A lyric is a set of words that accompany music, either by spoken word or
singing. Lyric derives from the Greek word for a song sung by the lyre,
lyrikos. A lyric poem is one that expresses a subjective, point of view,
usually in the form of words to a tune,song or a poem.
During the past four decades, rock music lyrics have become increasingly
explicit particularly with reference to sex, drugs, and violence.
Recently, heavy metal and gangsta rap music lyrics have elicited the
greatest concern. In some cases lyrics communicate potentially harmful
health messages. Such lyrics are of special concern in today's environment,
which poses unprecedented threats to the health and well being of
adolescents. Pregnancy, drug use, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
and other sexually transmitted diseases, injuries, homicide, and suicide
have all become part of the landscape of everyday life for many American
teens.
Finding music lyrics on the Internet is a fairly easy proposition.
There are literally hundreds of web sites that provide song lyrics and most
are very highly ranked by the major search engines. The problem is that
according to the Music Publisher's Association MPA and other music
industry organizations, these music lyric web sites are infringing on artist's
copyrights by redistributing the lyrics without paying any royalties or
receiving permission.
The popularity of the Internet only means that there are always online
counterparts to what you see in real life, like in the case of vinyl record
stores. But perhaps there are more on the Internet than there are on brick
and mortar structures. Just search the Internet for vinyl record store and
you will find many offering more or less of the same thing: hard to find
or out of circulation records, and contemporary LP records across many
music genres from punk, rock, reggae and standard songs, among others.
Strong harmony that references lyrics of a religious nature, particularly
Christian is historically labeled gospel music lyrics. It is the uplifting joyful
sound often associated with evangelists in the South, especially among
African Americans. Since its beginning, it emerged subgenres to include
contemporary gospel, urban contemporary also known as Black Gospel
and modern gospel music. The modern Gospel Music is more commonly
known as praise and worship or contemporary Christian music.
