Two multiplatinum albums deep, the 25-year-old musician is still operating at warp speed -- from contributing a song to the "Glory Road" soundtrack to releasing her live set, Unplugged, which bowed at No. 1 on the "Billboard" 200 album chart. Later this year, in addition to judging the USA WEEKEND Songwriting Contest for Teens, the Grammy winner will make her foray into film and TV.
"The key to songwriting for me is just honesty. ...It resonates with people."
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Despite her intense schedule, Keys seems surprisingly relaxed while describing her silver-screen debut -- as an assassin, no less -- in Smokin' Aces, due later this year.
"Everyone on the set had been working on films for 20-plus years," says Keys, who found her groove by watching co-stars Andy Garcia, Ben Affleck and Jeremy Piven in action. Piven especially made her laugh, playing a Las Vegas magician about to squeal on the mob if he can outrun its hitmen for one more night. "I was enraptured," she says.
A New York-bred child of the arts, Keys hit the stage early herself -- weekly classical piano lessons and voice training at 7, a deal with Arista Records at 16. After moving to J Records, Keys released her pivotal 2001 debut, "Songs in A Minor," at 20, followed by 2003's "Diary of Alicia Keys." Both of the albums topped the "Billboard" 200.
Lauded for the stark emotion in her songwriting, Keys had to find a more subtle way to relate to her character. She channeled her inner rage -- yes, she has some -- which was therapeutic. "I used my life and experiences to take me into that world," says Keys, who'll tap into those same experiences as co-executive producer of an upcoming TV drama that is loosely based on the sometimes painful events of her multiracial upbringing. (Her mother is Irish-Italian, and her father, who left when Keys was 2, is Jamaican.) "As common as that situation is, it's not touched on a lot," she says of the show's premise. "I think this is long overdue."
As for her next album, Keys is taking her time. "I like the direction it's going; where it ends up depends on life," she says. "This is my third album, and I want it to show my growth -- and that I'm going to be around for a long time."
Cover story photographs by George Lange for USA WEEKEND
Hair by Nicole Tucker; makeup by Ashunta Sheriff, Jai Cooper; styling by Wouri Vice, Jai Cooper. Shirt on cover: Baby Phat; Keys'
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